I compared my lab reports with my friends who have took this class with Dr. Hong in the 2019 spring quarter and 2019 winter quarter. It was very clear that I wrote superior lab reports compared to both my friends as I had access to their lab reports. They both received A's on all their lab reports, while with the TA that I had, received D's on all my lab reports. 0_0... That literally makes no sense. I tried going to her office hours and said I deserve that grade without explaining why. Sure I am not a an expert in formulating a hypothesis, but there is a standard form in which all hypotheses are formed. My TA acted as if he did not know how to form a hypothesis as if it was mysterious and difficult to form one. Nah, I do not believe in that at all. There is a way to standardize hypotheses whether it be QUANTITATIVELY or QUALITATIVELY. (Please be sure to form your hypothesis QUANTITATIVELY for all your lab reports!) Also, the grading of lab reports is so SUBJECTIVE. Which is BS. I'd rather they grade based on the requirements that are needed for each lab report as that is more OBJECTIVE. Clearly, this class definitely needs a standardized way of grading across all TA sections on how to grade lab reports! As others have stated, the lab practical was judged based on accuracy rather than understanding of the material (which I did poorly on). Lastly, to be fair, I did not really study for my midterm and final, in which to my surprise I scored just about average for both. I also do not like the way she words questions for her tests as I am a very simple person =)

Amazing professor !

The hardest part of the class comes after the midterm. After the midterm there are 2 reports/worksheets due every week. Granted one is a draft and one is a final, it still makes it really hard to keep up with the amount of material in lecture and in the laboratory. The in lab quizzes ask some pretty specific stuff, especially about the toxicity of the chemicals or the reaction that is going on during the lab. Personally, I really liked my TA, ERIC LEE! He was really awesome in answering questions during lab and gives great feedback to writing lab reports. Even though I did not do well in the practical or either exam, my lab reports really saved my grade. I really wish that the lab reports were worth more for the class as this is a lab class. Hong is very easy to reach out to as well, she normally has 3 office hour sessions a week and takes appointments. She also has really awesome notes on her lecture slides that she posts about a week or two after the lecture was completed. I do recommend going to the review sessions for the midterm and final, but only if you like working in groups as you . will be working in groups to complete the review packet and Hong and other LAs will be there to assist/answer questions/demonstrate. Yeah this class is a lot of work, so be prepared for it after that midterm! Read your lab manual and the data sheets Hong posts on the ccle!

Dr. Hong really cares about her students. She is very approachable and is willing to take time to explain concepts to you well. Her accent and interesting ways of saying things made the lectures interesting.

In terms of work, it is often tedious. Lab reports are a bit of pain, but it is doable. You will find yourself confused what to say sometimes due to a lack of clear directions. But that, I believe, is part of learning how to write scientifically about your results and experiments.

I think you will get the most values out of this class by thinking about why your experiments failed and talking to the prof about it. Also, the lectures are podcasted and she posts detailed notes with her slides, so read them to prepare for the exams. Exams are fair, but it requires a bit of applying what you learned in a new setting or troubleshooting experiments, which is fun.

Good class over, just a bit tedious. Definitely will teach you about biochemical methods that are useful and ACTUALLY used in labs at UCLA.

Bad parts:
1. Lab practical. Worth 30 points, everyone I know got 10/30 or 15/30. Don't really know how that was graded, be prepared to lose points.
2. Lab reports. A majority was just copying from lab manual and was tedious. Start early, and check with your TA if anything is missing before you submit so you don't lose points here.

Good parts:
1. Midterm/Final exam was very fair.
2. Class is actually curved. Someone I know got 90.5 in the class raw, but still ended with an A.
3. Highly recommend TA Binsen Li. He makes sure everyone knows what they're doing. Bonus if you can make him like you. He'll make the lab section way more fun.

She is very nice and generous.

Professor Hong is a decent professor to have and she's genuinely a nice person.

I think the review that reflects my experience in the class is the one saying that they were knocked down to a B for underperforming on the exams. That also happened to me. If you are taking this class be ready to study for the exams because they are more important than I originally first thought.

I did not enjoy the class primarily because I didn't think the labs were ever worth my time. It's only slightly more engaging than 23L, another class I disliked.

Dr. Hong is super nice and willing to help. She is super approachable in class and in office hours. I do like how she has lots of office hours and has many review sessions planned. Her expectations are generally clear but some times can be confusing in terms of wording.

1 midterm/1final/3 lab reports/weekly worksheet/1 mini presentation

Labs were good, work load was just right for a chem lab class (more chill
compared to MCDB/MIMG lab classes). Lab guidelines and rubrics were very helpful in letting us know what was expected. Overall, not as bad as others say it is if you follow Dr. Hong's cues and pay attention.

DIdn’t have time during the quarter to really comment on Dr. Hong’s evaluation, so will do it right here.
"Dr. Hong is a nice professor, but not an efficient teacher."

Lecturing
Most of the time, it is difficult for me to understand what she is expressing during lecture with her accent and wording, and I ended up needing to listen to the bruin cast multiple times to figure out.
—> This increases the time for initial understanding of the knowledge
A lot of clarification and clarification on clarification and Q&A for students questions. She is cute and would make joke but honestly takes away time to finish the lecture. The powerpoint slides might not be finished by the end of lecture.

Powerpoint slides
She usually releases the powerpoint before lecture, and then replaces that one with a NEW one with notes. I ended up needing to spend time transferring all my writing on the first powerpoint to the one with notes to make sure I got all the information from the lecture correctly.
—> This + the time for note taking.
She sometimes forgets to mention things she put down on powerpoint. It is only when people ask question in person, she would realize she forgot to mention. You will have to spend time reading thoroughly to see if she misses anything on lecture but the information is on the notes.
—> This + the time for note checking.

Lab report
Her slides also do not follow an order such that she hopes “students will learn to ‘think’ and be able to solve the experimental questions” without teaching explicitly. I do not understand the concept of being able to cook without learning the chronological steps of cooking. This leads to a lot of students confusion and seeking for help, which she sees as active learning?
—> + time to reorganize the order of notes when doing data analysis for lab report
—> You may be very confused if you go through in her order of slides
—> +++++ time on learning the steps on solving experimental question
—> and I don’t know if you will acquire the problem solving skills that she is expecting.
There are no specific instructions of what you should be writing on the lab report. You will have to go to OH and TA OH to figure out in order not to miss any points for your lab report.
—> This + time to reschedule to make time to go to OH every week.
BTW for week 8 lab, Cn3D instead of pymol is not a good idea for protein structure analysis WS
—> go to youtube pymol tutorial and abandon Cn3D will save you time.

She will answer any questions students have, which is very nice. She also facilitates the discussion between students. But with information scattering around the floor like sand, I do not really fancy the way she teaches, because it takes up a lot of my time to organize and everyday there are like 10x emails from this class. It gets overwhelming although the material itself is not difficult to understand. To a certain extent, her nice personality and way of class arrangement give me stress during the quarter. I did not have a very great learning experience despite her effort to promote positive learning atmosphere as the organization of this class has taken extra hours from my sleep.

Bottomline
If you have plenty of free time and want to meet a nice human being, take Dr. Hong for 153L.
If you have a lot of duties to fulfill and other heavy classes, please be aware and careful on choosing Dr. Hong for 153L.

Dr. Hong is not the best at explaining concepts but some of her TAs are great. However, Dr. Hong is very nice and approachable. She did not podcast her lectures during this quarter so it was extremely hard to understand a few concepts. The lab reports take a long time so make sure to start early on them. To ace her exams, make sure to go through all her review questions and her slides. The exams are actually very fair. So I would say doing well on the lab reports will determine your grade in the class.