I honestly want to say that this professor was awful because that is how his class made me feel. But truthfully, it is manageable to come out with an A (but definitely a lot harder with this professor than with some other 14C professors like Castillo). He always made us feel so rushed especially in the first couple of weeks and he would try to avoid questions to speed up time. He also gave weekly quizzes (with a highly irregular schedule) which he said were supposed to be guaranteed 100%, but a lot of them actually were hard and took a lot of time.
His 2 midterms I would say were fair especially after he fixed the rubrics, but I think its only because I did well on the midterms that I was able to get an A in the class because that final was BRUTAL. There were so many more questions than the midterms but only about 45 mins time given extra for the final as compared to the midterms. We also never got any good practice examples for what to expect for carbohydrates and biomolecules so I'm assuming I bombed that portion of the final. Moral of the story is: you can get an A if you study hard for midterms, go to office hours, go to review sessions, but it won't be a cakewalk. (the grading scale is different so that an A is 90-97 and A- is 84-90.)

If you want to regret ever becoming a STEM student, take this class. I would rather repeat my junior year of high school (with SAT stuff, AP classes, and college apps) and relive the whole of quarantine a hundred times than take this professor again. TBH Ochem is not that hard of a subject but teachers like this make it extremely difficult for students to pass the class. How is the midterm 5 pages for 2 hours but then the final is 14 pages for 3 hours including upload time? It's not adding up. In the last two weeks of class, he merely glanced over the biomolecular stuff without any concrete examples and that made up 60% of the final. He is very nit-picky with answers and sometimes it's hard to get partial credit. If you want peace of mind and a decent grade, save yourself and take someone else.

The grading scheme for this class was on a straight scale based on the number of points from several categories:
Each midterm is 100 points
Final is 200 points
Top 8 of 10 quizzes are scaled to 100 points
Group projects during discussion section were 50 points.
For a total of 550 points.

The grade scale was relatively generous with 90% being the cutoff for an A, 84% for an A-, 81% for a B+, 77.5% for a B, and 74% for a B-.

This class is difficult, as indicated by the grade scaling, but not impossible to do well in.
The first midterm tested on IR Spec, H-NMR, C-NMR, and Mass Spec. This material was the most difficult for me as there were many tiny details that you had to pay attention to when doing the problems. It is very easy to miss something and lose points because of that.
The second midterm tested mainly on Synthesis problems, with one spectroscopy problem similar to the first midterm. This class is all reactions after the first midterm. For me, Anki flashcards were key to memorizing all of them and doing all the practice problems from the book was great prep for the second midterm and the final.
The final was also mostly synthesis questions, but had two spectroscopy problems.
The timing for the tests was actually decent. I usually 'finished' about 30 minutes before I had to upload to gradescope, so I spent the next 25 minutes combing through my answers and checking for mistakes.
Practice tests were posted before each midterm and final. They were all accurate in difficulty and helpful in gauging how prepared you are for the actual one.
During the (open book/note) tests, I wrote down as much material as possible and had everything in front of me, although I don't think that will be possible in the future once classes are back in person.

The lectures for the class were all pre-recorded and posted on CCLE. The actual lecture time served as office hours. The lectures were kind of dry, but decent enough. Dr. Ow gives you the material and constantly reminds you that the key to doing well is doing practice problems. Keeping up with the material is all on you, so don't slack on watching the lectures. Leave time in the week to do the book problems as well. I highly recommend getting the solutions manual to check your answers. I couldn't find it online, but its relatively cheap if you rent from Chegg or some other service (less than $15).

During discussion sections, we were given 'reaction roadmaps' that showed how to go from molecule to molecule. The group projects were filling in the reagents, reactants, and products in these roadmaps with classmates in your discussion section. These group projects are basically free points if you go to your TA's office hours and make sure everything is correct. The roadmaps are also very useful during tests.

Weekly non-timed quizzes were posted on CCLE, which covered the lecture material for that week. They were relatively easy, but worth checking your answers so you don't miss out on points. You only had one session to do the quiz as well, no stopping in the middle and starting it again at a later time.

The average for both midterms was 64%. I got a 69% on midterm 1 and 85% on midterm 2. I don't know the average for the final, but I it was probably similar to the midterms. I got a 94% on the final and got an A in the class. I assume there was a small upward curve applied to the class as I don't think that I made the cutoff for an A based purely on points.

His class was a joke... easy A, no studying needed. Easiest chemistry upper division class offered.

Lots of studying and challenging professor! Take with Maynard!

Grade: B-

My UCLA GPA is 3.83, this class was the most useless class (for biochem majors). You learn irrelevant information like Molecular orbital theory of metals, and semiconductors that you will not use the rest of your life. Prof. OW has extremely hard tests (avg. 60%) and curves to a B-. I would take it with Prof. Maynard, who won the Chem teacher award! But, Dr. OW is cute.......

He shouldnt give only one midterm and one final. Too much material. I would gladly be studying for two midterms instead of one. Not fair. Plus material is hard. I have to figure stuff out by myself. He stresses out every week when the midterm is coming and its just puts more stress on me. I have had much better teachers before.

I don't think the below comment was very accurate. Just because you got a bad grade doesn't mean the course materil is useless. It's an elective for biochemistry and you only have to take one class. If you are so bitter about it, then you shouldn't have taken it and swtiched to other chemistry electives. I am not a chemistry major but I found the class material very interesting. Dr. Ow tends to go slow but make things really clear during the class. But you definitely need to do a lot of problems to really understand the concept. The midterm was ridiculously easy but I bombed it. The final was chanllenging but doable. It wasn't an easy class per se but neither a hard one. You just have to reallly understand the concepts.

Whoops!! The review below me was mine and I typed too fast lol! What I was trying to say is that he is really good so you'll be missing out if you choose another professor over him. His tests are very fair and he writes the notes out with you.

My tip on passing his class! Like any other class, review the material BEFOREHAND. Then go to lecture with any question you have. During lecture, ask him and he will kindly answer! Just don't ask questions he already mentioned/answered! He usually writes everything out and sends the notes out. He also puts past exams on CCLE which are great for practice!!

I love Professor Ow! Great professor!!

Not very much material in the class compared to something like the 153 classes, but the material is scattered and you will spend a lot of time trying to figure out the material and what is expected of you. midterm was easy since he followed his study guide and taught us how to draw mol orbitals. the avg 70, median 85 but since its a small class with a skewed distribution you can see it was hit or miss for people. After this midterm though he moved kind of fast and was confusing jumping between writing on overhead slides and writing on outlines. i guess the final exam had an average of 60 from the poster below and looks like he straight scaled the grades for 93+=A and 90-92=A- since I thought I would get an A based on my midterm and how I felt about the final but got an A- instead. Btw the final covered mostly lecture notes with both key and obscure parts of lecture playing an important role for the final; I could see some people leaving early but many people faces had expressions of struggle and helpless surprise. Overall take this professor only if you feel comfortable resting your entire grade on a single 33% midterm and 67% final. Thats right no second midterm quizzes or hw sets to reduce the final exam weight or help you if you mess up. And richard kaner, not maynard (organic chem professor) like the 2 posts below, teaches this class in the fall. kaner might be harder but at least he curves the average to a B like typical upper div professors not B- like dr. ow. while the material was interesting I am still bitter about the grading scale since it hurt my gpa too (and I have a feeling some students who do not stellar but above average in other science classes did not pass and will have to repeat the course or find another elective). maybe its his last time teaching 171, since I know he doesnt teach at ucla very often. again he is a hit or miss for most people, unlike some other professors who always get praise.