Dr. Hung V. Pham (NOT Hung Ding Pham) is quite the eloquent and engaging professor. He teaches OChem in a way that emphasizes understanding the patterns in the reactions and trends, not memorizing each reaction and property as a discrete item.

First off, I'd like to say I rated "Workload" as 2, but if you don't want to do well, that "Workload" can be 5, easily. If I wanted to feel super confident on the exams, I probably would have done 1 on the "Workload." In short, OChem is not easy. Not. Easy. Why did I rate the "Easiness" as 1? Pham says people say 30A is the hardest class they have ever taken, and that's because it is on a higher level of thinking. It's not as discrete as Math 31A/B and is as continuous as Chem 20 is disjointed. When you learn stereochemistry in Week 3, you will keep referring to it up through Week 10. It never. Goes. Away. Never.

But OChem is logical. After a lot of studying. Keep re-running the mechanisms for everything, and eventually, the answers to your problems will come more quickly and reliably.

Lectures? Bruincasted. Engaging? Quite. Fast-paced? Yes. I used Bruincast a bit.

I fell behind a bit in the beginning of this course. Being my first quarter in college, 30A really showed me that my study habits were not adequately developed. So I say this: don't. Fall. Behind. Practice, practice, practice. I foolishly failed to work out the worksheets from discussion, and neglected to practice the book problems. The only thing that saved me was my study group sessions (which revealed gaps in my understanding lol). Do the worksheets and practice problems, and you should excel in 30A (and hence 30B/C).

The midterms are super-fast paced, but the final has twice the content with three times the time, so don't worry too much about the final. I got 76, 74, and 86 on the midterms and final, and ended up with an A- in the class. Pham gives extra credit. On midterm 1, he asked about the little guy that appears at the top of every lecture. On midterm 2, he asked about a fun Friday activity he did. On the final, he asked you to draw four shirts he wore and to give feedback on the course.

Pham is honestly my favorite professor. I used to hate ochem but he made my confidence in the subject grow astronomically. His tests are fair and do not test you on any information he did not cover in class. Also, he explains concepts clearly and concisely. He is really humble and funny in lectures and has a good outlook on life. He would often send us encouraging emails before tests and give us lessons about metacognition and confidence on exams that changed my outlook on exams a lot. Also, because we had to take finals at home this quarter, he made the (optional) final a lot easier which I appreciated. I really recommend him!

Professor Pham is by far the most amazing professor I've had at UCLA. He's so funny, which makes lectures a lot more enjoyable, but he's also very knowledgeable about the material. He really wants students to understand the theories behind different concepts and cares deeply about student learning in general.
I would definitely recommend doing practice problems almost every night/keeping up with the material in general. Ochem builds on itself, so it's really important to constantly review. I took this course 2 times, and the first time I actually dropped the class week 9 because I hadn't been keeping up with material and didn't understand a lot of concepts on the test. But when I took it during the summer, I did practice probs every night and made sure to review lectures, and ended up doing very well.
Overall, I highly recommend Pham. I think he'll make your Ochem experience better despite its reputation.

Professor Pham is one of those rare professors that makes you excited to come to class. Coming from a bad 20A Professor, Pham completely changed my mindset regarding chemistry. In terms of his tests, if you do the discussion worksheets and some of the book problems, you’ll be fine. The average was around a 60 percent on the midterms, but the course is scaled so you can get around a 50 percent and still pass the class. He is very generous with extra credit, and he grades tests within 1-2 days. Definitely take him

Professor Pham might be one of the best professor UCLA was able to accommodate. He teaches org chem with such distinction and accuracy it's almost incredible. Because of him, org chem just becomes a great course to take. He is amazingly knowledgable about the subject and incredible when explaining things to his audience. He will use metaphors and analogy that pretty sure anyone can understand. I know I did and I wasn't the smartest guy in the class. Not even close. But Prof. Pham definitely made the course a lot smoother.

His syllabus is pretty simple. 100 pts for each midterm. There are 2. Along with BACON assignment that is worth 40 or 9% of the grade. Make sure you do them. It is still worth good pts. Along with that, the final is cumulative and worth 200 pts. All together 440 pts. He does give out a lot of extra credits. Please utilize them. It will help you immensely. He puts EC on his exams. If you want those EC points, come to the lecture and pay attention to his slides. Especially his fun Friday he does every Friday. Do not feel anxious about his grade scale. If you keep asking him about grades, he will not like it so make sure to avoid that subject at all cost. But do try to ask him regarding understanding the material. He likes that. And do not ask Prof. Pham if he will curve the course. That will only be a bad game for you if you are avg standing.

This course is not an easy course. Make sure you study the lecture slides he posts on CCLE and do all the problems that he suggested on CCLE. Last minutes cramming will not help you in this course. If you do, you will fail. So please don't cram. Good luck to all future students!

This is probably the best professor you can get. He will only test you on information he has lectured on so you don’t have to worry about guessing what you need to know. The key to success is going to lecture, clarifying the information afterwards if you need it (through the book or online videos), and using the TA and LA worksheets as practice. His tests are very straight forward and fair (this doesn’t mean they’re easy). Organic Chemistry will be hard either way, but might as well have a great, fun, and nice professor to help you through it.

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He's one of the best chemistry teachers at UCLA. I've had Scerri (who is one of the worse human beings) and Lavelle (who was really nice and cared for his students). I think Pham is the best one because he keeps it real. His test are hard but very straight forward and not wordy.

Professor Pham is debatable to be one of the best lecturers and professors at UCLA. He has teaching experience in SMCC after holding a degree at UCI for Mathematics and Chemistry BS. So its quite reasonable to state that the guy is pretty damn smart. But encourage a lot of his students to ease the anxiety of grades and focus on learning the material. I first thought he was joking but later took his advice and it was worth it. LEARN the MATERIAL. Have an interest in learning. It works. So here are the stats:
Midterms: 23% there is 2 midterms.
BACON Assignments: 9%
Final: 45%
Make sure to study well, go to his office hours. It's worth it. Make sure to do some of the hw assignments that were given. Its not mandatory but highly recommended. Have a study group as well. It helps. And dont be afraid about his grading methods. Just keep working hard.

I already left my review for 30A and boy did it only get worse in 30 B. Organic chemistry overall is already a pretty tough subject and Pham does not make it any easier. I do not understand why everyone is going around saying he's their favorite professor. He is not that great!
The averages tanked even more in this class and yet again he blames it on the students rather than his own teaching (reading off slides and writing a few mechanisms off the board). 57% for the first midterm and 70% for the second. He threw the grade scaling out of the window with this class. I was worried that I wouldn't even pass.
We were behind again this quarter and 2-3 classes before midterms, there would always be a rush to finish as much information as possible to cram into the test.
In the scheme of the pandemic this quarter, he handled it so terribly (I'm not sure if it was closely affecting him, however, he was very unprofessional) he was extremely rude and angry in his email regarding the situation and called his students scum. This honestly did not shock me as he constantly treats us like we're dumb anyway and doesn't try to explain things when people clearly state that they are confused or don't understand something. He does not take into account that previous professors might not have explained what he expects everyone to know and he will not help you understand. (As I said in my previous review, he will just tell you "you should already know that" and move on).
The whole class is out of 440 points.
100pts for each midterm (there's 2)
200pts for the final
40pts for online BACON (online quizzes, super easy to get 100%)
He gives out 6pts total of extra credit in the form of post-midterm surveys and the professor review. There are also some extra credit points on the exams but not that many (probably 4pts on each).
He did make the final optional when we moved online but with the averages that we had if you didn't take the final you were likely to barely get a C so nearly everyone had to take the final (other than the 2 people who get As on every exam). I'm happy to have improved to a B- this quarter but it was hard work, and I'm sure next quarter in 30C it will suck all over again (especially since he's so angry about us going online) Good luck to all who attempt to take the "best professor ever" and keep your expectations realistic.