I took Professor Reilly for granted in the Spring 2020 quarter. Ok so I basically stopped showing up to lecture and started watching her lectures on my own time. She was always helpful and held workshops for her problem sets that are due a week after it was assigned (but most of the time she would extend the due date.) Her midterm and final were fair. She always has practice problems for her students to master the material. If you get the chance to take 30A with Professor Reilly, please take her! She is very understanding and accommodating to her students. She cares a lot for her students, wants them to do well, and is very engaging during her lectures. Plus, she shows pictures of her dog during lecture.

She is the only person I trust in the Chem/Biochem Department.

Professor Reilly is one of the best professors that I have had. She emphasizes learning the material rather than simply trying to get a good grade which is really useful for a first time orgo student. There are very few grades in the class (and only 1 midterm) which means that it is important to do well on those assignments. She was extremely accommodating throughout the quarter and has recorded answer keys to homework and discussion worksheets where she walks through the thought process we should have while solving problems. She genuinely cares about her students' success and has very organized lectures. Highly recommend taking her if you have the chance.

Professor Reilly is probably the nicest and most caring professor at UCLA. She genuinely cares about her students and she is always willing to help. Her class is very tough and challenging, and you must be prepared to grind. I took her for 30A and 30B during COVID. For 30B, I did all the suggested textbook problems, read the textbook, and did all the material she provided, and I was able to ace midterm 1 and the final (something I normally don't do). If you really apply yourself, the class is manageable. I hope I can take 30C with her, and I recommend taking chem with her.

Dr. Reilly is a wonderful professor. Her lectures were to-the-point and clear, and she was always helpful during office hours.Would 100% recommend her for 30BL or any organic chemistry class.

She is perhaps one of the best professors you can get when just beginning organic chemistry! I am very excited to continue to take her class in the summer for 30B! I hope to get her labs as well :)

Definitely recommend taking Dr. Reilly. She is the best professor I have met so far.

Walking into the Chem 30 Series, I was nervous/scared as I heard that organic chemistry is by far the hardest chemistry you can ever encounter. However, Dr. Reilly proved that this is wrong.

She is so knowledgeable in Organic Chemistry and you can feel the love and passion for the subject from her at every lecture and office hour.

She is also very helpful and actually wants you to succeed unlike some of the other professors. She will hold additional office hours, study sessions, review sessions, and work on the homework with you after you attempted it yourself.

The notes she gives out are super helpful. I definitely recommend also going to office hours as she is great at eliminating any sort of confusion you have on the subject.

Overall the breakdown of the course is:
BACON UCLA (X6): 12%
Problem Set (X5): 25%
Midterm: 25%
Final Exam: 38%

Her exams are fair and if you learn the material and understand it, do the discussion worksheets, problem sets, and additional practice problems she gives out, you should be well prepared for any examination.

In times of COVID-19 Pandemic and BLM movement, she was very understanding adjusting the coursework accordingly.

YOU WILL NOT REGRET TAKING ORGANIC CHEM WITH DR. REILLY!

This review is for Dr. Reilly for Chem 14D. Coming into this class, I thought I was screwed for two big reasons: I was awful at gen chem and therefore thought I was awful at all chem, and the quarter prior I took 14C with a brand new and very scattered professor who I don't believe got through all of the material we should have covered. We definitely hit the ground running with Dr. Reilly, as 14D is a lot to begin with but she also recognized that a lot of us had gaps in our fundamental ochem knowledge. However, even though she oftentimes spoke really *really* fast and covered A LOT of material in the span of each 50 minute lecture, she is the most patient, thorough, and articulate professor I've had at UCLA so far. She went out of her way for her students, posting tutorials on confusing (14C AND 14D) topics, posting pdf and video answer keys for each week's discussion worksheet, having super flexible and helpful office hours. Her tests were hard and both midterms had averages in the 60s. But they were completely and entirely fair. If nothing else, Amber Reilly is an incredibly fair professor. Ochem was definitely hard, but professor Reilly really holds your hand as much as she can throughout the course. I imagine she's just as fairminded, generous, and thorough in her other classes as well, so I highly recommend taking organic chemistry or whatever else with Dr. Reilly.

This review is for CHEM 14D. Overall, I really enjoyed taking ochem with Reilly. Even though her lectures go by really fast, she takes time to answer questions and give examples for clarification. This helpfulness also extends beyond class hours, as she uploads some tutorial videos and practice problems to CCLE in order to help you prepare for exams. Her lecture notes and chapter summaries are extremely helpful and easy to follow (especially helpful in making notecards). I found her exams to be difficult, but fair. Exams (2 midterms and a final) make up the bulk of the points in this class, but there are smaller points to earn from BACON exercises and smaller extra credit opportunities. Discussion sections are a hit or miss, depending on which TA's section you are enrolled in, but you can drop into any TA's section if there's space allowing.

I'd like to preface this by saying that I am awful at chemistry, have little to no interest in it, and only took this course because it was a major requirement. Prior to this class, the last time I took an organic chemistry class was over a year ago. I was dreading this class so bad.
Professor Reilly made this class as painless as possible. She's a great lecturer, understands that people come from very varied backgrounds in ochem (people like me versus some second year biochem / chem majors) and is so incredibly responsive towards her students. She makes an effort to attend lab sections, holds office hours in lecture if she finishes early, and has the fastest Piazza response time of any professor I've seen. Also, our TAs all love her, which is a good sign. This is a class that you can absolutely succeed in if you try. Pre and post labs can be tricky, but TAs hold office hours, Piazza is a thing, and Reilly herself will give you some answers in lecture. You don't have to worry about not having study material for the final, because there's a practice worksheet for every week, plus three full length practice finals that she releases.

Note: She made the final exam optional this quarter (winter 2020), which I appreciate a lot, though she would've received a positive review anyways.

Regarding the class, the pre and post labs can be a bit of a pain (probably less so in the school year since lab isn't twice a week). However, Reilly will answer any and all questions you have (especially with the NMRs, which I was really bad at reading) so I would suggest you get as much of it done as you can and then ask her for help!

Regarding the professor--Professor Reilly is amazing! She is an engaging lecturer, incredibly smart, and also super kind and understanding. She's patient with everyone and never condescending--she treats all questions equally and answers them thoroughly. This was really helpful since I switched from the 14 series and lacked a lot of self-confidence in my abilities, especially when it came to organic chemistry. I felt welcome in the classroom AND encouraged to learn and try my best. Professor Reilly constantly reassured me that she was here to help and her office hours were a great place to get my endless questions resolved. I love her so much and I wish I could take 30CL with her :(