Despite the negative reviews for Scerri, I actually think he is one of the best professors I have taken here. To be fair, I never went to classes nor did I go to office hours but when I went through his lecture materials, I found that he made a lot of sense. The grade distribution is:
30% Midterm
40% Final Exam
30% Homework

However, the homework isn't due until the day before the final so you have time to do it. The homework itself is time consuming but not horrible in that it is very easy to get 100% on all of the assignments. Everyone on here complains about the midterm and final but our average was I believe a 62% on the midterm and he made that average the minimum for a B-. So if you scored slightly higher than the average, you got curved an A- on the midterm which is so good.

He changed his exam style to MCQ only which can be tricky and time consuming since there was 30 MCQ questions on the midterm and 50 on the final. I overall think he was a fine teacher and would take him again.

If you could choose between one million gorillas and Dr. Scerri to teach this class, I would choose the one million gorillas. Dr. Scerri is the least helpful and empathetic person on the planet. Don't expect any of your concerns to get addressed or even receive any sympathy for. A lot of the reviews can vouch for this. Enough said.

I was so scared to take this class because everyone had said this professor was really hard and to not take chem with Scerri. However, I ended with a B+ in the class and I kind of liked him. I felt like he explained things well and his exams were a little hard but so are everyone elses. I also am not the smartest person ever and didn't even pass all 3 exams so I was happy with my grade. Just study and do practice exams and you'll be fine.

Prof Scerri is not a great lecturer, and not good about giving help. Thankfully I learned most of this stuff from AP Chem, I don't think I could've learned this for the first time under the quarter system with Scerri. He can come across as kind of mean and dismissive, at least when I asked him questions. His tests were very easy and straightforward though.

It's difficult to say anything about Scerri that has not been already said, so this review is more of a survival guide for this class than an actual critique of the professor, because bottom line, DO NOT take Scerri unless you have to. I have never had a good chemistry teacher or professor in my life, and while Scerri doesn't take the cake for the worst of the bunch, he should not be teaching, at least not in the capacity he is. Lecture is not mandatory, but you absolutely should either go to lecture or watch the recordings, maybe even more than once, because he takes things directly from the lectures and puts them "word for word" on the exams. The exams themselves aren't actually that difficult, but the fact that he doesn't teach you sh*t means it can be difficult to prepare. I found the textbook problems helpful, the achieve questions most helpful, and the practice exams also pretty helpful. I highly recommend the MIT opencourseware gen chem videos, specifically the ones on titrations, if you're struggling with how to connect the concept to what you actually need to do on an exam. Do not go to his office hours because they're a catastrophic waste of time. He won't respond to emails, so don't bother. Ask your TA for help if you're stuck, and find a different TA if your TA also sucks at teaching. Discussion isn't mandatory, and I don't think it's worth it unless your TA is awesome. Start studying for this class week 1, and don't let the achieve quizzes creep up on you (they have unlimited attempts, thankfully).

This was probably the hardest class I've taken at UCLA so far. Coming into this class, I was extremely scared because Professor Scerri got the name "Scary Scerri" as he is often seen as unaccommodating and rude. To be quite honest, he did have his moments where it seemed like he would "belittle" people for asking a question, but it honestly could just be how he joked around. Despite receiving a lower grade in the class, I cannot blame Scerri because I didn't really put in the effort to study (I started studying for exams day of). I think that Scerri's lectures (which are recorded), although disorganized, efficiently covered the topics on the exams and the practice problems throughout lecture definitely highlighted the main points that he was trying to emphasize. Furthermore, Scerri also provided practice exams that were similar to the midterm and final, so it is definitely possible to do well in the class. The midterm was 30%, the final was 40%, and Achieve quizzes were 30%. The achieve quizzes were extremelyyy long and literally so useless. However, we did have unlimited attempts so this category should be an easy 100%. Also, definitely go to the TA discussion sections as they'll usually sum of the topics of the week and provide practice problems to enhance your understanding.

If you aren't ready to study quite a bit for this course or if you have other STEM courses/ ECs that will eat up your time, maybe this professor isn't for you. Although we have the freedom of basically not having any consistent homework, it's really up to you to stay on top of things, as you will struggle if you fall behind. However, if you keep up with the lectures, do and UNDERSTAND the problems, and put in enough time, then you should do fine in this class. Scerri was not as bad as others made him out to be, but he also isn't the best.

AVOID IF YOU CAN. The chem 14 series is hard enough as is being a weeder class, dont make it harder on yourself. The only thing I have to say positively about this class is that its Bruincasted and the Achieve Quizzes have infinite attempts. Other than that the lectures are boring with unorganized slides, the professor isnt easily accesible and doesnt seem to care all that much about student learning. He makes a lot of assumptions on chemistry knowledge even though this is only the second course of the series and is covering completely different topics. The tests are also extremely hard, the curve my quarter had a 60/90 still being an A for the midterm, due to the class struggling so hard. The achieve quizzes arent anything like the tests in class, and although you are given the whole quarter to. complete them the work load is massive. I couldn't recommend someone NOT take this class any more.

Scerri is the worst professor I have had thus far. His slides are organized horribly and he doesn't like it when people ask clarifying questions in class. He also assigned homework that was much harder than anything we did in class and was mostly unrelated to the exams. The breakdown of the grades is horrible and very harsh for a class at this level. The exams were so conceptual it was unfair because he mentioned it for 0.002 seconds in lecture yet I have to write a whole explanation for it. CALCULUS IS NOT A PRE-REC so we shouldn't be expected to know who to integrate and derive. I have not taken a calculus class and the description and syllabus did not mention needing it. Scerri needs to seriously look at his class structure and learn how to care about his students or he should quit. He has a horrible reputation as an unfair and bad professor for a good reason. I didn't think he could be as bad as the reviews and that was true - he's worse.

This class is fairly manageable as long as you can productively self-study. The breakdown of this course is 30% midterms (split into 2 midterms, which is unique only to 2023 Spring), 30% homework, and 40% final. The homework is through Achieve, and the questions can be pretty tricky and very time consuming, but you have unlimited attempts so it is manageable to get 100% in this category. As for the midterms and final, they draw similarities from his previous tests, so make sure to do a bunch of practice midterms he posts, and look at the TA study guides too. Overall, I did not go to his lectures in person often, as I found it easier to watch them online and pause/ go back whenever I was confused, and in his lectures, he would include some jokes and was pretty clear on explaining things. Lecture and discussion weren't mandatory, so this class really is a self-studying course. Scerri's 14B ultimately comes down to how well you do on the midterm and final, so as long as you set aside quality productive study time for this class, you will be fine.

This class was mid tbh. "Scary Scerri" wasn't as scary as I expected. The achieve problems were annoying and complicated and often did not connect to his lectures. He provides past exams and midterms to use as study material which is helpful, but the tests are still difficult and count for the majority of your grade (70%).