Courey is absolutely the best human being and professor ever! I am so thankful for being able to take his 14B class as this is his first time teaching it. He is genuinely a kind person who wants ALL his students to succeed and provides a lot of opportunities to do that. His lectures are super engaging with lots of clicker questions that he came up with and he posts his slides (unlike the terrible lavelle) and his exams aren't too difficult or deadly because he gives you all the resources you need to study! His office hours are extremely helpful!!
Once again, I'm super lucky to have Courey as my 14B professor! He's really awesome and I would take as many chem classes with him as possible! He's an awesome professor and person and really helpful. There isn't too much work for this class, just stay on top of things!
Best chem class yet- he made chem enjoyable!! 20/10 would recommend!

I love professor Courey! He is just an amazing person and a caring person. He gives a lot of extra credit so do them all. His exams are all from the slides and his problem sets. He does not post the answers to the problem sets, so you have to ask him during office hours (which are extremely helpful for this class since some of the questions from the problem sets will be on the exam so make sure you have the right answers). Discussion sections are also important as the worksheets help prepare for the exam (answers for those are not also posted so go). There are journal paper discussions (2 of them) and attendance is mandatory (you get points for going). His exams also contain questions from the journal articles so make sure you understand them. He is just awesome and will make you love the class. If you ever get the chance, you should take him.

Professor Courey is incredible. If given the chance do not pass up taking 153B with him. He gives you everything you need to succeed. Very available through office hours and will often send reminders out to make sure people stay on track.

I didn't think the material of this class was particularly interesting past the first midterm (really liked the DNA topology section) and the material for the final was definitely a struggle to get through because I found it very boring. That said, the finals are perfectly and doable if you go through the lectures and do the practice tests. Our average for the 1st midterm was kind of low at a 66% but midterm 2's average was probably much higher. I scored in the A range for both midterms by just doing the practice tests, going through the lectures, and doing some problem set questions here and there.

To get the A (which is tougher than you think because there are no curves in this class) you really have to nail the quizzes and homework because that's 20% of your grade that you can easily, easily miss by being lazy on the homework and quizzes. You do get to drop 2 quizzes though so that's a nice bonus. Also I strongly recommend doing all of the cold call discussions because you will often be able to squeak by without saying anything so it is easy participation points.

Overall, Professor Courey is an amazing professor. Take 153B with him.

Dr. Courey was such a sweet professor. He reminded me of an uncle-type figure you'd see at a family reunion who would sneak candy to you behind your mom's back, or something like that. The workload is rough, though. I'm not a biochemistry major (I'm a physiological science student that took a core class for an elective, silly me), but I thought the information came really hard and fast and it was difficult to keep up, especially when I had to deal with my other classes too. That being said, Courey presents the material very clearly, so I didn't feel too behind compared to the other people in the class and ended up finishing the quarter with an A.

Make sure you do the extra credit poetry assignment, and definitely find a study buddy early on in the course. I think I would've done much worse had I not found a solid friend to stick with me through the tough times before the midterms and final.

If you like DNA replication and the central dogma of molecular biology, this class is for you! :-)

I feel so blessed for having him as a professor. He has all it takes to be an excellent professor or even a father (not completely sure about the latter, just feeling like saying it). He delivers lectures flawlessly with his casual laugh and jokes. His tests are fair, straight forward, and less brain-damaging than Tienson's 153A. If he mentions a certain problem from the problem set, do it cuz it'll be the midterm!

I am currently taking him right now. He is yet another fantastic professor. He knows his shit WELL. He has a great sense of humor and the midterms are fair. There are no trick questions or anything. His office hours are VERY helpful too.

3 midterms 1 final (3rd midterm is given at the same time as the final)

2 homework assignments
2 articles

Courey is such a cool professor. He really knows the material and is very good about answering all your questions. He also has a cute personality--really jokey but soft-spoken.

The tests are pretty fair. He tells you exactly what you should know on the lecture slides.

Just take him.

Courey is very research-oriented when it comes to CHEM153B - a lot of the slides are based off of research papers that were conducted to study DNA and RNA structure/mechanisms. As an MIMG major, I was very daunted by how like 90% of the class were biochem majors, but I fared fine because I did well on the midterm. There's an in-person and take-home portion for the one midterm of this class, and as long as you did the problem sets that he posted and studied the learning objectives he emphasized, you would've been fine. I will say the material is very dense, and he often does not put summarized information on the slides (it's mainly diagrams and like 1-2 sentences). You might have to go back to the lectures and rewatch what he's verbally saying. Discussion is group-work based, and there's a weekly worksheet. There are 2 journal articles that you have to read and discuss with your group during discussion, and he does test you on the diagrams that appeared in the journal articles on the exams (for our quarter, it was just the final - it was 1-2 questions about specific diagrams). On the midterm, I got 91.3%, so I had more wiggle room for the final. I thought the final was kind of tough because there were select 1 or more answers, so I kept second guessing myself. However, I got an 81.3%, which I'm fine with because I honestly thought I bombed it. I left like halfway through the final (1.5 hours in out of the allotted 3 hours). For the final, I studied for 4 days and did all of the learning objectives (he didn't give a specific emphasized learning objectives pdf like he did on the midterm ; he said any learning objective was fair game for the final) as well as all of the problem sets. The problem sets are optional, but I swear if you want to get a good grade on the exams, do the problem sets. Sometimes he asks questions that are similar to the concepts/set up of the practice problems. Courey is also very engaging and he answers questions concisely. I sat in the front row during the final review session he held, and I wish I sat in the front row when class started during Week 1 because I learned so much in those 2 hours of that review. He also gives a practice exam for the midterm and final. The weekly quizzes can be kind of challenging, but I got 25/25 on most of them except for one quiz. There's 2 in-person quizzes, but they're memorization based (so you just have to keep drawing the things that are going to be tested - he also literally gives you the quiz template, so it should be free points). He also offers some extra credit (although he graded kinda harsh for the haikus we have to make LOL I got like 3 points out of 6 because my CHEM153B haikus were not evocative enough but at least it's free points). Overall, I think if 153B is offered with Courey, you should take it because he's honestly a professor who cares. I also highly recommend you attend tutorial because literally he goes over stuff that'll help you on the weekly quizzes.

Professor Courey is one of the best professors I have ever had at UCLA, and as a Biochemistry major, his class made me believe that I chose the right field of study. I was initially a bit worried about the workload and time commitment of this class, and although there definitely is a lot of material, Professor Courey makes it super clear and adds fun videos and even poems to engage students. It's so obvious that he cares deeply about student learning and is genuinely passionate about the material he teaches. Additionally, his class dives into past research innovations and how they helped shape our current understanding of biochemistry, which was really cool to hear. I have zero complaints about this class and would 100% take another class taught by him.

The others that posture this class as easy are either prodigies or liars. Great professor tests and problem sets are hard. The professor bases his work in research and teaches to reflect that. If you are not in his class for the love of Biochemistry then don't do it. If it is just for a passing grade don't do it.