Very fair class. Although the material during lecture can feel overwhelming, if you go back and go over the slides you should be fine. His tests are VERY fair, he is not trying to trick you at all. I had Lavelle and felt his class was way more work and his tests more complicated than Scerri. Just put in extra work outside of lecture and you should be fine.

For some reason, people are really going off on Dr. Scerri in these reviews. Please DO NOT BE MISLEAD!!!! Dr. Scerri is an amazing person, period. He is a wonderful lecturer, his workload is minimal, and he encourages questions more than any other professor I've had so far. I've had Dr. Scerri for both 14A and 14B and I was honestly nervous to take him at first because of some of the reviews I've read, but he has blown my expectations out of the water.

First, let me start by saying this: we literally have no homework in this class. Our only workload consists of four Thinkwell quizzes which are not bad at all (you get three tries and unlimited time on each one and you're allowed to collaborate, so you can definitely get 100% on all four and this makes up 50% of your grade) and that is it!! He also has suggested problems that he recommends we do but I didn't do a single one of the suggested problems from the textbook and still ended up fine. My biggest advice is to just study his lecture slides and make a study guide using the problems from lecture. Some people say his slides are confusing, but they're honestly really thorough and they're organized in a super strategic way so you can learn by just reading through the slides and referencing your notes.

One thing that I absolutely love about Dr. Scerri is he is SO OPEN to questions. He stops every ten minutes to ask if students have questions and he will answer ALL questions. Literally there were times when people asked him to repeat a whole entire section from lecture and he did it with no hesitation. Even more so, he'll stay a whole HOUR after lecture to answer questions if they take that long! Lecture ended at 1:50pm for us but after lecture, there would always be like five people who stayed until 2:45 or so. After he was done answering all of our questions, he even cared about getting to know us on a personal level and we would all introduce our pets or he would play guitar for us or we would talk about some deep philosophy on life and the universe. Dr. Scerri is absolutely hilarious and maybe some people mistake his sense of humor with arrogance, but he is genuinely just trying to be funny and he has a golden heart. He really cares about his students. He wants you to succeed and he is there for us to help make sure that happens, so take advantage of the resources he offers!

I'm going to miss Dr. Scerri and I would definitely take a class with him again if I could. Out of all my classes at UCLA so far, Dr. Scerri has created one of the most positive and light-hearted atmospheres, such that I enjoyed coming to lecture every day because I always knew I would get a good laugh out of it.

Also, about his exams: I do agree that there was a time crunch on the first midterm, but he was receptive to our concerns and made the final much more manageable timewise. As for the content of the exams, it is very doable. Just study his problems from lecture, and make a study guide!!! My study guide saved me in both the midterm and the final. I didn't do any of the practice exams he posted, but I spent like 20 hours making my study guides and that was enough to get me through.

Take this class if you have the chance! And get to know Dr. Scerri!! Go to his office hours, ask a ton of questions, and turn your cameras on during lecture. Also, stay after lecture because that's when all the fun times happen and you get to meet Dr. Scerri's cats (: Great professor, great person. Would highly recommend.

Take it with Scerri if you had him for 14A. Pretty much the same deal. Shitty lectures, easy tests.

Chem 14B with Scerri was honestly a very enjoyable class. I had him for Chem 14A as well! His tests are pretty much based off of content on his slides, if you are unsure of certain concepts just ask him. He uploads the slides online, so you can TECHNICALLY get away with not attending lecture. My advice is to always attend lecture because he emphasizes what he is going to be putting on the midterm/final. Go to the classes before each big test because he does a quick review and he will leak one or two important concepts on the exams. The discussions are not mandatory, but going to them won't hurt you because the TA will help you. He makes a lot of small jokes in class and he is an overall pretty funny person so this class should be enjoyable :P.

I feel like Dr. Scerri is not given enough credit for the time he invests in his students. To me, it seemed that he answered every relevant question asked of him, and he always made time for students to voice their confusions. Some people complain that he brushes students off & appears condescending, but I think they were just misunderstanding him. He has a good sense of humor & sometimes shows his cats on camera-- he is a nice guy.
While I did struggle with many of the concepts taught in this course, I believe that was a result of my own lack of preparedness for this class. I did not have a strong chemistry foundation coming in, and I was very quickly overwhelmed, but that is to be expected of a college-level chemistry course-- it's gonna take some work to get the grade you want, don't expect it to come easy. If I really tried to concentrate on the material during lecture, I understood it. Dr. Scerri is a clear lecturer if you really listen to him. Although I sometimes found his slides kind of confusing and disorganized, if you asked him to clarify them, he would.
The bottom line is that this class is difficult in that there is a large amount of material you are expected to learn, but you are totally capable of learning it if you're willing to put in the work. Dr. Scerri provides many resources to facilitate student learning, including recorded lectures, lecture slides, practice problems, office hours, and a textbook.

I’ve taken him for 14A and 14B, and he just might be my favorite professor so far at UCLA. Scerri is a straightforward lecturer. He gets straight to the point, and doesn’t waste time talking about things you don’t need to know on his tests. Because of this, some people might think he’s “rushing” through his lectures. His past exams are useful. Study those. He also does not curve down, as many people claim. They just don’t know how to calculate their grades correctly.

This class was extremely fair, the midterm/final were based off of previous years exams... so literally study those and you will be fine! My only chem experience was Honors Chem from sophomore year and I wouldn't say that was helpful at all. Many of the concepts he goes over in class aren't too hard and there are tons of videos on the internet that will help you understand the concepts more if you need.

Overall, the workload for this class was extremely light and many of the test questions were pulled straight from lecture/previous exams. Scerri himself is not that most helpful or best lecturer, but the TAs were generally helpful. I would highly recommend looking at various TAs worksheets when studying for the exams.

Chemistry 14B with professor Scerri was honestly a breeze. He was overall very clear during his lectures and provided multiple practice exams to help prepare students for the midterm and final. I found his exams to be very similar to the practice tests which allowed me to so very well in his class. I took him for 14A as well and can say I truly enjoyed his class and am glad I had the opportunity to take them.

Definitely recommend taking Chemistry with Professor Scerri. I personally did not enjoy Lavalle's lectures and found Scerri's lectures to be easier to understand. In addition, you perform based on how well you do on assessments essentially because your grade is broken down into the midterm (30%), final (40%), and Thinkwell quizzes (30%). Thinkwell is the only resource you have to purchase which is somewhat annoying but necessary. Overall, you get a grade based on how much effort you decide to put into studying for this class and of course Scerri always answers questions and overall seems to enjoy helping out.

Professor Scerri is a really nice guy who cares about the students. He likes to crack a few jokes from time to time. There is no homework and only a few quizzes. The midterms and finals can be prepared with past exams. He is patient about answering questions. I find the optional textbook really helpful.