As someone who hates memorization, I was dreading this class because I had heard from everyone that biochem is pure memorization and that I had heard all of the biochem professors are awful. (It also didn't help that I am a transfer student and this was my first quarter). However, I was greatly surprised by how just how much I loved this class. Sure there is stuff to memorize but Prof. Lannon really tries his best to keep that to the minimum and focus on learning and understanding. He has good lectures that are engaging, although he can work on the wording on his slides to make them more informative but they are pretty good. For some reason though I would always feel like I was falling asleep in that class. I am not sure if that was because I had the class right after lunch or what, but it wasn't anything in his power (his lectures aren't boring). His HWs are also very good at showing you what is important and he also provides practice exams which are definitely useful. His office hours are also very useful (only if you have specific questions), but they do get packed very very fast, so you have to make sure to run there if you don't want to sit on the floor. But I only recommend going to office hours if you have a specific question, else it is mostly a waste of time. He is also very nice for having extra office hours (even during weekends) before exams. He also uses an app called "Campus Wire" which is essentially a worse version of Discord but it is pretty good for getting your questions answered. He also does check attendance with iClicker. The quizzes are very simple memorization and should be free points but he does drop one, and also offers a good bit of extra credit. The worst part about this class was just how AWFUL the majority of TAs were. The majority of the time they had no idea what they were talking about and couldn't answer basic questions, this resulted in lots of incorrect grading on exams (thankfully there are regrades though). This also made it so that you had to write ALOT in specific detail for exam questions because the TAs essentially just check to see if you use keywords that are in the answer key. On the other hand, the LAs were amazing and basically knew way more than the TAs, so if you need help definitely as the LAs instead of the TAs. This class is very dense and covers lots of content, so it is important to understand the concepts and not just memorize them as by the time the final rolls around there will be too much to memorize. Also, start studying for exams at least one week in advance and do a little bit each day. I have heard that some other professors go very in-depth with ochem, but in my opinion, Professor Lannon just does the right amount of ochem and biology. I genuinely enjoyed this class way more than I thought I was going to, and I actually learned a lot of biochem. However, be aware that this class is full of tryhard premeds and for that reason, most of the time the averages for exams are very high (for us it was around 88%) so don't expect a curve.

Professor Lannan delivers captivating lectures and equips students with the necessary tools for success in the class. While his midterms may appear challenging, the availability of extra credit and ample practice materials contributes to high average scores. Professor Lannan is notably accommodating and genuinely invested in the success of his students.

Awesome prof. He knows his stuff, he was prepared, and he had a good sense of humor. Overall, content is not difficult, it's just a lot. Exams were fair and often very similar to the practice material. EC was offered.

Would highly recommend!

Enjoyed this class a lot. Lannan is an amazing lecturer--he's very engaging and his slides are super clear, so you can always review them later alongside the recorded lectures. The grading structure gives you room to make up for lower grades if you didn't do as well in one particular category, which was helpful. We had short in-class quizzes every two weeks or so which were easy points as long as you memorized the content sheet (lowest score dropped). There were also weekly homework sets, but if you worked on it throughout the week, went to OH, or asked questions/reviewed responses on Campuswire you were fine. Campuswire was super helpful to have in this course as you could earn extra credit through it but also ask questions any time and expect someone to respond with an hour or so (including LAs and the professor). Lannan also used a chat room on Campuswire for quick annoucements (and to send photos of his cat LOL) which also helped because I don't always receive Canvas notifications immediately.

As for his exams (two midterms and a final), I though they were very fair. There were no trick questions, and the teaching team offered a lot of partial credit which was nice. My tip would be to make a study guide or flashcard deck based on the learning objectives. Make sure you set aside time leading up to an exam to draw diagrams and mechanisms as those should be easy points on exams if you have them memorized.

Overall, I would definitely recommend him to anyone interested in 153A or needs to take the class. I wouldn't take 153A again because of the content LOL, but I would love to class with Lannan again. Like I said before, he's a very engaging lecturer who knows how to help students stay on top of material effectively so they are prepared for the exams.

best professor ever. everything in this class makes perfect sense, he dumbs it down for you and elaborates extremely eloquently. anyone who says hes bad prof is either salty because they got a bad grade or his teaching style didnt resonate with them. so its important to find the right study method for you to get a good grade in this class. i remember being flustered the first 3 weeks , then everything made perfect sense once he started teaching about enzymes in week 4/5 and his teaching style/exam style became extremely comprehensible/transparent to me. In order to ace the course, watch the lecture and study the material the day of or after lecture is taught. the best form of studying for this class would be to write notes down during the lecture, take a moment to make sure you have everything understood, then memorize that material super well. when test day is approaching, go through ur notes make sure you have everything memorized, and also align your knowledge with the study guide. he does in fact ask stuff from the study guide and everything from the study guide is from the lecture essentially. Fair warning there are a few concepts in the study guide that you think he wouldnt ask, thats exactly what he will ask so learn it. his explanations were so articulate, im so thankful to have taken the class with him i learned so much. and i would do it again! his exams are legit carbon copy of his lectures, THERE ARE NO APPLICATION BASED PROBLEMS, its so freaking easy. people usually get marked down points bc they didnt elaborate or state their answer with the wording he prefers. this is biochem, its a shit of material, a lot of memorization, so logically you have to really go off on all the questions on the exams. even if you dont think hes asking you to elaborate that much, he is. a lot of the students i know that recieved a poor grade in the class did not provide a sufficient answer on the exam then proceeded to blame him. memorize and then write so much on the exam that youve run out of space and/or your hand starts to cramp. that is the key to this class. his exams are not difficult, in fact they are easy if you are willing to put in the work for this course the right way. he gives a shit ton of extra credit including the final project and random fun questions on the exam. if i can do this course all over again, i would without hesitation, enjoyed the material and his teaching style so much!

Prof Lannan has been my favorite chemistry professor so far. His lectures are very clear, he answers questions patiently, he posts learning objectives which are genuinely helpful to study for the exams, and he gives practice exams that are very similar to the real exams. Professor Lannan's exams are tough, but very fair. He doesn't use trick questions to try and mess with you. Many of the questions on his exams are almost identical to the practice exams. He posts learning objectives for every week of class, which point to the exact things he wants you to learn from that week. He writes the exact concepts he wants you to be able to explain, the things he wants you to calculate, and etc. If you take notes based on these for every week, his exams are completely doable. Take notes on the learning objectives, do the practice exams, and you should ace his exams. He's often funny in lecture and gives extra credit opportunities.

I am 100% taking one of Lannan's classes if the opportunity arises again. It's clear that Lannan has greatly improved since he started teaching at UCLA and I could see him being one of the top professors in the chem/biochem department. Don't listen to the older reviews!

Please take the class with him, not only is he extremely knowledgeable and smart but he is also easy on on the eyes. On top of that he is really good at teaching and people only have praises to say about him. Don’t get me wrong, this class is one of the hardest classes at ucla regardless of who you take it with just because biochem is a hard subject. In order to do well, you would need to be willing to put a lot of effort into this class. Make sure you are taking this class with 2 other easy classes. Also this class is 4/5 days of week so make sure you do whatever you have to in order to not fall behind!!! Exams are fair as long as YOU are putting in the work and actually tying on the homework/practice exams.

TLDR: Expect a tedious class, but manageable if you put significant time and effort into it.

This class reminded me a lot of LS7C: a class where critical thinking meets knowledge output. But unlike LS7C, this class really should have been broken up into two quarters from how much we learned. I should have prioritized this and not have taken other classes because of how stressful it was. Most of my critiques of this class is about the course itself rather than the professor. I think Lannan as an individual was fantastic – he felt like a more relatable professor that is able to understand you well.

The midterms and final are eeringly similar to the questions he gives on the practice ones AS IT SHOULD BE!! Classes that have the practice exams look nothing like the real deal are so stupid, but Lannan is amazing for actually doing this for us. Sometimes, the questions on the homework or practice tests are literally the same exact question you get on the real deal.

Luckily, you don't have to read from a textbook in this class. Everything that is fair game for the exams are straight from the lectures. However, lectures meet 4 times a week and are all mandatory, so that's a little unfortunate. The lectures are also really fast since they are 50 minutes each and he leaves barely any time for questions, which is also unfortunate.

Thankfully, he provides a plethora of office hours and final exam review sessions. He is just as approachable as the TA's in this class, and is super friendly, so don't hesitate to go ask him questions.

There are a whole bunch of extra credit opportunities he gives out, although, the percent worth is miniscule. For example, there is an optional project you can undergo a minimum of roughly 2500 words worth with 3-4 other group members. However, that's only up to 1.25% of credit depending on how well you do. Besides, it's right after Midterm 2 and a due a few days before the Final. Should be worth more in my opinion. Also, he uses Campuswire reputation points for various degrees of extra credit (the 50 upvote/20 answered being the most points receivable but only around 0.3%).

Dr. Ryan Lannan is a friendly, knowledgable, and clear professor for CHEM 153A. I would recommend taking biochemistry with him, as he is likely one of the easier biochemistry professors.
With that being said, biochemistry is just a difficult subject and requires a lot of conceptual understanding and memorization, so by no means was this class easy. However, Lannan's 153A class is crucial for pre-meds who will eventually take the MCAT, as the material learned in his class is arguably the most valuable, of any pre-med prerequisite, for succeeding on the MCAT.
There were two midterms and one final exam for this class. The grading was on Gradescope and for free response questions, based on a relatively strict rubric that allocated points for saying specific terms/phrases that he expected. Therefore, there was often some ambiguity and errors in some of the grading, but Lannan was somewhat receptive to regrade requests. The final exam was cumulative, but did emphasize the later weeks of the course, which in my opinion, were the hardest weeks. There were also five quizzes throughout the quarter, roughly one every 2 weeks, and these were straight memorization of facts that we needed to know in order to be successful in the class. For Winter 2024, the five quizzes covered: amino acids, enzyme kinetics, glycolysis, TCA, and ETC.
This class covers amino acids and proteins, then enzymes, and then metabolism. The last 2-3 weeks were all about metabolism (glycolysis, TCA, ETC, ATP synthesis), and it felt the hardest since it required the most memorization of arrow-pushing mechanisms, enzyme and intermediate names, and step-by-step detailed understandings of how the reactions worked, all in a rushed and jam-packed 3 week span. To be fair, CHEM 153C is entirely about metabolism, so 153A likely only covered the superficial basics, so the metabolism part of the course therefore felt jam-packed into 3 weeks of lectures.
Lannan was quite helpful in office hours and had a Campuswire forum where other students (and he) would frequently answer student questions and provide logistical updates about the class/deadlines. He was not particularly responsive to emails, however. Lannan provided practice exams that were administered to previous quarters on Bruinlearn, and these were quite representative of the tests that he gave; sometimes, there were a few questions word-for-word repeated on our exams from the practice tests, so it's definitely worth doing them and understanding all the answers/reasoning. Lannan did offer some bonus points on each exam, as well as an end of quarter group extra credit project where we had to creatively apply some biochemistry concepts to a sci-fi writeup. He was also quite receptive to student feedback and curved the second midterm exam (added 5 points to everyone's exam total) because it was very difficult and averages were lower than usual.
Overall, Dr. Lannan is a nice and knowledgeable guy who seems to care a lot about student learning and success. While this course is difficult, covers a lot of material in what seems like a short 10 weeks, and the exams can be challenging due to the somewhat strict FRQ grading rubrics, Lannan probably is still one of the best bets for taking biochemistry at UCLA. Would recommend!

I had Lannan the first quarter teaching at ucla, he was very fair. Lannan never tested material on the midterm/final that wasn't covered throughly in lecture. Highly recommend, his OH were also super helpful