Well, this was a fun ride. I guess I can say I'm glad to be done with the class. But how will future students prepare for Nelson (if she does stick around)?

Here's probably the best advice: DO NOT SLACK OFF AFTER THE SECOND MIDTERM.

The first two thirds of the class are rather manageable, but eventually you have to memorize glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and the electron transport chain. While not too difficult to memorize on their own, it's the other stuff that comes with them that really gets to you.

I don't know what my grade is yet, but based purely on experience, do not fall behind after the second midterm. Keep up and really pay attention to every word she says in those final jam-packed lectures.

Honestly she is not as bad as people make her out to be. She is genuinely concerned about the student's well-being in the class. She has three office hours and coffee hours and you can approach her after class as well. First two midterms are do-able. Hint* If you read the book it helps so much. As the person below said, don't slack off after 2nd midterm. Sure there's like 4 weeks from 2nd midterm to final, there is so much information. Just don't fall behind. It's not too bad.

Actually this class wasn't as bad as I expected because I expected to get owned so hard in the face. But that didn't happen because if you notice, she curves the average to around a B. That is a very nice curve. I wish all my hard classes had that nice of a curve but the world is not perfect like that.
Her lectures don't really make much sense. I learned most of the stuff from quizes, TA, book problems, and the REVIEW POWERPOINTS SHE SENDS OUT MEMORIZE EVERYTHING ON THESE. Honestly, it was bad, but not THAT bad.
She should have a 3 or 4 for difficulty, not a 1.something.

It's Spring 2011, and what has Nelson become?

Still pretty much the same.

Her lectures are pretty hard to go through because she's slow and not very good at explaining the stuff.

She smacks her lips every time she pauses in her lecture.

And her exams will fly over your head like nothing else.

To be honest, the very first midterm was better than I expected. The average was decent, and at least the problems made sense. The second midterm had a lower average, but the problems were still relatively manageable.

Then came the final.

Yes, the final from which I still have a headache two hours later.

Think of this class as an exponential curve. After the second midterm, you will be bombarded with perhaps the most infamous part of 153A...the cycles. And you better know them through and through. Although even if you do, it won't help that much on the final.

The final is shaped into two parts: a new material part and a cumulative part. Each part is worth the same, but I can say the cumulative portion is a lot more difficult. She likes to give the cumulative sections themes. In Spring 10, it was baby milk. In Winter 10, it was beer. In Spring 11, it was some cycle that was kind of like the cycles you learn in the class but not really. Anyway, it'll be pretty hard to clear your head for it unless you know the stuff extremely well, and that won't happen.

So good luck.

Ok I guess I'm the minority here but I thought Nelson was really good. I got an A in her class and I felt like her grading was very very fair (there was never a time when I missed a question because I had never seen something before, but rather only when I hadn't studied enough). I thought that her lectures were good, and I didn't open the textbook one single time. She gives you everything you need to do well on her tests, which is a lot more than most professors, and so long as you put in the work you will see the results (as opposed to teachers who make tests where you open it and feel like you've never seen anything like it before). I think that a lot of people just went about the class the wrong way, probably just memorizing everything and hoping that they'll do ok. If you want to do well in her class, sure you have to have everything memorized (she has 4 quizzes throughout the quarter to help you with just that), but you also have to know how things work and understand relationships and similarities between processes. She also incorporates math-based questions onto her exams, so you really have to know what you're doing. Now, this would seem really really hard, but fortunately for you Nelson puts every single one of her past exams with fully written out solutions on her webpage, so all you have to do is take like 2-4 practice tests and make sure you understand everything and you'll get an A. The practice tests also help you focus on what you need to know really well and what you don't need to know at all. If you do bad on a test, don't worry, because so did everyone else. The class is normalized to a B, so even if you feel like you failed a test you'll still probably do well. Also, she gives quizzes which basically serve to boost your grade, so long as you aren't lazy and actually take the 15-30 minutes it takes to memorize the information on one sheet of paper. In all, I thought Nelson was a good teacher, with average lectures but excellent tests and test-prep material.

This is the hardest class I've taken at UCLA. Honestly, I don't think it would have been this hard if the professor were better. Professor Nelson is the worst professor I've ever had. Be prepared to take something stimulating to class to keep you awake. Her lecture presentations are useless given that all her slides are graphs, charts, or pictures of proteins. You basically have to read the entire book and memorize it because you won't learn anything in lecture. She wastes time in lecture with the most useless details. There is no substance in her presentations because all her slides are pictures. She is also one of the most unpredictable professors I've had. There are two midterms and a final. There are two parts to her final. The first part is supposed to emphasize that last four weeks worth of material. Weeks 7-10 of the quarter is dedicated to learning the Glycolysis, Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex, The Citric Acid Cycle, The Electron Transport Chain/ Oxidative Phosphorylation in great depth. One would assume that she would write an exam that would focus on these pathways due to the fact that four weeks were dedicated to them. Leave it to Nelson to tell her students to study these cycles well and write an exam that had practically nothing to do with the cycles. The final I took was completely unfair and seriously came out of left field. She also has this obsession with breast milk and baby food because she has a one year old daughter. Our entire final was written about baby food. She does, however, make herself readily available for students. I don't know how much help she'll be considering the fact that she is horrible at explaining things. I found it easier to just read the book. Too put it shortly, be prepared for the unexpected in this class.

Objectively, Nelson really isn't as awful as people make her out to be. During the time I took the course, I was incredibly stressed and anxious about her exams... and I probably cursed her name every single day I woke up. You have to read everything she assigns (at least once) and make sure you know and understand what she says in lecture like your life depended on it. There is a lot of memorizing, but not as much as your upper division core PhySci classes (I am a PhySci major). Essentially, you need to be very proactive. If you can, read the assigned pages before lecture, that way lecture will make more sense to you. Also, talk to her after class or during office hours, this will greatly help your grade in the class. In the end, I learned so much and was glad I took this class because it really helped me a lot for my MCATs. I ended up with a solid A, it's not impossible.

I am having a really hard time understanding most of these reviews. People are making her out to be some sort of evil professor who revels in watching her students suffer.
Nothing could not be further from the truth. What I remember striking me most vividly is that she always had a smile when talking about the class. That shows a genuine passion for biochemistry on her part that was easy to pick up on as students. In office hours, or after lecture, she was always super nice, and went out of her way to explain a concept no matter how basic it was.
And to those who say her tests are hard: she gave you everything you needed to do well. Classes take work, you can't expect to half ass an upper division class like the earlier chem series... The class itself is hard because of the sheer amount of material covered, but Nelson makes it not only more manageable, but also gives you the drive to look through the material and understand exactly what is going on.
Hands down, the best, and most interesting class I have taken so far at UCLA. Hands down, the best professor I have had so far at UCLA.

First off, I got an A in the class, so I am not at all bitter about the grade I got in her class. With that said, she is the worst teacher I have had at UCLA. Everyone, including Nelson herself, says her tests are tough, and yes, they are, because she doesn't explain the concepts well enough in class. You have to read the book, which would be fine, if her lectures were not a complete waste of time. They are completely unorganized, and she covers simple concepts that most UCLA students have already learned rather than covering the more challenging material that she actually tests. One student told me that she discusses this material during her office hours, but is that really fair to all the students who come to class and expect to learn there. Seriously, one day she spent ten minutes telling us that nitrogen was in histidine when a diagram of histidine was on the board. The TA's do all the teaching for the class, mostly during the two hour review sessions held before each midterm. She states that her class is application of concepts learned in lecture and expanding on these simple concepts. Why can't she just teach the more complicated concepts instead of expecting students to make such a big jump with the limited basic matter that she teaches us? If you take this class, good luck. I was more stressed out for this class than for any other class I took at UCLA. I sincerely hope she gets fired. If you are going to take the class, don't worry because the curve will save your ass. It definitely saved mine :)

Professor Nelson is a wonderful teacher. She is very organized and 100% committed to her students and their learning experience. She is the most concerned and caring professor I have had at UCLA thus far. She lectures very clearly (sometimes she talks really fast) and her lectures give you everything you need to know for the tests. She really makes the material interesting, and her passion makes the class exciting. With that said, she does make you work for your grade. You should be prepared to study almost every day and rewatch almost every lecture on bruincast. I never went to office hours and I still got an A in the class, so it definitely won't make or break your grade like other people are saying.