Dr. Tienson changed up how she runs this course. When I took it, it was graded as such:
-4 "quizzes," worst is dropped
-final exam
-group protein brochure project
-clicker questions

Let's start with the "quizzes." These are not quizzes. They are cumulative midterms that she calls quizzes, because they are half as long as the (from what I've read) god awful midterms she used to give in previous quarters. Did I mention they're cumulative? That means that not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, but 5 times...5 fucking times during the quarter, you have to study everything you've ever learned in this class. It sucks.

The final exam was actually less difficult than the quizzes, IMO. I remember in 153A the final was a big shock to some people. Not so in 153C. The graded exams are terrible all quarter long.

The clicker policy is a bit nicer than in 153A. Participation and accuracy both count; you get 1 point for answering and 2 points for answering correctly. You need to get like 70% of the points up for grabs, so you can miss a couple days of class no problem. This is nice. However, the class was podcasts, not videocasted, it's better to just go to lecture.

The protein brochure project was fine, but I would have preferred not to have any portion of my grade depend on other people. My group solely communicated via google docs and fb messenger. You don't really have to worry about this until week 3, and there are checkpoint assignments throughout the quarter, so the project is never a huge burden.

A few tips: find a way to distill the core idea of each lecture onto one page, and study those pages multiple times a week. If you can make a diagram of something, it'll probably be on the exam. You need to know how all the pathways are regulated. Seriously, regulation, regulation, regulation. She will test you relentlessly on regulation.

All in all, it's a tough class, but I learned a lot of information that I value.

Tienson is the definition of a bitch ass wigga.

Here is the class breakdown/my grades in each section:

Quizzes (5 in class and 2 online): 98.6/100
PyMOL Assignment: 30/30
iClicker Score: 25/25
Midterm 1 (Average 67): 71.5/100
Midterm 2 (Average 73): 89.5/100
Final Exam (Average 138): 143.5/200
Extra Credit: 2/9
Overall Score (Average 432): 460.1/555
Grade in the Class: A-

Texbooks and Assigned Readings:

She provides a free online copy for the entire class to use so you won't have to spend any money. Use the textbook for the online quizzes and any concept clarification.

Weekly Practice Problem Sets and Practice Midterms/Finals:

DO. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Know how to do each problem without looking at the answer key and memorize the wording of each answer. The reason why the average is so low is because people forget to put minute details that she explicitly mentions in these problems. Don't bother looking at her slides or the book (maybe just for conceptual clarification) because each practice problem she assigns us is from an old midterm or final.

LA Weekly Workshops and Review Sessions:

Go to at least one per week. They give you a worksheet with all the concepts as well as additional practice problems. It is a great time to also ask clarifying questions and test your knowledge, plus they are super approachable because they are undergrads.

Discussions:

Unless you have an amazing TA like I did (shout out to Agape Awad) do not bother going to discussion because you will not finish any of the worksheet. If your TA is able to finish the worksheet in discussion definitely attend discussions because those problems are also taken from past midterms/finals and it is extra guided practice.

Lectures:

Basically useless in my opinion because Dr. Tienson. while a very sweet person, lectures waayyy too fast for me to even keep up. Just print out her slides, add additional notes, and bring your clicker.

Quizzes:

Very easy rote memorization that will help you in the long run.

Exams:

Very difficult (asks for a lot of detail) so know the information like the back of your hand. The final is SIGNIFICANTLY harder so do as many old finals as you can.

Grading:

The curve is extremely generous (I believe usually around 30% of the class gets an A/A- which is more than I could ask for in an upper division chemistry class)

Overall: Dr. Tienson is a really nice person but stay on top of your sh*t because she is not kidding around. The more you practice the better off you will be. Group study and quizlets were incredibly helpful study tools.

Honestly I am surprised that there are so many people acting like this class is easy/doable. Maybe if you are someone who is naturally talented in chem. For me... I have been struggling with Chem all through the 14 series, and now with this class. I studied, studied, studied just to get a C+... Honestly I am happy with the C+ because there was times I didn't know if I was going to pass. I studied for days and days for every exam just to get 50% or so. However, this seems to be a experience unique to me. Hopefully you will not be like me unless you suck at chem too haha!

But otherwise... I think the other reviews cover all the important points of this class.
Really learn how to do the practice problems/practice exams. Focus on key phrases she repeats over and over.
Get 100% on the quizzes every time. They are basically free points. For memorization of things like long pathways, I would recommend you memorize the first step then write it down without looking, memorize first + second step then write it down without looking, then continue this until you can write the whole thing without looking. I thought the quizzes would be really hard but if you study like this it is definitely possible to learn within an hour or two!
Do extra credit points, she does not offer a ton but you never know if you will be a borderline for your grade.
Warning, the midterms are FAST. You have 50 minutes to complete a 100 point exam. It kind of sucks tbh. I think I lost a lot of points because I was nervous and had to zoom through the problems.
Good luck! It sucked for me but I believe I learned a lot and am ready for the MCAT...

I am going to second anyone who has said that this class is TOUGH. I have heard horror stories from upperclassmen about this class, so I knew to take this class seriously from the start. With that being said, it's not impossible. You really just need to enter this class with the right mentality and *know* that you're going to do well. I'm not gonna lie, there were times that I felt so utterly defeated and didn't know if I would do well in this class. I was SHOCKED when I saw my final grade (believe me, I am so thankful for this class's curve because it is soooo generous) but it still took an unbelievable amount of hard work. Lemme break it down for ya.

LECTURES: Personally, I found her lectures to be quite helpful. Heather does a decent job at covering all the basic concepts in class, and I found the clicker Q's to be pretty helpful. However, she speaks waaaay too fast in class (I don't blame her because there is just so much material to cover), so I started to BruinCast every lecture after the first midterm, and I couldn't believe all the details that I missed during lecture!! I would highly recommend using BruinCast to extract all the key details from lecture because they show up again in study questions and exams.
DISCUSSION: Not mandatory. My TA wasn't amazing so I stopped going UNTIL I discovered Agape. BLESS HER SOUL. Her discussion sections were amazingly organized and helpful. She went over the discussion worksheets in such a methodical and organized fashion and related to the problems to the key concepts covered during lecture. I am forever indebted to her.
HOMEWORK: There is only one assignment (protein structure assignment using PyMOL) and I cannot stress the importance of starting early and checking your work! I spent a solid week on this assignment and still had to go to OH and check up with friends on how to do it. The assignment is worth 30 points, which contributes quite a bit to your final grade.
TEXTBOOK: Not required. Heather provides a PDF on CCLE. I never used it except for assigned reading to take the two online quizzes.
STUDY QUESTIONS: Do every single one of them. Aside from past exams, the study questions are the single best study tool that you have for this class. Do them the week that they're assigned! They pile on soooo quickly. Some weeks only have 20 questions, and others have 50 questions. You really don't wanna save all of them right before an exam because they are pretty time-consuming to go through.
QUIZZES: The in-class quizzes are a breeze because they're just memorization. You only get 5-10 minutes (depending on the quiz) at the beginning of class to do them, so know your stuff. Remember to brush up on the quiz content before midterms & finals because she expects you to know them for exams! There are two online quizzes on CCLE, which requires assigned textbook reading, so they're not as straightforward as the in-class ones. I think there are 110 points total for quizzes, but only 100 points count towards your grade, so there was some leeway if you forgot to study for one.
LA SESSIONS: I went to a weekly LA review session, which I didn't find that helpful. I did, however, attend all the review sessions before exams, and the LAs basically went over past exam questions, which was helpful!
EXAMS: Oh boy they were difficult... You can't just get away with memorization to do well on her exams. I didn't do so hot on the first midterm and had to reassess my studying habits. Some things that I did that helped me for subsequent exams: use BruinCast to get all the key details from lecture, start study questions EARLY, and take advantage of any practice midterms and final you can find. The final was significantly harder than the two midterms, so stay on top of the material! Also, I also am indebted to AK Lectures on YouTube- he goes over the key biochem concepts SO well!!

Some final words: if you're reading this at the beginning of the quarter, I BELIEVE IN YOU and you need to believe in yourself! Start your shit early because I know I did, and I still felt like I was pressed for time on studying. You can do anything you set your mind to. If you're reading this right after getting your midterm grades back, pick yourself back up because YOU GOT THIS. I got 68.5% on the first midterm and lost almost all hope in getting an A in the class, but I'm letting you know that is *still* possible. This class is difficult, but you get what you put in. Good luck, and GO BRUINS!

yes good

I really enjoyed taking 153A with Dr. Tienson... so much I'm taking 153B with her currently. If I were to give past-me a word of advice regarding Tienson's class, I would definitely stress the importance of the study questions. Those things are beyond important! Make sure you really understand the concept she's trying to ingrain in you because that's what she's going to be looking for in the exam. Make sure you get 100% on the in-class quizzes because those will be the easy points. Go to office hours whenever you can and do NOT underestimate the rigor of this class! The class is hard but not impossible! Good luck!

Dr. Tienson does provide a lot of resources in this class for students to do well. Her study questions are very helpful since she's picky with her grading and likes you to answer things exactly the way she would answer them, so you need to familiarize yourself with the way she chooses to phrase things and also the concepts and ideas she likes and seems to repeat a lot and ask clicker questions on and emphasize during lecture because she's most likely going to want you to know those things for the exam. The material is not too difficult it's just very dense and she goes very fast in lecture. I found it very very helpful to relisten to every single lecture of hers, and take additional notes when I relistened to the lectures, it helped tremendously. After doing that I would start with the study questions. Don't fall too behind on those. Her practice exams are also helpful. Discussion sessions are not very helpful but the TA's and LA's themselves are so I would say go to office hours and review sessions as well as the LA weekly workshops. Repetition is really what gets you to succeed in the course, you have to really be familiar with the material. Also do the homework assignment ahead of time and the extra credit as well; don't leave things to the last minute with this class because it's time consuming and heavy enough as it is. That being said, an A is definitely manageable. Her curve is reasonable and generous and she does make it pretty clear what she expects you to know for the exams.

I need to start this review by saying her curve is SO GENEROUS. I got exactly average on the first midterm but was still able to pull an A in the class. While her study questions that pretty much everyone says are the most important thing, the best thing you can study for her midterms are her gradescope midterms. The study questions are a great way to know the concepts but a lot of times they are superfluous. The gradescope midterms tell you exactly what you should write for her tests. Also, since she posts her study questions that are really just an amalagamation of her past midterm questions, she obviously wouldn't put a lot of the same questions on the midterm or else her averages would be a lot higher, which is why you should put more emphasis on the gradescope midterms. For the final, since it was on Sunday, I didn't even have time to go over all the study questions not including after midterm two, so I just went through a bunch of past finals and I thought that was the best way to study and was a quicker way to solidify my concepts of stuff before final exam material. Even if you get past finals with a lot wrong answers, I think those were the best source of studying because since her final is much harder than her midterms, you can get familiar with the types of tricks and angles in which she asks different questions for the final. There ARE some patterns in her past finals. Unlike the previous review, her lectures along with her office hours aren't that helpful besides the clicker questions. It's a good idea to understand every single clicker question because they are a good way to understand big/important concepts. I didn't even bother bruincasting. The TAs Agape and Rachel saved my ass with the discussion worksheets along with the LA workshops which you should go every single week. I liked reading the textbook but I guess it wasn't completely necessary except for Michaelis-Menten which I think it's crucial to read that section in the textbook or else it's really difficult to understand that. Also, there's a word limit on some of her exam questions but honestly screw that because a lot of times they don't even take points off even if you go over the word limit, and if they do dock you, they only dock you one point at the most and that's better than just not writing enough. Lastly, I feel like this class was just disorganized because I didn't learn much from lecture, but instead felt like I had entire concepts shoved down my throat when going through her study questions.

My God this class was one of the most dense, time-consuming, life-draining classes I've taken yet. I'll try to break down the class in sections:
Tienson: Had better lecturers, I just couldn't pay attention to her during class but good thing Bruincast exists. I would sometimes relisten to some of the lectures and then it would make so much sense.

Grading: This class has 2 midterms, 1 final, couple quizzes, clickers, and a homework assignment. Pretty much got 100% on clickers, quizzes, and homework assignment. The first midterm was pretty bad as an average but I did well enough for an A. Same with the second midterm. The final was definitely really difficult but I did do above average.

Exams: The midterms are 50 min so you better hurry up. They reflect the questions on the study questions she posts weekly so just study those. The thing is, she's always behind so half the time, you wouldn't know what the hell the study questions were about because we haven't learned them yet. This is where TA office hours and Google really helped as I basically taught myself the material before Tienson got there in order to stay on top of the study questions.

TA: Without them, I definitely would not have gotten an A. Huge shoutouts to TAs Agape and Rachel. Take them if you can! Go to TA OH!

LAs: Didn't really utilize LAs or their workshops other than their review sessions before exams. They were alright but I found the TAs to be significantly better.

Final words: A lot of people kind of overhype this class to be "impossibly difficult". Don't get scared and already come into the class with a defeated mentality. About 20% of the class gets an A so it's not like this class is curved unfairly against students. The nature of biochemistry is just very dense and both mathematical and conceptual meaning there is no way to succeed in this class without buckling down and really grinding through problems and memorizing. Just as a reminder, you pre-meds should be preparing for this as it's going to be this dense and much faster in medical school for 2 years.

This class was by no means easy but was very interesting. I hated this class but at the same time I liked it. It's a very comprehensive class that encompasses basically all your lower division pre-reqs. I saw concepts from Chem 14A, B, C, D, CL, LS2 and LS3. Goodluck future students. Please try hard in this class. Don't pretend to "study" when you're actually just goofing off or passively skimming through study questions and then get salty that you didn't do well. You all have some degree of academic aptitude and discipline if you're a STEM major at UCLA. Use it.