I felt like Dr.Awad was very fair and yes the tests are nit-picky but she offers a lot of extra credit throughout the quarter. She is a very nice person and if you go to office hours you can definitely see that. Main thing to do well in this class is to go over the bruin walk lectures and make sure you understand the study questions. Biochem is a hard subject and Awad makes it easier to understand with her organization. I would definitely take this class again with her.

I loved this class with Awad so much, honestly this was one of my favorite classes I've taken at UCLA and I wish more classes here were structured like this. Awad is one of the clearest lecturers I've ever had, she explains every concept so well that if you listen to her lectures and do the practice problems she gives you, you'll end up understanding the material. If you need to take Chem 153A at some point, I'd recommend waiting until you're able to enroll in it when Awad is teaching.

She never has any trick questions on exams, it's exactly like the study questions, so if you understand those, go to discussion and pay attention, and absorb the lecture material, I feel like there's no way to not get an A in the class. Also, all the TAs that Awad chooses are really helpful, Joseph was my favorite one though because he always went above and beyond to help and explain things.

Also, she provides an extremely generous grade boost at the end of the quarter!!

Awad was really organized and gave more than enough resources for practicing and mastering the topics. My recommendation is to go to her lectures and just listen, then watch bruin cast and take notes later. Literally every word she says is important for the study questions / exams. If you want to succeed on the exams, you should definitely do the study questions. First go through them and answer them to your best ability, THEN go back and memorize definitions and phrases word for word. The midterms were not difficult but the way they were graded was EXTREMELY unfair, and because of that I highly suggest blatantly memorizing key phrases and definitions from the study questions. I kid you not got marked off for saying "hemoglobin will transport less 2 oxygen" instead of "hemoglobin will transport less oxygen by half the amount". ALSO, GO TO JOSEPH'S DISCUSSION AND OFFICE HOURS. He is amazing and will make sure you know tips and tricks to succeeding in this class. Seriously, go to his office hours not Awad's!! If you know veterans who got through the class, ask for their old midterms. It will REALLY help you get an idea for the structure of questions and you can see the rubric and see just how obnoxiously specific you have to be to get full credit. The final was really hard and she taught new material up until 2 days beforehand. I would take Awad again, mostly because I appreciate the organized structure of the class.

My score breakdown in this course:
Midterm 1 - 84/100
Midterm 2- 78/100
Quizzes(5 quizzes; all out of 20 possible points)- 100
Final- 166.5/200
Extra Credit- 13

And I ended with an A so I'd say it was a pretty fair grade in the end.

Awad is a terrible, horrible, awful, no good, very bad teacher. She is smug and uses the class to fuel her massive ego. I wish that I would never ever have to interact with this smug horrible person. She is no longer at UCLA and I am forever grateful for this. She thinks that she is some kind of genius and everyone has to bow down to her majesty. She thinks that she's the best teacher in the world while she's literally incapable of explaining the very basic biochemical concepts. Her choice of TAs aren't any better than the rest of her awful class. The TAs seemed to be confused every week about what Awad wanted them to do and we would end doing basically nothing. Her quizzes were decent but her exams were ridiculously hard and grading was even worse she wants you to use her exact words to use in your answers. She tries so hard to be liked by the students by being a clown and showing her dog's picture every lecture. I hated her class so much not because it was hard but because she's such a horrible teacher.

Scored average on both midterms and ended up with an A- in the class(also scored 97/100 for the quiz). I personally think that the final was not that hard overall despite the fact that I just skimmed through week 1-7 material a few hours before the final exam(just looked over the discussion worksheets). As a result, I scored 20% above the average on the final. I'm not a fast test taker so that may be the reason why I did better on the final than I did on the 50-minute midterms. Overall, this class was not that hard than expected, but expect to put in a lot of effort.

Basically you would need to work hard in the class and that's not because the class material is hard, but because the professor makes it hard. She tries to go over the lecture as fast as possible, she appears not to care whether you understand her or not. She kept telling us to go back and watch the bruin cast if we want to understand (which to me seemed like there was no reason to show up to the class other than the iclicker, as she doesn't expect students to understand her anyways). Her lectures are so superficial, they lack many details that could have aided the learning process. Her exams are also unfair, they aren't about what you know but about memorizing her own words. personally, I believe that the TA and the lehninger book are the only two sources to seek knowledge in this class. however, if you really decided to take that class and pass with an A, you just need to memorize everything in her study questions and other worksheets.

I think that Dr. Awad was AMAZING. If you take biochemistry, take it with her 100%. There is so much content and it can be daunting, but she is able to somehow fit everything in during her lectures and does so in a very clear, coherent, and structured way. This class was definitely very hard and challenging but it is also very doable if you put in a bunch of effort to go through all of the weekly packets and her slides. There are a bunch of tests from Awad and Tienson that can be found in many places so definitely take a look at previous tests to get some practice and a sense of what to expect. She gives a lot of extra credit. I got like around 91% on both midterms and like an 83% on the final and still got an A+ in the class because of the generous grading along with the extra credit as a combination. This class is hard but it is also very interesting as it ties together both bio and chem and makes sense of everything!!!

I really really loved Professor Awad!!! She is such a kind, genuine person who cares about the performance of her students. I also found her to be pretty funny. Of course, the class is challenging, as can be expected of biochem due to the large amounts of memorization and required content you must learn. However, Professor Awad makes doing well very achievable! She does everything she can to help during office hours, as do the TA's. Additionally, she provides SO MANY study questions that are very similar to test questions for practice, and the discussion worksheets are also very helpful when preparing for exams, though you are not required to attend discussion. As if that isn't enough, she also provides a good deal of extra credit which are worth it. Her tests are very fair, and similar to what you see on the practice midterms/study questions she posts so if you do those and study them, you should be fine. Definitely take this class with Awad is possible!!!!!!

This is the best class I’ve taken at UCLA! Professor Awad is amazing and makes the class enjoyable. The material is endless and requires a whole lot of memorization but the exams are not that hard. If you go through the study questions and understand them all and watch the bruincast taking notes, you can get a good grade. Also, discussion sessions are really helpful, go to all of them.
Other than the exams, there are clicker questions, one assignment and 5 quizzes. Make sure you get full credit in all of these. And at the end of the quarter there are a bunch of options for extra credit.
This class took up a lot of my time but I feel like I learned a lot and would for sure take it again with Prof Awad.

Agape is cool. This class isn't that hard man. Just do all of the study questions and the exams are chill. Do the extra credit, she gives so much extra credit, and yeah the class isn't curved, but you don't need a 93 to get an A, you need like an 86 or something. So then including the extra credit, there's a lot of room for error. And so Agape is very clear with everything, and she lays out exactly what you need to know to do well. The class isn't hard content wise, you just have to put in the effort and you'll be fine. Overall, Agape is very clear, and it's worthwhile taking this class with her as you'll learn a lot. Highly recommend.