I took this course during the TA strike of fall quarter and really struggled. Chem has always never fully clicked for me so I put in THE WORK. I have a tutor, go to office hours twice a week, meet with my TA's, and study a good amount. This class is HARD and when there were no TAs, I felt little/none support from the prof. The only leeway given was an in-person, multipul choice final. I passed the course, but just expect to be teaching yourself the material. And if chem doesn't come easy to you, expect to struggle.

Honestly, I feel this class gets a lot more shit than it deserves. I, 100%, believe that I would be more peeved if I did not receive an A, so take this review with a grain of salt, since knowing my grade will give it a more positive skew. I went into this class utterly terrified due to past reviews, but left feeling... okay

Firstly, the categories and weights that make up your grade are: Achieve (30%), Midterm (30%) and Final (40%). Unfortunately, you are graded on a bell curve, it didn't seem to make much of an impact this quarter (for better or for worse). It seems like many of the complaints regarding down curving stemmed from COVID quarters where averages were far higher than they were in person. I'm not arguing that this justifies down-curving, but it doesn't seem like it's as common when there are in person exams.

The most important thing to know about Scerri's exams is that questions are often times pulled from previous exams (he posts around 3 each for the midterm and final). The amount of time allotted felt very reasonable. Some of the multiple choice questions were a little finicky, but overall not awful. This was definitely the case with the midterm for this quarter.

The final this quarter was... odd to say the least. Because of the TA strike, Scerri was forced to make the exam fully multiple choice (45 questions). While most questions were solvable (or at least, were solvable considering what we were taught), there were a few problems that we were not equipped to solve. These questions, luckily, were removed from the final entirely, so our exam was out of 41 instead of out of 45. We were not given the results of the final unfortunately, I do understand however that distributing final results may have been made difficult because of the strike, but it obviously would've been very helpful to know, especially for students who didn't do as well as they expected or hoped. I do not think making this exam online would've been a good idea. Because this class is curved, going online would only punish students who decide not to cheat on the exam. Overall, the questions on the final weren't awful. I hated the electrochemistry questions, but granted electrochemistry just sucks in general.

In terms of achieve, it's horrible if you leave it until the last minute. My final score could've been far better if I didn't have to spend hours upon hours finishing achieve during week 10. Scerri did extend the deadline multiple times, which was nice, however I did just end up putting achieve off to the new deadline. If you manage your time throughout the quarter, achieve is very doable, and serves as a free 100% to your overall grade.

This class does require a lot of self studying outside of class, but I do believe Scerri is very straightforward about what you need to know for exams. Solved examples during lecture are often times 1:1 parallels (both conceptually and word for word) to exams seen on the exam. He is pretty responsive to emails, so that's nice. The TA strike did make post midterm content harder to understand and fully comprehend, but the curved nature of grades makes accommodations (like online exams or 24 hour exams) difficult to implement without unintended side effects.

Overall, 6/10 class. I barely have HS chem experience, so if I could do ok, I'd wager anyone could.

Not a great professor, honestly. In terms of lecturing, his lectures are super dry which would be fine if the midterms and final weren't so hard. I managed to get by with Scerri in 14A because the practice problems he released actually covered all the stuff that would be on the test, but that was not the case this quarter and as a result I got a B+ when I got an A in 14A (not bad I know, but I'm lowkey bitter about it). I can say for certain that I would not understand as much as I did if it hadn't been for my TA, Thomas. He was great and really filled in the clarity gaps that were left during Scerri's lectures. Hoping that I'm not getting this professor again since I've had him for two quarters in a row now.
Another note: DON'T PUT THE ACHIEVE OFF UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. You'll regret it, I definitely did lol

Very kind and smart guy, most of the grade is determined by the midterm and final, 30% is homework on achieve(formerly sapling) and they're helpful for the tests as he takes very similar style questions from there for his tests.

He liked showing us all his cat over the zoom lectures, which was my favorite part of the course.

Would recommend taking him, heard he is better than Lavelle

Professor Scerri is an extremely kind professor, however his class was not easy to me because lectures were disorganized and unclear. First of all I took this class online even though we were back to hybrid learning. Scerri often had the wrong example on his slides or had issues screen sharing that made the content more difficult than it should have been. I do not feel like I have a great understanding of material (however in 14A Lavelle was awesome and I totally understood the concepts). I never thought I would write a bruin walk review, but I felt that I should to encourage students to take this class with a different prof. Maybe he's better in person?

Scerri is an ok professor. During lectures, he reads off his slides & doesn't really expand on the concepts that are not already on the slides. He's unengaging and speaks very slow so I rarely watched his lectures live. However, he is very knowledgeable in Chemistry!!! It's just his teaching can be improved.

Workload is very light -- his grading scheme:
50% Thinkwell Quizzes every 2-3 weeks (homework, ~$35)
20% Midterm
30% Final

His midterm & final are extremely long with multiple parts to a question (1a, b, c, d, 2a, b, c...) and 2/3 hours was barely enough time to go through it all. He gives us extra time to submit (I think it was 30 minutes?) but still wasn't enough time to finish the exam. I was stumped on a lot of problems. He releases past exams as practice, but his answer key is slightly wrong & also confusing, so it's best to compare your answers with other classmates.

Thinkwell quizzes are fairly simple and straightforward. These are practice problems & problems you can expect in a Chemistry class. I thought they were helpful both conceptually & mathematically. There is no time limit & you have 3 attempts, with you highest score taken into account.

Discussion sections are not mandatory, but depending on your TA, they are definitely helpful in reviewing concepts & going over practice problems.

Self teaching yourself for this class is the way to go: look back at your past AP Chem notes & go on Youtube and watch the Organic Chemistry Tutor (super helpful).

Honestly, scerri gets a bad reputation but he is not that bad. He is fairly clear in lecture and is always there to answer questions if you have them during lecture. His final and midterm reviews are all good representations of the exams and if you can do them you should be prepared. Thinkwell quizzes are a little annoying but honestly not that bad, but they do not really represent exams. When you ae studying focus on the conceptual he loves to ask about it. The math is important but you need to be able to explain your answers on exams and make sure to use key words that he'll say in lecture or on his slides. The exams I would say were fair not too horrible. You can do well in the course if you just take good notes, pay attention, and do the reviews.

A lot of people really hate Prof Scerri but he isn't as horrible as everyone makes him out to be. I had him for 14A and 14B, and let me just say in high school I took chemistry over the summer (learned nothing) and slacked off during 14A so I had VERY minimal knowledge about chemistry going into 14B. Prof Scerri can be hard to keep up with and he uses different terminology at times (which some students attribute to his arrogance but I literally think it's because he's British and their terms are not the same for certain things), but as long as you really pay attention during lecture you should be able to get a basic understanding of what he is saying. He has the tendency to get ahead of himself and explain difficult concepts without reviewing the basics first, but if you watch a couple Youtube videos or go through example problems in the recommended textbook you should be fine. On that note, GET THE TEXTBOOK. It isn't required but it is super helpful to go through while learning concepts and has a lot of practice problems you can use when studying for the midterm and final. As far as his lecture slides, they can be a bit unorganized but if you are following what he is saying and actually paying attention, it isn't that bad. Also, for the most part Prof Scerri is open to answering questions and sometimes he may not answer them well but I've never seen him shut a student down for asking a question.

If you're hesitant to take this class, don't let the negative comments completely dictate your decision. You literally get what you put out, so if you aren't willing to pay attention during lecture, ask questions, and utilize outside resources like the textbook/videos/practice problems/etc. then obviously you're going to have a tough time. The professor is responsible for giving you the information, but you are responsible for making sure you understand it and utilize all the resources available to you to do so.

His grading is 30% quizzes, 30% midterm, and 40% final - which isn't too bad because the quizzes are basically free points (not that hard) and his midterms and finals generally tend to lean on the easier side, the only thing students get concerned about is that he grades on a curve (but from what I've experienced and heard it should never hurt someone's grade).

If you take this class, good luck and remember to utilize the resources you have to help you succeed!! Like I said, I had poor knowledge about chemistry before this class but I ended up getting an A- because I put in the work. You can do it!!!