UPDATED REVIEW WINTER 2023:
I was nervous about 154 after reading all these reviews, but the class has been restructured recently and it actually turned out to be great, one of my favorites at UCLA! Here's my experience:
Class breakdown: 2 exams (week 5/10), 2 lab reports (week 7/10), 2 journal clubs (presentation and quiz, week 6/8), weekly lecture/lab section attendance. This was very manageable, I didn't spend much time on this class outside of the lab sections, which usually lasted around 2 hours. The first 6 weeks of the quarter are spent doing experiments, and then towards the end lab section is usually free time for drafting lab reports and journal club presentations. The only time I had to put in significant work at home for 154 was a couple of hours spent working on each lab report a few days before they were due, but nothing crazy. I didn't study much for the exams and found them reasonable if you paid attention during lecture/generally understood the journal club papers and major experiments. I actually found that I liked 154 a lot more than 153L (which I didn't enjoy much) because it is way more structured and the extra lab section per week means everything is less rushed.
Instructors/TAs: My TAs were AMAZING and a big reason why I loved this class so much. They were super knowledgeable and organized when conducting the experiments in lab, but also just generally kind and funny people that were fun to hang out with. For this reason my lab section grew quite close over the quarter and became a really fun environment. Also, if you ask politely, they are very generous with giving hints and help with what is expected on the lab reports and journal clubs during the lab free work time. The professor seems to really care about teaching, but is somewhat removed from the class in terms of interactions outside of lecture. I would say that your TAs are your best resource for getting help on assignments and course content. Also Prof. Nakamoto bakes really good bread and brings it to class sometimes which is fun.
Grading: Everything is graded on a standardized rubric. This is both good and bad. The good is that everyone is graded fairly on the same exact scale, and you can improve your scores as the quarter goes on once you learn what they are expecting. The bad is that you must mention very specific details verbatim to earn points on lab reports and journal clubs, even though you never actually get to see the rubric itself. I didn't really have an issue with this though, because I found that by reading the instructions for lab reports carefully, asking my TA what the big picture ideas of the lab reports/journal clubs were, and quoting Prof. Nakamoto's lecture notes, I always hit the mandatory talking points and did fairly well on the assignments. The class is scaled anyway (they always bump up grades at the end), so it doesn't matter if you don't have the best score on a raw points basis. As long as you are completing everything and establish a polite/respectful relationship with your TA, who all seem like they genuinely want to help students succeed, you will be fine.
Overall: I liked 154. I looked forward to lab section with my TAs and new class friends every single week, and found the projects interesting and useful. Your opinion about this class will probably depend on if you vibe with your TA, and how you feel about the somewhat odd rubric/grading situation. But in general, 154 does not deserve a bad rap anymore and by no means should you be afraid of it.

Some people say they had a rough time in this class because of the TAs or having too many assignments. I think Nakamoto has taken the feedback and made this class much better.
Before COVID she said there were 3 exams, 3 journal club presentations, and 3 lab reports.
NOW she does 2 exams, 2 journal clubs, and 2 lab reports.
I found this class to be very doable and not overwhelming at all. Yes you'll have to work hard but it's a senior capstone class, that's how it's supposed to be. Yes you'll have to read outside articles to fully understand the journal club papers and to write your lab reports but that's what you have to do in the real world.
There is some level of teaching yourself but I found that it made me better at finding relevant and current research.
The TAs were very helpful, I had Angela B. and Dave C. and they were excellent. Always answering emails on the weekend and very, very knowledgeable.
She also gives multiple lab sessions where we don't do any wet lab work, just data interpretation and lab report writing. If you use this time wisely, you'll only need to spend a handful of hours outside class finishing the report. (Unlike 153L where we had no in class time to work on lab reports.)

This class was fair, informational, and interesting. Don't be scared of it, the people here with horror stories are outliers and these problems have now been addressed.

The inconsistency between TAs and professor in this class is too much! Everything seems harder than it needs to be. Couldn't hear my TA the whole quarter. Did not even post the final exam grades or final project grades. No grading rubric! The time they give u feedback is already too late. Would never take this class again.

This class is a disaster. TAs are not helpful at all. The first midterm was ok because she did go over the materials. However, the final was bad. The materials were all over the place. She is a very disorganized professor. The worst are the lab reports. The average of the first lab report was a C+. There were a lot of hidden rubrics that were not shown on the instructions. The most hilarious thing was that the TA said my reports were good then I got a B- on the reports. I can never understand why there is only one professor teaching this class. Good luck with the class.

*Note: taken Spring 2020 online during the pandemic.
Right, so wow, where to begin with this class. I guess I'll start with saying that the teaching staff were incredibly accommodating this quarter, more so than I ever would have expected given the reputation of this class. Dr. Nakamoto moved deadlines around to try to ease our stress which gave us flexibility and helped with time management, and allowed for a class extension on the final report which was also made no-harm following the protests.
The class was research literature based since we couldn't perform the labs in person - meaning our journal club presentations were worth more than in a typical quarter, and that we had to deal with the difficulty of creating fake data/figures for our lab reports at times. The workload was also modified to be changed from three full lab reports to two half lab-reports + one full lab-report.
All of the lab reports were built upon the same core topic of SARS-CoV-2 research rather than three distinct topics. This made it easier to improve between lab reports and learn from mistakes - although as previous reviewers have mentioned, they are deliberately vague in how much they guide you for lab reports as a sort of "challenge" to you because it's a capstone class. Which is why it's super important to ask questions, although it is frustrating and many of us make the same mistakes. Won't say it's entirely BS, but I think some of it was reaaaaaaaally annoying. The lab reports are really time-consuming and draining, and will probably be pretty painful if you don't have much research/lab experience, especially with scientific writing. Not impossible, just not necessarily intuitive.
The exams were highly straightforward - there were no tricks in sight, wording was clear. Some of the best exams I have taken in the major TBH. Just need to be able to understand PCR primer design / molecular cloning, and to be able to interpret data from research papers / explain clearly.
Journal club presentations weren't bad either - we were randomly assigned a section of a paper and the rubric was relatively clear for these. We worked on them in section, were able to ask our TAs questions, and practiced with partners and then in groups before actually presenting which was helpful.
Overall: yes, we're all here to complain about 154 being the most time-intensive, high-effort course of this major and some of these hilarious ass scores we get on the lab reports, but I at least am grateful that I got to take it online. And ~BELIEVE IT OR NOT~ I actually had fun in the class and valued what I learned, even if I felt like I was dying a good half of the time.
A note on TAs: it's so funny that previous reviews have called out Rebekah because she was literally my favorite TA and one of the best TAs I have ever had in my time at UCLA lmfao. She's incredibly patient, enthusiastic, funny, and knowledgeable, so section was always fun. And she was basically always the one to answer my emails and questions - and without beating around the bush. Like yes I always expected her to grade a little harsher but it made sense for the sections she was grading and was consistent with how other TAs graded. Besides, which TAs/section you were in was factored into your final grade anyway. Victor was pretty cool tho too. Chill guy. Has a plant named Linda, lmfao.

This class is a LOT of work. The first 3 weeks you are chilling, then everything hits you like a truck and weeks 4-10 a lot of work. Each week there is something you are working on or studying for. Either a lab report, journal club presentation, or exam. The lab reports are extremely lengthy so start as soon as you can. Exams are fair as long as you understand the material and study. The journal club presentations are group presentations. Practice with your group and you will do fine! Professor Nakamoto loves to bake, so be sure to try her baked goods during office hours or in journal club!

This class isn't that bad. Just make sure to review what you do in the lab after every lab so you aren't totally lost when writing the reports. Also start your lab reports a week in advance so you aren't scrambling to finish everything at the last moment.

You don't have a final in this class which is really nice. Just three midterms. They are fairly difficult although I managed to do better than average by just reviewing the day before the test.

Journal clubs suck. You will have to work in groups and present things to the class before being asked questions by the TAs, classmates, and the professor. Thankfully there are only two of them.

Overall this wasn't as difficult as people made it out to be. Nakamoto herself describes the class as work heavy but not that high on the difficulty and I think that statement is accurate.

Thought you can boost up your GPA on your senior year? You thought wrong. If you have lots of experience reading the science literature, have good test taking skills and the ability to squeeze out info from TA's then your golden so read no further.
If you don't fit the above description, be warned that hard work does not pay off. Don't be discouraged and not put in hard work or else you'll prob end up with a grade below a B. Just don't have high expectations. Grades for Journal Club are just wack... no grading scheme just a pure judgement on your presentation. Tests that are on a time crunch and really test your test-taking skills. Lab reports that are graded subjectively by TA's and a rubric that is not detailed enough for you to know what to include. Powerpoint presentations that are so outdated that the words and pics are handwritten. A laboratory that is running on Nakamotos dollar savings. A instructor that has barely any office hours and does nothing about the fact that some students hold old exams/lab reports. All in all, for average students with minimal research exposure and few connections the class is unfair. Hard work doesn't pay off.
My advice: Go to test bank and speak to people who have taken course recently. Get their reports. Get as much info from TA's as possible for reports. Write reports in advance and ask all questions you might have from TA's (Nakamoto doesn't help for jack). Be very careful on exams, think very logically and reason correctly. Good luck!

I am selling lab reports and exams that earned me an A. Contact me at helpthehomeless.ww@gmail.com for more details.

Selling the Spring 2015 course reader/lab manual for $10.