CHEM 153A
Biochemistry: Introduction to Structure, Enzymes, and Metabolism
Description: Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 14D or 30B, with grade of C- or better. Recommended: Life Sciences 2, 3, and 23L, or 7A. Structure of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids; enzyme catalysis and principles of metabolism, including glycolysis, citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - All the current reviews of the professor are accurate. I took her class because I heard a lot of good things about her, but her tests (especially the final) were harder then they needed to be. The tests were very picky on grading and weren’t fairly graded based on knowledge of the subject, but based memorizing specific key words to write in specific sections. Example: if you didn’t right the word entropy (even though you explained the concept correctly) you still would get the question wrong. I felt as if her lectures were also unclear of what was tested. Also not sure if this was only me but she’s not the most friendly in person.
Fall 2019 - All the current reviews of the professor are accurate. I took her class because I heard a lot of good things about her, but her tests (especially the final) were harder then they needed to be. The tests were very picky on grading and weren’t fairly graded based on knowledge of the subject, but based memorizing specific key words to write in specific sections. Example: if you didn’t right the word entropy (even though you explained the concept correctly) you still would get the question wrong. I felt as if her lectures were also unclear of what was tested. Also not sure if this was only me but she’s not the most friendly in person.
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Most Helpful Review
Pro: very organized in lectures and lecture notes. She always try to make the class and biochemistry interesting. You don't have to open the textbook at all since the exams are based on her lectures only. Contra: Her exams are hard, partly because biochemistry is a hard subject. Tips: Study every week, do all the problems, study well for the quizzes, and always give yourself time to review the past exams.
Pro: very organized in lectures and lecture notes. She always try to make the class and biochemistry interesting. You don't have to open the textbook at all since the exams are based on her lectures only. Contra: Her exams are hard, partly because biochemistry is a hard subject. Tips: Study every week, do all the problems, study well for the quizzes, and always give yourself time to review the past exams.
Most Helpful Review
This is the only chem class that I have truly enjoyed. Clubb is straight forward. He teaches you only the things you need to know - the important things. Everything that he has taught me has come up on the MCATs. I am not sure how the other teacher (Bates) teaches her Chem class. Take Clubb, you will probably learn a lot better and understand the topics instead of having a chem teacher cram your brain with too much useless information. Also, you will get a better grade in Clubb if you just go to the lectures and pay attention. (he tells you what will be on the test basically and also, you can ask him "Is this going to be on the test" - great isnt it?)
This is the only chem class that I have truly enjoyed. Clubb is straight forward. He teaches you only the things you need to know - the important things. Everything that he has taught me has come up on the MCATs. I am not sure how the other teacher (Bates) teaches her Chem class. Take Clubb, you will probably learn a lot better and understand the topics instead of having a chem teacher cram your brain with too much useless information. Also, you will get a better grade in Clubb if you just go to the lectures and pay attention. (he tells you what will be on the test basically and also, you can ask him "Is this going to be on the test" - great isnt it?)
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - Honestly, this class was pretty hard. I really did not like the format of the exam where if you did not have a specific keyword, you would get marked off. Like why even have a free response exam. After the first exam, I did not attend a single live lecture since it was all about keywords. I would spend on average 2-3 hours watching lecture recordings and writing down word-for-word the things Gober said. Tbh, this is just not the right way a class should be conducted. The only thing I liked about this class were Gober's jokes and accidental swearing during lecture. However, Gober is currently taking a sabbatical so the next time he teaches this class it will most likely be in-person. Hopefully it will be a better experience in-person.
Winter 2021 - Honestly, this class was pretty hard. I really did not like the format of the exam where if you did not have a specific keyword, you would get marked off. Like why even have a free response exam. After the first exam, I did not attend a single live lecture since it was all about keywords. I would spend on average 2-3 hours watching lecture recordings and writing down word-for-word the things Gober said. Tbh, this is just not the right way a class should be conducted. The only thing I liked about this class were Gober's jokes and accidental swearing during lecture. However, Gober is currently taking a sabbatical so the next time he teaches this class it will most likely be in-person. Hopefully it will be a better experience in-person.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2021 - Biochemistry is hard, there’s no doubt about it - and the 6-week summer variant of this class makes it feel like you are drinking water from a fire hydrant. Dr. He does not make it easier. With a non-transparent, micro-detail grading rubric, and exam questions designed to be ambiguous AND penalize you for writing over sentence limits, it’s clear that this class was structured to weed out pre-meds, rather than to facilitate student learning. This is the only class I have ever taken at UCLA that penalizes the WHOLE class for regrade requests made by each student; the TA told us that when a regrade is approved, the student may have their score improved but all other students’ grades drop as a result. There was outrage resulting from students’ grades dropping AFTER their exam scores were released this quarter. Mind you, this policy was not made transparent on either the syllabus or rubrics, it was just offered as an explanation after-the-fact. Furthermore, grades were due today, and our final exams were released 30 minutes before midnight, with an email explaining that “since today is the final day”, no regrade requests would be accepted, no curves made, and no corrections accepted. Although convenient for the Biochem grading team, it reflects the “deduct first, ask questions later” policy that has been shown all quarter. Having said all that, I can’t recommend Dr. He for Chem 153A. Do yourself a favor - save yourself a lot of headache - and take someone else.
Summer 2021 - Biochemistry is hard, there’s no doubt about it - and the 6-week summer variant of this class makes it feel like you are drinking water from a fire hydrant. Dr. He does not make it easier. With a non-transparent, micro-detail grading rubric, and exam questions designed to be ambiguous AND penalize you for writing over sentence limits, it’s clear that this class was structured to weed out pre-meds, rather than to facilitate student learning. This is the only class I have ever taken at UCLA that penalizes the WHOLE class for regrade requests made by each student; the TA told us that when a regrade is approved, the student may have their score improved but all other students’ grades drop as a result. There was outrage resulting from students’ grades dropping AFTER their exam scores were released this quarter. Mind you, this policy was not made transparent on either the syllabus or rubrics, it was just offered as an explanation after-the-fact. Furthermore, grades were due today, and our final exams were released 30 minutes before midnight, with an email explaining that “since today is the final day”, no regrade requests would be accepted, no curves made, and no corrections accepted. Although convenient for the Biochem grading team, it reflects the “deduct first, ask questions later” policy that has been shown all quarter. Having said all that, I can’t recommend Dr. He for Chem 153A. Do yourself a favor - save yourself a lot of headache - and take someone else.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - Despite the issues that came up in this class, Professor Jarrett was a good instructor. She explained difficult concepts in an easy to understand manner and she was very helpful during office hours if you had any questions. Her lectures were straightforward and lecture slides got straight to the point without being confusing. It was obvious that Professor Jarrett had experience teaching and that she knew the material well. There were no problems in terms of her teaching ability. The biggest downside was the disorganization, I do not know if it was because the TA did not care (which it seemed like he didn’t) or because of the pandemic requiring us to shift to online learning. The TA and Professor would often give out contradicting statements at the beginning of the course. We were told that worksheets were to be submitted individually but then group submission was encouraged. We were then told group submission was required until finally being told group submission was encouraged in the end. In addition, nobody received grades until the very end of the second to last week after a significant proportion of our grade was turned in without any sort of way to evaluate our progress in the class. Thankfully, Professor Jarrett acknowledged this was unfair and provided extra credit. Nonetheless, the exams were very fair and tested knowledge of lecture material and problem-solving. There were not any curveballs in terms of material that we did not cover. Overall, what you learn is determined by the effort you put into this class. If you put in minimal effort to get the grade you want you will not have a good grasp on the material. However, if you put effort into this class you will come out with a solid introduction to biochemistry.
Summer 2020 - Despite the issues that came up in this class, Professor Jarrett was a good instructor. She explained difficult concepts in an easy to understand manner and she was very helpful during office hours if you had any questions. Her lectures were straightforward and lecture slides got straight to the point without being confusing. It was obvious that Professor Jarrett had experience teaching and that she knew the material well. There were no problems in terms of her teaching ability. The biggest downside was the disorganization, I do not know if it was because the TA did not care (which it seemed like he didn’t) or because of the pandemic requiring us to shift to online learning. The TA and Professor would often give out contradicting statements at the beginning of the course. We were told that worksheets were to be submitted individually but then group submission was encouraged. We were then told group submission was required until finally being told group submission was encouraged in the end. In addition, nobody received grades until the very end of the second to last week after a significant proportion of our grade was turned in without any sort of way to evaluate our progress in the class. Thankfully, Professor Jarrett acknowledged this was unfair and provided extra credit. Nonetheless, the exams were very fair and tested knowledge of lecture material and problem-solving. There were not any curveballs in terms of material that we did not cover. Overall, what you learn is determined by the effort you put into this class. If you put in minimal effort to get the grade you want you will not have a good grasp on the material. However, if you put effort into this class you will come out with a solid introduction to biochemistry.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Many people are upset with Ryan and the way he ran 153A this quarter. I think that, to a point, it is warranted, but it has kind of gotten out of hand. 153A is meant to be a tough class, and will require hours upon hours of studying and memorizing. If you cannot put in the necessary time and dedication to do well in this class, it is entirely on you, and I think people were unhappy with this to say the least. I will admit that at some points, he made the class more confusing or difficult than it needed to be. That being said, we all saw Ryan grow as a professor this quarter. His lectures started out muddled and confusing, and the first midterm was graded incredibly harshly. As other reviews have stated, the first midterm required that you use very specific wording in order to be granted points. Oftentimes, some of these terms were not communicated to the class during lecture. The class felt like the midterm did not accurately reflect our understanding, we brought up our concerns to Ryan, and he LISTENED! Ryan gave everybody some points back for questions that were unclear/unfair, and I really don't think enough people are giving him credit for this. Midterm 2 and the final were very fair. People need to remember that this is his first time teaching 153A, and that he only had a several week notice to prepare all the slides, homework, and content. As the quarter went on, the lectures became less disorganized and very engaging. I can confidently say that Ryan is an outstanding lecturer when he is not held back by his own disorganization. He knows biochemistry like the back of his hand, and communicated all the content thoroughly and clearly by the end of the quarter. I do not have a strong affinity for biology or biochemistry, but Ryan actually made biochemistry intriguing. The assigned homework was weekly, and I thought it was quite manageable and beneficial. A lot of the concepts on the homework appeared on exams. If you did not understand a problem, Ryan would help you in office hours and explain everything clearly until you understood. There were several quizzes throughout the quarter, and yes, they were based on rote memorization, but I think that these are just free points. As you can see, the assigned work was very fair, and I think the class structure ended up being beneficial for everybody. One of my favorite parts about this class was Campuswire. He incentivized participation by granting .25% of extra credit to your final grade if you asked meaningful questions and answered people's questions. Do not skip out on this. I cannot tell you how many times looking at a Campuswire post or having my question answered by a fellow student facilitated my understanding of the material. Overall, I would recommend Ryan as a professor. I think that we were kind of his guinea pigs this quarter, but he definitely grew and understands how to better run 153A for future quarters. Come into it with an open mind, and understand that this class will take up a significant chunk of time. Biochemistry is NOT easy, and it simply isn't fair to berate Ryan and threaten his job for some of the shortcomings of the class. Do all the extra credit that adds 2% to your final grade, go to office hours, pay attention in lecture and write down terms that he repeats and emphasizes, do the homework thoughtfully, and you will be fine in the class.
Winter 2022 - Many people are upset with Ryan and the way he ran 153A this quarter. I think that, to a point, it is warranted, but it has kind of gotten out of hand. 153A is meant to be a tough class, and will require hours upon hours of studying and memorizing. If you cannot put in the necessary time and dedication to do well in this class, it is entirely on you, and I think people were unhappy with this to say the least. I will admit that at some points, he made the class more confusing or difficult than it needed to be. That being said, we all saw Ryan grow as a professor this quarter. His lectures started out muddled and confusing, and the first midterm was graded incredibly harshly. As other reviews have stated, the first midterm required that you use very specific wording in order to be granted points. Oftentimes, some of these terms were not communicated to the class during lecture. The class felt like the midterm did not accurately reflect our understanding, we brought up our concerns to Ryan, and he LISTENED! Ryan gave everybody some points back for questions that were unclear/unfair, and I really don't think enough people are giving him credit for this. Midterm 2 and the final were very fair. People need to remember that this is his first time teaching 153A, and that he only had a several week notice to prepare all the slides, homework, and content. As the quarter went on, the lectures became less disorganized and very engaging. I can confidently say that Ryan is an outstanding lecturer when he is not held back by his own disorganization. He knows biochemistry like the back of his hand, and communicated all the content thoroughly and clearly by the end of the quarter. I do not have a strong affinity for biology or biochemistry, but Ryan actually made biochemistry intriguing. The assigned homework was weekly, and I thought it was quite manageable and beneficial. A lot of the concepts on the homework appeared on exams. If you did not understand a problem, Ryan would help you in office hours and explain everything clearly until you understood. There were several quizzes throughout the quarter, and yes, they were based on rote memorization, but I think that these are just free points. As you can see, the assigned work was very fair, and I think the class structure ended up being beneficial for everybody. One of my favorite parts about this class was Campuswire. He incentivized participation by granting .25% of extra credit to your final grade if you asked meaningful questions and answered people's questions. Do not skip out on this. I cannot tell you how many times looking at a Campuswire post or having my question answered by a fellow student facilitated my understanding of the material. Overall, I would recommend Ryan as a professor. I think that we were kind of his guinea pigs this quarter, but he definitely grew and understands how to better run 153A for future quarters. Come into it with an open mind, and understand that this class will take up a significant chunk of time. Biochemistry is NOT easy, and it simply isn't fair to berate Ryan and threaten his job for some of the shortcomings of the class. Do all the extra credit that adds 2% to your final grade, go to office hours, pay attention in lecture and write down terms that he repeats and emphasizes, do the homework thoughtfully, and you will be fine in the class.
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