This class was rough...throughout the entire quarter I honestly felt like I was failing because the midterms were so applied (like verging on bio tests applies). The biggest problem is that Prof Barr doesn't give answer keys to problem sets, so you have no way of knowing if what you're doing is right. I did pretty badly on Midterm 1, which ended up being dropped for the final. The final was actually way easier than the midterms, so hopefully he's learned that his super applied tests aren't the way to go. Homework is a large part of the grade though, which is easy to get 100% on. And he does offer extra credit. So our grades ended up being ok in the end, but the journey was rough and I'm so happy to be done with this class.

While I did disagree with some of Barr's policies like not giving answer keys and not recording the parts of the lectures with examples (although I think he's stopped doing this), I have hope that those parts of his teaching style will improve because this was his first quarter. I understand where a lot of these reviews are coming from because while you're in the midst of this class it feels bad. I don't know how else to put it. The tests feel impossible, the discussion section problems ask about things you haven't gotten to in lecture yet, assignments are coming from like 5 different sources, and you never know if you're doing anything correctly. But looking back, the tests were tough, but fair with his grading scheme and the final was very straightforward. I didn't particularly enjoy this class, or Barr's teaching, but it's certainly not as horrible as some of these reviews indicate. Oh and the textbook is like reading a whole encyclopedia. Don't bother, just use chemlibre or google things.

Corbin of chemistry. Go check corbin's reviews that will give you a clearer idea.

Lectures: Most lectures are generally okay. He gives a lot of examples, which is nice to get a sense of using conceptual topics. He's also poor at time management, so some lectures would be 35 minutes on one example and 15 minutes on 5 extremely conceptual slides. Does not record most of it.

Office Hour: Typical for a 600 person class. Anywhere between 50 to 200 people attend. However, he spends a long time answering each question such that only 3 or 4 questions at most are answered per hour. He also talks about things related to exam questions which he does not mention in lecture.

Homework and Discussion: OWL is actually quite helpful considering the readings assigned is extremely difficult to understand. Group component of the homework is really effective if you have a good group. I got lucky so had a good time.

Problem sets: potentially very helpful, but given that he does not offer an answer key, it's difficult to justify the time to do the problems and wait at office hour.

Exams: midterm exam questions focuses heavily on application and have very thin connections with lecture material. Requires some degree of outside knowledge (what he calls "intuition") to do. Final questions are more fair.

Overall: If you already know some chemistry or remember AP Chem topics, then this would be fairly okay. If chemistry is not your strong suit and you don't like chemistry, then find a friend who knows what they're doing.

Barr emphasizes learning and accompanies that with a lack of teaching. The way he lectures seems somewhat coherent (like content wise it flows) but he barely teaches. Its not that he assumes that you understand hard topics he just states them randomly, pretends to explain, and then talks about how he values education and the "learning process".

If you do well on at least one midterm and mediocre on the final you should do alright in the class but it will be miserable. He doesn't ever post answers and gives lots of problem sets so it easy to get lost and behind. Overall, if you're looking at these reviews, you're probably gonna have to take the class anyway so brace yourself. If you don't understand anything, I promise you are not the only one. Go to your TA's office hours (they give a lot of answers / help) and just ride it out.

Practically disregarded all of my other classes just so I could study chem for hours every day and then still fail both midterms, which had almost zero relevancy to the course material. Often, I can appreciate professors who give "creative" questions on homework or tests, but there's a difference when these questions are just plain vague. I've been to many office hours where even the TAs were struggling through practice problems because each one requires you to make about 10 different unrelated assumptions to solve them. Attending office hours is pretty much a requirement for this class since Barr simply refuses to give answer keys for his insanely hard problem sets (which are not even completed for any credit to begin with). I know a lot of people complained about both of his midterms, so the final was a bit better and somehow I ended up with an A- in the class. I'd still be wary though, as his questions are very inconsistent. Also, he speaks soo much about how much he "empathizes" with us but in reality, does not respond to valid inquires about his grading system, class structure, or difficult tests on campuswire or in emails. Avoid him if you can but if not, best tip is to try your best to get through his problem sets.

This class is hard. avoid. The exams are unnecessarily difficult. prof literally does not give answer keys. He really likes group work. He will call on you in office hours. Honestly, the only way to survive this class is do all your other work and stay on top of the problem sets. Go to ta office hours.

Professor Barr is an excellent teacher, but this was his first time teaching a college class. There were a lot of issues with the class structure, no doubt. But overall, I learned a ton, and I was able to perform very well in the class.

Few things to note:

- You'll have to work hard to do well in this class. Do the problem sets the week they come out. Go to office hours whenever possible to learn how to solve the problem sets (he doesn't give answer keys). Read (or at least skim) the textbook, and do textbook problems before exams. All of these things will pay off tremendously when it comes to exams.

- Exams were very application based for us. We complained heavily about this as they made exams difficult in the time provided, and for our final exam, he changed the exam such that it was not very application based. Made it WAY easier for us. He will likely continue that trend for you all. Should make things pretty nice.

- Try to enjoy this class. Professor Barr has a nice sense of humor and a quirky energy to him (he has an excessive love for Disney, for example). You'll learn a lot of cool stuff. Barr tries to make the applications interesting (and although that made things more difficult for our quarter, it'll likely be better for yours).

- NOTE ABOUT THE GRADING SCALE - THIS IS IMPORTANT! Barr has a very skewed weighing system. Exams end up making up 62% of your final grade (and 6% of the exam grades are group midterm grades - this means you go back and REDO the midterm exam with group members and submit one exam together, which is worth 20% of your total score for that midterm). 38% of your grade is based on gimme easy points (homeworks, OWL assignments, participation / attendance in discussion, completing mandatory surveys on CCLE, etc.).

He ALSO shifted the scaling system such that some type of A (A+, A, A-) is 88%+, B is 75%+, C is 63%+, etc. to work out in your favor. I was able to get an A+ even though I technically got a B on a midterm and As on the other midterm and final.

- He gives 5 points of extra credit on exams just for writing out a statement / signing your name and assigning pages correctly on Gradescope. Helps immensely (midterms are out of 100, so 5 points goes a long way).

Take all of the other reviews here with a grain of salt. Barr is a great guy, and this class will be nice if you put in the necessary effort. Enjoy!

I actually enjoyed the class throughout unlike most people in the class it seems. Barr is a great lecturer, teaches clearly, and cares very much about his students. The midterms were difficult, and the final was easier. The final score can replace one of the midterm scores. Although the tests are hard and the class freaked out, the averages were not bad and with all the other components of the class buffering your grade, it's not bad at all. Your final grade will be fine.

For this class I only rewatched lectures and hw Before tests and that was adequate. So I want to say that If you fully understand the lectures and cam solve the hw problems, you should do great in this class. You won't necessarily do amazing on the tests, but it will be good enough to get a good grade in the class.

I usually never leave reviews however after scrolling down all the comments, I had to do one myself. I agree that he isn’t the best Professor…it’s hard to learn the content the way he lectures and his tests really don’t reflect what he teaches in class. He has inflexible office hours however very important to attend to get the solutions to his extremely confusing problem sets. However I feel y’all are over exaggerating on this class… it’s fuckin UCLA and if you can’t handle this class then you’re going to die in your future courses. Yeah I hate him as a professor but not a bad person. I think he is just really excited to teach and likes to go out and beyond what you are supposed to learn. If you have him in the future, I suggest rewatching his lecture videos that he posts online and really take down every single small detail he says in them b/c he loves to use those small details for his tests. Problem sets help a little, not really but they are still good practice before exams. It was rare that i saw a somewhat similar question on these sets on a test, however maybe like 1 part in one of his long ass FRQs. Instead of just trying to remember content like vocab you have to actually understand what you are doing so when you’re doing stupid problem sets or review questions don’t just write them down, know the underlying topics and things that go with those questions. Overall, would never ever take this course with him again lol but if you have him good luck.