Scerri is the most confusing, least helpful professor I have ever had at UCLA. He is somehow worse than the entire 7 series which is saying a lot. He curved everyone's grade down incredibly this quarter--I earned a 99% in the class, opted out of the final due to the circumstances, and somehow got an A- in the class. He rarely knows what he's talking about, does not care about students, and is pretty much only teaching for tenure. Instead of grading on a bell curve, he should maybe make his exams more challenging? Students should not be penalized because Scerri makes his exams so easy. AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS.

I definitely did not learn anything in this class, which will most likely hurt me going forward. Because this class was online, the class, as a whole, did extremely well and it was almost too easy, so I would take the grade distribution for the Spring 2020 quarter with a grain of salt, because they do not match the absorption of content.

Scerri is very smart but his lectures are super boring and fairly disorganized, despite having slides. Especially on Zoom it became increasingly difficult to pay attention. I would not take another class with Scerri, not because he's a bad or unfair professor (his tests are extremely fair and easy to do well on), but because I don't feel like I learn enough in his classes (I had him for both 14A and 14B and have almost no knowledge about chemistry).

My biggest piece of advice to do well in this class is to GO TO DISCUSSION SECTION WITH YOUSIF. He opens it up to everyone and you can go to any of the available times he has them. They were incredibly helpful and he cleared up concepts that were explained in convoluted ways in class. ALSO, if you go to class and discussion you should do well on the tests because every single problem on the midterm and final comes straight from the slides.

Aside from that, I really don't think Scerri is as bad as the reviews say. I took the class fall 2021 with the expectation he would be a completely unfair grader and horrible lecturer with a 2.9 rating on bruinwalk. Maybe it was because it was online, but the class was very easy to follow along and take notes on. Sometimes Scerri wouldn't answer a question adequately or explain a concept in a way that would just confuse people, but for the most part, I feel like I sufficiently learned all CHEM 14B topics .

Lastly, Achieve quizzes. For the quizzes, I had done 2 of them prior and I did the last 5 from 10pm to 9am the day they were due without any distractions, so that should give you an idea of how to space them out/how much to procrastinate.

Overall, I think the only drawback of the way that Dr. Scerri teaches is that he grades the class on the curve, which can be difficult for students in a class like chemistry. Otherwise, I thought he did a good job of getting students to understand why we are learning certain methods and equations, and while some people complain about his attaching history in his lectures, I think it is because they received a bad grade. This history helps you understand what those scientists were thinking when they came up with their theories, and you are more likely to remember it. He also has jokes!

Before taking this class, I was warned by many people that I should NOT take this class. After taking the class, I would give about the same advice to my peers. The professor does not use actual slides, but rather PDF documents with often unorganized information. When asked questions in class, he often took a long time to answer the questions, and sometimes just avoided the question entirely. It was clear many times that he did not really review his lecture slides before class. It seemed to me that he didn't really care for his student's wellbeing, as evidenced by the fact that he told students to never use his personal email and to only post things on the discussion forum (which he also rarely checked/answered). The exams were not too bad, especially given that they were open note, but I relied heavily on AP Chem knowledge to pass the class. If you can take the class with a different professor, please try to do so. If you cannot, make sure you attend TA sections (because the TAs are sometimes or usually better at explaining the information than Scerri) even though they are not mandatory, do a lot of practice problems, and watch a lot of Youtube videos on concepts you don't understand.

Scerri is one of the worst professors I have taken at UCLA. His teaching online was not the best because the class requires a lot of math problems so he would mainly say how to solve them instead of actually be able to write out the steps, this of course was simply due to the online format. I think he is okay to take in person, where you can form study groups and ask questions. But he was very unaccommodating to the current situation and expects everyone to come in with solid knowledge of chemistry. His sarcasm during office hours and lectures made my blood boil. If you have the chance, take any other Professor.

If you have had him for 14A the grade breakdown is identical. 30% thinkwell, 30% midterm, and 40% final. I opted out of the final due to everything that went down during the end of spring quarter..

Scerri comes off as a very arrogant, know-it-all professor, granted I am sure he is incredibly knowledgeable but he likes to say words like "elementary" when describing certain concepts which just comes off condescending. I wouldn't say he is the worst professor I have had, but he is not near the top of the list. I did well in both of his chem classes because the problems he does in class are nearly identical to the problems on the midterm/final.

The best thing to do in this class is honestly rewrite notes to get a better understanding for yourself. Scerri is not the clearest, and you will most likely be confused by his lectures due to the disorganized structure and his poor way of teaching.

Otherwise, I did generally learn a lot from 14A and 14B but I am incredibly glad to be over with Scerri.

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

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.