I took 20A with Professor Scerri in Fall, 2014. Professor Scerri is an extremely intelligent professor, and has been teaching for years. He knows his stuff thoroughly, and you'll be amazed by the depth of knowledge he has. The biggest advantage of this class was his course-reader. Make sure you buy the latest one. Know the course-reader completely, don't skip anything from it. Understand every single word in it. You don't even need to open the textbook.
Another advantage was his mid-term. There's only one mid-term, and it is held pretty early in the quarter. You haven't studied much by then, so be assured that your midterm is gonna be an easy chance to get a good grade in the class.
Do every single test at the back of the course-reader and also go get some more from the test-bank if possible- he repeats many questions on his tests from previous tests.
You'll instantly fall in love with his British accent (which BTW makes understanding stuff so much easier). Some people think he is rude, but well that's their opinion. He is sarcastic, and he will tear apart, sarcastically, anyone who asks dumb questions. His class will be super-entertaining for sure. I fell in love with chemistry in his class.
I had to work somewhat hard for this class, got an A- in the midterm, A+ on the homework and an A+ overall.
Make sure that you take Anjan Nandula as your TA. He, in my opinion, is smarter than Scerri himself (which blows my mind, because Scerri is awesome enough already.)
If you get a professor like Lin who has higher ratings than Scerri, trust me, don't look at the ratings, GO FOR SCERRI!
He is the best professor I've had at UCLA so far!
Here's a bonus - go watch Scerri confront an evangelist on youtube - search for 'I teach logic motherfucker!!! UCLA Professor Scerri raging at an evangelist'

Background: I consider myself an average chemistry student. I took AP chemistry in high school with a fabulous teacher, but I was (still am) not that great at the subject.

I thought the class was fair. Homework was a moderate amount, maybe a 2-3 hours per week. Exam questions were not a big surprise.

Advice for the reader:

To others who also took AP, expect to approach chemistry differently in 20A. Scerri speaks mainly in concepts, and presumes that you already know the math (even if it is not self-evident---POTENTIALLY YOUR DOWNFALL). That said, there are many concepts that overlap with AP physics, so it would be helpful to familiarize yourself with some of those basic equations beforehand.

The covered topics are not too difficult to understand by themselves, but the sheer breadth of testable trivia and minutiae can be a bit overwhelming. Make sure to carefully study and understand (even memorize) Scerri's course reader, since just about anything from those two booklets can pop up on the exam.

Class consists of sitting in a dim lecture hall and listening to Scerri fill out the blank spaces of the course reader. It's not too bad, but if you're feeling lazy it's podcasted!

As mentioned previously by numerous others, Scerri's course reader and Thinkwell (online quiz subscription) are practically all you need in terms of material for his course. Meaning, do not buy the textbook, unless you value the more in-depth explanations; be aware that the book is mostly unnecessary for scoring well on his exams, and should you need help in studying, there is also additional material available through Thinkwell. Again, the course reader is paramount.

In a side note regarding Scerri's exams, be sure to make a visit to the test bank in the Student Activities Center as there are few types of question that he favors over others. Knowing and being able to predict these is highly advantageous.

As for the professor himself, Scerri is visibly a very experienced instructor of chemistry; it is obvious that he has done this many times before, and does not mind sticking around for more. He is also one sarcastic fellow, one who is not afraid to tell you off in his British accent, but is not altogether unpleasant. Sometimes he tries to be funny: sometimes it's funny that he tries. Another thing, Scerri plays the electric guitar, and is actually quite good---a valid excuse for having poor hearing. He calls it a demonstration of harmonics.

If you can get him, you're in good hands. At the very least you will likely pass.

Selling Chem 20A textbook, excellent condition.
$65 or best offer
text 4125529120 or 8054584994
(Two copies for sale)

Selling course reader, 20 dollars for both volumes. Email at 378311458@qq.com

Scerri is intelligent and considerate. He has a nice personality as many of students have alreday heard of. Just memorize his course reader and do past exams from the test bank and you will be fine.

BTW, if someone wants to buy used CR, please email me: yuxiang1995@hotmail.com

Scerri was an okay professor. His midterms and finals are always very similar, so do a bunch of practice midterms and finals before each exam and you'll do fine! The test bank has a lot of old exams, and there's always the past exams in the back of the course reader. Also, try to always attend lecture! Scerri is one of those professors who loves certain small details of chemistry. He'll emphasize these small details in class, and they'll definitely come up in exams. Good luck!

I found Dr. Scerri to be a pretty good professor. I'm a biochemistry major, so it was fairly easy to get immersed in the material, which I found VERY interesting. I've heard people complain about his snobby demeanor, but personally, I found it hilarious. Something about his sarcastic, condescending tone could really liven up the class.

You don't use the book whatsoever in this class; rather, you use his course reader as the main textbook. It's pretty well written in my opinion, except some parts feel like filler. You'll go over some pages with RIDICULOUSLY complicated equations, only to never see them again come tests.

Ah yes, his tests. There's practice exams at the back of both volumes of his course reader. If you want to do good on the midterm and final, it's crucial to go over these, as they're fairly representative of what to expect on your actual exams. I found that the midterm was almost identical to one of the practice midterms, and that the practice finals prepared me well for the actual final, save for one question based on a concept I'm not entirely sure was in the syllabus (WTF?!)

Overall a pretty good professor. If you're up for a challenge, Scerri's your guy.

I'll do my best to give a fair, comprehensive evaluation. Here's a bit of background where I am coming from:
Grade: A.
Bioengineering Major.
Relevant High School Coursework: 5 in AP Chem, a 5 in AP Physics.

That being said, Scerri's class was definitely a challenge but doable.

Class lectures: Overall, Scerri does a decent job teaching. He is a fair teacher, but what throws off many of his students is the fact that his lectures are supremely conceptual, while his tests are primarily computational (of a sort). During lecture he goes over concept over concept but does very little practice problems. That being said, there is so much content being said during lectures, many of which is not in the course reader. In order to have true success in the class, it is not enough just to attend lectures but to take meticulous notes. One detail he might say may be covered verbally but it might be key on the actual exam. Even though he has a course reader, there was stuff covered that he had to use seperate slides (not in the course reader). Though this content seems extra, take it seriously, download it when he sends it in an email, print it out, and put it along with the stuff you want to study. On our final for Fall 2013 he had content he had barely grazed over.

Secondly, do your best to attend lectures. Though he does give podcasts and an excuse not to arrive, sometimes stuff happens to the podcast that makes it cutoff some of the lecture. Other times the camera angle does not capture things he writes on the board.

Studying for Midterms and Exams: Personally, people say to memorize the course reader as if section by section. The best way to prepare for the course is taking the big concepts and linking them all together, filling the holes with the details from his lectures, rather than memorizing them forthright. If you can connect all the concepts together and use each one to memorize another, you will have a much easier time than memorizing them fact by fact. One example of this is how he arranges all the content up to the Midterm. Rather than memorizing each theory up to Schroedinger's equation in preparation for the midterm, it is better to study with the guiding question of "how does all the content that I have learned build up to the prevailing theory of Quantum Mechanics and Schroedinger's Equation?" Arranging the course and the content through a series of large and smaller questions will make the whole course of CHEM 20A cohesive and you will get a better understanding with less studying. Linking concepts of the course rather than memorizing each piece by piece will be beneficial.

In the course reader, Scerri provides a number of practice exams. For a SOLID GRADE in the course, the best thing to do is to know every singe problem in the practice tests. His midterm and final mimic the finals and midterms he gives in the past (shocking, right?). When it comes to doing these problems, it can't be a matter of going through each practice exam once and being done with it. You really must practice the problems that give you the most difficulty if you want to succeed. Another important thing is to try these practice exams at least a couple weeks before the actual final. Start studying week 8 or 9 with these practice finals for a couple reasons: Firstly, he gives a lot of practice exams. Secondly, each practice exam takes at least a 2-3 hours to complete if you are studying correctly. Starting these practice tests the weekend before Finals Week will be utter hell.

Lastly, study with the right people. That is what helped me most in the course. Whatever holes regarding one person has can be easily covered by the other. This will help you immensely in studying the for the midterm, the final and those pesky Thinkwell Quizzes. One note regarding Thinkwell quizzes. Their questions are not nearly as hard as the exam, but do them with friends and you will likely get an A since questions are recycled and you can take the quiz 3 times. Take it all three times even if you do get a 100 for mastery of content. Again, group work will help manipulate the system to your advantage.

Discussion Sections and Office Hours: When it comes to discussion sections, dominate the section with questions. Get these questions from stuff you don't understand from notes, or from the practice exams (another reason why you should be starting these practice exams early). Everyone else will not have questions until weeks 9 to 10, by then it is too late. Take advantage of everyone else's complacency during the early weeks to have all your questions from the practice exam answered. You will be much less stressed. If you are to attend office hours, again be the one to ask questions about content. Likely whatever questions you may have are the same ones others may ask, but if someone else asks the question, there is a possibility of being stuck there for another 10 minutes listening to content you already know.

Misc: Scerri has a decent class. He is a funny professor whose arrogance can come off as amusing and somewhat charming. Get him to play his guitar and you'll be listening to him jam away. Quite impressive really, but we all know he's playing for the ratchets. Be the one to ask the questions and answer the questions. One warning when talking to Scerri however: don't be stupid when talking to him. He ostracized one kid for saying "like" too much. Poor kid. If you have decent grammar skills and aren't too socially awkward (thats for you engineers), then you should be fine in navigating Scerri's sharky waters. Best of luck.

Dr. Scerri, like a review below me says, may have a fake British accent (he's actually from Malta). Anyways, as an engineering student in Chem 20A who did NOT take AP Chem in high school, I found Chem 20A to be doable.

That said, the class is not "easy." Unlike other posters who have said "Don't go to lecture" or "just memorize the course reader," first of all, how can you memorize an entire course reader? Second of all, you have to understand the concepts in his course reader.

Anyways, back to Dr. Scerri. I would say he was a fairly good lecturer, but he's not the nicest guy (he's better some days than others). Ironically, he tends to be a bit more brash during office hours, and for future 20A students, give him the suggestion to hold separate office hours for 14A and 20A because when he held office hours for both classes together, the 14A students tended to take up most of the time.

Yes, the course reader is fairly expensive, and I would recommend buying a new one. This is because like Scerri says to you on Day 1, doing this will help you understand the material more by actually writing what he says.

Also, this is really important: the midterm for this class (there's only one, so it's a sink-or-swim type of situation)was relatively easy; he pulled it straight out of the course reader SO DO THE PRACTICE TESTS AT THE BACK. ALL OF THEM. As for the final, it was definitely harder, and here comes the interesting part. One question had to do with something that was NOT directly mentioned in his course reader, so it is a great idea to write down what he verbally says in class since that material can also be testable and you do not want to lose points for that.

There's not too much homework for this class, and although you have to pay for Thinkwell, the online lectures he has are helpful if are confused by some topics (e.g. quantum mechanics, organic chemistry, etc.) but does not cover all of the topics in class.

For the final, the time of three hours was definitely NOT an issue, but the test was definitely not easy, and it was also not impossibly hard; it was leaning towards the difficult side, but I studied well so it did not seem horrible.

Also, Scerri did play the guitar for us in class, which I thought was pretty cool. If you can take him for Chem 20A, I guess you should take him. If he was offered for Chem 20B, I would have taken him again. In summation, good lecturer, sometimes mean person, great guitar player, relatively easy midterm, and moderately difficult final.

Scerri is a cool guy with a fake British accent. He might be better teaching philosophy or theology, or playing guitar (in fact he did).I scored an easy 5 in AP Chem but still didn't understand what Scerri was teaching the conceptual way. Maybe it's just me as an engineering student who much prefer the computational chemistry. 20B would be a huge challenge for students who took Scerri.

I am not a fan of course reader and thinkwell subscription. You will not be able to sell them (even brand new ones) and get some money back. Only 4 quizzes were posted on thinkwell anyway, he could have used a free website like many other universities do. I have had some professors who also have course readers but offer a free pdf on their websites. The paper ones are available for printing price. For Scerri, sorry you just have to pay.

The midterm and final are very doable. I studied only the night before (never show up to lectures after 3rd week) with a solid background, I did well in both and looking to get an A or A-.

Overall: Cool guy, bad teacher for 20A. However, I do feel that Scerri's teaching style would be perfect for 14A. Life science major, Scerri is your man. Engineering or Chemistry major, avoid him if you can!