Professor Reilly is the best professor I've had during my time at UCLA. If you have the opportunity to take this class with her, I would 100% recommend it. I would take her class again in a heartbeat. She really cares about her students and has been very accommodating during the pandemic. She holds office hours after class and during the weekend. We had 3 different types of assessment -- 5 Take-Home Assessments, 5 In-Class Assessments, 6 BACON. Take-Home Assessments were completion and she held workshops after they were due to go over each problem. In-Class Assessments were completed in 1 hour during class time. These were pretty challenging, but as I adapted to her testing/teaching method, it became easier over time. BACON worked to integrate our course materials with real-life, and although these were not for completion, they were very easy and took only 20 minutes. She also shows us pictures of her dog Kasey, who is absolutely adorable, during lecture. She gave numerous extra credit assignments including completing evaluations and memes/drawing.

Dr. Reilly is the best professor I have had at UCLA so far. She is very receptive of students facing difficulties and genuinely goes the extra mile to ensure their success. I greatly appreciated the formatting of assessments: 5 one-hour exams, each held on the Monday of every even week. It substituted the stresses of high volumes of content on one or two midterms with consistent, relatively lower-weighted checkpoints of learning with somewhat difficult problems on a slimmer volume of content. This format allows students to more clearly monitor their progress, however amidst other classes also with frequent assessments, I can certainly see how this could be a drawback. The final exam was notoriously difficult, perhaps twice as hard as any previous assessment (we had a 50% average), in my opinion, so make sure you are very well prepared. However, and I can't stress this enough: try to not worry about your grade too much. Your worst assessment score will be dropped and there are three extra-credit opportunities. On top of this, the completion-based assignments were very helpful and comprised a good ~40% of the grade. As for lectures, I found her pace to be pretty fast to get through a lot of content (since five lecture slots are devoted to the aforementioned assessments), so recordings are your best friend. Also, reading the free textbook PDF is very useful for additional practice problems and reinforcing concepts. If there is one thing to take away from this post: if you can, GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Dr. Reilly is incredibly responsive to any questions you may have and does not finish answering until she ensures that you understand. I learned several useful clarifications and approaches to problems for tests. There are so many office hours during the week along with weekend sessions before each test and workshops for each take-home completion-based problem set. Overall, if you see Dr. Reilly's name for any Chemistry class you are considering, I highly recommend you take her.

she is so disorganized and she makes her tests ridiculously hard. her disorganization affects your grade and she's lazy. i'm not kidding

Everything you have heard about ochem is true and this class proved no different. Coming into this class, I thought it was going to be relatively easy and something I wouldn't have to struggle too hard at because the professor was sympathetic and understood that ochem was a tough subject. However, it was hard, draining, painful, and has made me have a dislike for chemistry. For some reason I passed even after failing both midterms and completely bombing the final (which I think everyone did). I would say that she is a relatable and funny person and gives thorough lectures but ochem is such a difficult subject because there are many details and exceptions to the rules. Although she gave practice midterms that replicated the format of the actual midterm, there was a huge discrepancy in the content from both and I often found myself doing fine on the practice but completely bombing the actual midterm. The discussion was also no help because my section just did their work individually without any interactions and I usually learned nothing and sat in silence. The final was also horrible because we all felt like we were prepared but it crushed me and any fiber of confidence I had. Overall, if you take this class, heavily concentrate on the practice midterms/final she offers and understand every question on there, do the discussion worksheets, additional problems, spend time understanding hard chapters on your own, do extra credit, and befriend people who are smarter than you.

Dr. Reilly is engaging and personable. She cares that we've learned the material and shares flowcharts and heuristics that make challenging distinctions more methodical. Organic chemistry is hard, but she does not make it extra challenging. In fact, she probably made the course as straightforward as it could reasonably be. She releases practice exams and hosts Zoom sessions to go over the answers. However, don't be fooled, as even though the questions on the real exams look similar to the practice, they can test quite different concepts, and averages still land around 60. Make sure to do the problems she writes (in the lecture guides, discussion, and extra worksheets), as they are the best indicator of how she will test you (as opposed to the textbook).

The extra credit assignments were either fun/silly or helpful. But you will probably be in the dark as to your grade the whole quarter. She says that the exam averages are the benchmark for a B-, but that's all you get to know. She doesn't tell you how much or little the extra credit will boost your grade. Her lectures were quite fast-paced, especially if you're not following along on her pre-written notes on a tablet.

Dr. Reilly was almost always extremely clear about what was and was not relevant for exams. In my opinion, some of the material on the final was an exception, but the final was worth 100 points, so some conceptual lapses weren't too damaging. Given the chance, I would definitely continue taking the 30 series with her.

Professor Reilly clearly cares about her students, which includes on making sure her students material. I didn't find her class easy, but with her lectures, notes, and office hours it made the class enjoyable and she took the time to help me personally when I told her I was struggling with the material. Her assessments are hard but a fair judge of how well you are understanding the material. When she gives you specific study tips, like make flashcards of all the reactions and memorize and then retake the practice problems as tests, do it. Her study tips are incredibly helpful to learning the material and succeeding in this class. She is extremely kind so contact her with issues because she understands this isn't an easy subject and will work with you through it. Also no need to buy the textbook, find the PDF. Definitely one of the best professors I've had at UCLA.

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Dr. Reilly is truly a great professor. Though her lectures are on the quicker pace, she has the notes pre-uploaded with blank spots that you can fill in during lecture. She also supplies a lot of great resources including chapter summaries, practice problems, optional homework assignments from the textbook, and step-by-step solution videos to the discussion worksheets.
Discussion section is not mandatory but it is extremely helpful! It gave me a chance to practice the material we learned since I'm personally not motivated enough to do the optional hw problems.
The only things that were mandatory were problem sets which she usually had an office hour dedicated to going through it with students before it was due (given about a week to complete, but only take a few hours at most) and BACON assignments which are pretty much free points.
Ngl I failed the midterm even though it was 24 hours and open note, but it was bc of my lack of preparation and practice. The final ended up being no-harm due to the circumstances regarding covid and the BLM movement, and is why I managed to still get a B+.
Overall, Dr. Reilly is extremely accommodating and focuses on student's learning and understanding the material. She knows how stressful grades can be for us and does her best to help. I really enjoyed her class and hope I can take 30B with her as well.

Professor Reilly is one of the best professors that I have had. She emphasizes learning the material rather than simply trying to get a good grade which is really useful for a first time orgo student. There are very few grades in the class (and only 1 midterm) which means that it is important to do well on those assignments. She was extremely accommodating throughout the quarter and has recorded answer keys to homework and discussion worksheets where she walks through the thought process we should have while solving problems. She genuinely cares about her students' success and has very organized lectures. Highly recommend taking her if you have the chance.

I took Professor Reilly for granted in the Spring 2020 quarter. Ok so I basically stopped showing up to lecture and started watching her lectures on my own time. She was always helpful and held workshops for her problem sets that are due a week after it was assigned (but most of the time she would extend the due date.) Her midterm and final were fair. She always has practice problems for her students to master the material. If you get the chance to take 30A with Professor Reilly, please take her! She is very understanding and accommodating to her students. She cares a lot for her students, wants them to do well, and is very engaging during her lectures. Plus, she shows pictures of her dog during lecture.

She is the only person I trust in the Chem/Biochem Department.