Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: one course from 14A, 14AE, 20A, or 20AH with grade of C- or better. Enforced requisite or corequisite: Life Sciences 30B or Mathematics 3B or 31B with grade of C- or better. Not open to students with credit for course 14BE, 20B, or 20BH. Chemical equilibria in gases and liquids, acid-base equilibrium; phase changes; thermochemistry; first, second, and third laws of thermodynamics; free energy changes; electrochemistry and its role as energy source; chemical kinetics, including catalysis, and reaction mechanisms. P/NP or letter grading.

Review Summary

Clarity
6.7 / 10
Organization
6.7 / 10
Time
5-10 hrs/week
Overall
5.0 / 10

Reviews

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2021 Online
    Grade: A-

    Lectures are not the best organized but also not the work. I'd highly recommend watching the Organic Chemistry Tutor on YouTube because those lectures were a lot easier to follow and better prepared me for the exams. Definitely find old midterms and finals to practice from. The class is graded on a curve so be aware of that.

    Quarter Taken: Spring 2022 In-Person
    Grade: A+

    good class

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2022 In-Person
    Grade: N/A

    Midterms were fair and practices midterms provided helped for preparation.

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2022 In-Person
    Grade: A

    The slides are made well, but Scerri's presentation is a little confusing for me. I like the workload, which is not heavy at all. The midterms are also fair, providing partial credits. Discussion sections are not mandatory.

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2022 In-Person
    Grade: A+

    If you reviewed the material thoroughly, this class is overall not too bad. Scerri definitely makes exams difficult, but doesn't throw anything unexpected at you. Achieve was painful but easy free points since you get unlimited attempts.

    Quarter Taken: Spring 2023 In-Person
    Grade: A+

    I would strongly suggest not taking Scerri if you have the option to. If you are not familiar with AP Chem material, it will be a great struggle in his class and you'll find yourself teaching yourself topics most of the time. It is hard to understand his slides that sometimes simple topics become more confusing. Scerri also does not explain concepts very well. However, I would recommend this class if you have a strong background in AP Chem and if you are good at test-taking. It is very much review from AP Chem and lots of calculations. Most people find 14B harder than 14A but I actually found 14B easier to study for since it was more calculations than abstract conceptual questions. As with any course taught by Scerri, he always recycles questions from past exams. This is the best way to study for his tests. Practicing as many past exam questions as you can will help you earn an A in the class, which is how I was able to get a good grade. The only other good thing about this class is that attendance is not required (for both lecture and discussion) and there's virtually no homework (aside from the Achieve quizzes which are all due at the end of the quarter), so this class gives you a lot of flexibility in your schedule.

    Quarter Taken: Spring 2023 In-Person
    Grade: A

    Exams were a fair assessment of what we were taught in lecture and was fair with grading. Assigns online quizzes at the beginning of the quarter but they aren't due till the end of the quarter before the final.

    Quarter Taken: Spring 2023 In-Person
    Grade: N/A

    Good class! Make sure you do the work and everything will be fine

    Quarter Taken: Spring 2023 In-Person
    Grade: A

    Dr. Scerri is a great professor and it is very doable to earn an A in his class as long as you show up to the classes and do all the achieve quizzes on time. Midterms and finals are easy as long as much practice is done before hand and he gives out many of his old practice tests which is highly recommended.

    Quarter Taken: Fall 2023 In-Person
    Grade: B+

    Scerri is not the best at lecturing. He sometimes gets lost during his own slides and forgets the answers to his own practice problems. Scerri knows the material he’s lecturing about, but doesn’t deliver it very well. No homework, only quizzes that correspond with each unit all due Week 10 but do them spaced out as they are long. Midterm was 30% of our grade, quizzes another 30%, and the final is 40%. Do all the practice tests you can get as the tests are very similar to the practices.

Course

Instructor
Eric Scerri
Previously taught
24S 23F 23S 22F 22S 21F 21S 20F 20S 19S

Grading Information

  • No group projects

  • Attendance not required

  • 1 midterm

  • Finals week final

  • 27% recommend the textbook

Previous Grades

Grade distributions not available.