I like this man

I was not a fan of Lannan. He never took questions during class and often would skip around during lectures and emphasized that we "didn't need to know" certain content and then it would show up on the exam. The midterms were fine but the final was entirely unfair as he completely changed the format of the exam. He claimed it would be 60% new content, 40% old but it was easily 95% new content. Not to mention his grading rubric is ridiculous. You could write word for word what it says but if the grader "didn't feel it was correct" you wouldn't get the points. He is looking for very specific wording, not if you understand the overall content. He also is extremely unapproachable and discourages students from asking questions. I spoke to him once after class and he completely belittled me and spoke to me as if I was a child. I can't speak on behalf of other biochem professors but I don't think Lannan is a great choice. I think the department should look into hiring someone new cause this isn't going to work.

Lannan was a pretty average professor in my opinion. His lectures weren't very engaging and pretty boring at times, but he taught the material pretty well. There were some times when he would ramble about something that wasn't important and we fell behind in lecture material. The class had homework, participation, quizzes, two midterms, and a final. He also gave out ~2% of extra credit which was super nice. He provides a lot of recourses that prepare you well for the midterms and he made them very fair. Sometimes there would be questions on the midterms that came directly from the practice midterms, so be sure to study them! I will say, the grading on the midterms was pretty harsh. You basically had to be word for word on the rubric to get full credit which was not fun. Overall, definitely not the worst professor I've ever had!

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!

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%).

Professor Lannan is a good lecturer and is pretty decent at explaining conceptual stuff; however, I felt that his class needed much more clarification and had many areas for improvement. The class is incredibly fast-paced, and he doesn't slow down, making it difficult to keep up. He talks during lectures as if you already know everything, often just gliding over some concepts and then making the most difficult questions out of them for the midterm. His office hours were useful at first, but they became useless after the first four weeks. He has ADHD, so he's always saying, anyways, you guys know this, while no one knows what he's talking about. He also talks so fast, which adds to the confusion. The exams are brutal, and your wrists and hands will hurt after each midterm. He is a harsh grader, and there are a lot of mistakes while grading the exams. Unfortunately, he is not open to improvement and seems to think everyone is in love with him, while in reality, almost everyone dislikes him. He has no sense of awareness about this.

The TAs are also poor graders, and the regrade request process is absolutely unfair. He deducts points from you if he receives too many requests because he can't review them all. Well, nobody forced him to implement the regrade request system. Additionally, he doesn't accept requests for 0.5 points, which is problematic if there are multiple grading mistakes on these smaller questions. He is an awful grader, extremely non-responsive, and rude towards students. He is very mean in emails and tries everything to single you out, often insinuating that you are trying to cheat in the class. I really hated this class. It gave me so much anxiety, and I am a chemistry major, so I have been through the hardest chemistry classes at UCLA. Another major issue is that he sets you up for competition against other students and has clearly stated this many times on CampusWire. While it's understood that eventually, you're evaluated against others, this is not something that should be explicitly stated in class for 800+ students. Each class should be structured in a way that you're being valued based on your own knowledge at least.

I think other professors, such as Gober, should be brought back to teach biochemistry rather than Lannan. While Lannan has some strengths as a lecturer, there are significant issues with his teaching approach, grading policies, and overall attitude that need to be addressed.

CHEM 153A with Lannan was definitely not easy but if you really study it is definitely possible to get an A. I would recommend reviewing the learning objectives and rewatching the lectures because he expects you to know things that he mentions, sometimes just in passing. I would also highly recommend going to his office hours, they're really helpful. And the reviews which complain about the specificity with which he grades are accurate, he expects a lot of detail in his rubrics, so honestly try to write down every little detail you can think of on the tests. I liked Lannan though, he was tough but mostly fair and very concerned with student learning.

Pros
- Exams sometimes recycle old questions
- EC project at the end of the quarter helps buffer grade
- Campuswire will be your best friend for answering questions and getting reputation tiers for extra credit
- Generally, I found section to be so-so, but mostly I never paid too much attention ; I think my TA, Cindy, was very knowledgeable though
- Review sessions are held where concepts are discussed and it's more of a Q&A/workshop hybrid format
- He drops a quiz
- Homework helps with general concepts
- I would say past exams are reflective of the real deal (he will post a practice exam from a previous quarter)
Cons
- I feel like I neglected my time in other classes because this class had so much information and knowledge to memorize/understand/apply
- Grading is very harsh
- Sometimes Lannan is passive aggressive towards people who have questions - he kind of brushes them off and tells them that he'll answer their questions during office hours, and mind you I never asked questions, but I just observed his behavior and it came off as rude/inconsiderate sometimes
- Grading is very slow sometimes. When it comes to quizzes, there wasn't even a point in me missing the last quiz because I didn't know what I got on the other 2/4 (so I still studied for the last quiz)
- I know this class moves very quickly and there's a lot of information to memorize, but it seemed like we were all thrown in the deep pool when all of the disruptions happened. Nothing was necessarily "easier" per say for exams. We honestly were dangling and wondering if we would even have our Midterm 2 on Monday of Week 7 because there was a lack of communication and we were just assumed to show up on campus and see how the day would go, even if it felt unsafe sometimes.
Final Thoughts
This class is a fever dream. Idk how I got an A+ tbh but my biggest recommendation is to make sure you're writing out paragraphs for exam questions to get as much points as possible. You need to be detailed in your responses and making sure you touch upon every single part of a question. Taking a look at his past exams also helps with the format and what to expect. I think the homework was alright for preparing for exams, but it's definitely not as application-based (homework is generally a content review) as exams. Be prepared for scenarios (Lannan likes to make sci-fi questions where you're on XYZ planet and some biochem related problem comes up) where you will apply your knowledge. This class is not easy, but if you put in the work and time, you should be fine.

Professor Lannan is a very fair lecturer, with tests that take a bit of getting used to. Once you learn the rubric of the exams and what he expects out of answers, it becomes more manageable. His lectures are engaging and mandatory, and the discussions were helpful as well. At the end of the quarter, there is an extra credit project, and all of the extra credit totals to around 2% which is generous. The homeworks are for the most part completion based as he only grades one of the questions, and the quizzes are pure memory. It really comes down to the exams, but once you get the hang of it, it is a fair test. Overall, I would recommend taking Lannan for 153A.

Overall I think Lannan is a safe choice for a biochem professor, so if he is an option, take it. His lectures are engaging and clear, and the overall flow of content from the beginning to the end of the quarter makes sense at building on top of each other.

You can tell he's super passionate about the subject, and he's fairly young so there's a bit more engagement and energy to things. Personality-wise he is also fairly geeky and and can be funny, plus posts pictures of cats on Campuswire, so I think he can keep morale up. I respect him for sharing his views too outside of class on UCLA Radio during the time of the encampment, I think it showed his education about world events and also not just a soulless STEM professor.

It's true his rubrics for exams can seem strict, but honestly I think they're not outrageous. The medians for Midterm 1 and 2 were 75% and 85%, respectively, and that is definitely within the norm for a STEM class like this, so I disagree with assertions that his exams are "tougher" than any other similar upper-div class.

When you're doing exam questions, just always make sure to ask yourself "Why?" or "So what? and write down the answer. I think a lot of people (at least when you're not used to the rubric) make the mistake of writing something like "Thing A makes Process 2 stop", but they miss the rubric point about how Thing A actually made Process 2 stop. Make sure though that you understand the wording he uses in his slides/lectures, and that you really understand the consequences of processes that you learn. He likes to ask questions that make you apply content to a completely different context (e.g. how would this alien's cell membrane be different from Earth's).

Speaking of aliens, there's a extra credit group project at the end of the quarter about creating your own alien organism based off unique biochemistry that's varies from biochemistry of Earth (i.e. stuff we learned in class).

For our lecture's final, a third of the questions were literally the exact same as the ones on the practice final (which he gave the answer sheet to).

There's iClicker (mandatory lectures) and assignments. The assignments are not too bad but they really do force you to review what you learned well.

Discussions are fine (and mandatory), really specific to the TA whether it's good or not (shout-out to Katie!).