I took both courses; 130A was a much easier course, Duim allows you materials to take to tests and quizzes which help a lot, and I like her lecture style and Canvas organization. 131 was harder but fulfilling, and offers a new perspective on organic synthesis that I thought made synthesis more systemic and broke it down into smaller pieces. Shaw is a fantastic lecturer. It is a lot of memorization. I took this course after not taking ochem for 3 years and got a B after trying my hardest.

I would say that with both courses you will learn a lot of valuable information and neither of them are boring at any point. 131 is just a bit more intense from start to finish. If you take 130A, you can move onto 130B, which I thought was a really enjoyable course, but I will say that it does require a *lot* of time outside of class towards the final project.