Dr. Ryan Lannan is a friendly, knowledgable, and clear professor for CHEM 153A. I would recommend taking biochemistry with him, as he is likely one of the easier biochemistry professors.
With that being said, biochemistry is just a difficult subject and requires a lot of conceptual understanding and memorization, so by no means was this class easy. However, Lannan's 153A class is crucial for pre-meds who will eventually take the MCAT, as the material learned in his class is arguably the most valuable, of any pre-med prerequisite, for succeeding on the MCAT.
There were two midterms and one final exam for this class. The grading was on Gradescope and for free response questions, based on a relatively strict rubric that allocated points for saying specific terms/phrases that he expected. Therefore, there was often some ambiguity and errors in some of the grading, but Lannan was somewhat receptive to regrade requests. The final exam was cumulative, but did emphasize the later weeks of the course, which in my opinion, were the hardest weeks. There were also five quizzes throughout the quarter, roughly one every 2 weeks, and these were straight memorization of facts that we needed to know in order to be successful in the class. For Winter 2024, the five quizzes covered: amino acids, enzyme kinetics, glycolysis, TCA, and ETC.
This class covers amino acids and proteins, then enzymes, and then metabolism. The last 2-3 weeks were all about metabolism (glycolysis, TCA, ETC, ATP synthesis), and it felt the hardest since it required the most memorization of arrow-pushing mechanisms, enzyme and intermediate names, and step-by-step detailed understandings of how the reactions worked, all in a rushed and jam-packed 3 week span. To be fair, CHEM 153C is entirely about metabolism, so 153A likely only covered the superficial basics, so the metabolism part of the course therefore felt jam-packed into 3 weeks of lectures.
Lannan was quite helpful in office hours and had a Campuswire forum where other students (and he) would frequently answer student questions and provide logistical updates about the class/deadlines. He was not particularly responsive to emails, however. Lannan provided practice exams that were administered to previous quarters on Bruinlearn, and these were quite representative of the tests that he gave; sometimes, there were a few questions word-for-word repeated on our exams from the practice tests, so it's definitely worth doing them and understanding all the answers/reasoning. Lannan did offer some bonus points on each exam, as well as an end of quarter group extra credit project where we had to creatively apply some biochemistry concepts to a sci-fi writeup. He was also quite receptive to student feedback and curved the second midterm exam (added 5 points to everyone's exam total) because it was very difficult and averages were lower than usual.
Overall, Dr. Lannan is a nice and knowledgeable guy who seems to care a lot about student learning and success. While this course is difficult, covers a lot of material in what seems like a short 10 weeks, and the exams can be challenging due to the somewhat strict FRQ grading rubrics, Lannan probably is still one of the best bets for taking biochemistry at UCLA. Would recommend!

Lannan was a pretty average professor in my opinion. His lectures weren't very engaging and pretty boring at times, but he taught the material pretty well. There were some times when he would ramble about something that wasn't important and we fell behind in lecture material. The class had homework, participation, quizzes, two midterms, and a final. He also gave out ~2% of extra credit which was super nice. He provides a lot of recourses that prepare you well for the midterms and he made them very fair. Sometimes there would be questions on the midterms that came directly from the practice midterms, so be sure to study them! I will say, the grading on the midterms was pretty harsh. You basically had to be word for word on the rubric to get full credit which was not fun. Overall, definitely not the worst professor I've ever had!

I was not a fan of Lannan. He never took questions during class and often would skip around during lectures and emphasized that we "didn't need to know" certain content and then it would show up on the exam. The midterms were fine but the final was entirely unfair as he completely changed the format of the exam. He claimed it would be 60% new content, 40% old but it was easily 95% new content. Not to mention his grading rubric is ridiculous. You could write word for word what it says but if the grader "didn't feel it was correct" you wouldn't get the points. He is looking for very specific wording, not if you understand the overall content. He also is extremely unapproachable and discourages students from asking questions. I spoke to him once after class and he completely belittled me and spoke to me as if I was a child. I can't speak on behalf of other biochem professors but I don't think Lannan is a great choice. I think the department should look into hiring someone new cause this isn't going to work.

I like this man

This class was a lot of work, but I genuinely enjoyed it because of Lannan. He's a funny guy and if you go to office hours you see that he really cares about his students understanding the concepts. If you're interested in learning the material, he's interested in teaching you it. There were a couple of easy ways to earn extra credit. The practice exams are a great representation of what exams will be like.

Lannan is a pretty good lecturer. His slides are clear and his tests definitely reflect his lectures/homework. We were the guinea pigs since it was his first quarter but now that he has material made, I'm sure the future classes will have a better experience. He definitely cares about students learning biochem. I will say the only negative thing about the course was the logistics and how late we were given material, classes were very rushed with little time for questions, TA's made mistakes on grading, etc. But Lannan definitely took our criticism and became a way better instructor throughout the quarter.

I loved this class! Lannan is a great professor and deeply cares about his students. He is very approachable for questions both on campuswire, after class, or in office hours. The content was very interesting and the tests were fair. Plus, there is a fair amount of extra credit on exams and a final extra credit group project,

I think the negative reviews for Lannan are so unwarranted. I think every professor for this class would be harder than Lannan and way less generous. He was concerned with student learning and his slides were very good considering it was his first time teaching the class. The homework helped me personally and the quizzes were necessary to memorize the content. The class is just memorization so it’s not that hard as long as you put in the work. Overall good professor would take it with him again any day.

If you have to take this man I'm so sorry and I'm praying for you. Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic. Lannan is genuinely a very nice and likable man, but as a 153A professor, he's... interesting to say the least. He's very particular about using specific wording on the exams or else you won't get any credit, not even partial. However, the good news is that his practice midterms are very similar to his actual ones. If you can do them without your notes and get a good grade, then you should get the same outcome on the actual midterm. After every class, if you have time, please rewatch the lecture and rewrite it in your own words. Annotating the slides does not do sh** I'm sorry. You have to write the concepts out yourself if you want to pass. Post as much as possible in the Campuswire because that's extra credit right there. Also don't forget the evaluation at the end of the quarter (like I did smh) because that's also easy extra credit. Homework was moderate, but definitely a few challenging questions here and there. This class contains a *lot* of concepts for only 10 weeks of learning but if this is the only hard class you're taking it's definitely manageable. I believe in y'all <3

Professor Lannan delivers captivating lectures and equips students with the necessary tools for success in the class. While his midterms may appear challenging, the availability of extra credit and ample practice materials contributes to high average scores. Professor Lannan is notably accommodating and genuinely invested in the success of his students.