Most of these reviews criticizing Heather are based on pre-covid classes - but a lot of their points are still valid. Online, however, it's become a LOT easier to get an A. The grading scheme consisted of 15% pre-class assignments, 25% post-class assignments, 30% exams, and 30% group project. The project is your best bet to boost your grade - the exams are abhorrently written/graded and in my opinion were worse than 153C. The questions aren't too bad but the rubric is so specific and picky that exams seem more like she's testing how well we can read her mind instead of actually understanding the material. I had about a 50 something % exam average throughout the quarter but ended up scraping an A- out of the class.
Anyways basically it's just one of those classes where you feel like you're failing all quarter but it ends up boosting your GPA (hopefully).

Avoid her if you can. Exams and discussion worksheets required very specific answers, when quite frankly, there could've been different solutions to the question. There is a decent amount of extra credit available though, so take advantage of that. Kudu is very overpriced for it not to work all the time. Group project we had also makes up a good chunk of the points, so be sure to do well in that.

I’m so happy this class is over, not because of the material which I loved, but because it required so much work! I spent 10+ hours a week in lecture, discussion, in LA study sessions, and on my own trying to memorize and understand the material. The discussion sections and the LA weekly workshops helped a lot. I would recommend going to both if you have a good TA. My TA was Rekha and she was awesome.

I really enjoyed Dr. Tienson’s lectures. I thought she explained the material really well. We had a substitute, Dr. Agape Awad, the last two weeks of the quarter because Dr. Tienson had a family emergency. Dr. Awad was a great lecturer, engaging, and funny. I think if I had a choice I would choose to take Dr. Awad. Her lectures made the class fun.

I would recommend memorizing the study questions and past Gradescope exams to do well on the midterms and final. The exam questions are similar to the study questions. The difficult part for me was is finishing the exams in 50 minutes. The final wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. There were a few questions that were difficult but most of the final exam is similar to the midterms and study questions, the only difference is that you have plenty of time to check your work.

Here’s my scores:
First midterm: 76/100 (Avg. 69/100)
Second midterm: 74/100 (Avg. 72/100)
Final: 147/200 (Avg. 135/200)
Protein Assignment: 29/30
Quizzes: 100/100
Clicker: 20/20
Extra credit: 9/9 (I think)
Total score: 455/550 (Avg. 418/550)
Grade: A- (YAY!)

As you can see she is a very generous professor. I got pretty much average on the midterms and still got an A- in the class. I would take Dr. Tienson again because of her curve. Good luck to anyone taking her<3

I came into Chem 153A knowing that it was going to be difficult. My frustrations with the class has more to do with Tiensen as a professor rather than the class. She was pretty unapproachable all quarter, her grading is very nit-picky, and she seems to mix her information up a lot. Her lectures were also pretty monotone. She also submitted grades without letting us see what we got on our final which sucks. Overall I would not recommend. Please take the class with Lannan my friends have had a much better time there!!

(This is a review for the online version of the class during COVID-19)
The amount of cheating going on this class made it an absolute joke. It was an absolute travesty for those in the major who took this course earlier in the year, and had to actually had to put in a great amount of effort to get through. My classmates and some of my roommates would always FaceTime each other during assessments and assignments and cheat through shared online materials, not only in this course but in their other chemistry classes. If everyone could use help from the internet to find the answer in all of our chemistry classes instead of learning anything why bother even calling it a class? Just give everyone who signs up an A+ and save effort. This course is not up to the standards it used to be and it is sad for me to see it. This is much worse for us who choose to take these classes to learn honestly, it makes a double standard. I hope the chemistry department makes some big changes in how they teach online classes. Maybe giving everyone different versions of assessments would change this and actually encourage learning. This opinion may not be popular for those who saw this online class as an easy pass but I stand by my opinion.

I feel like these reviews do not do professor Teinson justice. Maybe it was because of the circumstances of the quarter, but she was by far one of the most understanding professors I’ve ever had in college. She made sure we all understood the material, answered every question one had and was very nice throughout the whole quarter. Despite her last review I applaud her for going above and beyond for this quarter. She relieved much of the stress from a difficult class during a difficult circumstance and I would take her again for a different class if given the opportunity. The exams are difficult and clicker points are based on correct answers, but I feel lucky to have had professor teinson this quarter!

Read the book before lecture, make sure you work to understand lecture material after each class, do the study questions as you go to every lecture, go to discussion - it's optional but the worksheets aren't online and you can go to any that fits your schedule, do to LA review sessions - their worksheets are helpful. I'm selling old biochem quizzes - it should be the same format as current quizzes - for $5 and my old protein assignment - I got a 32/30 - for $5 and $8 for both. Text me at **********

I think I'm about to be the first positive review of Dr. Tienson for 153B. Bear in mind that I did get an A in this class so that probably makes me biased.
This class is by no means easy. I would still argue that 153C is harder than 153B, but 153B is still no joke. There's not as much material in 153B but Tienson structures the class in a way that still makes it hard lol. However, I still think Dr. Tienson is one of the better choices for 153B. I studied so much for the midterm exams and it was reflected in my scores. The class did really well on the first midterm and then it plummeted to a 50% average on the second one (I got a 96% on the first midterm and 72% on the second midterm). I thought the final exam was really hard like the average was 110/200 and I only got 120/200. I left a lot of part B questions blank but still managed to do alright. I was told by so many people that Dr. Tienson isn't as knowledgeable about 153B as much as 153A, which I think is true (she takes all her slides/some exam material from Albert Courey, aka the really good professor of 153B before the department stupidly confined him to teaching the 14 series), but I still think she knew what she was talking about. I feel that I have learned a lot and that this class prepared me for understanding biochem in grad school/my future career. Of course I can understand why she has negative reviews, I also had days where I came into class just thinking that I hated this class. But actually Tienson is really nice, I think she is misunderstood by a lot of people. Again, I don't blame them, as the class structure is kind of annoying and the exams are hard. I just don't want everyone going into this class hating her you know? Give her a break, she just gave birth to a baby!
My tips for doing well in this class:
-The TAs sometimes don't give you points when you deserve it! One time I submitted a regrade request for a point and the TA still rejected it, even though I knew I was right. That's when you take your case to Dr. Tienson; she gave me the point and said the TA was wrong. So speak up for yourself and really check how your exam was graded on gradescope! You may be able to get some points back.
-Go to the discussion of a TA who will just give you the answers to the discussion worksheet. Don't waste your time going to the TA that draws out the entire discussion by having you work on them during section.
-Take the group exams and actually try on them because you have access to internet/your classmates. She says on the syllabus that you only get points back if you get a higher percentage on the group exam than on your midterm. I got a 9/10 on the first group exam so I thought it was a waste of time to take it at first, but at the end of the quarter I saw that she still added a few points to my midterm score!
-Read the textbook. I couldn't get my hands on the Voet one but Lehninger was good enough. The textbook can be too complicated/too much information sometimes so try to take notes while having the lecture slides out so you know what's worth reading from the textbook.
-Don't waste your time going to tutorial on Tuesdays unless you're genuinely interested. Also same goes for the LA workshops. I found it more helpful to just watch the bruincasts of the LA workshops because you can watch it at 2x speed and skip towards the end of the class where the LAs give you the answers to the worksheet. Make sure you do the LA worksheet every week, one of the problems on there might appear on your midterm. It happened to us. There was a problem on an LA worksheet to draw out the mechanism of intron lariat formation, and the next day it appeared on the second midterm exam. This question screwed a lot of people over on the exam, but not those who knew it already from the LA workshop!
-On the exams, do all the part A questions first, then go back to part B. For questions you aren't sure how to answer, leave them for last. It is more important for you to be thorough about questions where you feel totally confident that you know how to explain it rather than wasting time guessing how to answer a question you're unsure about. You won't get any points for just writing something down, you will get points for covering all your bases when expounding upon your correct answers. I know some of us may have the whole "don't leave anything blank" mentality (I had that too) but I learned that in this class, you get more points by perfecting a few of your answers rather than half-assing a lot of them.

She is a really hard and challenging professor. Curves hard (average set at B-/C+) and expects you to regurgitate approximately 600+ hardcore slides by the end of the quarter. Would recommend waiting and taking with a different professor. She has gotten harder over the past quarters due to complaints that her class was too easy. Unapproachable in OH and has no interest in your wellbeing (she teaches approximately 800 students a quarter).

The fundamentals of Biochemistry isn't that complicated, but she makes it so. If you're into straight memorizing and regurgitating, then this class is for you. But if you're into concepts and logical reasoning, then look elsewhere. No point in reading the book because she uses multiple texts. Just memorize her studyguide answers verbatim. Office hours is painful. She doesn't like to go into deeper concepts and disregards any further curiosity on the subject matter. She just wants you to learn whatever is on her studyguide.