This was my first ever chemistry class and I have left this class absolutely hating chemistry. I read all the reviews beforehand and thought to myself that this class can't be that bad and is probably manageable but I could not be more wrong. Scerri has ZERO organization on his CCLE site and his lectures make absolutely no sense and consist of him jumping from one topic to another back and forth. I did not even know what the topics were so I can study on my own since there is no OUTLINE. The exams were extremely long for the duration and I have not learned one topic in this entire class which will harm me going forward in the course as he is the only professor teaching 14B next quarter too. This class was so bad that I almost dropped and changed to a non-stem major every week. DO NOT EXPECT TO LEARN ANYTHING.

My biggest piece of advice to do well in this class is to GO TO DISCUSSION SECTION WITH YOUSIF. He opens it up to everyone and you can go to any of the available times he has them. They were incredibly helpful and he cleared up concepts that were explained in convoluted ways in class. ALSO, if you go to class and discussion you should do well on the tests because every single problem on the midterm and final comes straight from the slides.

Aside from that, I really don't think Scerri is as bad as the reviews say. I took the class fall 2021 with the expectation he would be a completely unfair grader and horrible lecturer with a 2.9 rating on bruinwalk. Maybe it was because it was online, but the class was very easy to follow along and take notes on. Sometimes Scerri wouldn't answer a question adequately or explain a concept in a way that would just confuse people, but for the most part, I feel like I sufficiently learned all CHEM 14B topics .

Lastly, Achieve quizzes. For the quizzes, I had done 2 of them prior and I did the last 5 from 10pm to 9am the day they were due without any distractions, so that should give you an idea of how to space them out/how much to procrastinate.

I agree with most of the negative reviews. My philosophy to a happy life is to try avoid thinking about this class and the professor as much as possible so all I'm going to highlight is that it is evil to have the midterm and final on Sundays. I missed meeting Timothee Chalamet at the Wonka premiere because of him... That alone... is evil. When I hear the words "Schrodinger's" or "quantum" it's like I'm a soldier waking up to trumpets in the break of dawn. Avoid this class as much as you can. I put my entire chest into this class and got As in all of my other classes, but this one really takes the cake. What do you gain by curving down grades? CHEM 20A with Prof Scerri is the mysterious looming figure that haunts me in my sleep. But I digress. I feel like I got all the content down if I'm being honest... he just seems... a bit unfair. If they're trying to weed me out... they almost got me. To the C+ I got, thank you for allowing me to pass. But I hope to never see you or anything lower than you again. THEY CAN TRY TO WEED ME OUT BUT YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO TRY HARDER! IF YOU EVER SEE ME FIGHTING A GRIZZLY BEAR.. HELP THE BEAR!

He's a great lecturer. BUT he can be very rude and arrogant. I went to his office hours and he was NOT helpful. He was very cold and unwelcoming and repeatedly said "We went over that in lecture". If I had understood it well enough in lecture, I wouldn't have gone to his office hours in the first place! He answered my questions so quickly that he was basically brushing them off. I could tell that he wasn't really interested in repeating himself or trying to explain things clearer in any case.

So basically, a talented man and an organized lecturer, but an arrogant one who doesn't really make teaching his priority.

Scerri is the worst teacher I've ever had. He's a MESS and very unorganized. During lecture, the only material he uses are powerpoint slides, which are some of the ugliest and longest slides I've ever seen, that have a lot mistakes. Even though he only reads from the slides as his "lecture," he somehow confuses and contradicts himself throughout the lecture (this happened on multiple occasions). When students ask him questions about the content on the slides, all he does is respond by repeating what's on the slide and doesn't actually respond to their question. Also, the practice problems are elementary questions that aren't even close to the difficulty of the exams. In order to learn the material, Khan Academy, the Organic Chemistry tutor, and your TA (if you can get Kevin, GET HIM, literally the best TA.) will be your best friend.

As for exams, they are really LONG (midterm was 6 questions with 3+ parts and the final was 7 questions with 4+ parts). The questions can be really tricky because they aren't like the ones on his slides or on Achieve. The best way to prep for them is to use practice exams because he does recycle questions.

At the beginning of the quarter, Scerri assigns a bunch of Achieve/Sapling quizzes (worth 30% of your grade) that's due at the end of the quarter. Achieve is probably almost as bad as Scerri ngl. The man even said that some of the content covered in Achieve are out of the scope of the course, but of course he still assigns it. Literally the only good thing about Achieve is that there's unlimited attempts.

Finally, the worse thing about Scerri and his class is the way he grades. THIS MAN STILL GRADES ON A BELL CURVE. Like what other professor still grades on a bell curve. It doesn't help him or students, like it's even more work for him to do the math. It also forces us to compete against each other rather than help and feel for one another. Although the curve can help you, it can also SCREW you over like me 🤡. Before adding the curve I had a solid A, but after the curve HE CURVED ME DOWN TO AN A-. Never think your grade is fine in this class.

IF YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO SKIP SCERRI, SKIP SCERRI. TAKE 14B WITH ANOTHER PROFESSOR OR WAIT FOR THE NEXT QUARTER TO TAKE IT. AVOID THE PTSD (POST TRAUMATIC SCERRI DISORDER).

Oh where to start with Professor Scerri. As you can probably tell by the other reviews, Dr. Scerri is not a very good lecturer. His slides are extremely confusing and he often gets confused trying to explain them to us. More often than not, a TA or student has to correct him because he gets confused. Apart from the bad lectures, the tests are not only very difficult but are also a huge time crunch. The practice exams he gives out are so much easier and shorter than the actual tests (they also have incorrect answers on them). The midterm he gave us was 7 free response questions with like 4 or 5 parts each in 2.5 hours. I barely had time to finish despite going fast; I did not have time to check my answers, but Scerri obviously did not take any criticism the class had for him because he did the same thing for the final. He said he would try to make it better by adding multiple choice questions, but those MC questions each had 5 to 7 parts as well. So he ended up giving us 6 free response with parts a,b,c,d,e along with 12 extra questions for multiple choice. He said this was to deter cheating to make sure we couldn't consult anyone else in the class, but many people along with me could barely even finish on time.

In addition, he doesn't seem to actually have much regard for his students, unless you're one of his favorites. One time in lecture, someone asked why he used a certain amount of sig figs when dealing with pH which was a valid question because it was confusing and he answered with "have you been coming to lecture?". This was a completely inappropriate response. I had come to every lecture and he had barely gone over that concept and I found his entire demeanor to be very condescending and smug. On multiple occasions you can literally see him rolling his eyes at some questions also.

Personally, I did not enjoy 14B with Scerri, but it is possible to get a good grade if you commit yourself. Honestly, the best way to study for his tests are to do the exams he gives out as practice (and ignore the incorrect answers he gives), and watch a lot of the Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube. If you have to take 14B with Scerri, I wish you the best.

Professor Scerri is horrible. I agree with the people below that like his course reader because you do not have to buy a textbook, but he is a mess. His lectures are all over the place. His office hours are useless. And his finals are ridiculous. Science majors, there is no way to avoid him...sadly! But if a new teacher comes along...take them no matter what!

I'll do my best to give a fair, comprehensive evaluation. Here's a bit of background where I am coming from:
Grade: A.
Bioengineering Major.
Relevant High School Coursework: 5 in AP Chem, a 5 in AP Physics.

That being said, Scerri's class was definitely a challenge but doable.

Class lectures: Overall, Scerri does a decent job teaching. He is a fair teacher, but what throws off many of his students is the fact that his lectures are supremely conceptual, while his tests are primarily computational (of a sort). During lecture he goes over concept over concept but does very little practice problems. That being said, there is so much content being said during lectures, many of which is not in the course reader. In order to have true success in the class, it is not enough just to attend lectures but to take meticulous notes. One detail he might say may be covered verbally but it might be key on the actual exam. Even though he has a course reader, there was stuff covered that he had to use seperate slides (not in the course reader). Though this content seems extra, take it seriously, download it when he sends it in an email, print it out, and put it along with the stuff you want to study. On our final for Fall 2013 he had content he had barely grazed over.

Secondly, do your best to attend lectures. Though he does give podcasts and an excuse not to arrive, sometimes stuff happens to the podcast that makes it cutoff some of the lecture. Other times the camera angle does not capture things he writes on the board.

Studying for Midterms and Exams: Personally, people say to memorize the course reader as if section by section. The best way to prepare for the course is taking the big concepts and linking them all together, filling the holes with the details from his lectures, rather than memorizing them forthright. If you can connect all the concepts together and use each one to memorize another, you will have a much easier time than memorizing them fact by fact. One example of this is how he arranges all the content up to the Midterm. Rather than memorizing each theory up to Schroedinger's equation in preparation for the midterm, it is better to study with the guiding question of "how does all the content that I have learned build up to the prevailing theory of Quantum Mechanics and Schroedinger's Equation?" Arranging the course and the content through a series of large and smaller questions will make the whole course of CHEM 20A cohesive and you will get a better understanding with less studying. Linking concepts of the course rather than memorizing each piece by piece will be beneficial.

In the course reader, Scerri provides a number of practice exams. For a SOLID GRADE in the course, the best thing to do is to know every singe problem in the practice tests. His midterm and final mimic the finals and midterms he gives in the past (shocking, right?). When it comes to doing these problems, it can't be a matter of going through each practice exam once and being done with it. You really must practice the problems that give you the most difficulty if you want to succeed. Another important thing is to try these practice exams at least a couple weeks before the actual final. Start studying week 8 or 9 with these practice finals for a couple reasons: Firstly, he gives a lot of practice exams. Secondly, each practice exam takes at least a 2-3 hours to complete if you are studying correctly. Starting these practice tests the weekend before Finals Week will be utter hell.

Lastly, study with the right people. That is what helped me most in the course. Whatever holes regarding one person has can be easily covered by the other. This will help you immensely in studying the for the midterm, the final and those pesky Thinkwell Quizzes. One note regarding Thinkwell quizzes. Their questions are not nearly as hard as the exam, but do them with friends and you will likely get an A since questions are recycled and you can take the quiz 3 times. Take it all three times even if you do get a 100 for mastery of content. Again, group work will help manipulate the system to your advantage.

Discussion Sections and Office Hours: When it comes to discussion sections, dominate the section with questions. Get these questions from stuff you don't understand from notes, or from the practice exams (another reason why you should be starting these practice exams early). Everyone else will not have questions until weeks 9 to 10, by then it is too late. Take advantage of everyone else's complacency during the early weeks to have all your questions from the practice exam answered. You will be much less stressed. If you are to attend office hours, again be the one to ask questions about content. Likely whatever questions you may have are the same ones others may ask, but if someone else asks the question, there is a possibility of being stuck there for another 10 minutes listening to content you already know.

Misc: Scerri has a decent class. He is a funny professor whose arrogance can come off as amusing and somewhat charming. Get him to play his guitar and you'll be listening to him jam away. Quite impressive really, but we all know he's playing for the ratchets. Be the one to ask the questions and answer the questions. One warning when talking to Scerri however: don't be stupid when talking to him. He ostracized one kid for saying "like" too much. Poor kid. If you have decent grammar skills and aren't too socially awkward (thats for you engineers), then you should be fine in navigating Scerri's sharky waters. Best of luck.

dude this class was bad... scerri is incomprehensible and terrifying. the course is reasonably difficult (what you'd expect for a chemistry class) but scerri is a terrible teacher and is entirely unclear about what he wants you to know.
the homework is fine- its a bunch of modules due at the end of the quarter. totally manageable but not really helpful for exams.
the ta's are helpful for the most part. sometimes they seemed to be just as lost about how scerri approaches certain topics, and will just teach you a different way. theyre as helpful as they can be with what theyre given, and i definitely suggest going to discussion. attendance isnt taken for discussion or lecture so you can pick which TA you like.
ive heard that other sections of 20a have much better professors. do everything you can to avoid scerri. his slideshows make absolutely no sense and wont walk you through the kinds of problems youll see on the exams. he's going to be incredibly vague about what will be on the exams and what info he will give you on the formula sheet. he doesnt really stop for questions and will make you feel stupid if he doesnt like your question. he's really terrible at gauging how his students are feeling or how much we're learning. the first lecture about quantum mechanics will be comically difficult and scerri will simply push through.

shits tough. cant wait to take a chemistry class with a decent professor.

Okay so coming from a low education background, this was my first REAL chemistry class. And oh my goodness, this professor made me hate chemistry.

I honestly believe that this class is just dependent on how you learn... and I've met people who really like Scerri as a professor. But he just wasn't it for me. Hardly anything stuck and I found it hard to find the correlation between some concepts and what we were talking about last week. Again, might just be me, but I feel like I didn't learn much coming out of this class and was just scraping by.

All in all, easy workload (as long as you don't put it off) and an okay class. Not my vibe though.