I would not recommend to take this class with Scerri unless you absolutely have to. The grade is divided 30% for sapling quizzes, 30% for the midterm, and 40% for the final. The class is essentially asynchronous and I ended up watching all of the lectures on 1.5 or 2 speed the next day. The lectures only consisted of him reading through the (already posted) lecture slides but, occasionally, he would add new information or complain about how few people had their cameras on.
There are 5 sapling quizzes, all due at the end of the quarter. The questions come from the textbook and there was some overlap to the class content, but just as much content was never introduced during lecture. I would not recommend reading the textbook or doing the practice problems because there is just too much of a disconnect from the actual, tested class content.
The midterm and the final were excessively long and tedious. If you took AP Chem, the midterm should not be too difficult but towards the end of the course there is a good amount of new material that you will have to study in depth. Thankfully Scerri posted practice tests that were in the same format as both exams which were helpful for studying for the exams. Discussion was not mandatory, but I wish I went more often since the TAs essentially review the material from the past week. You can go to any section so I would recommend asking around to see which TA is the best.

I feel like Dr. Scerri is not given enough credit for the time he invests in his students. To me, it seemed that he answered every relevant question asked of him, and he always made time for students to voice their confusions. Some people complain that he brushes students off & appears condescending, but I think they were just misunderstanding him. He has a good sense of humor & sometimes shows his cats on camera-- he is a nice guy.
While I did struggle with many of the concepts taught in this course, I believe that was a result of my own lack of preparedness for this class. I did not have a strong chemistry foundation coming in, and I was very quickly overwhelmed, but that is to be expected of a college-level chemistry course-- it's gonna take some work to get the grade you want, don't expect it to come easy. If I really tried to concentrate on the material during lecture, I understood it. Dr. Scerri is a clear lecturer if you really listen to him. Although I sometimes found his slides kind of confusing and disorganized, if you asked him to clarify them, he would.
The bottom line is that this class is difficult in that there is a large amount of material you are expected to learn, but you are totally capable of learning it if you're willing to put in the work. Dr. Scerri provides many resources to facilitate student learning, including recorded lectures, lecture slides, practice problems, office hours, and a textbook.

Okay here's the thing.

Scerri is a terrible teacher. His lectures are disorganized and confusing, and he's not exactly eager to help students. HOWEVER . . . his exams are very predictable and easy to study for, and he grades entirely on a curve which really helped me out.

My recommendation? Take this class with him, but don't expect lecture to help you. Watch Professor Dave Explains on Youtube and study off past exams. You'll be fine.

This class was extremely fair, the midterm/final were based off of previous years exams... so literally study those and you will be fine! My only chem experience was Honors Chem from sophomore year and I wouldn't say that was helpful at all. Many of the concepts he goes over in class aren't too hard and there are tons of videos on the internet that will help you understand the concepts more if you need.

Overall, the workload for this class was extremely light and many of the test questions were pulled straight from lecture/previous exams. Scerri himself is not that most helpful or best lecturer, but the TAs were generally helpful. I would highly recommend looking at various TAs worksheets when studying for the exams.

Scerri is VERY conceptual-heavy in his teaching, which translates into his tests, as well. I've heard other professors focus a lot on calculations like stoichiometry and energy equations, but Scerri will gloss over those and delve into pros and cons of periodic table types and the history of different theories, even beginning the course with a sort of philosophy of science. This somewhat makes his tests easier, which are extremely fair and if you pay attention, you will do well.

His tests are predominantly short answer, one being a midterm and one being a final. The third part of your grade are these 4 super easy online quizzes using Thinkwell (which yes, you do have to pay $25 for) where you get 3 chances at each quiz to get a 100.

His lectures are quite fast-paced and unhelpful because he covers so many topics in such a short amount of time, but expects you to know them quite well. So hope you have a good TA (avoid Maryam at all costs) or take advantage of his office hours, where he is much more helpful.

If you have taken AP Chem or have a strong background in chem, I'm sure you'd do fine in the class. But for those who don't, this might be a more difficult class especially with Scerri. Scerri's slides and lecture in general is so disorganized and it's hard to follow along. He tends to embarrass others during lectures when questions are asked as well. I will say that the exams are pretty fairly made and his past exams are extremely similar. We only had achieve quizzes that are due at the end of the quarter. So our grades were only based on the midterm, final, and achieve quizzes; I think this makes its harder to achieve a better grade in the class. If you can take this class with another Professor, I definitely recommend doing so!

He's literally not that bad lol. I went in expecting way worse and I came out with an A+ without putting in THAT much extra effort. I watched some supplemental videos when it came to the quantum stuff but otherwise I reviewed his slides, did the mandatory achieve homework, did the provided practice/former exams that are incredibly similar to his actual exams, and I went to zoom office hours a few times. He's straightforward and concise which can make it hard to initially grasp the material beyond a surface level understanding but as long as you study (which any college course will require you to do), you will be fine. He's not the best professor I've ever had but I still enjoyed his class and think he's over-hated.

Scerri does NOT communicate well and there are errors in the answer key, literally always

Grade Scheme: 30% quizzes (unlimited retakes) + 30% Midterm + 40% Final

Participation not counted, can just watch recording.

Still, really easy to get a high grade with little effort if you already know chem, if not, then you just have to put in some work. He's not that bad guys.

Okay, as someone finishing the class with an A+ this quarter, this review will be really helpful as a guide for you (a prospective or new student). If you're looking to take this class, know that you WILL be confused over the course of this quarter. That is guaranteed. I did NOT feel like I learned very much, and the lecture content was super disjointed. You don't need to be an AP Chem student to do well in this class, I'm a communications major and I did well so just take my review very seriously, and you'll be fine.

That being said, I learned a very important skill in this class: prioritizing learning the material I need to do well on the tests and nothing else. This class is not about learning chemistry because it's interesting; it's about surviving and not ruining your GPA. You'll eventually grow to accept that fact in this class, especially after the midterm. The midterm and final for this class were 2 of the hardest tests I've ever taken. Please do yourself a favor and study for the midterm and final AT LEAST a week and a half in advance. You need to do ALL the practice tests he gives you because those are a very accurate reflection of the kind of questions that are going to be on the test. Often times they are the same questions. Run and rerun through those practice tests (every test) until you commit every question and answer on the answer key to memory and know how to solve them. I'm not kidding; please do this. Even with the practice tests given, our average for the midterm was 62 or 66% for our chem 14A class. If you don't do the practice tests, expect a 30% on the test, and that's a generous estimate.

I've read some reviews saying don't leave your achieve quizzes until the last week, and I think that's pretty smart, but you'll be fine if you do. I did the fundamental quizzes before the midterm, then the other 4 or so quizzes the week before they were due. It was honestly a lot easier this way for me because I knew the content from the midterm, so it was just a review. I think it's possible to do these achieve quizzes the week before they're due, but keep in mind they take 3/4 hours each, so you may not want to grind that hard. I didn't mind.

Read the slides ahead of each lecture and immediately ask your TA to clarify any questions. I had Jack Diab as my go-to TA, and he was amazing, so I'd recommend asking a few TAs for help until you find one that explains things in a way you really get.

Finally, you can start solving the practice midterms before you finish reviewing your lectures or learning the material. Please do this! Don't wait till you have a complete understanding of ALL the content of the class to do the practice midterms because I promise the practice midterm questions will still stump you. You'll have more time the earlier you start, though.

Good luck!! Listen to my advice and you'll do great :D.

Summary: Do not take Scerri
Midterm mean score: 64%
Final mean score: 63%
The statistics speak for themselves: you are set up to fail with this professor.

Scerri is overall a nice guy who is personable and funny. I like him as a person. However, his teaching I do not agree with. He sees Chem 14A as a weeder course so you are set up to fail from the beginning. There are 10 quizzes due at the end of the course (thirty percent of grade). No homework. Midterm is thirty percent of grade and the final is forty percent of grade. NO EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES OR RETAKES.

Statistics for midterm: (out of 109 points)
Minimum: 15.0
Maximum: 111.0
Mean: 69.64
Median: 71.0
Standard Deviation: 21.56

Statistics for final: (out of 152 points)
Minimum: 8.0
Maximum: 143.0
Mean: 95.39
Median: 101.5
Standard Deviation: 30.98