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Dibs Fall 2026

CHEM 20A

Chemical Structure

Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: high school chemistry or equivalent background and three and one half years of high school mathematics. Recommended preparation: high school physics. Requisite: completion of Chemistry Diagnostic Test. Enforced corequisite: Mathematics 31A. Not open to students with credit for course 14A. First term of general chemistry. Survey of chemical processes, quantum chemistry, atomic and molecular structure and bonding, molecular spectroscopy. P/NP or letter grading.

Course statistics

Predicted GPA
3.54
n = 3,673 · 11 terms · ± 0.009
A range
70%
of letter grades
Taken P/NP
0%
60% of those passed
D / F / W
2.4%
incl. withdrawals

Sections in Fall 2026

Sections offered, with live enrollment and predicted GPA
Section Status Enrolled Seat risk Meets Instructor Predicted GPA
Lec 1 Open
220 of 227
97% full
 fills MWF 8:00am-8:50am Wilson, P.
3.54n=3,673 · course average
Lec 2 Closed
293 of 293
100% full
 fills MWF 10:00am-10:50am Schwartz, B.J., Casas, A.M.
3.54n=3,673 · course average

Enrollment history

Final enrollment per term, averaged across that term's sections. Four years deep, summer excluded. Per-section live curves are on each section page.

  • 29521F
  • 23122W
  • 30422F
  • 21423W
  • 29223F
  • 22924W
  • 35124F
  • 24525W
Enrolment by term: 21F 295, 22W 231, 22F 304, 23W 214, 23F 292, 24W 229, 24F 351, 25W 245
Peak 351 Most recent 245 in 25W 8 terms on record

Grade distribution

  • A+ 874 · 23.5%
  • A 1,157 · 31.2%
  • A- 549 · 14.8%
  • B+ 317 · 8.5%
  • B 247 · 6.7%
  • B- 159 · 4.3%
  • C+ 139 · 3.7%
  • C 84 · 2.3%
  • C- 58 · 1.6%
  • D+ 12 · 0.3%
  • D 14 · 0.4%
  • D- 2 · 0.1%
  • F 61 · 1.6%
  • P 9 · 0.2%
  • NP 6 · 0.2%
  • I 26 · 0.7%

Grey bars are non-letter outcomes — P/NP, S/U, incompletes. They are excluded from the GPA entirely rather than scored, because counting a P as a 4.0 would be a fabrication.

By instructor

Instructor Predicted Raw n Terms A range
KAVNER, ABBY 3.71 3.71 1,625 3 81%
SHAO, HUILING 3.54 3.54 1,031 3 68%
DEIFEL, NICHOLAS 3.65 3.65 350 2 83%
OW, FRANKLIN P 3.27 3.26 336 3 53%
SCERRI, ERIC ROBERT 2.88 2.85 331 1 28%

“Predicted” is shrunk toward the course average, which is itself shrunk toward the department — so an instructor with a handful of students sits near the course mean rather than topping the list.

By term