Professor Mason is a really good Chem 20B professor. He teaches you everything he needs to know. The exams are really easy, especially if you took AP Chemistry in high school. Homework is worth 30% of your grade so as long as you put some time into it you'll get a really good grade in the class. The lectures can be really boring but he shows you all the formulas you need to have on your formula sheet.

Had to take this after dropping Bouchard my freshman year--was worried because I got below avg on midterm and did not want to get a C in the class and prof. Mason was very kind and helpful to me during office hours because I had a lot of difficulty learning some of the concepts and after studying and hard work I was able to get my grade to A- whoch is better than how I do in most classes. Idk why people are complaining about his derivations, he didnt do many practice problems, but he explained concepts. Sometimes he would even just say "here's a derivation already done becaus eit's not impirtant you know about it but it helps your understanding." He draws everything on the board with good handwriting at a pace that is not hard to follow, I appreciated this because I am dyslexic and find a lot of teachers lack in accessibility durig lectures. No matter who you take 20B, it will be a pain in the ass, especially if you're like me with no ap chem in hs.

I really enjoyed this class. Even though his voice is pretty monotone, he goes over a lot in class and you technically never have to read the textbook. I did just because I did not do that well in 20A and was determined to do better in 20B. If you do go the extra mile and read the textbook, he follows it pretty well and will explain differences between his notation and textbook notation in class.

This was NOT an easy course, at least for me, having not taken physics or AP chem in high school a lot of the thermodynamics was hard for me to grasp. HW is 30% of your grade, and he really only chooses 1 problem to check for accuracy and the rest is completion. I really do wish he went over more practice problems in class and how to use the equations in problems instead of deriving them, as he spend a lot of time in class doing. It's cool but tbh you don't need to know how to derive it. You also get a front page cheat sheet for the first midterm and front back for the final (there's only one midterm) I would take again, not the easiest professor, but manageable if you put in the time and effort.

I took Mason for Winter 2019. His lectures weren't that engaging as he used the time to derive all the equations we were going to need. However, he didn't tell us how to use the equations, so it was difficult for us to understand why the equations he gave us were useful. The midterm wasn't that difficult but the final was a giant pain in the a**. Overall, a relatively easy grader but not the easiest class you can take. If you can, take Beren for 20B instead.

This class was not difficult. Mason made this content very clear. Only gripe is there wasn't enough practice problems in class, but if your luck is good with TAs, then they will help with that. Very nice and explains really well. One Midterm and One Final. Extra credit on midterm. Homework takes up most of the grade. Would recommend or take again.

Most boring lectures ever and are extremely superficial and useless compared to the homework problems assigned. He spends a ridiculous amount of time deriving an equation and explaining concepts in a monotone voice only to say at the end that you only need to know this one equation and sometimes it's incorrect. Honestly, you are expected to learn it on your own through the OWL textbook. Massive waste of time

He is good at explaining things and is a nice guy, but the pacing on this class was horrible. He crammed 90% of the material for the course in the last week, getting to a point where he would scroll through notes on a projector instead of lecturing, and proceeding to give a final testing us as if we had learned these concepts for 2 months. Reaaallly weird exams that often have nothing to do with what we are supposed to cover (LJ Potential, Colloid Dispersions,etc) which overall make it unfair.

After the first midterm he rushed through the rest of the topics. The final this year was the hardest test I have ever taken in my life so far. I was able to tell before even taking it because he gave out extra credit problems. However he is overall a good professor and explains everything well. Be sure to focus on buffers and solubility. 90% of the final consists of chapters after the midterm (midterm median was D). Final median should be way lower

Mason, as a professor, is pretty straightforward in his lectures at the least. At times, it can be boring and if you have a short attention span, it's hard to stay awake. He just gives you more and more information, so note-taking was kinda a drag.

His grading scheme was pretty generous, with 30% homework, 30% midterm and a 40% final. He lets you have 1 sheet for the midterm with anything you want on it, and 2 sheets for the final.

However, in my opinion, his midterm was pretty hard. It was composed of 3 questions with multiple parts, and he even admitted some of them were hard enough that he didn't expect half the class to even get it. Also, what kinda ticked me off was that his midterm seemed to encompass only 2 chapters, whereas we had already covered 4 before the midterm. Therefore, studying everything might not be your best bet.

The final was doable, the three hours really helps. This time, it was comprised of 8 questions with almost all of the topics being used. Expect questions from the latter half of the course though.

All in all, a fair professor, you might have to go to office hours a bit to get a grasp on his types of problems since he doesn't allow tests in the test bank, and I think he's been changing up his tests a bit every year. If you're willing to work hard, and only want one midterm and 30% homework (which rarely appears in a chemistry class) then take him.

Professor Mason is a pretty good professor. He's very good at explaining the concepts and deriving the equations. He's very concerned about his students' learning and he's very nice.

A good chunk of your grade comes from homework (free points) so that's good. To do well on the tests, pay attention in class and do a lot of practice problems.