To be honest this class was not it. Professor Hong is a wonderful lady and a great lecturer but the grading system in this class literally sucks ass. Let me start by saying that this class is not curved. I went into this course thinking that this was somehow a good thing and would make make it easier. WRONG, if anything it made the class much harder. I spent countless hours writing my lab reports and was docked down for literally the dumbest shit. A person can follow the exact prompt that was given to them to the T but it really doesn’t make a difference. They look for very specific things in the reports and you basically have to just figure out what that is, if not you will get marked down significantly. There were two test that were administered this quarter, the first one was quite easy but the second was largely focused on information that was barely mentioned in class. Let me just say, that I’m all for professors assigning people tough lab reports, and giving out challenging exams that force you to think critically, but as a professor you should make the class curved then if you’re going to make the class this hard. The point system in this class made it a million times more stressful than it had to be and I do not feel like the grade I received was at all a reflection of the knowledge that I extracted from the course. DO NOT BELIEVE THE GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS IN THIS CLASS, the majority of people do NOT gets As. Bottom line if you want an A take a different Professor. And if you must take this class do so with a very light course load and treat every point like it’s gold. The TAs in this class are basically given god like authority over a persons grade and if they are anything like the one I had, they will dock you for the most minuscule shit. I went into this class thinking that it was the type of class I could get an A in if I worked hard but this was sadly not the case. Even in the midst of this pandemic, the grading was extremely subjective and punitive.

Good things
- The professor explains well and is really kind. She holds many office hours to assist in clarifying any confusing concepts and reviewing material before lab reports are due.
- Eric Lee, my TA, is fantastic. He has clear expectations and is straight to the point. I admittingly only attended one office hour because I had mandatory discussion at the same time, but that one office hour was amazing with his clarity for my next lab reports.
- My LA was really good. This made the overall lab experience much more enjoyable.
Bad things
- Lab reports will take a while. Especially for your first lab, you're kinda on your own on how to format your lab report, and the average was around the 70s. The best thing you can do is google a biochemistry literature paper and see how they formatted their paper, and then going to your TA to meet their standards. You'll get much more points.
- You'll be in lab for 4 hours, due to the nature of biochemical assays. Unfortunately, your free time in many sections is taken away by the worksheet your group has to do, which takes a good chunk of your time.
- You really have to know a lot of details in this class, as there are many theory-based questions. For some of us, this isn't so bad, but for me, this was probably the second hardest class I've ever taken.

Personally, I'm not a biochemistry person. I really dislike it but I have to take it so I can move on with my major. I'd advise not taken 153A & 153L at the same time. I thought the material overlap would be similar but clearly, this isn't the case. Despite a lot of frustration in this class, overall, this class was quite decent and I learned a lot of useful information. Thanks to my TA, LA, groupmates, and the professor's personality, this class wasn't as bad as I thought. The exam grades were much lower than expected, but the professor curved it up. If you need to take this class, be sure to start early on lab reports and get help if needed. I would take the lab section on Thursday or Friday so you can be up-to-date with the material learned; prioritize a good TA that will assist you in the experiment and lab reports though.

I'll start off to say that Dr. Hong is a great professor. She is very accommodating to her students' needs and confusion and is always looking for feedback. She explains things clearly alongside her PPTs (which comes with her notes which she posts after lecture) and makes sure its relevant to the week's lab. Her exams, however, can be a little hard (however, keep in mind biochem is not my major so it may have been easier for others). You MUST know the experiments and the theory behind it pretty well. **KNOW the purpose, how it works, how it's set up, hypotheticals of the experiment and possible errors that could occur/how to fix it** you can be brief about them for the exams but sometimes it seems she's looking for certain details. Her midterm and final was about a 70s average. She wants the class average to be about a B+ so she offers some extra credit and scales the exam & lab reports (even though she said she doesn't curve). With extra credit, I was at a B- but I managed to still get a B+.

As for the lab part, it isn't bad but manage to get through the worksheet because it takes a lot of time and understanding of the material. The lab reports aren't that bad once you start them so start them early so you can also ask questions early (on Piazza; she doesn't really promote it but she answers stuff there a lot). *tip* perfect the introduction because it can be used for the rest of your lab reports. Your TA could make or break your lab report grades so always ask them what they expect. Some are nicer than others but the scaling will boost things. I suggest you do Thurs/Fri as your lab time to so you have time to do the assignments, ask questions, and actually understand the lecture material as you would've learned it before coming into lab.

Overall: great professor and class, but so-so exams & heavy work that has varied grading from TAs

This class is honestly kind of bizarre. The whole quarter was a rollercoaster of ups and downs, and here's why:

The good:
- Professor is a very kind person and seems like she is concerned with students having a good experience in the class. She is excited about the topics you are learning about. Lectures are pretty clear and engaging each week.
- My TA was great and super helpful in lab section when parts of the experiments were confusing.
- The final was really reasonable and straightforward. Plus the midterm scores were scaled down when the averages were super low (see the bad lol)

The bad:
- Section is long. It will take the entire 4 hours that is scheduled in the class planner, but since the experiments are longer biochemical assays this is understandable. Bring other homework to do if you finish the in class worksheet while waiting.
- Grading on the midterm was pretty harsh given the material was not very difficult, and it was basically chopped up to "You can't take tests because of covid"
- The lab reports are terrible. There are no clear instructions for the 3 reports throughout the class, so you are kind of flying blind. I get its important for students to learn how to write, but in a class that is meant to be an introduction to scientific writing, some guidance is really necessary. (the grades are scaled based on TA though so if you get a tough grader like I did, don't worry!)
- The class is pretty disorganized and the lecture schedule doesn't always match lab so you might be doing assays you haven't learned about yet.

Overall:
The one thing I don't know how to interpret is the grading scheme. I objectively did not do very well on pre labs, lab reports, and the midterm, but pulled out a good grade on the final and got an A. So I guess it turned out fine? Theres a whole lot of smoke and mirrors about this class being "points based" and not curved, but I'm pretty sure some sort of scaling happened at the end.

I was pretty frustrated by this class because I was actually super excited to learn about biochemical techniques, but ended up being pretty jaded by the lack of organization and course structure. The professor and TAs are nice people though and the outcome wasn't the worst, plus I did learn a good bit I guess. You are probably reading this long review because you have to take the class like me, but don't stress too much. Even though I expended lots of frustration for 153L, I didn't spend that much time per week on it and everything ended up turning out fine :')

Dr. Hong has been great throughout the quarter and was always open to questions! I appreciate her effort to communicate with students as she often sacrificed her time for review sessions, question sessions, campuswire, etc. This class starts off really loose and suddenly starts to be more time-consuming from week 5 as this is when lab reports start to be due weekly. Lab reports are a lot of work and the grading standards seem to heavily vary based on your TA (however, lab report grades are normalized at the end for grading to be fair). I think most reviews indicated that lab reports > exams in terms of grades but personally, the exam has been the only challenging part for this class while I excelled in lab reports. I think the averages for both exams were 72-73ish but this class is not curved (but extra credits are offered). I scored low on my first midterm but Dr. Hong offered higher weight on the second exam (final) if we scored higher in the final and vice versa. Exams were hard to do well on bc they were slightly vague in terms of what they were looking for while they also had very specific grading criteria. This class was definitely beneficial but I still have no idea how to tackle the exams despite having pretty high confidence in mastering this course. I think the overall grade mean for this class was a B+ (87%) and please do not think this is an easy course based on Winter & Spring 2020 grading distribution cuz that was when the pandemic/riots were in considerations! Overall, this course helped me to be a better scientific writer (for lab reports) and I feel that I mastered the course materials really well.

Dr. Hong is a very kind person who is very passionate about helping her students. The syllabus is very concise, and nothing is hidden for the most part. Despite this, the class is not curved and the grading scale is set up in a way where the grade you receive at the end of the quarter does not accurately reflect your knowledge of the course material. Let me explain.

There are three lab reports you will do throughout the quarter, two of which are very big components of your overall grade. She has a general rubric to follow for writing the reports, but the TAs will always take points off for minuscule things, even if you have followed the rubric completely. She will mention how she wants her reports written, and you will follow it ,and she will still design a grading rubric for the TAs which contradicts what she said in class. She will also give you a lab practical which is very straight forward, but grades on the accuracy of your experiment. This doesn't accurately examine ones understanding of various laboratory techniques in that there could be an array of different variables that will skew ones results (bad equipment, contaminated samples, etc), which is why experiments are always run a multitude of times, in the real world. But due to the fact that many students do poorly on this practical, it somehow becomes a "norm" and the professor doesn't seem bothered by it, keeping in mind there is NO CURVE in the class. I would not recommend this class unless you need it, because even someone with the utmost mastery of the course content will still end up with a grade that does not accurately reflect that individual fairly.

The professor was very nice and understanding and always willing to help students but bottom line do not take this class if you don't have to. The exams require detailed memorization and the averages for the midterm and final were around 75% and this class is NOT CURVED. The grading distribution is a lie, the average grade is a B and getting an A is rare.
If you do have to take this class make sure to get a good TA because they impact your grade a lot and learning of the labs which is important for the exams. Make sure you know details of the slides and experiments (but not numbers/volumes).

This class was super easy. The class consists of a midterm, a final, clicker points, 3 lab reports, group worksheets(super easy), and an enzyme analysis activity. The midterm was very straight forward and easy. I started cramming the day before and got 98%. Just study her notes and powerpoints. For lab reports, you will get an A as long as you follow the instructions she gives you during the lecture. I always started writing lab reports from scratch the day it was due(11:59pm) and got high A's in all three lab reports. There are no separate rubrics for lab reports because all you need is the lab instruction Dr. Hong gives you at the beginning of the quarter. Just make sure to follow all guidelines and you'll get A in lab reports. Enzyme analysis activity was like a mini quiz that we did at the end of the quarter, and it was super easy(got 25/25). You just have to use a software in excel(she'll walk you through it in lecture) in order to figure out the type of inhibitor she'll gives you during the quiz. I was worried about this because I've never used an excel before, but it turned out it was super easy no need to worry. For this quarter, the final was optional so I opted out of the final. There were also plenty of extra credits to help you boost the grade. I am a transfer student with no research experience and no writing skills, so I was really worried about this class. But it turns out that this course was no different than my community college ochem lab classes! Dr.Hong is super sweet and she is very knowledgeable and it was a pleasure learning from her!

DIdn’t have time during the quarter to really comment on Dr. Hong’s evaluation, so will do it right here.
"Dr. Hong is a nice professor, but not an efficient teacher."

Lecturing
Most of the time, it is difficult for me to understand what she is expressing during lecture with her accent and wording, and I ended up needing to listen to the bruin cast multiple times to figure out.
—> This increases the time for initial understanding of the knowledge
A lot of clarification and clarification on clarification and Q&A for students questions. She is cute and would make joke but honestly takes away time to finish the lecture. The powerpoint slides might not be finished by the end of lecture.

Powerpoint slides
She usually releases the powerpoint before lecture, and then replaces that one with a NEW one with notes. I ended up needing to spend time transferring all my writing on the first powerpoint to the one with notes to make sure I got all the information from the lecture correctly.
—> This + the time for note taking.
She sometimes forgets to mention things she put down on powerpoint. It is only when people ask question in person, she would realize she forgot to mention. You will have to spend time reading thoroughly to see if she misses anything on lecture but the information is on the notes.
—> This + the time for note checking.

Lab report
Her slides also do not follow an order such that she hopes “students will learn to ‘think’ and be able to solve the experimental questions” without teaching explicitly. I do not understand the concept of being able to cook without learning the chronological steps of cooking. This leads to a lot of students confusion and seeking for help, which she sees as active learning?
—> + time to reorganize the order of notes when doing data analysis for lab report
—> You may be very confused if you go through in her order of slides
—> +++++ time on learning the steps on solving experimental question
—> and I don’t know if you will acquire the problem solving skills that she is expecting.
There are no specific instructions of what you should be writing on the lab report. You will have to go to OH and TA OH to figure out in order not to miss any points for your lab report.
—> This + time to reschedule to make time to go to OH every week.
BTW for week 8 lab, Cn3D instead of pymol is not a good idea for protein structure analysis WS
—> go to youtube pymol tutorial and abandon Cn3D will save you time.

She will answer any questions students have, which is very nice. She also facilitates the discussion between students. But with information scattering around the floor like sand, I do not really fancy the way she teaches, because it takes up a lot of my time to organize and everyday there are like 10x emails from this class. It gets overwhelming although the material itself is not difficult to understand. To a certain extent, her nice personality and way of class arrangement give me stress during the quarter. I did not have a very great learning experience despite her effort to promote positive learning atmosphere as the organization of this class has taken extra hours from my sleep.

Bottomline
If you have plenty of free time and want to meet a nice human being, take Dr. Hong for 153L.
If you have a lot of duties to fulfill and other heavy classes, please be aware and careful on choosing Dr. Hong for 153L.

Dr. Hong is super nice and willing to help. She is super approachable in class and in office hours. I do like how she has lots of office hours and has many review sessions planned. Her expectations are generally clear but some times can be confusing in terms of wording.

1 midterm/1final/3 lab reports/weekly worksheet/1 mini presentation

Labs were good, work load was just right for a chem lab class (more chill
compared to MCDB/MIMG lab classes). Lab guidelines and rubrics were very helpful in letting us know what was expected. Overall, not as bad as others say it is if you follow Dr. Hong's cues and pay attention.