I compared my lab reports with my friends who have took this class with Dr. Hong in the 2019 spring quarter and 2019 winter quarter. It was very clear that I wrote superior lab reports compared to both my friends as I had access to their lab reports. They both received A's on all their lab reports, while with the TA that I had, received D's on all my lab reports. 0_0... That literally makes no sense. I tried going to her office hours and said I deserve that grade without explaining why. Sure I am not a an expert in formulating a hypothesis, but there is a standard form in which all hypotheses are formed. My TA acted as if he did not know how to form a hypothesis as if it was mysterious and difficult to form one. Nah, I do not believe in that at all. There is a way to standardize hypotheses whether it be QUANTITATIVELY or QUALITATIVELY. (Please be sure to form your hypothesis QUANTITATIVELY for all your lab reports!) Also, the grading of lab reports is so SUBJECTIVE. Which is BS. I'd rather they grade based on the requirements that are needed for each lab report as that is more OBJECTIVE. Clearly, this class definitely needs a standardized way of grading across all TA sections on how to grade lab reports! As others have stated, the lab practical was judged based on accuracy rather than understanding of the material (which I did poorly on). Lastly, to be fair, I did not really study for my midterm and final, in which to my surprise I scored just about average for both. I also do not like the way she words questions for her tests as I am a very simple person =)

Super nice prof who's very organized and has very fair tests (tests on things she's covered in class only). She's very accessible and visits lab sections and even helps out sometimes with late night lab sections by finishing experiments so students can go early. She covers a lot of material at a pretty much perfect level of detail and will go over the more confusing stuff over and over until it sticks.

The class itself is a lot of work, ESPECIALLY LAB REPORTS. Don't fuck around with lab reports. Do not skimp on anything because you will get docked for all kinds of minor shit and when you get the report back you won't even be able to tell where you lost points because grading is so vague. FOLLOWING THE LAB REPORT GUIDELINES IS MORE IMPORTANT IN YOUR FINAL GRADE THAN GETTING GOOD DATA OR THE CORRECT ANSWER. Read the labreport guidelines several times and start ahead of time so that you can get the TA to help you out when you inevitably realized you fucked up somewhere. You need to be very exact with how you word things and when in doubt be VERY conservative with what you say. Average scores for lab reports were maybe around 60-70% or so? I got around a raw 90% for all of the lab reports so I know what I'm talking about. I messed up the 3rd lab report's experiment and had to use data provided by the TA but even so I still got a high score because, I repeat, RIGHT DATA <<< LAB REPORT GUIDELINES.

Pros:
Dr. Hong is a super nice lecturer; she really cares about her students and tries to get to know us even on Zoom (I took this class during the COVID pandemic). You can tell that Dr. Hong is also pretty responsive to student feedback - she asked us throughout the quarter if she can improve and actually read through the reflections that we had to fill out. She's also very available to her students and responds really fast to emails (like I think I've gotten responses within a few hours).
The class materials were overall solid, and I really liked how the whole course centered around one main topic (production of a biofuel called isobutanol).
I also had a really nice TA who genuinely pushed us to learn - I really appreciated how much he invested into the class and tried to stir up conversations in breakout rooms, and he too was also very responsive via email.
Also, I'm not sure if this is the case always, but I believe my grade was curved/scaled because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten the grade I received were it not for some sort of scaling.

Cons:
I honestly felt that grading on the lab reports was surprisingly rough. Like some reviewers have mentioned before, there are guidelines that are given that are pretty helpful, but I felt like I lost points for things that were kind of tedious/small. It seemed like I put in a lot of effort into the class and didn't get out what I put in. Likewise, the grading on the midterm (exam 1) seemed pretty picky and points were deducted for saying wrong/misleading statements when other parts of the question were answered correctly.

Words of advice/overall impression:
Overall, while this class was pretty time-consuming (especially after the first few weeks) and the grading felt rather harsh, it was pretty doable, especially with the help of Dr. Hong and my TA. For future students, I'd suggest trying to get as much help on your lab reports as you can - go to your TA's office hours, work with other classmates to see how to best structure each section, etc. For the exams, really try to understand how different concepts in class connect together and talk through the study guide that Dr. Hong provides - a lot of the questions don't ask you to memorize things, but rather ask you to think critically and connect multiple concepts together. And lastly, try to understand the big picture of the concepts in the class. It's easy to get lost in the details of each experiment and caught up in trying to earn every point, but honestly if you try to just learn the material and see the grand scheme of things, you'll be okay.

Dr. Hong is a really nice professor and was always willing to stay behind after lecture and answer student questions. Throughout the quarter, she was also very receptive to student feedback and changed how she taught based on what the students thought was best. While she is a good professor, most of the grading is based on your TA. I hated my TA because she wasn’t very good at explaining things and graded lab reports very harshly, often marking off points for minor details or things that straight up weren’t on Dr. Hong’s rubric.

With respect to workload, this class is quite intense. You get lulled into a false sense of security in the the first three weeks and then the lab reports and midterm exam hit you like a train, so don’t slack off just because the class seems easy early on. The class was interesting in that the whole quarter was spent on one concept (making biofuels) and regardless of whether you like the topic or not, you learn a lot of practical skills that are incredibly useful if you work in a research lab or plan to go into research as a career.

The grading breakdown is already in one of these reviews so check them if you’re interested. Their midterm and final were fair even though they were entirely free-response, but some of the questions were pretty vague. To do well in this course, you shouldn’t memorize every detail of a procedure but instead understand the underlying concept and why the experiment works (and how you could explain data if you get an unexpected result). My other recommendation is to go over your lab reports WITH YOUR OWN TA (I went to another TA for clarification once and he told me information that, while not totally wrong, made me lose points on a lab report). Dr. Hong was nice enough to include 12 points of extra credit which bumped me from an A- to an A, but she also normalized lab report grades so that people with a harder TA wouldn’t be screwed over. Solid course overall, but I wouldn’t take it if you have the option.

PNP this class if you can. Professor has no sympathy since she doesn’t curve at all during the pandemic. Good luck.

Dr. Hong was such a wonderful professor. She popped into my lab section every week, and she held Q&A sessions after lecture for 30-40 minutes. She was also very receptive to feedback, as she extended the first report deadline and would reorganize her lectures based on reflections. I really did feel like she cared about her students a lot.

Her lectures were great and gave a strong foundation for the concepts in lab. Lab sections were okay, although the remote setting made them feel a bit useless at times. Exams were a time-crunch, especially the midterm, but she did try to cut down on the final in response to midterm feedback.

The big problem with the course was the lab reports and the workload. The first three weeks of the quarter were super chill, followed by a bunch of deadlines (exam, lab report 1, flow chart, etc...). This happened again but worse for the last two weeks (journal club, lab worksheet 3, lab report 3, final which is during Week 10 for some reason). I guess this is fine if 153L is your only time-consuming class, but if you're taking a lot of other classes, expect to be overwhelmed during Week 5 and Week 9/10. Typically, I'm fine with Week 10 finals, but having lab report 3 due the same week made is hard to prioritize 153L assignments and studying with the other classes I was taking.

My TA was great, but since everything is graded by your TA (including the lab reports, which constitute very significant portions of your grade), hope you get a good TA for your section. Overall, this class teaches valuable material even in a remote setting, but the lab reports are frankly a lot of work and are not worth it if you don't need to take this class.

I would say that this class was not all that conceptually difficult, but did have a lot of work due pretty constantly. Lab reports required a lot of writing, there were worksheets every week, preparatory work for lab sections, and a post-lecture reflection after every lecture which amounted to multiple deadlines every week to keep on track of.
All that being said, the content was pretty interesting and Dr. Hong was a good lecturer and was pretty responsive to accommodating people.

Personally, this is the class I have had to work the hardest in throughout my time here. This class can be very challenging and time-consuming (since lab reports are due quite often). You must make sure to complete your assignments on time! In other words, you CANNOT procrastinate. Lab quizzes were pretty fair and administered on a weekly basis up until approximately week 5. Dr. Hong decided it was more conducive to our learning if we completed flowcharts and summaries 48 hours prior to the start of our labs. I found lab enjoyable and really appreciated my TA despite lab being 4 hours long and my TA being somewhat of a tough grader. The lab practical during week 8 and the student presentations on week 9, in my opinion, were okay. I had imagined that the practical would be more difficult than I found it to be. I feel that the reports were the most dreadful part of the class, as they were graded harshly. It was really easy to lose points with these. What I struggled the most with in this class was the exams. I am unsure if this has to do with the difficulty of transitioning from remote learning to in-person or because professors may have had a difficult time adjusting the difficulty of in-person exams. I usually get As on my exam, but unfortunately got a 75 on the midterm in this course. My score improved for the final. Don't be fooled, however. The final was definitely much more conceptual and required a much higher understanding of material than the midterm. In short, solely take this class if you are willing to put in the work. I think Dr. Hong is a very kind professor and is overall a goof professor, but if you do not NEED to take this class and are not a biochemistry major, PLEASE DON'T.

The material taught in this class isn't extremely challenging, and as far as the midterm and final goes, you'll do fine so as well you put in the effort to study for them. What's demanding of this class, however, are the lab reports, of which you are expected to write up 3 (all ranging between 15 - 20+ pages). However, if you are really interested in biochemistry and lab work, then I can absolutely say that these reports (and the lab sessions you'll spend time on for) are extremely interesting, fun, and an overall great experience. Professor Hong is extremely caring and very approachable herself, and it's evident that she wants her students to succeed. If you find yourself struggling, absolutely feel free to reach out to her for help.

I think the class material itself was not difficult. I did well on just about every lab report. However, I do think that Dr. Hong's lectures were not very good. I think she had too much detail go into her lectures, she could have been much more clear and concise. But overall, the labs were not difficult, and I think they were a fair amount of work and analysis. But the exams are what really tanked my grade, I never knew what to expect. The lab report questions were not similar to exam questions, and the worksheets were not of much help (much vaguer on the exams). This is why my grade ended up being so low, both exams were curveballs for me. She wanted very precise answers to very vague questions. The TA's and lab sections are what made this class bearable. I think I have a good understanding of how to perform lab techniques and analysis, just her exam methods were not good.