Challenging class. Was not ready for the amount of memorization needed for the exams and paid. It is super important to make sure that all reactions are memorized before one starts to understand the mechanism if it is required. There weren’t really any tricky reaction questions on exams, just a lot of them. The tricky questions came with the comprehensive spectroscopy questions as even if one had a good understanding of the individual parts, it could be hard to piece everything together and get the correct molecule. Overall, this class has a lot more memorization than 30A (more reactions) and knowing this will probably help prepare one for at least 60% of the material on exams.

30A is hard AF. He focuses on making the class less scary and more interesting. There are a lot of fun stuff in lecture and OH too. However, tests are really hard, so does the homework. There are lots of resources (OH, LA Lounge, etc) to help, and you really should be finding others to study with or you will crash. Great guy. He did design the class in a way that it's easy to get into the C range but failing is not as easy.

the class was BRUTAL. I'm sure Pham is a great professor and is excellent at explaining things, but ochem just did not stick in my brain. And I *was* a chem major. It was easy to fall behind in the beginning and I just couldn't pick myself up and ended up not understanding anything in the second half of the quarter. I don't really have much advice but Pham is good!

Also, my TA/LA forced us to participate in the discussion by putting us on the spot, so if you get a TA/LA that does that, I'm so so so sorry. It was the worst being called on and not being able to say anything.

Seems like I'm stuck in the 30 series so wish me luck in 30B even though I learned nothing in this class lol.

Professor Pham is an absolute king. Especially since his class comes right after the 20 series, he is definitely a breath of fresh air. Organic chemistry itself is definitely tough, since it's not like any other subject. Still, Professor Pham was great at helping us understand the most complex topics, whether it be through his jokes or his clever analogies. I love the way that the class is structured. The only problem is that there's not that much room for error. The grading scheme is all 3 exams (50%), HW (25%), Discussion Participation (13%), and BACON (12%). The discussion participation and BACON are free points, but the homework problem sets were difficult. They were very indicative of the level of difficulty of his exams, which was nice because it helped to prepare you, but it also was bad at times because missing a single point on them could affect your grade a decent amount. The class weights all points equally, so it's out of 300 points total, and a point in HW would equal a point on the test.
In general, there was barely ever mandatory work to do in this class, so almost minimal workload. The only reason that there is a decent amount of work is because it takes a lot of practice to get the concepts mastered and to be prepared for exams. To prepare, do all of the LA and TA worksheets and watch the review sessions! Those are all I did and they're a life saver. Reading over the textbook and doing the practice problems there are helpful methods as well.
I would definitely take Pham again. He's an awesome guy and an even better professor.

I liked this professor. He was a good and engaging lecturer. His exams were very fair. The TAs were cool too. Definitely a doable class given the difficult rep that Organic Chem has. He also gives extra credit (like 8 points) if you do the polling question during each lecture. It definitely bumps your grade up a lot if you do them (but you have to get the questions right). He gives weekly problem sets which are graded kinda harshly, but you get a whole week to do them and you can collaborate on them. Exams are in the same format as the Problem Sets, and can either be harder, easier, or the same level as the Problem Sets, its kinda a gamble. But overall, they weren't too different. He gives suggested homework problems, which are good for concept but don't help a ton if you want the style of problems he gives on the exam. TA Worksheets are immensely helpful, people in my class would do them for other TAs too because the questions are more relevant to what you learn in the class. Overall, pretty good class.

Dr. Pham's tests are hard, but you are more likely to succeed if you stay relatively up to date with the material. Just don't fall behind! This class is pretty quick, but the reactions get pretty similar. Understand the patterns to make your studying easier! Dr. Pham is awesome, and his TAs are also great. He makes himself available to students, and he is very funny. He has quite the backstory, too. Attend his office hours to unlock the secret backstory DLC and to get life advice. Lastly, the time you get for discussion doesn't really matter. He said he would institute mandatory attendance at enrolled discussions if students crowded up specific sessions, but that never happened. I can confidently say that thanks to Dr. Pham, organic chemistry has been my favorite subject in college thus far. 14C and 14D were truly a blast. Take Dr. Pham!

Pham is the greatest professor I've had. I had him both for 14C and 14D. His lectures are engaging and concise, though it was unfortunate to have his lecture at 8am, making it difficult to properly absorb all the information.

Discussion sections are helpful, but not mandatory and the LAs and TAs offer a lot of resources to prepare for the test. Youtube also offers a lot of information relating to his course (check out Organic Chemistry Tutor and Professor Dave Explains). Also gotta love his t-shirts. Definitely a classic.

Midterms are very fair. There is a time constraint, but it isn't a problem if you studied the mechanisms well. It is definitely not the play to study the night before because of all the memorization. This class is honestly what you make of it. Put in the work, and you will be rewarded.

Dr. Pham is the best professor I've had at UCLA so far. His lectures are clear and concise, which made the material easily digestible. He also posts his slides at day or two before lecture, so make sure to print/download/write them before class so you're not wasting your time writing down what's already on the slides. It's more important to listen to what he's saying and writing down info that's not explicitly written on the slides. Despite Chem 14D's reputation, the material wasn't actually that dense, and Dr. Pham definitely made it easy to understand. At the start of the course, he says to not focus on memorizing every single reaction/mechanism, but to strive to understand the transformations that occur and why they happen; he is 100% correct. Yes, there are a few things like reagents that have to be memorized, but seeing the bigger picture in terms of electrophiles/nucleophiles, acidity/basicity, solvents, carbocation stability, stereochemistry, sterics, and electronics will go a long way in this class.

The midterms are very fair as he only tests you on things talked about in lecture, and despite the averages for the two being 62 and 60 points (which is a C-) it isn't difficult to get a good grade as long as you are on top of your studying. Make sure to review the slides and do practice problems frequently (shoutout to my TA Sean's worksheets), and not just a few days before the exam. You have to be responsible about knowing your reactions and concepts/patterns to do well, especially on synthesis problems. Do not try to cram and memorize before the exams.

The final was optional due to COVID-19 but it seemed to be about the same difficulty as the midterms.

Grading breakdown:
40 pts BACON (easy points)
100 pts Midterm 1
100 pts Midterm 2
200 pts Final

Dr. Pham also offers an obscene amount of extra credit which is really nice: 10 pts for Tophat clicker Qs, up to 15 pts for CrYOFF (optional group project), 2 pts each for post-exam questionnaires, 2 pts for course evals, and 5+ points of potential extra credit on exams.

Amazing teacher and insanely caring, wish I had him in person!

Professor Pham is the GOAT. He's hilarious, engaging, and an amazing lecturer. The class speeds up a lot after the first midterm, but as long as you don't fall behind (and pay attention in class!) you'll do fine. His office hours, TA office hours, and discussions are all VERY helpful but optional.

Grades are made up of midterm 1 (23%), midterm 2 (23%), BACON exercises (9%), and the final (45%). The two midterms are 50 mins long and in class. They are very reasonable, and I found the time limit to be the most challenging part. TA worksheets, going over the slides, and Prof Hardinger's past exams were all very helpful for the exams. BACON exercises are basically free points. The average for our final was 68%, so it wasn't easy but if you thoroughly understand his slides/memorize the mechanisms you can definitely do well.

Professor Pham provides a LOT of extra credit through TopHat questions (10 points) which are like clicker questions, CrYOFF, and each exam has ~5+ points extra credit as well. The CrYOFF is this optional group project where you create something (website, poster, powerpoint, etc) about a chemistry topic of your choice. You can get 10 points extra credit + 5 points more if your group project is chosen as the best. Even if you don't do well on the exams, you can still get a good grade from all the extra credit.

I highly, HIGHLY recommend taking Professor Pham whenever possible. He honestly cares about the success of his students and his pre-exam emails were so cute and encouraging.