This man is 75 and a retired professor who only comes to teach when they need an extra section. I took this class last quarter and it was at 8am, four days a week (so already awful off the bat). Luckily it was bruincasted, his attendance was in the 20-30% every single lecture, which he was mad about (dont teach an 8 am then). His voice and lectures are not engaging whatsoever and the class is based almost entirely on two midterms (which are 50 min during class) and a final, all which was so hard. His TAs grade and look for verbatim words and phrases that he uses in lecture, and if you paraphrase, its wrong, and partial credit is rare. I shouldve taken Awad but both of her sections were full when I registered and I thought taking Weiss would be fine. Sike i was wrong. I would recommend waiting for a better professor if this is your only option. I am now paying the price and am going to have to retake the course.

Weiss is a tough one. Not sure how he compares to Tienson's 153A, but his final during my term was apparently easier than Tienson's one. Everything on his exams are based off the study questions, except 10-20% will be new questions on the exams but they aren't impossible to figure out as long as you know the material. It does take alot of time to study (memorize) and understand the study questions and material. If you are super good at memorizing, then I highly suggest you take his 153A class. I'm not the greatest at memorizing so I had to spend alot of time studying and repeating the material in my head.
In terms of my grade, I did "well" on his exams; I was surprised I got an A as I was expecting a B+ or possibly A- (e.g. exam average was ~60, std dev 16, I got a 73). But for his exams certain or precise words are required (or phrases) to get the full points. Make sure you understand what the question asks (seriously), I thought I did sometimes but that would result in me losing alot of points. Other than that there's no homework, it's all based on how much time you put in to studying outside the class.
He's also a nice guy so you should go to his OH if you are confused. He's, in my opinion pretty, clear on explaining things, but for some of my friends he wasn't (maybe cause they were asleep most of the time). His lecture requires full attention because he goes over alot, so if you doze off or space out you may lose track of what he's saying quickly.
Otherwise, if you have his 153A class in the coming years good luck!

He's a decent lecturer, probably one of the best you could get for biochem. The key to this class is to remember his EXACT definitions and reasonings for biochemical concepts, word for word. If you're missing one word in your answer on a test it could cost you the question. He seems like a nice old man during class but he does not act the same way in office hours. You'd probably be better off going to your TA for help (unless your TA is Nicole, in which case don't bother). Also, DO THE STUDY QUESTIONS. I can't stress this enough. A lot of the questions get recycled verbatim on exams and the questions and answers give you a pretty accurate idea of what he expects on the midterms and final.

Weiss was a pretty good professor. Biochem is hard no matter who you take it with. Weiss was really understanding (let me take the final at a different time with the other lecture) and seems to want to help the students learn. There are a lot of resources to learn the material and do well in the class, you just have to take advantage of them. He is really smart and teases students a little bit if they ask a seemingly "dumb" question, but he does it with a jolly smile on his face. Take biochem with him!

One of the best professors I've ever had! At first, I was so scared to take this class because I had heard awful things about biochemistry. However, I ended up earning an A+ because Prof Weiss is a really GREAT teacher! He explains the concepts well and goes over them fairly slowly, giving you time to learn them. Make sure you record his lectures, so you can go over them later as you study. Advice: don't fall behind and use campus resources (i.e., Covel or AAP tutoring) to supplement this class!!

He's a pretty decent professor despite what the ratings say. Don't let the title of the class fool you, this is more like an LS course than a chem course in that there will be a ton of premeds and there will be a ton of stuff to memorize. He doesn't really expect to memorize super minute details, but there is still a lot of information. He lectures pretty well, and has a few jokes here and there. In office hours it is a bit different, he's not that helpful unless you ask a really good question he will usually just tell you to go find the answer in the lecture notes. If you really drill the diagrams and are able to understand the significance of the different pathways it's certainly a doable class.

He's not a terrible professor, probably better than Nelson, but just like with nearly every science class ive taken at UCLA (minus Henary) he doesnt really go out of his way to help students. His office hours are at very inconvenient times, and he is not super helpful then either. He is kind of unpredictable, i remember some asian girl tried introducing herself and she was visibly very nervous and stuck her hand to shake his, and he didn't shake her hand. I thought that was pretty mean especially after she said it was her first time talking to a professor and she was scared. The class is a TON of information. His exam questions can be very random. The most annoying thing is he wants your answers to contain key words, because if they dont and even if ur answer makes sense, you will get 0 points. Some of the TA's were very unprofessional and didn't even show up to discussion two weeks in a row, without sending an email or anything. If you want an A in this class make sure you stay on top of the material, do all the reading, and go over the lectures and study guides many times before the exams.

He's not bad, but he's not great either. I worked very hard for this class, harder than for my other three science classes and I received a good grade. But, even though he is a good lecturer, he talks way too fast. Like other posts have suggested, buy a recorder. He really should have podcasted the lectures; even just audio would have helped a ton. But he doesn't and it really really really bugged me because his exams are extremely lecture based. His exams are really conceptual but you still need to know the details of every slide because once in a while he'll ask a detailed question about one slide in particular. If you don't know it, you're screwed. Because everything on the exams are short answers, the grading can get weird cuz each person's answer is a bit different. I got points taken off for bizarre reasons. Material wise, all i can say is don't wait till two days before the exam to study. I started studying for the exams 1 week in advance and I was still cramming till the very last minute. There is an absurd amount of material packed into this course. I haven't taken 153B and C yet so I don't know how much material those classes have, but I feel 153A should have been two classes cuz there is just so much to learn. O ya, I've never been to office hours so I cant comment. I read other people's posts so I was too afraid to go.

I think Weiss is your best bet for this class. I'm sure hes better than Nelson so if you can take him, then just do so. But give yourself time to study cuz this class takes up alot of time.

I didn't enjoy this class, despite being really interested in the material. Prof Weiss is condescending to his students... I think it's because his feelings are easily hurt when students skip his class. I missed the lecture where midterms were returned and when I went to his office to pick up my exam, he was not friendly at all and would not even make eye contact with me. He cares too much about students missing his class, and he doesn't care enough about students learning the material. He is too proud to record/podcast his lectures because he's afraid no one will attend his class (and most likely, he's right). Podcasts would have been really helpful though, because he spoke very quickly and I thought hearing a lecture again would be beneficial. (Buy a recorder.) His exams are pretty fair, but they do require hard work. Make sure to go over his study questions (the second midterm was heavily based on them). If you miss class, get notes or a recording from a friend, because it will be much harder to learn the material by yourself. The book is helpful if you need clarification, but isn't necessary to do well in this class. I'm sure Weiss is better than Nelson, but he's still not a walk in the park.

This guy takes the chem out of biochem. Reviews praising him obviously come from those with an aversion to chemistry. I got an A but it's nothing to be proud of.