Please take the class with him, not only is he extremely knowledgeable and smart but he is also easy on on the eyes. On top of that he is really good at teaching and people only have praises to say about him. Don’t get me wrong, this class is one of the hardest classes at ucla regardless of who you take it with just because biochem is a hard subject. In order to do well, you would need to be willing to put a lot of effort into this class. Make sure you are taking this class with 2 other easy classes. Also this class is 4/5 days of week so make sure you do whatever you have to in order to not fall behind!!! Exams are fair as long as YOU are putting in the work and actually tying on the homework/practice exams.

Lannan's interest in biochemistry shows and I actually did learn quite a bit from his class. However, there are many things in the course that need to be addressed.

Lannan needs to be much more concise in lecture. If he was more concise with his explanations, this would prevent him from constantly going overtime and would allow him to answer some student questions. He also mumbles a lot at the end of his sentences and makes an extreme amount of typos in his slides. I highly suggest he review his slides before publishing them. Furthermore, I’m in lecture 1 and many times he has told lecture 1 students that he explained concepts better in lecture 2, so to go watch the recording of lecture 2. He just needs to prepare his lectures in advance. I would also prefer him to post assignments and study guides with adequate time for students prepare. He also doesn't react well to the grading mistakes he and his TA's make. I was lucky enough to get my regrade requests in before he made the process more complicated. He also did give out extra credit. In the end, he curved the class, which was a relief. But there was a lot of unnecessary confusion and stress from the logistics of the course.

The tests were fair and the averages were decently high, but so many of us had to sell our souls to get there. I understand that it was Lannan's first time teaching this class so future classes probably won't have as many of the same issues with him providing resources late (if he provided them at all) and constantly contradicting himself. Do not take this class if you want a life and/or you are bad at memorizing. You have to know every single word he speaks in every single lecture (slides alone aren't enough to get an A unless you're reallyyyy good at bs-ing). I did well and actually liked the material, but I spent so many nights crying from stress and frustration and also had to miss some events I really wanted to go to. His ego and pettiness was also annoying

Worst professor ever.

Prof Lannan has been my favorite chemistry professor so far. His lectures are very clear, he answers questions patiently, he posts learning objectives which are genuinely helpful to study for the exams, and he gives practice exams that are very similar to the real exams. Professor Lannan's exams are tough, but very fair. He doesn't use trick questions to try and mess with you. Many of the questions on his exams are almost identical to the practice exams. He posts learning objectives for every week of class, which point to the exact things he wants you to learn from that week. He writes the exact concepts he wants you to be able to explain, the things he wants you to calculate, and etc. If you take notes based on these for every week, his exams are completely doable. Take notes on the learning objectives, do the practice exams, and you should ace his exams. He's often funny in lecture and gives extra credit opportunities.

I am 100% taking one of Lannan's classes if the opportunity arises again. It's clear that Lannan has greatly improved since he started teaching at UCLA and I could see him being one of the top professors in the chem/biochem department. Don't listen to the older reviews!

I had Lannan the first quarter teaching at ucla, he was very fair. Lannan never tested material on the midterm/final that wasn't covered throughly in lecture. Highly recommend, his OH were also super helpful

best professor ever. everything in this class makes perfect sense, he dumbs it down for you and elaborates extremely eloquently. anyone who says hes bad prof is either salty because they got a bad grade or his teaching style didnt resonate with them. so its important to find the right study method for you to get a good grade in this class. i remember being flustered the first 3 weeks , then everything made perfect sense once he started teaching about enzymes in week 4/5 and his teaching style/exam style became extremely comprehensible/transparent to me. In order to ace the course, watch the lecture and study the material the day of or after lecture is taught. the best form of studying for this class would be to write notes down during the lecture, take a moment to make sure you have everything understood, then memorize that material super well. when test day is approaching, go through ur notes make sure you have everything memorized, and also align your knowledge with the study guide. he does in fact ask stuff from the study guide and everything from the study guide is from the lecture essentially. Fair warning there are a few concepts in the study guide that you think he wouldnt ask, thats exactly what he will ask so learn it. his explanations were so articulate, im so thankful to have taken the class with him i learned so much. and i would do it again! his exams are legit carbon copy of his lectures, THERE ARE NO APPLICATION BASED PROBLEMS, its so freaking easy. people usually get marked down points bc they didnt elaborate or state their answer with the wording he prefers. this is biochem, its a shit of material, a lot of memorization, so logically you have to really go off on all the questions on the exams. even if you dont think hes asking you to elaborate that much, he is. a lot of the students i know that recieved a poor grade in the class did not provide a sufficient answer on the exam then proceeded to blame him. memorize and then write so much on the exam that youve run out of space and/or your hand starts to cramp. that is the key to this class. his exams are not difficult, in fact they are easy if you are willing to put in the work for this course the right way. he gives a shit ton of extra credit including the final project and random fun questions on the exam. if i can do this course all over again, i would without hesitation, enjoyed the material and his teaching style so much!

Enjoyed this class a lot. Lannan is an amazing lecturer--he's very engaging and his slides are super clear, so you can always review them later alongside the recorded lectures. The grading structure gives you room to make up for lower grades if you didn't do as well in one particular category, which was helpful. We had short in-class quizzes every two weeks or so which were easy points as long as you memorized the content sheet (lowest score dropped). There were also weekly homework sets, but if you worked on it throughout the week, went to OH, or asked questions/reviewed responses on Campuswire you were fine. Campuswire was super helpful to have in this course as you could earn extra credit through it but also ask questions any time and expect someone to respond with an hour or so (including LAs and the professor). Lannan also used a chat room on Campuswire for quick annoucements (and to send photos of his cat LOL) which also helped because I don't always receive Canvas notifications immediately.

As for his exams (two midterms and a final), I though they were very fair. There were no trick questions, and the teaching team offered a lot of partial credit which was nice. My tip would be to make a study guide or flashcard deck based on the learning objectives. Make sure you set aside time leading up to an exam to draw diagrams and mechanisms as those should be easy points on exams if you have them memorized.

Overall, I would definitely recommend him to anyone interested in 153A or needs to take the class. I wouldn't take 153A again because of the content LOL, but I would love to class with Lannan again. Like I said before, he's a very engaging lecturer who knows how to help students stay on top of material effectively so they are prepared for the exams.

I had fears going into this class because of the reviews and the course material itself, but I was pleasantly surprised by the end of the quarter how doable this class is. Lectures were recorded, but participation was graded using iClickers. You were allowed to skip a certain number of lectures and discussions sections, and you also had the opportunity to make up participation so I'd say this system was overall fair. Lannan isn't the best at managing his time during lectures, and for having such short lectures, there was a lot of material to go over. Having recorded lectures was essential to my grade and I rewatched every lecture as part of my studying. There were also quizzes, which mostly involved memorization, and for this quarter the lowest quiz was dropped. Exams were fair, and the professor was very willing to hear everyone out if any of the questions felt unfair or ambiguous. Discussion worksheets were graded mostly on completion, with a few being graded for accuracy. There was also an extra credit group project that I found very fun and 100% worth doing. Nonetheless, this class was difficult. If you want to do well, you have to put in the work. Like a crazy amount.

If you see a review saying that you have to stay in and not party in order to get an A in this class, don't take it too seriously. I went out to parties the weekend before both midterms and got an A on both midterms (very slay moment). Lannan is super sweet and funny in the socially awkward, nerdy type of way and he's an awesome professor. There's extra credit from Campuswire, an end of the quarter project, and feedback surveys from him. The best thing to use for studying for exams is the review exams that he posts.