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
Morin Leisk is the nicest, most caring , and enthusiastic professor you will get for chemistry. If you value the character and personality of the professor, you will not be disappointed. She has that early enthusiasm that is seen in new professors. As for the lecture and materials, I feel that there was too much info and all of the different topics lacked cohesion. But maybe this is just the nature of the course and this will be the same regardless of the professor you take. I don't like her lecture style. She writes on the projector on printed out power point slides. I wish that she would just post the slides with the notes on them because I really prefer to pay attention during lecture and not be so focused on writing notes. And now...for her exams. You know how Napoleon got a bit too ambitious when he decided to invade Russia? Well yea.. She says that she designs her test so that student's can get a C- just by putting the crappiest answers possible. Let's just say that I wouldn't even qualify as crap based on her criteria. The exam was way too long for 50 minutes! Overall I recommend her. I believe that she will only improve as a professor and considering that your alternative is Tienson, I think it would be wise to take Morin Leisk for 153A.
Morin Leisk is the nicest, most caring , and enthusiastic professor you will get for chemistry. If you value the character and personality of the professor, you will not be disappointed. She has that early enthusiasm that is seen in new professors. As for the lecture and materials, I feel that there was too much info and all of the different topics lacked cohesion. But maybe this is just the nature of the course and this will be the same regardless of the professor you take. I don't like her lecture style. She writes on the projector on printed out power point slides. I wish that she would just post the slides with the notes on them because I really prefer to pay attention during lecture and not be so focused on writing notes. And now...for her exams. You know how Napoleon got a bit too ambitious when he decided to invade Russia? Well yea.. She says that she designs her test so that student's can get a C- just by putting the crappiest answers possible. Let's just say that I wouldn't even qualify as crap based on her criteria. The exam was way too long for 50 minutes! Overall I recommend her. I believe that she will only improve as a professor and considering that your alternative is Tienson, I think it would be wise to take Morin Leisk for 153A.
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Most Helpful Review
Well, this was a fun ride. I guess I can say I'm glad to be done with the class. But how will future students prepare for Nelson (if she does stick around)? Here's probably the best advice: DO NOT SLACK OFF AFTER THE SECOND MIDTERM. The first two thirds of the class are rather manageable, but eventually you have to memorize glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and the electron transport chain. While not too difficult to memorize on their own, it's the other stuff that comes with them that really gets to you. I don't know what my grade is yet, but based purely on experience, do not fall behind after the second midterm. Keep up and really pay attention to every word she says in those final jam-packed lectures.
Well, this was a fun ride. I guess I can say I'm glad to be done with the class. But how will future students prepare for Nelson (if she does stick around)? Here's probably the best advice: DO NOT SLACK OFF AFTER THE SECOND MIDTERM. The first two thirds of the class are rather manageable, but eventually you have to memorize glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and the electron transport chain. While not too difficult to memorize on their own, it's the other stuff that comes with them that really gets to you. I don't know what my grade is yet, but based purely on experience, do not fall behind after the second midterm. Keep up and really pay attention to every word she says in those final jam-packed lectures.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2020 - I love Patananan!! He's such a nice, funny guy who is genuinely concerned about student learning. This was the first time he taught 153A, and I think he did an excellent job. This class is notoriously a massacre, but I feel like he succeeded in making it very manageable. His exams weren't a breeze but they weren't necessarily difficult, but I still feel like I learned a lot. He also offered a bunch of extra credit. 10/10 would take again
Summer 2020 - I love Patananan!! He's such a nice, funny guy who is genuinely concerned about student learning. This was the first time he taught 153A, and I think he did an excellent job. This class is notoriously a massacre, but I feel like he succeeded in making it very manageable. His exams weren't a breeze but they weren't necessarily difficult, but I still feel like I learned a lot. He also offered a bunch of extra credit. 10/10 would take again
Most Helpful Review
The professor is not that bad as some students rated him! He is kind of boring, but he knows material really well. He is very kind old man if you talk to him. And low averages mean that if you put a tiny bit of effort, you are much ahead of everyone. I think professor Schumaker was easy in this class. His tests are for the logic and application of material, not for just memorization.
The professor is not that bad as some students rated him! He is kind of boring, but he knows material really well. He is very kind old man if you talk to him. And low averages mean that if you put a tiny bit of effort, you are much ahead of everyone. I think professor Schumaker was easy in this class. His tests are for the logic and application of material, not for just memorization.
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2018 - This is my first Bruinwalk review, and the reason I'm writing it is because I feel like more people should know about Prof Silkworth. This class was super interesting and hard as hell! but Prof Silkworth is so into biochem that it's hard not to catch his enthusiasm. Don't freak out if you bomb your first midterm. Even though he doesn't technically curve the class, he does scale your grades and offers a good amount of extra credit if the class collectively does poorly on a test. I studied my ass off, but was honestly floored when I got my final grade. A couple things: GO to office hours!! I know everyone says that, but seriously, go to his office hours. Lecture can be rushed due to the sheer amount of info, but office hours let you actually take time to go over difficult topics. Worry less about the problem sets and more about what he says to focus on in class. I started recording his lectures in case I missed something and it really helped, because he constantly drops hints about what to study. Focus on those problems in the sets. Do get the textbook. An older version is fine, but it just really helps to get that extra clarification on mechanisms and additional diagrams. I'm pretty visual and the textbook has lots of that. Finally, don't get too caught up with your grade. Just study hard and participate, and I think he recognizes that. You may be pleasantly surprised. Good luck!
Summer 2018 - This is my first Bruinwalk review, and the reason I'm writing it is because I feel like more people should know about Prof Silkworth. This class was super interesting and hard as hell! but Prof Silkworth is so into biochem that it's hard not to catch his enthusiasm. Don't freak out if you bomb your first midterm. Even though he doesn't technically curve the class, he does scale your grades and offers a good amount of extra credit if the class collectively does poorly on a test. I studied my ass off, but was honestly floored when I got my final grade. A couple things: GO to office hours!! I know everyone says that, but seriously, go to his office hours. Lecture can be rushed due to the sheer amount of info, but office hours let you actually take time to go over difficult topics. Worry less about the problem sets and more about what he says to focus on in class. I started recording his lectures in case I missed something and it really helped, because he constantly drops hints about what to study. Focus on those problems in the sets. Do get the textbook. An older version is fine, but it just really helps to get that extra clarification on mechanisms and additional diagrams. I'm pretty visual and the textbook has lots of that. Finally, don't get too caught up with your grade. Just study hard and participate, and I think he recognizes that. You may be pleasantly surprised. Good luck!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - I highly recommend you read the other reviews, as I found them to be generally accurate toward Tienson. Her lecturing is pretty mediocre, a solid 3.5/5 maybe. But her tests are the trashiest that I've ever seen. Her tests alone make my overall rating 2/5. In general, I don't think the any of the course is worth much emphasis except the tests. There's a ton of things that you can point out that's terrible, so let's just list them out. 1. Questions are worded vaguely or in a misleading way. You often struggle to figure out what in the world Tienson actually wants. Tienson doesn't seem to have the self-awareness to realize that if a bunch of students complain, then it's probably the question's fault, not every single one of the student's fault. 2. The short answer questions have a strange limitation that you cannot write more than x number of sentences. Mind you, x is usually something like 1 or 2. Try explaining a concept in 1 or 2 sentences. Then she takes off points during grading for not being detailed enough. Oh, and writing run-on sentences gets counted as multiple sentences. 3. Her grading policy allows partial credit in a question. The only problem is that her grading rubric demands relatively specific things to be mentioned, such that having a question mostly right will usually still net you almost no partial credit. 4. She only allows 10 regrade requests for the entire quarter. That is, 10 questions. Due to how vague the questions are and how oddly specific the grading rubric tends to be, it can often be a struggle to figure out if it's worth it to use up a regrade request on that question. Of course, if she does determine that the question was graded incorrectly, then you get one regrade request back, but come on. I've never seen a professor that mistrusts students to this degree to not abuse the regrade requests. The course is *not* graded on a curve, though the professor does scale it so that something like an 82% still counts as an A. Good luck getting even 80% on the tests though. Anyways, I find that the best way to prepare for the tests is to watch the Bruincast lecture vids before the test. That'll refresh your memory on what it was that Tienson brought up in class, since you can bet that she'll use something that's only mentioned in passing as a question on the test.
Winter 2019 - I highly recommend you read the other reviews, as I found them to be generally accurate toward Tienson. Her lecturing is pretty mediocre, a solid 3.5/5 maybe. But her tests are the trashiest that I've ever seen. Her tests alone make my overall rating 2/5. In general, I don't think the any of the course is worth much emphasis except the tests. There's a ton of things that you can point out that's terrible, so let's just list them out. 1. Questions are worded vaguely or in a misleading way. You often struggle to figure out what in the world Tienson actually wants. Tienson doesn't seem to have the self-awareness to realize that if a bunch of students complain, then it's probably the question's fault, not every single one of the student's fault. 2. The short answer questions have a strange limitation that you cannot write more than x number of sentences. Mind you, x is usually something like 1 or 2. Try explaining a concept in 1 or 2 sentences. Then she takes off points during grading for not being detailed enough. Oh, and writing run-on sentences gets counted as multiple sentences. 3. Her grading policy allows partial credit in a question. The only problem is that her grading rubric demands relatively specific things to be mentioned, such that having a question mostly right will usually still net you almost no partial credit. 4. She only allows 10 regrade requests for the entire quarter. That is, 10 questions. Due to how vague the questions are and how oddly specific the grading rubric tends to be, it can often be a struggle to figure out if it's worth it to use up a regrade request on that question. Of course, if she does determine that the question was graded incorrectly, then you get one regrade request back, but come on. I've never seen a professor that mistrusts students to this degree to not abuse the regrade requests. The course is *not* graded on a curve, though the professor does scale it so that something like an 82% still counts as an A. Good luck getting even 80% on the tests though. Anyways, I find that the best way to prepare for the tests is to watch the Bruincast lecture vids before the test. That'll refresh your memory on what it was that Tienson brought up in class, since you can bet that she'll use something that's only mentioned in passing as a question on the test.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - This man is 75 and a retired professor who only comes to teach when they need an extra section. I took this class last quarter and it was at 8am, four days a week (so already awful off the bat). Luckily it was bruincasted, his attendance was in the 20-30% every single lecture, which he was mad about (dont teach an 8 am then). His voice and lectures are not engaging whatsoever and the class is based almost entirely on two midterms (which are 50 min during class) and a final, all which was so hard. His TAs grade and look for verbatim words and phrases that he uses in lecture, and if you paraphrase, its wrong, and partial credit is rare. I shouldve taken Awad but both of her sections were full when I registered and I thought taking Weiss would be fine. Sike i was wrong. I would recommend waiting for a better professor if this is your only option. I am now paying the price and am going to have to retake the course.
Fall 2019 - This man is 75 and a retired professor who only comes to teach when they need an extra section. I took this class last quarter and it was at 8am, four days a week (so already awful off the bat). Luckily it was bruincasted, his attendance was in the 20-30% every single lecture, which he was mad about (dont teach an 8 am then). His voice and lectures are not engaging whatsoever and the class is based almost entirely on two midterms (which are 50 min during class) and a final, all which was so hard. His TAs grade and look for verbatim words and phrases that he uses in lecture, and if you paraphrase, its wrong, and partial credit is rare. I shouldve taken Awad but both of her sections were full when I registered and I thought taking Weiss would be fine. Sike i was wrong. I would recommend waiting for a better professor if this is your only option. I am now paying the price and am going to have to retake the course.
Most Helpful Review
I heard that summer 2001 will be the last time Whitelegge's gonna teach. I can see why people see him as a teacher who is not concerned about students, but I think he improved a bit when I took him. Still, he sounds a bit arrogant sometimes. Beside me, I know some other people who got intimidated by him. The hard part about the course is the material itself, and I believe that Whitelegge's test may be easier than Bates' already. One thing that makes me think Bates will be better is that she has her own reader, so you know exactly what to expect in the tests. While for Whitelegge, he just assign pages to read in the book (Which is hard and boring readings). Some details from the book ends up on the test, although he may have briefly mention it in lecture. He's not a high school teacher, so he doesn't write down every single thing on board; taking notes on what he says is more important than the stuff on board. To me, reading book is neccessary for succeeding in the class, because you won't be able to comprehend everything in lecture, nor TA will be good enough to answer all the questions you have. The readings are bad though, I feel like they take more time than the readings for my English Literature class that I took with this class.
I heard that summer 2001 will be the last time Whitelegge's gonna teach. I can see why people see him as a teacher who is not concerned about students, but I think he improved a bit when I took him. Still, he sounds a bit arrogant sometimes. Beside me, I know some other people who got intimidated by him. The hard part about the course is the material itself, and I believe that Whitelegge's test may be easier than Bates' already. One thing that makes me think Bates will be better is that she has her own reader, so you know exactly what to expect in the tests. While for Whitelegge, he just assign pages to read in the book (Which is hard and boring readings). Some details from the book ends up on the test, although he may have briefly mention it in lecture. He's not a high school teacher, so he doesn't write down every single thing on board; taking notes on what he says is more important than the stuff on board. To me, reading book is neccessary for succeeding in the class, because you won't be able to comprehend everything in lecture, nor TA will be good enough to answer all the questions you have. The readings are bad though, I feel like they take more time than the readings for my English Literature class that I took with this class.
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