Dr. Hong was very concerned for the success of her students because she offered lots of extra office hours to help us write the lab reports. The review sessions were very engaging because she let us actively answer each other questions, and she was around to help us solve any questions that our groups could not answer. The material we learned from the lecture is strongly connected to what we did in the labs, so we can apply what we learned in the lecture to run the experiment effectively and have ideas to explain our results in the discussion part. I planned to use this class to practice my lab skills to help me work in labs after I graduate, and I gained what I wanted because I gained lots of knowledge about the mechanisms of lab techniques such as SDS-PAGE and Bradford assays, I became more careful after doing the experiments, my team-work skill increased after I work with my labmates and TA during the lab, and my writing and critical thinking skills increase after writing the lab reports. I also like the way Dr. Hong compares the biochemistry concepts with real-life scenarios to help us understand things longer and more clearly. For example, I still remember how imidazole acted like a single person to release the group of Histidine from the seats of the Ni-NTA party.

153L with Dr. Hong-Hermesdorf was, to put it succinctly, a stressful experience.

The class is mostly subdividable into its lab section (as it is a lab class), and its lecture portion. I'll talk about the latter first, since it's the simpler thing to comment on.

Dr. Hong's lectures are okay. I found them worth attending (and you'll have to do so, because iClicker is used in this class), but the lecture often gets derailed by something or another. Regarding the tests- I felt that both tests were within the bounds of what I would call fair. She's also really helpful in most cases, with some notable exceptions regarding the lab reports.

Speaking of the lab reports-they are an entirely different beast. Fortunately, Dr. Hong-Hermesdorf equalizes all grades between different lab sections to the lab section with the highest grade, so your grade on all of your TA-graded work (such as lab reports, flowcharts, and whatnot) are more of a function of how much better you are compared to the rest of your sectionmates rather than how good of a score you get back (however, if you can get great raw scores, that is a good thing- Dr. Hong doesn't penalize you for having a high raw score thanks to having a nice TA). However, the mental stress and energy this class puts on you is something else. Lab reports can stretch to 10-20 pages long, and are due in a week after the last relevant lab, which is absolutely brutal if you're not used to this (I wasn't- this class was the first class for which I spent all-nighters on).

Additionally, Dr. Hong-Hermesdorf has a rather "the best way to learn is to burn yourself" mentality- although she does provide some scaffold for your first lab report, it's often a battle to wrangle out what exactly should or should not be reported in which manner to obtain as many points as possible. Having a good TA is what makes or breaks these reports, as having a good TA means that you can ask them what is being looked for in order to maximize your score and actually write a good lab report. That also means that if your TA is unhelpful, you can and will get absolutely wrecked by the lab reports. While you won't really suffer any damage to your grade from this thanks to the Dr. Hong-Hermesdorf equalizing the grades between TA's, it will stress the hell out of you and make this class much more miserable than it reasonably should be.

Oh, and there is one final group project where you look at a paper and present part of it- it's really not that bad IMO, and it was the easiest part of the class.

Lab Coat for Sale: **********
Dr. Hong is a truly wonderful and kind professor. Her lectures are engaging and frequently helps out during lab. Her OH is also a great resource, especially since you'll hear the solutions to problems other groups are having (which are likely to become your problems at some point).

The only thing to watch out for is that the exams are very difficult and the lab reports are very time consuming. Starts as far in advance as possible. I have never pulled an all-nighter in my 4 years except for this class.

as a chem major that's basically taken every class in this department at this point and grad classes this class was something else. like it's not hard just an infuriating amount of work with grades that largely depend on who you get as a ta. that being said dr. hong herself is an amazing professor who REALLY puts her time in to make sure everyone is learning and makes sure the grading is as fair as possibe.

Really great class – took this as an elective as a Psychobiology major. I do agree with other reviewers that the lab reports are long and a little tedious, but it's definitely possible to get a good grade on them provided you start early enough + you go to your TA's office hours for help. I would NOT delay starting these: the official deadline is a week after your lab section for full points. Dr. Hong was super nice and ended up extending all the lab report deadlines an extra two days so you could ask questions in your lab section if you were having trouble.

Exams were super fair + doable. Nothing on the midterm + final were things that we hadn't seen before. For studying, I'd say stick to looking at the slides with notes, make sure you know the structures really well, and review experimental procedures. There's a fair amount of extra credit that can make up any points you're missing.

I think the two things I would change about this class are the discussion worksheets and the ambiguity in the labs. Some of the earlier labs are really annoying because there's mistakes in procedures that weren't caught until we were halfway through the lab (and had to start over). Discussion worksheets were helpful for making sure we understood lecture material, but they were very heavy on top of a four hour lab period.

I think the class material itself was not difficult. I did well on just about every lab report. However, I do think that Dr. Hong's lectures were not very good. I think she had too much detail go into her lectures, she could have been much more clear and concise. But overall, the labs were not difficult, and I think they were a fair amount of work and analysis. But the exams are what really tanked my grade, I never knew what to expect. The lab report questions were not similar to exam questions, and the worksheets were not of much help (much vaguer on the exams). This is why my grade ended up being so low, both exams were curveballs for me. She wanted very precise answers to very vague questions. The TA's and lab sections are what made this class bearable. I think I have a good understanding of how to perform lab techniques and analysis, just her exam methods were not good.

Personally, this is the class I have had to work the hardest in throughout my time here. This class can be very challenging and time-consuming (since lab reports are due quite often). You must make sure to complete your assignments on time! In other words, you CANNOT procrastinate. Lab quizzes were pretty fair and administered on a weekly basis up until approximately week 5. Dr. Hong decided it was more conducive to our learning if we completed flowcharts and summaries 48 hours prior to the start of our labs. I found lab enjoyable and really appreciated my TA despite lab being 4 hours long and my TA being somewhat of a tough grader. The lab practical during week 8 and the student presentations on week 9, in my opinion, were okay. I had imagined that the practical would be more difficult than I found it to be. I feel that the reports were the most dreadful part of the class, as they were graded harshly. It was really easy to lose points with these. What I struggled the most with in this class was the exams. I am unsure if this has to do with the difficulty of transitioning from remote learning to in-person or because professors may have had a difficult time adjusting the difficulty of in-person exams. I usually get As on my exam, but unfortunately got a 75 on the midterm in this course. My score improved for the final. Don't be fooled, however. The final was definitely much more conceptual and required a much higher understanding of material than the midterm. In short, solely take this class if you are willing to put in the work. I think Dr. Hong is a very kind professor and is overall a goof professor, but if you do not NEED to take this class and are not a biochemistry major, PLEASE DON'T.

I would say that this class was not all that conceptually difficult, but did have a lot of work due pretty constantly. Lab reports required a lot of writing, there were worksheets every week, preparatory work for lab sections, and a post-lecture reflection after every lecture which amounted to multiple deadlines every week to keep on track of.
All that being said, the content was pretty interesting and Dr. Hong was a good lecturer and was pretty responsive to accommodating people.

PNP this class if you can. Professor has no sympathy since she doesn’t curve at all during the pandemic. Good luck.

Dr. Hong was such a wonderful professor. She popped into my lab section every week, and she held Q&A sessions after lecture for 30-40 minutes. She was also very receptive to feedback, as she extended the first report deadline and would reorganize her lectures based on reflections. I really did feel like she cared about her students a lot.

Her lectures were great and gave a strong foundation for the concepts in lab. Lab sections were okay, although the remote setting made them feel a bit useless at times. Exams were a time-crunch, especially the midterm, but she did try to cut down on the final in response to midterm feedback.

The big problem with the course was the lab reports and the workload. The first three weeks of the quarter were super chill, followed by a bunch of deadlines (exam, lab report 1, flow chart, etc...). This happened again but worse for the last two weeks (journal club, lab worksheet 3, lab report 3, final which is during Week 10 for some reason). I guess this is fine if 153L is your only time-consuming class, but if you're taking a lot of other classes, expect to be overwhelmed during Week 5 and Week 9/10. Typically, I'm fine with Week 10 finals, but having lab report 3 due the same week made is hard to prioritize 153L assignments and studying with the other classes I was taking.

My TA was great, but since everything is graded by your TA (including the lab reports, which constitute very significant portions of your grade), hope you get a good TA for your section. Overall, this class teaches valuable material even in a remote setting, but the lab reports are frankly a lot of work and are not worth it if you don't need to take this class.