<p>Ok, there are Chem 4a LEC, LAB, and VOL, do i need to take ALL of them? </p>
<p>Also, what does VOL stand for?</p>
<p>Any good professors teaching Chem 4a?</p>
<p>Thanks~!</p>
<p>Signing up for the Lecture section forces you to sign up for the Lab as part of the same 4 units. I have no idea what the VOL is/was, but I don’t remember any slots opening up in it.</p>
<p>4A’s always taught by approximately the same group, and they are good professors. That said, it’s also a very hard one (with some variability via your GSI, since s/he will be the one grading your labs and homework). Do every homework assignment, go to all the review sessions, study your ass off for exams, etc…</p>
<p>VOL is the optional review session every week. A GSI goes over what was covered in the lecture (or what you’ve read). Some of these review sessions are review sessions for midterms, when a GSI goes over the material that is fair game for the exam. You don’t enroll into the review sessions. They’re voluntary.</p>
<p>I hear that you guys will have Saykally and Head-Gordon. Saykally’s an exciting professor due to his demos (we only had him for a week, but Cowboy Chemistry was an avid part of his two lectures). Wasn’t really that great of a lecturer in those two lectures, though. Head-Gordon’s, hands down, a very amazing lecturer (although difficult).</p>
<p>I don’t regard Saykally as an actual professor for 4A, at least in terms of my experience last fall; he came in and got us very excited for the rest of the course, but Head-Gordon and Dhillon taught the actual material (very competently, I might add - the curve on the class looked the way it did because the tests were difficult [albeit not for good reasons], not because the material was poorly-taught).</p>