I had Scerri for 14A and 14B. At first from reading all the previous posts, I assumed he was going to be really hard for 14A but in reality. He is a fair professor. His midterms and finals are straight from the course reader so don't even bother with the text book, unless you want further understanding of the concepts. His midterms and finals are similar to previous exams, so I suggest to study the course reader and the previous exams.

With 14A: his midterm was more conceptual than equations. His final was similar to the midterms he gave out in the past.

With 14B: his midterm was more equations, and KNOW YOUR DERIVATIONS! he'll throw it in there for sure. His final for the first lecture, which I was in, was HELL! Trust me, study the organic material until your eyes bleed b/c 5 out of 8 of the problems were on that topic. He used the same question from the midterm for the old material.

All in all, Scerri was a decent professor who was fair. I never went to office hours so I don't know him personally. In the end, I passed the class with a decent grade for someone who skipped quite a few lectures.

Personally, I liked this professor. Although, this comes from my experience inside the lecture hall only as I never had the balls to drop by office hours so I can't exactly confirm whether he's a butthole during those visits or not. It wouldn't be hard to believe that he is one though. However, I thoroughly liked his class and his personality. He was pretty funny, and also probably the weirdest professor I had all year (he licked chalk for a good 5 minutes one time). The one thing that surprised me most about this class was his in-class experiments. Sometimes they're pretty cool and sometimes they're just pointless..but they always wake me up and it's a break from mundane lecturing all class.

I felt like Scerri's class moved at an alright pace. I never felt like it was too much all at once or anything but we somehow managed to finish one week early in g-chem and one week early in our o-chem and i think we got a little more into o-chem than others. One day I was tired as hell and didn't wanna bother going to class but I thought he would go over important material, and it was a bogus review lecture..

Now, Scerri likes to base his grading on around 1-3 homework assignments, 2-4 thinkwell online quizzes, one midterm, and a final. The homework assignments came from his pink book - his compilation of previous midterms and finals - for Chem 14A, but in 14B, he made us print out our worksheets online, but they were practically the same. These homework questions were always fairly easy to me, I always got 100% on them, just make sure you compare with your friends.

Now thinkwell quizzes I had major problems with... I only got 100% on the first one I ever took (14a) and the last one I ever took (14b). This is because thinkwell asks s*@t that Scerri has never gone over, so if you go purely off his lectures, you won't get that great of a grade, much less a 100% (which you should be getting, it's a freaking open-everything quiz, easy points). Despite this, I went through all of the quizzes thinking "god dammit Scerri, wtf is this?!." Then, I started wandering the thinkwell site, and I realized that the questions from those quizzes were DIRECTLY from thinkwell's online lectures and notes. So, what I suggest is: you open the quiz in another window and then on the regular thinkwell site go to the section under which that quiz is covering and just look for the question within the online lecture or the notes (lecture = notes, additional notes = something called a transcript or something, make sure you look for it) Bam, if you don't get an A, I suggest doing it again you always get 2 extra chances and only your highest counts.

Midterm - his one-midterm style, as opposed to other professors' 2-midterm style, is a relief or a bummer. Speaking from experience, if you f(#% on the midterm, you better be getting 100% on all of your homework AND you better make up huge on the final because you don't have a second midterm to balance it out. Or, you can do really well and be set.

Final - Both of his finals in 14A and 14B were 8 questions. Around 3 were based on topics covered before the midterm, and the rest on the most recent material. Each question has several parts to it. People are correct when they say you can get by, by just purely memorizing his course reader. Go to class and make sure you understand EVERY single word in the course reader because sometimes he'll just have a word there without explaining what it is in the course reader, but he'll say it in class and probably elaborate more and then put it on this midterm/final (I doubt any 14A people will forget this, and the TAs agreed with us, but he freaking put one whole question about the freaking periodic table... like wtf, seriously? @#$@!&@#%). So yeah, get a good grasp on the material, practice on all of his previous midterm/finals to get an idea on the kinds of way he'll ask a question. Sometimes he'll repeat patterns, his 14A final looked exactly like some questions from of previous midterm/finals. But don't bank on it.

Good luck yall crazy bruins.

Scerri is a good professor. His course reader is fantastic, you shouldn't even bother buying the textbook. His tests come straight from the course reader and yellow/pink book. He really encourages students to come to office hours. He told us to come even if we had no questions. I regret to say I never did because I could never get my lazy ass back to campus.

One thing you should know is this: if you volunteer for his experiments, he will make you come up and tell a joke. He thinks he is funny (and I think he is pretty amusing), but sometimes his jokes seemed to get a little out of hand. There was a girl in our class who liked having attention lavished on her, so she would always ask a lot of questions in class...most times, questions that were off topic. Scerri often made fun of her for that. So be warned: if you ask irrelevent questions, Scerri will not hesitate to mock you!

Memorize the course reader, and do all the problems assigned as well as thinkwell, etc. His midterm was easy and since the average was so high he decided to make the final extremely hard. Therefore a large percent of the class ended with a C even if their midterm was an A. He isn't really approachable, he comes off as anal and makes students feel dumb so if you feel intimidated talk to the TAs they know the material and are willing to help you out.

My favorite class at ucla so far. I worked very hard for this class and loved it at the same time. I had lavelle first then him and like scerri better. I got an A+ with Scerri and A - with La Velle even though the 14a material was significantly easier for me. A background in AP chem will prove successful. Focus on course reader.

I dont know why people are so extreme about scerri. either they love him or downright hate him. I dont have any personal feelings towards him--he makes fun of people (ok we all know he's lacking in the personality department), he's not as smart as he thinks he is, I think he knows that but still hopes no one notices. His nitpicking grading sux but tests are easy. basically he's a horrible teacher (at this point its a pretty objective statement) but if you dont mind expensive course readers, keeping your big mouth shut and swallowing your own ego instead of trying to compete with his, and you like to avoid very hard chemistry textbooks that require real work, then he's not so bad afterall. Just get through the quarter and get chem over with and try not to hold lingering feelings of hatred towards the guy. good luck.

I LOVED Professor Scerri! He was a little bit intimidating at first, but sitting in the front and going to his office hours really helped - he started joking around with those of us sitting in the front after the first week or so, and his jokes are corny but hilarious. I really liked the way that he explained things in lecture, as well as how he is open to taking many questions during lecture. Another note on lecture: try to make all of his Friday lectures! Oftentimes he will give a hint or extra information on a topic covered on his exams on Fridays as a "bonus" for those people who actually made the effort to show up. He has you buy a course reader pack that is somewhat expensive, but it is definitely worth it. The actual reader has copies of every lecture slide, making it easier to focus on what he is actually saying instead of just copying things down like crazy. The other part of the pack has workbooks that consist of old exam questions, some of which are used for homework problems and others that you can just practice. Definitely work through ALL of these problems before the final - some of them are very similar to his final exam, and if you are competent with the workbook problems, you will be fine on the exam. A lot of people don't like Scerri because he comes off as somewhat arrogant at first, but he really isn't. Just sit in front and don't be afraid to ask/answer questions in lecture and to go to office hours!

Scerri is alright. He is not a pleasant professor and I really do not think his main priority was class, but his class is fair. The tests were difficult but all the material was covered in some retrospect through the lectures or course reader. My biggest complaint is chem is really difficult and when you did not understand anything, Scerri was not friendly to those seeking extra help. If your naturally good at learning chemistry then you will do fine in Scerri, but be prepared for the bare minimum of concern and to study a lot for finals. I got an A- and I definitely tried my very best.

Honestly...he is a fair guy. He is arrogant but funny, but it really isnt about his personality. It is about how he runs the class. If you fail, its your fault. Do the work and you will pass. There are other stuff that helps boost your grade like ONLINE quizzes and homework also. Do well on these and you'll do ok in the class.

Honestly I learned more in high school than I did in his class. During one lecture about electrochemistry he gave us formulas with addition, then the next class they were subtraction. When confronted about it he said not to worry and that he'd figure out the correct formulas before we would be required to use them. He then assigned homework on that very set of formulas.