I don't know why everyone hates Tienson so much. I think her exams were fair. As long as you do all the study questions, you should be well prepared for them. Although the class is indeed a lot of material, the important points of the class are often repeated over and over again. I took notes in the class and reread them which helps because then I can get down all the information first and later make sure I understand it all. It also helps to compare notes with a friend to make sure you didn't miss anything, but she also does post her slides.

Graded based on:
100 clicker points (same scheme as described by another reviewer)
75 points Midterm 1
75 points Midterm 2
150 points Final
30 points weekly discussion worksheets (mainly completion)
60 points quizzes (one 20-point quiz, four 10-point quizzes)
2-4 (?) extra credit points given for answering surveys

Opportunity to REPLACE (NOT extra credit) part of your midterm score with your group exam score. Essentially for this to even matter you actually have to do quite bad on your individual portion and quite well on the group exam. In this case it will give you an extra few points. Basically, you take your exam score, subtract 10%, and then add in your higher group exam score (up to 10% if you get 10/10.)

God, I didn't mind Dr. Tienson-Tseng for Chem 153A (had her Fall 2018) but I'll say it. She really wore me down and has started to kill my previously enormous enthusiasm for biochem. The first 5 weeks of this course felt like an entirely different course from the last 5 weeks of the course. We took midterm 1 and our class did really well (exam 1 average of 84%) and she put us through hell for both our midterm 2 and final afterward.

I literally got 100% (100 point exam scaled down to 75 points, so 75/75) on the first exam. Like yes, I did think it could have been more difficult but I thought I would be able to handle whatever she did to try to make it more difficult for exam 2. But the time limitations on exam 2 were extreme, and our exam 2 average was a fat ~50% (~38/75). She said she recognized this issue and would attempt to consider it for the final, but the final also verged on being too long, though the difficulty was scaled back a bit. Average for this was ~72.6% (109/150).

The depression that set in post-midterm 2 was so bad that I could barely motivate myself to study for the SUNDAY final, mind you. Never in my life have I just cared so little about an exam because I knew it would f*ck me up the ass no matter what I did and I just hated her mediocre lecturing. This woman pauses for unnaturally long periods of time and then she'll look at her notes or suddenly recall everything and then word vomit out the rest of what she needs to say and it becomes far less comprehensible this way. The need to meticulously review Bruincasts is huge. Prepare yourself to go over them in great detail to be able to figure out what's important for exams, since there's this Tienson effect of going back to watch the Bruincast and not only learning things you missed but realizing there were things you didn't even KNOW you missed because of how she suddenly speaks so fast out of no where. It's appalling.

Look man, I used to respect Dr. Tienson-Tseng, LIKE HER. But I am tired. I am weary. At this point, I expect better. Her poorly worded questions and INTENTIONAL vagueness and her stubbornness sometimes about how "there's only one way to interpret this" when there really isn't and empirical evidence shows otherwise.

It never feels good to leave an exam feeling like you didn't even have the chance to attempt 33-50% of the questions. Exams are not an accurate measure of knowledge/skill. Compensating with tons of clicker points (worth more than a midterm) and buffer points doesn't make it better.

I feel like it's miraculous I ended up with an A. I am grateful but I absolutely cannot find it in myself to say something particularly nice about Dr. Tienson-Tseng at this point. Take her with caution. The flip side is that she does Bruincast, she is receptive to questions in class, she's not entirely unreasonable, and she definitely doesn't screw you over entirely with her grades in the end but the pain I suffered in this class was not worth it.

God, I really can't believe how night/day this class was after the second midterm in particular. I had nothing but great things to say about the class up until then, but if I ever have to take a Tienson exam again ... my god. She's just average in so many ways with often frustrating exams... It's either you take her with chem 153B being one of your only more difficult classes in the quarter or just suffer while managing multiple difficult classes. In the 153 series it really isn't supposed to be the bad one, and I genuinely didn't spend that much time until the last half of the class but STILL. UGHHHHH. Glad to be done with this.

I'm just going into my 3rd year at UCLA and Biochem with Tienson was the probably the hardest class I have personally ever taken at UCLA thus far. However, I don't feel this is Heather's fault as much as the timing and pace of the class is when you are in the quarter system and taking other difficult classes. I found the best way to study for this class was to DO! THE! STUDY! QUESTIONS! Learn how she wanted you to explain concepts using the answer keys for the study questions, she doesn't necessarily look for key words but she DOES look for key concepts to be applied, and these are very useful. I wasted so much time making notes before seeing there were 20 pages of study questions per week I didn't go through until the night before the exam, big mistake (at least I learned for the final).

HW: not assigned homework except for the protein structure assignment, so if you don't have a good work/study ethic (like me), don't worry, you will develop one. Study questions are the best tool! I only learned this after receiving my first midterm though.

Quizzes: She gives many quizzes (I think 5 total?) every week or 2 that in the long run helped me retain the information for the final (though it was a lot of studying per week).

Exams: If you are concerned about your grade like I was, just know that I got a C- on both midterms (exactly at the median), but I scored above the median on the final (about 15 points, but still got a C+), but this allowed me to get an A- in the class (which I was surprisingly happy with given how difficult I found the class). Make sure to carefully check the grading on your exams too...I submitted granted regrade requests for about 4 points on the exam, which may have affected my grade a lot.

Grading: She gives out the point ranges on the syllabus and she will be strict about these points ranges. Always aim to earn the maximum amount of points you can on ANY assignment. They matter if you care about your final grade in the class.

Extra credit: She does end up giving a lot more extra credit than I have seen chemistry professors give (don't rely on it though).

Most of the reviews here are accurate. Here's my 2 cents though. Although the class is difficult, it is most definitely survivable if you try from the get go. Beware of the pacing though, 4 lectures a week could be really draining. Somehow also she ends up being behind of her own schedule as well, so be prepared to learn something on the last lecture before the exam (e.g. Friday lecture and Sunday Final). Learning ahead is a good idea.

Problem Sets: Be sure to do the problem sets as they come out, as they resemble the same caliber of questions you will see on the exam for the most part. Pay attention to what she expects from your answer -- you have to be that specific and thorough.

Quizzes/Hw: Also, there were 7 quizzes (some in class and some online), but these should be "easy" points for the most part. It is all just memorization, so be sure to ace these to give yourself more room for error during exams. There is also a homework assignment worth about 30 points. Try not to underestimate the assignment and lose points on it either, as this can also help to cushion your grade.

Extra credit: Her point scale in the class is adjusted, curving it a little. She also does have extra credit opportunities sprinkled throughout the quarter which helps, such as the "This Quarter in Biochemistry" assignment where you find a current research article relating to the topics of the class. Also, there were always +3 free points on each exam from just writing your name and a fun fact question.

Exams: They were tough, but they're not impossible. Just study the problem sets, and the logic behind the answer key. Be thorough and fast for the midterms. There's less time pressure on the final.

Point Breakdown:
MT 1 - 91/100
MT 2 - 86 /100
Final - 178/200
5 Quizzes - 100/100
HW Assignment - 29/30
Clicker - 25/25
Extra Credit - not sure, but I did do all of them
Total 509/550
Grade: A (range was 460-550)

My grade for when I took the class was determined by:

Midterm 1 (75), Midterm 2 (75), and the Final Exam (150)
Clicker Questions (100)
Quizzes (90)
Discussion Worksheets (30)
BS assignments (10-30)
~550 points

There were 2 sources of extra credit: Group exams (15 points possible) and class surveys/evaluations (like 4 points?).

Clicker Questions: get 66.7% of the questions correct and participate in 100% of them to get 100 points. You only need 75% of the total clicker points available to get 100/100 (it's scaled that way). These questions will make up more than a midterm grade, hallelujah.

Exams divided into parts A and B.
Part A: 4-5 questions (9-10 questions for the final) with subparts like a, b, c, d,...that count for a total of 40 points for Midterm 1 and 2, and 80 points for the Final.

Part B: 4-5 questions (9-10 questions for the Final) with subparts like a, b, c, d,...that count for a total of 35 points for Midterm 1 and 2, and 70 points for the Final.

You have to get 100% on part A and 75% on part B to not miss any points on the exams (yes, this is how she scales both parts). Part B is usually harder than part A hence the scaling, but if you shotgun part B you may end up with a higher score than sniping down one or a few questions.

Exam 1 Average: 61%, Exam 2 Average: 60%, Final Average: 75%.

A note about the group exam: she took our group exam scores (which usually is one or two problems from their respective Exams), divided them by 2 and added those points as extra credit to our grade. Total possible points on the group exams: 10 each, meaning you can get a possible 5 points extra credit per group exam. There is 1 for each exam: Midterm 1, Midterm 2, and the Final. The Final group exam will take 1 hour and 15 minutes and it is right AFTER your Final exam, so you should account for the Final Exam times when choosing your classes or you may have to talk with your professors to compromise.

My two cents: This class sucks.

She is a very very bad professor. This is all I have to say after taking her class.

When you are in the classroom and hear the lecturer talks like "ah...today...ah...we gonna talk about ah...ah...DNA...ah..."; guess what? You are in the class of Dr. Tienson!
She uses the iclicker to take attendance, but the only purpose of her lecture is to torture her students' ears. She doesn't know much biochemistry, not even good at reading from the slides.
She can't even produce a complete sentence without saying "ah..ah..ah..", but she is truly a master in annoying people.

The exams were graded using gradescope, and please be informed that you almost can never get a score that you expect because the answer key really contains everything one can think of, and it is impossible to write them all down within a such short time.
Her class has made me to doubt myself...Indeed, I thought that I was crazy, so I went to see a shrink. Fortunately, after a few sessions, the shrink told me that the problem wasn't on me, but there are some serious mental issues with Dr. Tienson. It is extremely disappointing that such a pathetic "lecturer" teaches at UCLA.

Tutoring for this class! I did well and Tienson wrote me a LOR. Email me at ************* if you're interested.

I took this class online, so it is probably very different in person. Due to COVID, all our tests were 24 hour, and open note, plus collaboration was allowed. This made it extremely easy to get an A+. Tienson didn't change her grading scheme, so an 83% was an A+.
That being said, I didn't learn anything this quarter, and now have to self-study for the MCAT. This isn't really Tienson's fault, though we definitely did not cover as much as we would have during a regular quarter.
The rest of your grade is made up of clickers, Kudu questions, and discussion worksheets. My TA, Fadi, was amazing, so discussion was 100% worth it for me. Everything I learned was from discussion.
Kudu is the worst thing ever. Glitchy, annoying questions, and overall not helpful.
Overall, I would recommend Tienson, BUT keep in mind everything was far easier due to COVID and the George Floyd BLM movement (final was made optional)

Took during COVID (Online)

It is MUCH easier as of writing this review and she is VERY accommodating as to what is going on and really helped us out on the tests. Midterms were OPEN NOTES and COLLABORATION ENCOURAGED! This meant that midterms were not difficult at all and the final was optional with midterms being weighted more. They were also given over a day period with final over 2 day period. The rubric she uses is her old one which is done in person so it may change to accommodate rampant grade inflation as a high majority of the class was getting an A (70% at least).