I disrespect him. He did not accommodate any of his students who underwent some difficult times. He lives by his syllabus. He does not care if you are out of state or country (you will be required to take the tests during PST) or if there is a medical emergency. YOU WILL BE TAKING HIS TEST NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCE. and they are painfully brutal.
He is great at teaching, don't get me wrong, but the lack of compassion someone can have during this really weird/difficult time really deters students from enjoying this course.
good luck

Please take this class with Pham. It's really, really hard, but he offers an extra credit project (which is what I have to thank for this A- haha) and he's super understanding when it comes to things. Stay on top of your shit in this class and you'll be okay. The tests are pretty hard though.

Let me be completely honest with you. Before this class, I loved O'chem. I took professor Castillo for 14C and received an A+. I had high hopes for this class when it began, but my hopes were quickly dashed. This man should not be teaching lower division classes for several reasons and here they are.
1. His slides are way too basic to understand the more in depth concepts. He lectures on an elementary level and tests on an advanced level leaving students to figure out the rest.
2. He grades homework extremely harshly. I completed all homework assignments with a tutor and my average homework score was a 60%. And I failed some of these assignments even with a tutor that had TA the course in the passed. Homework should be an opportunity for students to learn not bee punished.
3. He gives almost no practice material or realistic examples. We were given a total of 5 practice worksheets (the problem sets) from the professor throughout the quarter. That is it. Professor Nag gives over 30.
4. He gives very little extra credit. The only extra credit is from correctly answered poll questions during live lectures.
5. The professor does not care about student success. He only cares about his precious grade distribution. The sentence "I do not give review sessions before exams as it inflates the grades. Professor lead review sessions just unnecessarily raise the grade distribution." He acts as if giving a review session is above his pay grade. In my opinion, a good professor wants his students to do well, so he prepares them appropriately.

Finally, take professor Nag if you can. He gives 15%+ or more of extra credit and he lowers the grade scale significantly. You need to get a 30% to pass Nags class. In Pham's class, I averaged a 65% on my exams and I received a B-. My roommate who took professor Nag averaged a 63% on her exams and She received a flat A. TAKE NAG!!!

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.

Ochem is tough, and imo Pham made it more simple. I used to do good in the 20 series, and the reason why I did rather bad in this class is because I didn't study for this class strategically. His papers are mostly related to reactions, so remembering reagents and processes helps a lot. He gives out extra credit in midterms and finals, as well as in surveys. He does accept people asking him questions during office hours and after lectures, and TA sessions help a lot. I wouldn't say that Pham made ochem easier, but at least he made the learning process easier and more entertaining.

it was hell

Favorite professor at UCLA ! He made organic chemistry understandable and fun. And I love his shirts.

I liked this class a lot. Just make sure that you put in the enough work for the class and attend the lectures as much as you can. Even though it will be recorded, attending the lectures keep you focused.
The material is super clear and Pham will exactly tell you what he needs you to know for the class, but as I mentioned, you have to put in a lot of studying hours for this class or nay ochem class in general.

The content was difficult, but the professor made it much easier to understand. The lecture slides and recordings were very helpful to go back and review. Highly recommend the suggested book problems if the problem sets seem too daunting at first. All the materials are there, it's just up to you to manage your time well and know how much practice you need for each concept.

I want to start off by saying I really do not enjoy chemistry and I was really dreading taking ochem. I (like many others) have not necessarily had the best experiences in the chem department so that really made it worse. In fact, I actually liked chem before I came to UCLA...But anyways, as much as I was afraid of ochem, I was pleasantly surprised by Dr. Pham. I really enjoyed his teaching style, he made everything very clear and relatable to us as students. I really appreciated his funny analogies that actually helped me understand the topics well. He actually made me kinda like chem again. And I actually got a better grade in his class than my other chem classes, which I honestly didn't think was possible considering the stereotype surrounding the difficulty of ochem and how much I sucked at chem in general lol

The breakdown of this class is midterm and final heavy (2 midterms = 33%, the final = 33%), so 66% for 3 tests. This is pretty standard for a chem class. His exams are doable. Maybe it's because I've learned to study better this year but I really found his exams quite a bit easier that the chem exams I have taken in the past. If you redid the problem sets you could have a good idea of the test layout and types of questions. However, to really prepare for the exams and to get down a concept really well, I highly suggest doing as many of the practice questions from the TA worksheets as you can!!! This is what I think made me the most successful in the course. I was really able to get an ample amount of practice problems from these worksheets that help me understand how to apply what we were taught in lecture, as well as be prepared for the questions on the exams. Just watch your time on the exams! This class is where I took my first in person exam in college (bc of COVID) and I was nervous, but it was not bad as long as you watched the time and tried to ignore everyone dropping their calculators lol. He even projects the time on the screen so that was super helpful!

Though I really liked this course, I definitely would have liked it more if Dr. Pham were more approachable. In lecture, anytime someone asked a question, he seemed to answer it a little condescendingly. Maybe I am overthinking it, but I talked to a few people and they seemed to agree. Something about his tone made it seem like we should have already known the answer. If you like asking questions in class, hopefully this does not discourage you. I am not sure what he is like in office hours, so I can't speak for that.

Overall, I am glad to have had a chem class where I feel like I learned, but I wish Dr. Pham would be kinder to our questions :)