Just took the final so I don't know what my grade is. The class is pretty jumbled up, with no continuous linkage between most of the lectures. This meant that you kind of end up starting from scratch every time you learn a new topic. You also need to know everything he places on the slides, as even some of the most nuanced and obscure things will be on the exam. But even if you just generally follow with the slides and keep up with the general concepts, you can land an alright grade. He does curve down though, which is a really bad move. Coming in from a 5 on AP Chem, there are many new topics on atomic structure that aren't covered in AP, so be prepared to start studying new equations and models. Overall, I wish it were better, but he isn't complete doodoo as some may portray. Just pay attention most of the time and you'll be aight.

a lot of the reviews here bash scerri and the class but it’s about as hard as you’d expect a college-level (weeder) chem class to be. i studied hard and it was doable. (not easy, doable.)
grade distribution: for my quarter, it was 30% hw (easy 100%), 30% midterm, 40% final. the midterm and final themselves weren’t curved but the final grade was. (iirc it was a downgrade :( ). no extra credit.
lectures: scerri goes really fast in lecture which was def a struggle to keep up with but i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend going to his office hours. he’ll go over material again and again and you can ask follow up questions, which you can’t really do in lecture. he’s also not that scary. he actually has a sense of humor (i know, how surprising) also, he usually stays behind lecture for a few minutes to answer questions. even if you don’t have questions, i recommend you hang out there so if someone else asks a question, you can benefit from the answer.
homework: the class uses owl for homework assignments, which has lots of attempts and you can keep coming back to it. it’s due at the end of the quarter but don’t fall behind cuz it takes forever. one problem is that the owl questions aren’t even what you’re expected to know for the course, so just speedrun them and you’ll be fine. (it’s an easy 100% so do not mess up. it’ll put you at a huge disadvantage for the final curve). other than owl, there’s no other hw.
exams: for exams, scerri does reuse so many old questions. do as many of his past exams as possible and that’ll set you up really well for the midterm and final. he posts a couple on bruinlearn but see if you can find others (like at the test bank, etc.). don’t start studying too late — there’s so much to study.
your ta will usually have practice questions for you to do. if you want more practice, other tas also sometimes post their questions on bruinlearn, so you can check that out.
also, this course is def not just like ap chem since it does cover some quantum stuff. it is complicated and you will have to work at it, but find a good study group, engage with the material, and you’ll be able to do it.
good luck!!!

Prof. Scerri's slides are really hard to understand and they have very little info on them. Personally I felt that he went too fast during lectures, and the only way I could backtrack and see what he was talking about was through the recordings. Everyone complained when Scerri realized the average on the midterm was too high and curved ppl's scores down(insta reels go crazy lmao). The practice midterms and finals were pretty similar to what showed up on the actual tests tho.

I hate that man but if you do the practice tests midterm and final should be easy

DO NOT TAKE SCERRI, HE CURVES THE CLAS DOWNWARD AND YOUR GPA WILL SUFFER. Try to find another professor to take 20A with, he lectures poorly, tests harshly, and worst of all curves hurt you. The material itself was alright, with some practice youll do alright.

Take another professor. He will downcurve your grade and assume you understand everything on his level.