I'm grateful I never have to return to this class. I think it was a lot of work in comparison to other classes. This class had the most homework I've had in a college course so far. The only benefit of that is your grade does not rely on your midterm and final as much, which thank goodness because that final was an acid dream (no pun intended). I did not find the lectures helpful. The textbook half taught me things. This class is just very tiring.

What can I say, Courey is the GOAT!! Definitely take this class. If I could do it, you can too, trust. For context, I'm not even a biochem major. I barely got a C in 153A but needed 5 quarter units of biochem for professional school prereqs, so I was hesitant to enroll in this class. The material itself is complicated, but it's totally doable. I ended up finding this class super interesting too. It's different than 153A in the sense that you aren't memorizing a bunch of pathways, so if you're better at understanding structures, this class is for you. Courey makes sure you can visualize concepts by using 3D digital models which is rly helpful if you're a visual learner. His slide decks are super clean and very well organized. There's lots of extra credit opportunities and the exams are super fair and you'll do great as long as you keep up with the problem sets (which is not graded but many questions are representative of exam content + he goes over some of them in tutorial) and do the discussion worksheets (you can keep doing corrections until you get 100%).

Courey is very research-oriented when it comes to CHEM153B - a lot of the slides are based off of research papers that were conducted to study DNA and RNA structure/mechanisms. As an MIMG major, I was very daunted by how like 90% of the class were biochem majors, but I fared fine because I did well on the midterm. There's an in-person and take-home portion for the one midterm of this class, and as long as you did the problem sets that he posted and studied the learning objectives he emphasized, you would've been fine. I will say the material is very dense, and he often does not put summarized information on the slides (it's mainly diagrams and like 1-2 sentences). You might have to go back to the lectures and rewatch what he's verbally saying. Discussion is group-work based, and there's a weekly worksheet. There are 2 journal articles that you have to read and discuss with your group during discussion, and he does test you on the diagrams that appeared in the journal articles on the exams (for our quarter, it was just the final - it was 1-2 questions about specific diagrams). On the midterm, I got 91.3%, so I had more wiggle room for the final. I thought the final was kind of tough because there were select 1 or more answers, so I kept second guessing myself. However, I got an 81.3%, which I'm fine with because I honestly thought I bombed it. I left like halfway through the final (1.5 hours in out of the allotted 3 hours). For the final, I studied for 4 days and did all of the learning objectives (he didn't give a specific emphasized learning objectives pdf like he did on the midterm ; he said any learning objective was fair game for the final) as well as all of the problem sets. The problem sets are optional, but I swear if you want to get a good grade on the exams, do the problem sets. Sometimes he asks questions that are similar to the concepts/set up of the practice problems. Courey is also very engaging and he answers questions concisely. I sat in the front row during the final review session he held, and I wish I sat in the front row when class started during Week 1 because I learned so much in those 2 hours of that review. He also gives a practice exam for the midterm and final. The weekly quizzes can be kind of challenging, but I got 25/25 on most of them except for one quiz. There's 2 in-person quizzes, but they're memorization based (so you just have to keep drawing the things that are going to be tested - he also literally gives you the quiz template, so it should be free points). He also offers some extra credit (although he graded kinda harsh for the haikus we have to make LOL I got like 3 points out of 6 because my CHEM153B haikus were not evocative enough but at least it's free points). Overall, I think if 153B is offered with Courey, you should take it because he's honestly a professor who cares. I also highly recommend you attend tutorial because literally he goes over stuff that'll help you on the weekly quizzes.

Professor Courey is one of the best professors I have ever had at UCLA, and as a Biochemistry major, his class made me believe that I chose the right field of study. I was initially a bit worried about the workload and time commitment of this class, and although there definitely is a lot of material, Professor Courey makes it super clear and adds fun videos and even poems to engage students. It's so obvious that he cares deeply about student learning and is genuinely passionate about the material he teaches. Additionally, his class dives into past research innovations and how they helped shape our current understanding of biochemistry, which was really cool to hear. I have zero complaints about this class and would 100% take another class taught by him.

The others that posture this class as easy are either prodigies or liars. Great professor tests and problem sets are hard. The professor bases his work in research and teaches to reflect that. If you are not in his class for the love of Biochemistry then don't do it. If it is just for a passing grade don't do it.

COUREY MY MANNNN. The first class, you're gonna think to yourself: "why did I take 14be, I should've taken 14b like everyone else," but do not drop! Courey is such a sweet and kind professor (gave out multiple extra credit assignments and extensions and made changes to the syllabus to boost grades), and he genuinely cares about you learning the material in class, not just skimming across it for the grade. Give him a chance, and Courey is gonna grow on you over all your other professors. Tip: lectures aren't the greatest, but so much of the exam material comes from the POGIL worksheets, homework problems, and weekly quizzes. Just do all the work and try your best to keep up with the reading, and this class will be super manageable.

I preferred this class with Courey over Chem 14AE with Caram! Significantly so. Although the material is arguably tougher to understand conceptually and to apply correctly to problems, Courey gave solid lectures and provided tons of study resources. There were two in-person exams, a midterm in Week 6 and a final. Lectures were clear, recorded, and had helpful slides to go along with them (posted in advance weekly). Attendance was taken through iClicker polls, but he was generous in the amount that counted towards full credit. Weekly discussion was mandatory attendance for 2 hours working with a group to complete a packet of questions that helped us derive equations and concepts of the content. Oftentimes our group finished the packet in less than an hour, but you are given till the end of the day to submit for graded credit. Weekly homework was doable and helped guide you through solving the mathematical problems of the topics. There were weekly quizzes, but the lowest you could possibly get on each was 75%. In preparation for exams, Courey provided practice exams and an in-class practice quiz (that you got extra credit for as long as you showed up and completed it). Many opportunities for extra credit were available, ranging from surveys to writing pieces to identifying model problems. I felt that both of the exams were very fair and a reflection of the problems and work he gave us prior to them. Although I think the averages for both were quite low, there was an online and a group portion for the midterm that could raise your score. Also, if you scored better on the final, he would replace your midterm grade. I definitely feel that I did not put the proper amount of time into this class as I should have especially given all the help, resources, and extra credit that was provided (I never attended office hours nor studied diligently). I think the content of this course is definitely challenging, but the structure of this class and how Courey presents the material is very good. I think if you utilize all of the resources he provides, pay attention during lecture, fully understand the discussion worksheets, and spend some extra time studying the content, anyone could get an A in the class! (I wish I would take my own advice lol)

GRADE BREAKDOWN
Mastering Chemistry Homework Assignments: 10%
Formative Assessment Quizzes: 12.5%
Midterm: 20%
Final Exam: 35%
Peer Review Homework Assignment: 5%
POGIL worksheets: 12.5%
iClicker: 5%
Surveys and other extra credit assignments: 2.6%

I really enjoyed this class and Professor Courey as a teacher. His lectures are very organized, and he gives the slides beforehand so you can take notes on them during lecture. The class is a little difficult conceptually, but Professor Courey gives a pretty good gist of what you need to know in preparation for the final and midterm. For some context, I only took honors chem in high school and took Lavelle for 14A (I got a B+). I took this class because Lavelle's class had no spots, but I definitely liked Professor's class format way better. You could also get partial credit on the midterm and final since some of the questions are free response. Overall, would take this class again!

I think Professor Courey is a great lecturer: he's engaging, cracks jokes, and I feel that my classmates and I are always comfortable talking to him. I believe he cares a lot about our success in the course, and I appreciate that.
As for the course itself, I think its structure is a little strange; 7 weeks of thermodynamics, 2 weeks of acid-base chemistry, and 1 week of kinetics. Of course, I don't know what we should know for the other courses in the chain, but I feel that the course would be a lot more cohesive if we focused solely on thermodynamics and left acid-base chemistry and kinetics to other courses.

Let me lead with, this class was hard. The content is simply challenging and confusing. I went through the class fearing lecture, but it got better every day. Even though the class was hard, it's fun and it is interesting. Courey sometimes goes too fast and sometimes goes too slow, but he very clearly cares about the students understanding material. I would sometimes stay with him after class and ask him questions, and he made an effort to learn people's names so he can address them with their names. You can obviously tell he is very knowledgeable, but sometimes it takes asking questions and outside-of-class work to actually get what he's saying. You will definitely have to put in work for this class-- there's no way you can get by without putting in work. But as long as you do put in the work, there's no way you won't pass. Getting an A was def hard-- I was 0.1% higher than the minimum you need for an A at the end of the quarter, but I got a 98% on the final and that got me a 95% in the class. So, my point is, you can most definitely do very well on the exams (which will be hard), but you have to study. The tests are not misleading-- they are very, very fair. Courey is a very very nice ol' man.

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