I had Prado for fall 2017 (when she first taught). I think I over-studided for this class because I got an A+, and I focused too much on this course.

If you want to do well in the class (even though she's "harder" now), you need to review all her slides, do HARDINGER'S exams which are wayyy harder, and go to office hours to ask for help from LA's. If you prepare with HIS exams, you will already know pretty much everything. If you are slow at in-class exams, I would work on your pacing then. Otherwise, it's an easy A.

Dr. Prado is great. I was so nervous to take organic chemistry, but she made it really accessible-- even though I had a poor chem background, I was able to keep up. Pre-reading for lectures did help me in 14C (not so much in 14D) just because I had little to no familiarity with a lot of the concepts, and the textbook helped me figure out the vocabulary so lectures weren't as hard to follow. Her tests aren't too bad either because she provides a ton of resources. Like everyone else said, she posts all of the old midterms and finals and the lecture slides, and the discussion sections are optional for extra credit. The pre-class quizzes helped me stay accountable for the information and it was difficult to fall behind (which I also appreciated). Sapling problems were good practice too. Ultimately, everything she assigns is really worth your time and contributes to your understanding of the material. I'm taking her again for 14D and she's still great, I recommend her for any class she teaches!

Prado supposedly added a lot of material compared to when Hardinger taught it, and I definitely felt that. I studied a ton for this class, and memorizing all the mechanisms felt impossible at times. The grading scale is also pretty harsh at 95 to an A (I got a raw 93.7% and she curved it 1.5%—her curve was pretty generous in the B-C range but really limited for the A range, so it was almost straight scale). I definitely saw a correlation between grades and how long people spent studying. Her lectures can be pretty unclear at times, so your best bet is to just do all the practice you have available. Don't bother with OH worksheets, but the practice midterms and finals are really helpful so definitely do them and when you mess up on them practice those areas. As far as I know Prado and Tobolowsky have the same tests or similar very tests and also decided on the grading scheme together so don't let that be your deciding factor in who to take.

To do well in this class, you need to put in the work. There is a lot of material but, it isn't Prado's fault, she has to teach all of it because of the department's policies. Overall, she was very helpful and knowledgable. My advice: You will get a lot of mechanisms and it will be overwhelming at first, but break it down into smaller sections and memorize them. Once you get past memorization, you will be able to apply them and everything is downhill from there. Overall, the class is not bad as long as you keep up the material and pay attention to detail! That's where you will lose all the points. Practice all of her office hour worksheets (they are really crucial to doing well) and practice exams ahead of time and if you notice a minor detail that you don't think is important, it probably is important and you should go ask her about it in office hours. As for the 95% cutoff to get an A, don't worry about it. She will give you extra credit from going to discussion section which really makes a difference, and the class usually gets curved a little in the end so you will be fine. When I took it, the cutoff for an A was moved down to 93% which is standard.

Rest of the reviews are accurate. Just wanted to add that I found it really helpful to just watch the bruincasts. I was able to condense that hour of lecture to 30 minutes by watching at a higher speed, and bruincast was helpful as I was able to pause and figure out the mechanism, then watch how she did it.

If you know what equation to use and when, then you'll do well in the class. I wouldn't say that Prado is a tough professor, but sometimes she was unclear about some things and it was a bit frustrating. If you take notes on readings, then the readings take FOREVER, but I realized that as long as I paid attention in class, knew the learning objectives, clicker questions, homework problems, and worksheets, then the readings aren't really necessary except for occasional clarification. Office hours are packed and not very helpful because there are so many people and it's really cramped. The LAs in discussion answered my questions the best. Prado is really kind and cares about her students and listens to them.

Prado really cared about students and teaching and explained concepts pretty well. Compared to other 14C professors, Prado is definitely a better choice as exams are pretty fair and she doesn't try to trick you up or anything. I would recommend taking it with Prado if you can

I loved Professor Prado. I had her Chem 14A SIS class. She is a clear lecturer, and the textbook she uses is clear and useful. She's the only professor I've had that reaches out to the students before the beginning of the quarter to see if they need any particular accommodations. Overall, the class was great and I recommend Professor Prado if you can get her.

Yeah, I agree with the review before me that Prado's the best (she's so so so cute), but grade-wise, the class is pretty harsh (idk where they got those numbers for A's, let alone A+). I mean the tests are so quick that it's easy to mess up and the point total adds up pretty quickly. I'm praying for an A, but I heard organic chemistry was supposed to have a slight curve but her grading scale's tougher than my 14B class. I do all the work, but I'm still pretty frustrated that I lost so many little points on the tests. Hopefully after she sees how so many of us are losing points she'll add in a curve later on in the quarter. Gosh I feel like such a whiner, 'cuz she's like the best teacher ever. I totally recommend her class to anyone who's scared of organic chemistry. She'll totally change your mind.

Dr. Prado was the best professor for a summer sessions chem class. While the class moved in a quick pace and some of the material was challenging, her extensive office hours, plus helpful TAs were always helping and explaining concepts. It is very easy to get a good grade in the class and at the same time, absorb a lot of information about chem for future classes. For the final, she takes the highest score and adds the points it would take to get to 100 to everyone. For example, if the highest score in the class was a 92, everyone would get 8 points ec. Definitely the nicest, most informative teacher I've had.