Chem 153C is arguably one of my favorite classes I've ever taken at UCLA - it's a class that really combines a lot of great concepts from organic chemistry and physiology and ties it into really cool real-life applications. As a professor, Koehler was alright - she's not as bad as some of the reviews here make her sound. She cares for her students and wants them to do well, even if the lectures are not the most clear/succinct. She often goes on tangents and sometimes her handwritten notes are all over the place, but the typed notes below her powerpoint slides are pretty useful and I would focus on those in your studies. She co-taught the class with Dr. Gober; she taught weeks 1-5 and Gober taught weeks 6-10. Midterm I was entirely her material, and I felt that her exam was easier than Gober's. She also gave us extra time on the midterm, which I thought was pretty nice of her.

Professors Koehler and Gober co-taught this class. I would not be afraid.

Materials
None.

Grading Scheme
Midterm 1 100 points
Midterm 2 100 points
Final 200 points
They never talked about how grades would be assigned, but I assumed they were curved upward a little. I got 60s on the midterms and ended with a B-.

Personality
Professor Koehler was kind and somewhat awkward. Her jokes were hit or miss, and she always had one jab at Trump each class. I went to her office hours a couple of times and she seemed eager to answer questions.

Lecture
Everything that we needed to know was covered in lecture. They were audiocasted, and she uploaded her slides with her notes on them. However, I recommend going to them because she would often mention, "You don't need to know this." Save yourself unnecessary studying. Aside from that, her lectures were interesting and I found 153C to be a fascinating and relevant class overall.

Exams
She wrote the first midterm and half of the second midterm and final, and they were easy in retrospect. I did poorly because of poor study habits. She gave out one past midterm beforehand, the structure of which she mimicked. I recommend studying all the notes while keeping the question format in mind. I regret not checking the test bank for her past exams. There is a lot of information to take in, and you should start learning all the amino acid pathways early, because there will definitely be an "illustrate the pathway" question. Also, do not trust the TAs. They said that malic enzyme would not be on the midterm and it was. RIP to those of us in office hours that day.

Extra Credit
On the first day of class, she and Professor Gober administered a pre-test where attempting it gave us extra credit. We had to watch a seminar and write a one-pager about it. I do not know how much this affected our grades.

Do I need to remember 153A for this?
Not really. It might help, since you go straight into glycoysis and gluconeogenesis, but it is not hard to catch up.

Overall
I enjoyed the class. My grade was the result of poor studying. If you do not like Koehler, that is understandable, but I would still wait it out for Gober.

The workload is very heavy, but that's because metabolism is by nature very complex and multi-faceted. So many things interconnect at various points and it can seem stressful/scary keeping track of it all, but if you give this class the respect it deserves then you will be rewarded. Read the textbook, review slides/notes at the end of the week, record lectures, etc... the more you review and keep up the easier it is to make sense of it all at the end. And you'll thank yourself for not having to cram memorization of 40 pathways at the end.

Many of my classmates complained and thought the class was unreasonable/ Dr. Koehler wasn't clear, but again I think it's just because metabolism is complicated to begin with. She repeats points a lot to try and reinforce the concepts, and she holds so many reviews because she does actually care about helping you learn despite what some people here say. She's compassionate and very helpful during OHs, also don't be afraid to talk to her one on one to figure out a strategy if you're struggling.

Dr. Koehler was always approachable and her office hours were really helpful. Midterm 1 and 2 were reasonable. What I really like about her is that she talks about real life situations where what we're learning helps us understand that process. Her sense of humor was awesome at 8:00 am in the morning. The final was really really hard.

Due to all the comments I had misjudged and was misinformed about how the professor would be. She is very kind and helpful, and really does care. You just need to go and talk to her... Just try you know, and she will motivate you to try even harder. Ask a lot of questions in class... she loves engaging in discussions in the class, and loves participation and to see that students are trying... take this professor, and just participate and show you are trying.

I really enjoyed the subject and the class is not too bad. But you do have to memorize a lot. Her exams are pretty much based on how much you can memorize. If you like to memorize, and not think too much, then this may be the class for you. Also, you don't need the book. I never even opened it. All you need to do is memorize all of her slides and you will do great.

let start by saying alot of reveiws complian that this class is pure memorziation. which is true, this class require momrization but think about this way, how would you rember the TCA and glyyocsis, AA making and breaking down process withoput memroizing the structure and enzymes.

miss koehler

she is very enegetic and funny i mean if u go to her class at 9 am you wont fell sleep beacuse she makes jokes that will keep you awake. also before she starts the new material she always reviews the material that she went the day before.

- another cool thing about her is that she gives you a week to study for her midterm. so if the midterm is on next Friday she will finish the material a week before the midterm which you can study and ask her questions druing the OH. she did that for the second and the final. for the final she finish whole class matrial on week before the final exam even thought we missed class like 3 days.

- her TA are awsomeone, one of the TA give you notes that summriaze lectues and the other one give you problems to solve. both of the ta will have no prlbolem to have OH for you if talk to them.

-exam style, the firts midterm was not easy beacuse the questins were wrttin in very bad way or indert way which was confusing, the second mitrem was easier beacuse it was direct and the final was direct and indierct. her exam conatins alotr of pathways so you have to know the structure and cofactors ans the only key enzymes, radiolableing, and what happens if you got mutation or disesase.

-lecture style, you wont be bored to death and you wont sleep beaucse she is enteratinig. she kinda disorganized but that oaky cuz her pdf files have alot of the writing at the bottom that she mentions in class so you qill be fine if you just understand the slides.

to pass her class
- go to the TA OH and disscustions
- understand the slides connect the patways alot of paawthways can be conneted
- know sturcture of the pawthways
- read the book
- do her problem sets that she puts on voh
she is very good teacher nad i will take her again she made that class very enjoyable.

I was not a fan of Prof. Koehler. I found that I had to teach myself the material because she wasn't effective at explaining anything. She became repetitive sometimes or skipped over entire slides, always claiming "you don't need to know this." She spent a lot of time on things we "didn't have to know" instead of all the things she expected us to know. I didn't receive a good grade in her class, which was partially my fault because I fell behind, but I think I would have had a better experience with a better professor. Bottom line: stay caught up on the material and know how to draw structures, because she LOVES asking you to draw every intermediate in a pathway. She's a nice lady, and she put in time to have review sessions and she did put up old exams. She didn't seem to know anything about the class material without consulting her notes, though. I'd avoid taking her if you can.

A lot of memorization. Midterms were ok. It is possible to predict the question because sample midterms were given. Final was a disaster with several questions about writing the pathways to synthesize strange molecules and hypothetical molecule. Her lecture note are kind of random and repeated. I found the website where she used for most of her lecture: http://www.rpi.edu/dept/bcbp/molbiochem/MBWeb/mb1/MB1index.html. Good luck!

Seriously avoid taking this class with Koehler. She seems nice, but that's the only good thing about her. She tries to teach lecture straight off of the slides, but always manages to confuse herself while reading. I'm sure she must be intellegent, but she certainly does not come off that way. She can't answer any questions without first looking it up. Her tests are killer hard and she doesn't specify what you need to memorize. In my opinion, skip lecture, cause you're better off reading the book!!!