I can't believe how many good reviews there are for this professor, while I can still remember the horror of this class 2 years later. So no. if you are not a masochist or dead set on ochem as your career (you can still find nicer professors!), avoid this Kwon+30C combination at all cost! I don't say this very often, and I've taken Baugh and Bouchard and Felker. Yet let me repeat this seriously. Avoid Kwon+30C at all cost.

About Kwon: She is difficult to approach.
She is the kind of person who would stare at you and question you. When I showed my midterm to her, she casually commented that she would have taken off more points. It took some courage even to ask her questions. Of course you wouldn't know as much about ochem as she did, and the reaction mechanisms were not intuitively straightforward. But she could put you on the spotlight and ROAST you if you have a different opinion on a question. I almost cried at the end of one of her office hours. From my experience, she is unnecessarily difficult to approach.

About hw: A LOT.
She assign homework in a style like "do all textbook problems except for x, y, and z". I think that's enough being said.

About her exams: A lot of reuse + English puzzle.
If you have to take this course, review all past exams, go to her office hours(most if not all), and choose Andy as your TA. For a good grade in her course, these are almost mandatory, unless you are an ochem genius. She reused past midterms 90% and exam questions came directly from Andy's discussion sections. Don't get me wrong, Andy is helpful and nice. But in his discussion he would be going over a completely different set of practice problems that are much harder than the lecture material and the homework problems. Remember this is also an ochem course. If you don't go over the problem in his section, there is almost no way you'll know a specific mechanism or an addition site.

Her exams can also be a word puzzle. This is two years later and I could still remember getting points taken off because of an adverb. Specifically, I forgot to write "extremely" in describing the stability of benzene or some aromatic ring. Yeah. I'm not even joking. Points off for an adverb in an ochem course. I don't even have any exam review suggestions at this point anymore. If she gave you a short answer in her practice exam, I guess remember it word by word? And read her exam question carefully even if they are very tight on time. In one of my midterms half of the class got one question wrong because of her wording.
And definitely remember the structures of ochem molecules like capsaicin, caffeine, etc. You would be asked to perform like google and recognize them in exam.
Keep your expectation low. In our final she gave us an one page long total synthesis question, and tbh I liked working through that question. But it is EXTREMELY UNFAIR to put that question on exam because it involved a lot of complicated molecules that I had never seen in my life(nor in this course). And it was also difficult to find the functional group going through the reaction. Again, don't panic if she does that again. It happens. I totally screwed up that question and I didn't fail this course.

All being said, I learned a lot from 30C, because I worked really hard for this class, probably much harder than the other 3 courses I was taking that quarter combined. I did not enjoy this class, and I do not like ochem. If you're an ochemist you might have very different perspective. I am not compatible with Kwon's teaching style, but some of my classmates were very happy. In the end I still survived this class, and whoever's reading this comment, you'll be fine too.

Kwon is a decent professor; her lectures are engaging and she does a good job at getting the class passionate about organic chemistry. The topics that we covered are pretty challenging, but they were interesting at the same time.
The key to succeeding in this class is getting a hold of Kwon's old exams: she reuses a decent amount of problems from previous years' exams. One of the TAs went over problems from her old exams in discussion, and that was really useful. During Winter 2019, the grade breakdown was 20% midterm 1, 20% midterm 2, and 60% final - so you have to take the final really seriously. The two midterms were not too bad, but the final was very challenging. There was one question on the final which gave you the starting material and the final product, and you had to fill in the boxes in between (kind of like a guided synthesis) - however, this question was brutal as it came from a research article that had some reagents that no one could decipher.
Overall, this class was challenging, but it's worth the effort if you're passionate about o-chem!

Kwon is a very knowledgable professor, though intimidating at times. Don't let that stop you from taking this course though, because she turned out to be a very kind and understanding professor as the course went on. There is a lot of material covered in 30C, but if you have made it this far into the 30 series, you have probably already come to expect that. She writes very quickly at times and her handwriting can get pretty small, so I would suggest sitting in the front half of the lecture hall. Overall, she follows the textbook closely but would add in some information, especially when it comes to nomenclature. She really enjoys talking about Nobel Peace Prize winners, but that is just extra information. It is important, however, to take her seriously when she says "know this molecule". There was a whole page on our final exam that asked us to recognize molecules like glucose, capsaicin, and caffeine. In regards to exams, the most important thing is to go to the test bank and find as many past exams as you can, and take the time to go over those problems because she tends to recycle problems on her midterms and final. She will also post a practice exam with the answer key prior to the exams, but you may need much more than that. The averages for our midterms were pretty high for an organic chemistry class, and I do not know what the average for the final was. However, I do believe she scaled the class in some way. The final exam is a little bit tougher than the midterm exams because there aren't many released past final exams. In fact, there was one very long problem on our final where we synthesized a complex drug molecule step by step, when we were given the reagents and had to draw the product after each step. Our final exam time was extended by 20 minutes, probably for this reason. However, if you work through many of the practice exams, you will be able to solve most of the problems easily. She does suggest certain textbook problems, but I did not find them too helpful. Another useful source is going to discussion section because the TAs will go over problems from past practice exams that they picked up from the test bank as well. Overall, her class is very rough because your entire grade depends on two midterms and the final exam, but if you put in the work, you will get the grade that you deserve. Again, she is a very knowledgeable professor, so if you want to learn more about organic chemistry, she is the one to go to. This course offers so much valuable information and really puts your endurance to the test, but it was worth my time.

I am expecting quite a lot of downvotes since she was generally well-regarded by most of the students.

Professor Kwon must be an excellent organic synthesis chemist at UCLA, otherwise she would have kicked out almost immediately. I don't have problems with her lectures - they are very organised, efficient and often engaging. However, I cannot stress enough that her exams are absolute bullshit. A lot of the problems are merely direct copies from her previous exams, sometimes from her PRACTICE EXAMS - and I can't come up with any reasonable explanation other than that she is too lazy to put new questions. Some of the questions also were either extremely tedious (i.e. unfair) to solve within a limited time period, or are purely made just to fuck you up with English and wording, not with knowledge of chemistry (beware those aromaticity questions). Furthermore, she really needs to change her attitude towards students and ESPECIALLY TOWARDS HER GRADUATE STUDENTS. Essentially the "Aug. 25, 2017" reviewer tells you everything you should know about Prof Kwon as a person. Overall great and efficient lectures, COMPLETELY ECLIPSED by her poor exams and personality. Maybe recommend the class itself, but if you are planning to go to UCLA grad school related to the field of organic chemistry, try to avoid her labs.

This class is absolute fire. Kwon is really funny and engaging with the students. The class is really tough but even the people who are struggling really like the professor. The material is novel and interesting and if you like problem solving and Chem 30A then you will really like this class. There's a lot of material but it is manageable. Would definitely recommend this class

Let me take this opportunity to make a personal attack on this woman and her horrendous character. She is very good at her research - arguably one of the the best organic synthetic chemists at UCLA. Although a very knowledgeable professor who can explain concepts well, she does not understand that she is not lord over students and that she needs to treat students as human beings. Bitch, you ain't my boss, and you better not treat me as your employee.
Now, this woman is known to be crazy. "Professor, could you please write bigger on the board" was a request heard almost everyday. Once, she retorted to this request by asking the girl who made the request "do you want to come down here and write instead?" (No citation found).
Anyway, I would call this woman the Heinrich Himmler of UCLA Chemistry. She is very efficient, don't get me wrong. But don't forget that Heinrich Himmler was too.
So Kwon can drive away with her arrogance and her delusional sense of superiority. This world would appreciate more genuine people.
Tests are not very easy. She recycles problems from old tests (almost 90% of the time). The final had a very long, unseen problem that combined everything learnt in the class. It was a very good problem, and I thoroughly enjoyed working it out. I love synthetic organic chemistry, but this woman's corrosive personality has dented my passion for the subject.

Her tests are very difficult, but she is a good teacher. She explains the concepts clearly. I feel she added unnecessary information to the curriculum like having to memorize the structures of random organic molecules such as capsaicin (the active ingredient in chili peppers). Staying on top of the material is essential, because there is a lot of content.

I feel like many people have the wrong idea about Dr. Kwon from her score here. Since she is the main professor for 30C, though, I want to reassure you that everything will be all right. As a C ochem student, I managed to get a B in this class with minimal effort (aka panic studying two nights before the exams after having done nothing for the past few weeks).

Materials
The book I guess.

Grading Scheme
20% Midterm 1
20% Midterm 2
60% Final
I guess the class is curved upward. No way in hell was I going to get a B otherwise.

Lecture
Although I had her class at 9AM, I never fell asleep. She knew a lot about how ochem applied to our lives, throwing in little tidbits of information that I always found fascinating. Her pacing was a bit fast, something common to the ochem series. No slides, just old-fashioned chalk and blackboard. I recommend sitting in the front and center to see her writing better (it can get small), especially now that the CS lecture halls use smaller whiteboards.

Discussion
Not mandatory and handled like a typical discussion. The two TAs came from her lab, but there was a surprising lack of communication between of the two of them and her about what material would be covered on exams and what kind of answers were acceptable. As such, I went to both of their discussion sections each week to get all of the possibly types of questions. The good thing about discussion was that the TAs gave us questions from her past exams. Many questions that they gave us reappeared on our exams.

Homework
Not mandatory. She basically gave a list of problems that she would recommend doing. I would do these if you're serious about learning this, but otherwise, you can get by without it.

Exams
Midterm 1 62.7
Midterm 2 58.8
Final idk
I scored about average on the midterms.

I am not an A student. I received Cs in 30A and 30B, despite having excellent professors. This was due to my laziness. I approached Kwon's class with more or less the same laziness. What saved me were the past exams. Go to the test bank and print out all her past exams. She gave out some of her past exams as practice, but you should make sure that you know all of them by heart. I remember on one midterm, I was studying really late the night before, skimmed through one of the past midterms and called it a night. Then one of the questions from that past midterm appeared, copied and pasted, on my midterm. Obviously I couldn't remember that question well and was livid afterward. The same thing happened on the second midterm, except it was with one that I got in discussion. Don't make these mistakes! Easy points right there.

Other than that, her problems have a similar feel across her exams. Just know all of the problems from her past exams and discussion section and you should be able to do it. I felt the homework was less helpful, but she did put one homework question on each exam. And make sure that you review your exams. One question from our midterm was copied and pasted onto the final.

Office Hours
She seems unapproachable, but really she's just blunt. Grow a thick skin and try her office hours. I found them largely unproductive because even though she had a group, she treated it like a one-on-one session. As such, I couldn't ever hear what she was saying unless I got really intimate with the group of people crowding around her desk. She only holds one two-hour session, so if you can't make it, that sucks. I went to TA office hours instead and found them more helpful. Other than that, she's a cool person who has lots of cool things to say beyond academics.

tl;dr
I was the type to do all the homework for the midterm content in the days right before it, so you can guess as to how much of that information I retained and understood. The key to success for me was studying her past midterms. The more you understand them, the better you'll do.

She is alright for Chem 30C. Dr. Kwon sends book problems you should/should not do as well as practice exams via e-mail. In terms of grading, she is quick for both midterms, but she waited until the last day grades were due to give us our final grade. Talk about suspense. The TAs seemed to be good. Attending discussion section is recommended since you are exposed to additional problems. Doing more problems and understanding them is key to organic chemistry.

Grading is as follows:

20% MT1
20% MT 2
60% Final

This means that you should take the final very seriously.

Here is my advice:

1. Attend all lectures. If you miss one, you are screwed.
2. Read the textbook and don't fall behind. Having an overall exposure to the topics before the professor covers them in lecture helps you retain the material a bit better.
3. Do the book problems.
4. DO ALL PRACTICE EXAMS. If you are behind on book problems and a midterm/final is coming up, I recommend that you focus on these exams. Try to find additional ones online/in the test bank besides the ones she posts. Also, memorize problems that are similar in style. There should not be too many surprises on tests.

I don't know her curve, but I got an A- and I can live with that. She is not terrible imo. I did not go to a single office hour, so I cannot comment on that. I think she is better than Harran but Merlic is the best of the three.

If you have her, just be prepared to stay on top of the material. Don't miss lecture and take good practice exams. There is an older review that recommends you re-write your notes. At this point in college, there just isn't time to make your notes so pristine, neat, and beautiful. Just write down what she has on the board and listen to the podcasts! Don't forget to take the practice exams.

On exams, when in doubt, think about resonance.

Also, the hardest part for me in the class was the Diels-Alder/stereochemistry part since you have to be able to visualize molecules and it can be a pain in the head. I looked online and was able to devise my own method. Just be prepared for that part of the course.

Again, attend all lectures, listen to all podcasts, and do all practice exams (find extra ones too on your own). If you are absolutely behind on book problems, then don't waste your time on them even though it is ideally better to do it. In the end, the practice exams are key to doing well. Finally, manage your time well on midterms (time goes by fast), and for the final, there is less of a time constraint, but don't work too slowly. Good luck!

She should learn from professor merlic and harran...