I had to drop this class because I was going to fail it. There is absolutely no reason a professor should have midterms in which the average is not a passing grade. It clearly shows that he is doing something wrong in teaching the material if so many students are doing so horribly. I even hired a tutor for hundreds of dollars and felt that I knew what I was doing and still failed the midterms. This is so disappointing to me because I had Pham for 14C and I did well and enjoyed him. DO NOT take 14D with Pham take it with Nag or literally anyone else.

As a person, Dr. Pham is quite interesting and relatable but as a professor he is horrendous. I understand that remote teaching is an adjustment for everyone but it felt like he was purposefully not trying to be reasonable. Exams were quite long and difficult to complete in the two hour time frame. After students expressed their grievances with the strict time frame, Dr. Pham basically told us to suck it up. The grading scale was also a bit unfair in my opinion with an A starting at 94%. Although there was extra credit available, there weren't many other points available in the class to compensate for a poor exam grade. During lecture, Dr. Pham briefly explains the reactions without giving adequate examples. The best way to get through this class is by doing ALL the TA worksheets and attending ALL the LA review sessions. Without those two tools and my PLF, I would not have done as well in this class. I was genuinely looking forward to this course but I was immensely disappointed. If possible, please avoid taking this class with Pham.

I didn't expect this class to be easy since it's 14D, but it was super difficult in my opinion. However, it's organic chem, so whatever... Dr. Pham, however, made it extremely difficult to do well in the class. He was rude during office hours which always made me scared to ask questions. Our class ended up having an online final due to coronavirus and he sent lots of very rude emails (though he did apologize). He told us that our anxiety having to do with the class was self-inflicted, and if we didn't want to be nervous about our grades, to just try harder. He was arrogant and just rubbed me the wrong way, wouldn't take another class with him for sure.

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!!!

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.

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

Aight Pham is a good instructor but I have to say he is overhyped. I don't mean this as an insult, I'm just telling you to not come into it thinking Pham is the best 14D professor in the world because you might lower your guard and take it for an easy class. If you can I'd recommend taking 14D with Nag because he does in fact take it easier on students.
Now that that's out of the way, Pham's class has its benefits: his class is super well-structured and organized (and grading was absurdly fast, it only took them 2-3 days after each problem set or exam to release grades) and the only thing you have to turn in besides the BACON quizzes (which are easy) are the problem sets. These things make the course mostly stress free because they make the content very straightforward & let you focus on studying. I've had to take very disorganized courses before, so taking this course was honestly such a breath of fresh air.
My warnings to future students: Pham's exam times (this quarter it was two midterms + one final that was shorter, but a bit trickier, than a midterm) are back to their limited "in-person" windows because of someone in the Chem 30 series that posted his exam on Chegg in Winter Quarter. This means 2 hours for midterms and 3 hours for the final with zero flexibility even for people in other time zones, so I had to take some exams very late at night. Also, don't bother with the textbook problems, they might be good to solidify some basic concepts but they're zero practice for exams; focus on the TA worksheets (all TAs' worksheets are available to all students on CCLE). Make sure to ALWAYS be caught up on material because topics builds on top of the other like nothing else and also because his in-class polls (which are questions on the previous lecture's content) give extra credit.

Oh boy, I am a classic student who really struggled with organic chemistry and this was my third time taking it after panic dropping it twice, but I'm glad to be done with it. Dr. Pham is very knowledgeable and approachable, and he did a fun AMA at the end of the quarter which made him appear more human.
Here is the course breakdown, which is very different for COVID times:

Problem Sets (x 5) 100 ~30% (open notes, 1 per 2 weeks)
TaH Exams (x 3) 150 ~45% (open notes, one was a final)
Discussion Participation 40 ~12%
BACON Tutorials 40 ~12%
Total 330 100%

Before I dropped this class, I took it with Dr. Pham in Winter 2020 and felt that the difficulty was similar, although the tests were more difficult without open notes. I also took it with Dr. Nag in Spring 2020 and felt that his class was way harder, probably because he published 24-hour take home exams that were open-note but very difficult.

This time, I actually committed to taking Chem 14D and I think I did okay. The material is hard, but not too reliant on Chem 14C. I had a poor professor for 14C, but you really only need to be aware of conformations (mostly chair conformation) and the idea of resonance and aromaticity and also the different functional groups.

I liked the exams had less weight, which alleviated a lot of my stress, although I still found them difficult. The average for the first exam was in the 70s and the average for the second exam was about 80, I believe.

Dr. Pham's grading scheme is also very kind, with the following criteria:
A+ (no EC) ≥ 99.0% 99.0% > A ≥ 94.0% 94.0% > A- ≥ 88.0%
88.0% > B+ ≥ 84.0% 84.0% > B ≥ 79.0% 79.0% > B- ≥ 75.0%
75.0% > C+ ≥ 69.0% 69.0% > C ≥ 62.0% 62.0% > C- ≥ 54.0%
54.0% > D+ ≥ 47.0% 47.0% > D ≥ 39.0% 39.0% > D- ≥ 30.0%

Also, he gives up to 8 extra credit points for clicker questions (0.5 pt/answer) and at the end of the quarter, he had students be able to make ochem-related media for up to another 8 points.

I would recommend taking this class with Dr. Pham, although be aware that ochem is challenging and while taking it online has its pros with open-note tests, ochem will continue to be tough if you have outside-of-school responsibilities that are taking up time in your life.

Selling notes, final study guide and midterms. Text me at (714) 883-6122 if interested!

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.