I scored around average on both midterms (both averages were low 60s). This class was so hard. Pham was a good professor and got his point across well, but something just didn't click for me. I thought I would fail, but the final was online due to COVID, so by some miracle I got a B+ (I did get above 90 on the final). Our class average ended up still being below 75, so we got an additional grade boost from that.
My main advice is to do all the extra credit (there's a LOT) and to study. I'm someone who doesn't study, and I met my match in this class.
I would recommend Pham if you want to learn and work for your grade, but I know the other professors are way easier.

(I put "2" for "workload rating" because that's what I felt I had to do in order to get what I got. I actually put in a "3" or a "4" despite having taken him last quarter for 30A.)

Dr. (Hung V.) Pham is quite reactive to student questions; he welcomes student questions and usually answers them clearly and thoroughly*. Dr. Pham knows his material and makes each reaction he teaches very clear, making jokes/analogies along the way. I was not able to attend his office hours, but I trust that his office hours are as productive and useful as in 30A. If nothing else, OChem has shown me my deficiency in predicting what might happen.

I understand in the light of the trials of COVID-19, everyone suffers, and that somehow led to Dr. Pham becoming infamous for his letter calling students who cheat "scum." No comment.

He does make the exams quite difficult, but as the other reviewer said, I would just focus on learning the material. The charge of Dr. Pham not making the discussion worksheets himself is true; you will never be prepared for the format of his exams (despite their relative clarity). The final was open book/notes, and since OChem has lots of memorization, the average on the final was 178.8/200 (89.4%), not 95%. I am confident that people cheated, but of course I have no evidence.

In response to the scaling, he actually did scale the class in the end; my average was 85.3%. I would consider that generous, although to be fair to Dr. Pham, none of his announcements contained the word "generous." I agree that he can be a bit disrespectful of students, sometimes expecting implicit knowledge from students.

Take him and leave a review for yourself. Proverbs 11:14 NKJV

Pham is a jerk. He is condescending and rude in lecture, and makes students feel inferior to him. The midterms and finals are unfair. There is an extreme disparity between students with a strong STEM background and those who do not. There is a reason why this class is split between A+ and C-. This class is great if you're a lame premed who just studies all day everyday. But if you are normal, forget it.

Literally take anyone else. Especially Nag.

Dr. Pham is a great professor. I took this during the quarter of COVID so the class was online, and both Pham and the TAs adapted very well to the circumstances. Overall the class was very difficult, obviously, it's Ochem, but Pham definitely made the class manageable. The lectures are jam-packed with information so it's really important to review lecture material on your own time. The problem sets were also very difficult but were always fair to the material he taught us. You are definitely going to need friends to do the homework with, though, if you want to pass this class. The tests were really hard, but I was able to do decent on them because they were open note for us since it was online. But again, they were definitely fair in terms of the material he taught us. Discussion sections are a necessity for this class, too. My TA was Cameron (idk his last name) and he was literally incredible. He was really good at summarizing what Pham taught us and giving us good examples to practice on. I literally would not have passed this class without him. So yeah overall, I definitely recommend this class and prof but if you want a good grade you really have to put the time in. If I could give one piece of advice: don't fall behind. Actually, it's not even good enough to NOT be behind. You have to be actively ahead of the class, doing extra problems and going to office hours and stuff, otherwise you're gonna be moving too slow and you'll just keep getting hit with new stuff because this class is literally all new information, it's not like anything you've learned before. So yeah, best of luck fam

Best chem professor I have had so far.

I took this class the first time Pham taught it online, during the pandemic. I've previously taken Chem 14C with the dude (I switched from life sci to biochem), and knew that I would like him.
For context, I tried out taking Chem 30C with Merlic for the first 2 weeks of Winter (before the impacted course drop deadline) and REALLY did not like Merlic's teaching style. I personally know that I do fine with slides and appreciate the greater organization over seeing everything drawn out. Merlic was a lot more messy and harder to follow, and spoke so goddamn fast that lecture was just excruciating. I just couldn't retain anything from his lectures because of it, which made me super anxious. But Pham is highly understandable, able to point out key concepts and good at simplifying things. For huge ochem buffs, you may prefer Merlic since Pham may have a tendency to over-simplify (but not in a way that would hurt you on an exam b/c his exams reflect what he teaches you), but I definitely didn't mind.
Because of the nature of this quarter, we only had one midterm and one final. Everything was open-book, open-note. We were given 24 hours to submit, but were encouraged to follow guidelines for taking it within 2 hours for the midterm and 3 hours for the final. However, this was only an honor-based system and he only started pushing this more heavily when he felt like students were taking advantage of the system...and ended up going back to saying 24 hours was okay at the end of the quarter when things were getting crazy with the protests.
The class was originally supposed to be 50 points BACON, 100 points midterm, 100 points problem set, and 150 points final, but Pham was extremely accommodating following the protests. He made the class instead out of 250 points, and the final optional. Essentially, he adjusted the final to be 100 points and would just take the better exam between the midterm or final. If you did take the final, it was made no-harm as well. The problem sets and BACON were the same number of points. Problem sets weren't bad at all. Only select problems were graded. He added them so we wold have more buffer points during this online quarter.
We had a total of 3 main opportunities for extra credit. CryOFF project for 8 points + 2 more points if you were chosen as best project, 2 points for evals, and 1 point for pre-midterm survey. Following the protests, he gave everyone minimum 6 points on CryOFF though. On the midterm, there was one random EC point (not skill). On the final, there was 4 EC points, with 3 points coming from some ochem relevant knowledge (knowing UCLA professors) and 1 free EC point.
But yeah, Pham was great, although it was sad to see him less enthusiastic/more down this quarter. He's a good teacher, although I finally understand why some people say he's not as patient with questions. He switches between being usually pretty nice during lecture, to being potentially blunt/intimidating for individual questions during OH or at the end of class. But I know he means well and just tried not to take it personally. I still really appreciated him b/c ochem could be somewhat confusing/convoluted to me with other profs, but I had no trouble whatsoever with Pham, even though it's been 2 years since I took ochem. He was more than fair - promising us that he would not make the exams any longer or harder than he normally would even with all his accommodations. And I can verify that this is true. Never in a million years did I expect ochem to go this smoothly, and yes there were a lot of accommodations, but I still feel like I learned a lot :).

Professor Pham is absolutely awesome! Not only is he very accommodating and understanding towards his students, but he is also very passionate about teaching organic chemistry! Please note that his test are very challenging and requires constant attention towards class lectures and contents but it is manageable!

Professor Pham is very caring. I've taken Ochem with other professors and I think that Il earned the material best from him compared to other professors. His slides are very clear and easy to follow. He was very understanding with the transition to online. He made BACON worth a lot (even though it's almost guaranteed A) and he added the problem sets which were good practice. I only took the midterm and it was pretty reasonable and easy. Due to the protests, he made the final optional. Overall, he's been very understanding this quarter and I really learned a lot from him. I'm glad that I got a chance to take 30C with him! I would recommend, even in an in-person format.

Professor Pham is amazing! I admit it's a difficult class, but he explains the material very well with his super organized slides and does his best to help all of his students succeed. He's always more than happy to address any concerns during office hours. He's also very approachable and wears cool chemistry t-shirts.

Selling old Midterms and Final. Email: uclabruin1620@gmail.com