I will say that throughout the summer session, Dr. Jarrett tried to be a good professor. She was always willing to help students and made the exams very fair. However, she failed miserably in every other department. It became apparent after the first day that "lecture" consisted of 50 minutes of her reading slides with bullet points that were taken directly from our textbook. In office hours, her explanations only confused me further. Most annoyingly, her organization was horrific. No one had a single grade until the second to last week of classes, and her and the TA told us completely different information about how our weekly worksheets would be graded. Furthermore, we were told of an activity that we had to complete in Week 1 but were not told until the last week of class what it was. The main saving grace of this class was that the exams were a complete joke. They were essentially longer and more convoluted worksheets that we had over three days to complete (three for the midterm, four for the final), and they were all relatively straightforward because the exams were open note. Allowing all students to participate in a four-day scavenger hunt of the entire textbook is not a meaningful exam. In spite of the midterm average being close to 90%, some students still asked for extra credit, which as far as I can tell has not even been factored into our final grades. Why even offer extra credit if you're going to retroactively make it not count?

This class was the perfect disastrous mix of a clueless professorial charlatan and a minority of absurdly entitled pre-meds, and I can say that I walked away from this class feeling thoroughly unprepared for biochemistry topics on the MCAT and in upper division chem courses. If you want to get an easy A in an upper div, take this course with Jarrett. If you want to actually learn the material, find someone else.

Review on her Chem153L course Summer Session A

Let me just say, this class felt as if the innocent friend in the group stabbed me in the back. Seeing the syllabus and meeting the class expectations I was not worried about this class at all. Her lectures were pre-recorded (she didn't attend the one lecture that was supposed to be in person) and they usually tended to be 5-20 minutes long (she just read off the slides verbatim). I knew that as long as I put enough effort into the course, I would be able to come out with an A.

This was the case for all of the homework, lab reports, etc. However, then came the midterm and final. At first glance the midterm/final seemed extremely easy and doable. Nevertheless, my grade did not reflect this view when I got points removed from a rubric that the professor seems to have taken out of thin air. Her questions were very simple. The professor was not looking for simple answers. You think you got the answer right? Probably. However, your correct answer will only give you 1 point and you'll get docked off 14 other points from not answering the question "fully". She wants you to add even more detail than what she has taught you (which is difficult as a non-biochem major). I don't know where she got her answers but it sure was not what the question was asking for and it sure was not what we were taught. She hates negative feedback so she'll just end up ignoring your emails (this includes the TA) and nothing will change. You think a regrade will help you? Well, you're wrong cause all the TAs are told to go off the rubric and if your words don't match exactly what the rubric says then you don't get even .5 points back.

If you take my grades from the lab reports, group project, homework, etc., I finished the class off with an A+. If you include my midterm grade and my final grade I get dropped to a B-.

I should've dropped this course when I had a chance. Also, hope you don't get stuck with a crappy TA who doesn't respond to feedback or e-mail you back on ANYTHING *cough cough* Noelle.

This is a review for Chem 153L. The class is so messed up. The instructor didn’t put into efforts in teaching.

I honestly really enjoyed this class. I feel like I learned biochem and content actually felt applicable. I took a few weeks of Chem 153A in Spring with Kat Ellis Guardiola but I had to drop because that class was so bad. In comparison, and overall, Jarrett's class is pretty clear and straightforward. She always started class on time, ended on time (or before the 50-min mark), uploaded recordings within 2 hours after finishing, posted class materials at the beginning of every week, returned quiz/exam scores within the week, etc. A complete 180 from her past quarters based on other reviews here. It made the class easy to navigate in the logistical sense.
First lecture of the week is always an introduction/overview of the content of the week; last lecture of the week consists of a quick 5-10 minute content review plus 5 or 6 practice problems. The lectures in between were an in-depth explanation of the content. Every lecture had a poll question at the end for participation grade (based on completion). Jarrett teaches reading off a script, but since the script makes sense I honestly can't complain.
For summer there were 5 weekly quizzes, 20 points each (4 questions over 30 minutes). The questions were easy though sometimes slightly specific.
Exams (midterm 100 points, 1.5 hrs; final 150 points,3 hrs) were kinda long but fair, though a couple of the questions on the final were, again, weirdly specific.
There was one activity worth 20 points. She gives you an extremely helpful guide on how to complete it though, so don't sweat it.
On top of the 400 points she also gave 10 extra credit points (first 5 were very easy to score; last 5 were from an extra credit question on quiz 5) that really help take the edge off of exams.
Overall I liked how cut and dry this class was. There was a lot -- a LOT -- of content but it's doable. I would recommend this class!

The professor's lectures are extremely painful to watch as she talks extremely slow and sounds like she is reading from her notes rather than teaching. She does not answer any questions during class. Would recommend taking with another professor if one is available

This class taught me absolutely nothing. I have a very high GPA and I’ve passed all of my sciences (prereqs for dental school) with As. This was by far the most confusing, disorganized, and generally useless classes I’ve ever taken. I took this class along with a neuroscience course over the summer because based on previous reviews it seemed like it would be fairly easy but P. Jarret changed her curriculum when it got to our class and stopped giving the extra credits she used to. My friends took her class last fall and they all were super happy because she gave them 20-30 points extra credit. She gave us 10 points which is fine but a few of the TAs were extremely petty and would give you scores that were completely unfair (especially on questions that required written explanation). Professor Jarret just reads off of charts and graphs and breezes through everything. If you need biochem for your future, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I learned absolutely nothing because even when I watched her lectures 3 times I would still have to go out of my way and teach myself all the material because she literally doesn’t teach BY ANY MEANS.

do not take this course with Jarrett if you want to retain a single fact about foundational biochem, regardless of your reason.

Overall, Dr. Jarrett is very sweet and accommodating, but may not be the best lecturer. If you *need* to learn the material well for this class (i.e. if you're a Chem major or something of the sort that requires you to use this foundational knowledge), and don't want to rely on solely self-studying, I would say consider taking this class with another professor. On the other hand, if you're not super interested in Biochemistry and want a manageable workload/exams, take Jarrett!

Her exams are very content-based and taken primarily from her slides, so make sure to take notes on them.

The material can be difficult to memorize since it is very dense. However, the professor really tries her best to explain everything in easier terms. I took the class online so I really benefited from the recorded lectures since I was able to re-watch them until I understood the topic throughly. The grading was based only on three exams. There were no homework assignments but there were supplemental exercises if you need to work through more problems for practice. She offers extra credit which helps take some of the weight off exams grades. The exams are not necessarily cumulative but sometimes topics overlap. She also gives you practice tests that are very similar to problems on the actual exam. We met 4 times a week, the first day we briefly discussed the topics that would be covered over the week and the last day we reviewed those topics and did practice problems together. Overall, she really does hope the best for her students and is very passionate about teaching. You will be very lucky if you have her for this course as the other professors (from what I've heard) are not as great.

Preface: this class was completely online for me. I think the subject of biochemistry is hard to begin with, and it is not my favorite subject, so take that into account. Dr. Jarrett definitely knew her stuff inside and out, but the way she presented it sometimes was very dry and very quick. I was often so focused on writing everything down that I didn't actually know what I was writing down, so maybe do not do that. Her tests were very fair considering the difficulty and density of the material, and she gave plenty of extra credit. She also used zoom polls for more extra credit. I did not find the books useful, and discussion did not justify the time going. All that being said, I would take this class with her, but maybe harder tests would prepare you better for the MCAT with another professor.