I feel like I did not learn at my full potential. May have been my fault, but not totally sure. I feel like this is a pretty easy class if you've taken AP Chem in hs or with a help of people who know what they are doing. I can tell you I am not sure how I passed, but I think my friend would explain the material better to me than she would. Overall pretty easy, as long as you get everything done.

The content is definitely hard, but Shao does a pretty good job with it. Lectures are super organized and cover the content with decent depth. Discussions are mandatory (30% of your grade is the worksheets you do in them), but also super helpful. Tests are a bit difficult but nothing crazy.

Professor Shao is a really nice teacher. The class is difficult since it’s quantum physics, but lots of free grades and an easy final+curve. She made all her notes by herself and were helpful. Just try hard and you’ll definitely get a nice grade.

This class was good.
You really hit the ground running with new material at the start of the quarter, which can feel daunting at first. However, going to the discussion sessions are general helpful to better understand the course, which is true throughout the whole quarter. The class is pretty accommodating to your schedule, with lectures being recorded and available through CANVAS. Moreover, though I didn't go personally, she holds office hours often if you want more help. Midterms were challenging for most, with averages around 65-69% for each exam (but the final is much easier). Difficulty peaks around midterm 2, with a dip back to basic stoichiometry in week 8, then going back to harder material. To me, it seems that Shao wants you to succeed and gives you many opportunities to do so throughout the course.
Overall, if you go to your discussion you're bound to have the same, if not better, experience as mine.

Huiling (from what I've heard), was not so great in the quarter before, but she really improved this quarter. She really listens to feedback, and looks like she wants everyone to succeed. She was extremely helpful, and I'm pretty sure it just looks bad because she's forced to begin with quantum mechanics to weed out students. Granted, midterms and finals were online, so it was a lot less stressful than in person, but the tests were much harder and longer than in person as well. I really liked this class, after hearing how rough it could've been from previous students. can she pls teach 20B over Barr, I want to die.

20A was a little rough starting out as a first quarter class. The lectures come at you fast, but you get used to it. All the lecture materials are posted after the fact which was really nice. Professor Shao was mediocre at lecturing, but I didn't have to use the text book at all. The discussions were helpful in solidifying the ideas from class. The midterm and final averages were 70%, 65%, and then 85%. The curve helps carry you through the class and you're homework makes up a majority of your grade. All in all, Shao does what to be done, and the concepts are difficult but there is enough padding built in to help you grade up.

I did feel like I learned a lot from Dr.Shao's class however, I think it wasn't the right class for me. Her format of lecturing is not very helpful for me as she has slides that she annotates throughout the lecture, but moves so quickly that you don't have time to write stuff down. She tries to provide lots of resources to succeed but none were super helpful in my opinion. My TA was definitely the reason I did decent in the class. The class starts out feeling like a physics class so it is very offputting because you signed up for a chemistry class, not physics. I took AP Chemistry in high school and maybe 10% of the material was similar so unless you have a strong background in chemistry, physics, and quantum mechanics, you may struggle. She is a very nice person and does want to help you, but isn't the easiest person to get help from. I only recommend this class if you have a strong background in the things I mentioned above or have a passion for them. It's a challenging class.

This class was so much fun! Dr. Shao was so nice and helpful throughout the entire quarter. The concepts were extremely hard to grasp, which is why I’d say a lot of people had trouble in this course, but it wasn’t Dr. Shao’s fault. Quantum mechanics is never easy, but Dr. Shao helped us as much as she could. Her slides were very organized, and she didn’t rush through the lectures. The homework was done in a way that we were basically guaranteed 100%, (ten attempts on each problem, but after you got it wrong it would walk you through the steps) but it would help us a ton to gain an understanding of the topics and the kinds of questions that we would have to answer. The tests were easier than the homework problems. The first midterm was essentially just plugging stuff in, you just had to know which equations to use. The second midterm required a bit more chemistry knowledge, but it was stuff that we had done in class. As long as you paid attention, you’d be fine. The final was super easy, much easier than I expected, just long. Also, all of the tests were OPEN NOTES. She wanted us to understand the concepts more than just memorize problems, which I think is admirable. Learning shouldn’t be about just learning to take a test, it should be learning to understand. All in all, Dr. Shao was an extremely helpful professor and I would recommend this class!

Not terrible, by the grace of god I ended up with an A. This class is very hard at the start and progresses to easier topics later, so be ready.

strong care for the well-being of students, strongly recommended!