Scerri just doesn't particularly care. This unfortunately became more and more obvious as the class progressed. At first I was impressed by his obvious intelligent and occasional dry humor, but he is not a good professor. He speeds at a breakneck pace through a vast array of material without giving any context as to how concepts relate to each other or why we should care. Additionally, his lecture slides are spotted with typos and are almost entirely useless to review afterwards, so you need to take expansive notes. On the positive side, the Owl homework is very forgiving, and is a substantial part of your final grade. I learned pretty much nothing through the majority of the class, and had to frantically study outside materials and previous tests to make any measurable progress as tests drew near. While this landed me with very good scores, it was not a particularly comfortable or rewarding way to go through class. Through all of this, Scerri speeds on, unconcerned with the fact that 90% of the students have no real clue what's going on.
Anyway, the long and the short of it is this: avoid Scerri if humanly possible, especially if you are not strong in chemistry coming in. My previous knowledge was the only thing allowing me to do well, and things would have been far more hellish in an already brutal class if I had not had experience going in.

Scerri is a good lecturer and professor. In class, he often goes through the material at a rapid pace so it's hard to learn in class unless the concept is really easy. He doesn't have his lectures recorded which makes you show up to class. Despite general confusion in lecture, this is where discussions bridge the gap between what was taught in class and what you retained. The class was easy if you were able to cover the material after lecture and understand what was going on. You will need to study for the tests, if you don't, expect to fail.

Lectures: Attend every lecture because if you don't you will have to learn the concepts on your own from the slides and it will be much harder. Scerri is able to explain the concepts well and, lacking this, will make it much harder to learn.

Discussion: It really doesn't matter which discussion you go to. If your TA sucks, go to the other TA's. The more TA's you go to, the more practice you will have before the midterm/final. Each TA will give you a deeper understanding of the concepts and from a different perspective. I went to every TA discussion in the week and found that even if I already understood what was going on, it was beneficial.

Office Hours: I never went, but I've heard they're helpful.

Tests:
The tests are relatively difficult and you should prepare by using the test bank, reading the book, and doing the owl questions(BEFORE the test). From what I've gathered, he likes to ask at least one extra challenging question on the test. The tests aren't impossible but if you've never encountered the question before it's going to be difficult to figure out the correct answer. The formula sheet he gives doesn't cover all the questions as some you have to memorize to get correct (derivations or recall). The content comes from what he's discussed in lecture so really no surprise there, you just have to understand what was going on. There was only one midterm this quarter and I think the average was a B/B-. Studying for 2 days straight going over the released midterms and memorizing them until the early hours of the morning paid off and that was enough to succeed on the test.

For the Final: Thoroughly go over as many finals as you can get your hands on. Most of the questions are small revisions if not the exact same question from other finals. If you know how to run through a question, you will be able to do so on the final. I noticed he liked to repeat rather challenging questions that students often got a 0 or partial on. Study those challenging ones so you will be able to answer them if they appear.

Grading: He grades the class on a curve. You can't do average and expect to get an A. You have to work harder than 90% of the class if you want to score as such. You won't find out how well you did on the final until the next quarter. The grade you see is the curved grade, not the grade on your final.

I don't recommend this class to anyone who wants to maintain an interest in chemistry. If you have to take this class with him here is the rundown:
HOMEWORK: As of Winter 2020 he uses OWL for homework. It 's like 10 online "quizzes". All the homework is due at the end of the quarter and it's free points basically because they give you 10 tries on the same with different numbers/elements and tell you how to get the answer if you get it wrong. Unlimited time on every "quiz".
TEXTBOOK: There is a textbook that comes with OWL. I never used it.
LECTURES: Possibly the worst part of the class. Not bruincasted, and he posts the Powerpoints but they make no sense. Like actually ZERO sense. Worst formatting on earth, barely any insightful content. When he goes through them in class, there is slightly more clarity. Slightly. He is not a great explainer for complex topics, moves rather fast for no reason, and does not answer questions well. After the first midterm (Week 3), I stopped taking notes and attended intermittently.
TESTS: These are his only saving grace LMAO. Purely based on previous tests. Your TAs should give you a packet of his previous exams. LITERALLY just do these and memorize them and tests are a breeze. Only caveat is most of them do not have the answers so check with someone or ask your TAs if you want.
TAs: I believe this is where you'll get the most actual learning. My TA was not that great, so I attended other TA sections. They can be pretty helpful and are usually better teachers than Scerri himself. If you don't life your TA, DEFINITELY try the others. Attendance didn't really matter at all.

TLDR; don't take this class. if you have to just make sure you go to TA sections and do the past exams.

I agree with what people said below. Just make sure to include EVERY detail on the test. That makes all the difference. You may know the problem like the back of your hand, but if you leave out some minor detail, they leave out some major points. Oh, and make sure you have a good TA.

Scerri would often go through the material pretty fast, showing slide after slide giving little explanation. He is not a good lecturer, or he just doesn't care that a lot of students in his class didn't understand anything from class. The slides are useless for studying, so you have to take notes. The OWL homework gives you 10 chances to get it right so no problem with that. You WILL have to memorize derivations from various formulas that he will show in class because he likes to include at least one of them for the midterm and final.

Just be sure to choose a good TA. And if you have little to no background in chemistry, try avoiding him. Although, some say he's actually pretty good at teaching 14A.

Scerri is not a bad professor. This class is really more physics than chemistry, hence physical chemistry. The syllabus in this class is very condensed and a bit harder than most people expect it to be. I was lucky that I had learned most of the material in high school physics , but even I found it a bit hard to keep pace with the new material I'm learning. What was taught in HS in a week was covered by Scerri in half a lecture. Discussion sections or self-studying outside lecture is a must, unless you already know everything.

I came into college thinking I would not like Chemistry because AP Chem was rough for me, but Scerri made me like Chem!! I'm definitely not saying this class is easy, but I loved Scerri because he was always very clear and was obviously interested in the topic. This class is also a bit more conceptual than other chemistry classes that have more mathematical topics. Nothing on the midterms or final ever felt surprising; the slides and lectures were thorough and if you went over those and past exams, you pretty much knew what the exams would include.

Lecture:
Professor Scerri uses lecture slides, which he posts online after the lecture. Most of the time, he read off of the slide. It is not necessary to copy down the slides word for word, but you should pay attention to what he says. I relied heavily on his slides when I was studying for exams. He is not that bad of a professor. The course should not be too difficult as long as you have a basic understanding of chemistry.

Discussion:
This really depends on the TA, and it is optional, so only attend if it is helpful to you. During this term, there was only one good TA, and everybody attended that discussion. My TA just gave example problems for us to do.

Grade:
The homework is done through an online program called OWL. You will need to purchase an access code in order to log on and complete the assignments. The homework is time-consuming, but it is easy to get full score on the assignments. You get 10 tries to complete each problem, and when you get it wrong, there will be a complete solution as to how to solve the problem. Then, the program will generate the same problem but with different numbers. Also, you can use as much time as you need to finish the problems. Even though the homework sets are all due at the end of the quarter, I recommend doing them as he teaches the chapters. The midterm and the final are both based on the lecture material, and it is very helpful to do the practice tests that he posts online. Most of the time, he recycles questions from past exams. The new section that he added to the exams is a derivation-based problem. You will need to memorize a handful of derivations, and he will choose one or two of them for you to write out completely. For me, the tests were memorization-based, and I was able to score well because I memorized his notes word for word. I would do the OWL homework problems again, do the practice tests, and memorize the lecture notes in preparation for the exam. The textbook is not required, and I did not need to refer to it at all.

Grade Breakdown:
OWL: 30%
Midterm: 30%
Final: 40%

Chemistry at UCLA just sucks in general. It's a hard class and some of Scerri's derivations are extremely confusing, but relative to what I've heard about the rest of the teachers he's one of the better professors. The homework doesn't always relate to his exams, so just study what he goes over in lecture and you should be fine.

Scerri is a good lecturer. I learned a ton in his class. The tests were super difficult for me and often didn't have enough time (even with 3 hours). Derivation heavy. If you really want to learn, take this class, but know that it will difficult. Also, he uses OWL for homework which I really enjoyed. It may cost around $60 but will be worth it and will likely be used with Felker in the next class.