BCHM461 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/22/2024	DO NOT TAKE HIM IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE BIOCHEM 2!!!!!!! Cannot emphasize this enough, in our whole semester we have yet to finish protein and we are behind, other professors finish proteins half way through the semester and start carbs, lipids, etc, which is vital knowledge to have for biochem 2, so do not take him if you need to advance forward. He goes super fast in lecture, skimming over topics that ultimately are very important for exams. Sometimes when a student has a question, he literally whines like a child and says he does not want to because "it will take too much time" or "he doesnt feel like it" and youll have to go to his office hours for more clarification, where he is also lazy there. Would also like to emphasize the fact that the class itself is out of only 100 points, with 3 25 point exams (one is dropped), 35 point final, 10 points of quizzes and one project worth 5 points, meaning every point off in his class is a whole percentage point. He also is snarky when it comes to exams; we had a pretty high average on the first exam which he made very fair if you went to class, studied his in-lecture practice problems, and did the gss worksheets, he did not like the high average and made the second exam exponentially harder and was happy and proud of himself when the average dropped by nearly 8 points. He is a nice and funny guy and does want to help i guess, but he is not suited to be a professor. This is the only class he teaches because he runs a full-time lab on campus, so his priorities for this class fall no where near ours as students. He has stuffed animals that get passes around the class and you WILL have it at least once a week and you have to answer whatever the question is, he will give extra credit sometimes if the answer is hard and you get it correct, but you will have to speak (and fail at some points) in front of the whole lecture. Overall, to me the class isnt horrible in my opinion, i think orgo 2 was worse because this content is definetly crammable, however, he makes it hard to study and succeed.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/22/2024	He goes really fast sometimes but he also does a lot of practice and review to make sure people understand it. His exams can be tough and you definitely need to study but if you pay attention in class you'll be fine. He tends to emphasize in class the kind of questions he will ask on exams. If you don't understand a topic, he is very open to explaining it to you in office hours or after class and he is pretty responsive to emails. The way he holds class is also pretty engaging and he manages to make it interesting (in my opinion at least). Go to class, don't fall behind on the material, pay attention to his slides, ask questions if you need help, and you'll be fine. The only time I've ever seen him be rude or snarky about questions is when students ask questions about material we went over a long time ago.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 11/21/2024	Paul, Paul, Paul. Lecture was him mostly yapping and I don't think we have finished a lecture without him saying we are behind. His notes are useless so you def need to attend class. In terms of exams, the practice exams and notes from class will not help. I recommend searching the topics he presents in class and studying them yourself
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Anonymous 11/14/2024	He needs to work on his teaching. He speeds through many important concepts. We have pop extra credit quizzes that he goes over before we turn them in. Multiple people asked him to draw the mechanism on the board for the specific problem we did because they did not understand the answer. He stated, "That would take a lot of time," then moved on to teaching the next topic. I would not take a class taught by him again because he is very rude when people don't understand something and want him to go over it. He'll make snarky comments such as "study more your exam is in 2 weeks" instead of helping those who don't understand. Exams are also brutal... The first exam was fine, but he said that since the average was too high on the first exam, he had to make the next exam harder. The second exam was way too difficult to the point where everyone stayed for the entire hour and 15 minute class time to take the exam.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/01/2024	I had such high hopes for this professor, especially since he does not require any textbooks for this course. Boy, was I in for a shock. While he does not provide any old exam keys, I personally didn't mind because I learned more about the content that way. However, the exams themselves are egregiously difficult. The amount of interpretation and confusion with some of the questions, which are worth so many points, is not worth it. I have never met such a petty teacher. Yes, he does record the lectures. But if many students don’t attend the lectures, he purposefully WITHHOLDS the recordings AND the lecture notes until close to exams. After the exams are passed out, going to his office hours feel so tense. He is unwilling to try to sympathize with how terrible the exam design and questions were. Overall, his ego is HUGE! DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!! Oh, and by the way, even if he does post the lecture notes, the majority, if not all, are incomprehensible and illegible, so you would still need to watch the lecture recordings that he withholds. Good luck to those that do have to take him...
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/01/2024	I had such high hopes for this professor, especially since he does not require any textbooks for this course. Boy, was I in for a shock. While he does not provide any old exam keys, I personally didn't mind because I learned more about the content that way. However, the exams themselves are egregiously difficult. The amount of interpretation and confusion with some of the questions, which are worth so many points, is not worth it. I have never met such a petty teacher. Yes, he does record the lectures. But if many students don’t attend the lectures, he purposefully WITHHOLDS the recordings AND the lecture notes until close to exams. After the exams are passed out, going to his office hours feel so tense. He is unwilling to try to sympathize with how terrible the exam design and questions were. Overall, his ego is HUGE! DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!! Oh, and by the way, even if he does post the lecture notes, the majority, if not all, are incomprehensible and illegible, so you would still need to watch the lecture recordings that he withholds. Good luck to those that do have to take him...
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/31/2024	Recommend taking biochemistry with Capp! The class was definitely difficult, but he prepared me well for the topics discussed in biochem 2. I put a lot of effort into studying and memorizing for this class, but it paid off - his exams are pretty fair. Agree that he can be condescending to the class overall at times, but one-on-one he is very nice and willing to help! Also recommend to pre-meds as he is very thorough in the content that is high yield on the mcat.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2024	You guys. PLEASE TAKE THIS CLASS. I have been losing my love for chemistry and this man was able to reignite it. he loves to teach and is good at it. his exams are always fair. He also makes the content simple and fun to learn. absolute king. Super easy to talk to. He loves to answer questions and is ALWAYS down to help someone who is struggling. A lot of people in this class i knew (including myself) got an A, Which is really impressive for a biochem class. LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2024	PAUKSTELIS MY MAN. What a guy lol he’s the goat. This class is structured pretty typically, with three 100 point midterms, and then the final was worth 150 points. Additionally, there were about six homeworks this semester, and combined they totaled to about 20-25 points. The homeworks don’t really make a big impact on your grade, but it is important to do them and understand them, because he pulled some concepts almost directly from the homeworks onto the final (when he hadn’t really done on midterms). He also provides his lecture notes and lecture recordings after each class, which is extremely helpful to go back and review. The material can be a bit dry at times, but Dr. Paukstelis did his best to make the class engaging, especially considering it was at 8am. You will learn a lot in depth about proteins and nucleic acids, and it is all fundamental information I am sure all bio/chem students will use going forward. In that sense, a professor like Paukstelis is critical to ensuring you have a strong foundation in the subject. He would always try to incorporate real-life analogies and visual representations with the Pymol software to illustrate the concepts. He’s also funny lol. He has his own interesting sense of humor that runs a bit on the dry side, but that I appreciated a lot, especially at 8am. I still remember a whack story about inhibitors and his annoying neighbor lol. Also, I don’t know why but I get the feeling he’s a huge 80’s-90’s rock fan, which is right up my alley lmao. He does give you practice exams before each exam, usually about a week before. He emphasizes at the beginning of the semester itself to start early, and he’s right. He does not give answer keys for his practice exams, however, you honestly wouldn’t need them unless you started studying the night before. Before each exam, he hosts a review session during class time, and he would spend the entire time period answering any questions we had relating to the practice exams or the course content in general. He also hosted multiple office hours in the week that you can (and should) go to for extra clarification. The exams are very doable with both of these resources, and he would sometimes pull directly from the practice exams for the actual midterm (which was really nice of him!). Would it be nice to have the answer keys to old exams as well? Sure, but I don’t think it's the end of the world like some people make it out to be. He genuinely wants to help you succeed, but he wants to see that you’ve put in an honest effort to make headway yourself first. Overall, the class is what you make of it. If you are proactive in studying ahead and asking good questions during class and during office hours (not just stuff you can find word for word in his lecture notes), you will be more than fine. There is a huge curve at the end which is more than generous. After the third exam, I genuinely thought my grade would be three grades below what it was, but the curve is massive. TLDR: He’s funny, extremely accessible and helpful in class/office hours, wants you to do well, and gives fair exams, with a large curve at the end. But the class is what you make of it, and you have to make sure you start studying ahead of time so that you can get your questions answered beforehand.
Jason Kahn BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2024	Dr. Kahn is a tough but good professor. He emphasizes understanding over memorization, and often tells us that he doesn't want us to memorize mechanisms, but to understand the background information well enough to be able to figure a mechanism out in the moment. His exams are tough but he grades VERY leniently, so it makes figuring out a mechanism/problem on an exam less high stakes. He also explains concepts very thoroughly, and focuses on quality over quantity when it comes to course content. If he thinks something is too complicated, or that students won't understand it on an exam, he doesn't teach the topic or put it in his tests. I removed a star because he is SO slow with grading. We took our last exam over a month ago. The final is tomorrow, and it still is not graded. Because of how slowly he grades it can be hard to get a pulse on how you're doing in the class or how much you need to study. Also he is a very funny and nice person, and attending class is usually an interesting experience. Highly recommend
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 05/13/2024	He record all of his lectures and tests on things that he said during class. He writes his notes as he lectures, there are no presentation/slides. You can not go off just his notes. I felt the need to nearly transcribe everything he said in class because some of his questions were on things he said and never wrote. Lectures were relatively interesting but the way he presents information is very ineffective. His handwriting isn't good either. His exams are not like the past exam he provides in class, so keep that in mind when studying. Would not recommend him. Exams are very application based and very little recall. There is also a big jump from Gen Chem 2 to Biochem so prepare yourselves and don't underestimate this course.
Jason Kahn BCHM461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/12/2024	Dr. Kahn is a nice guy, but extremely unorganized. He grade assignments super late and frequently goes off on tangents about unrelated material. He refuses to use laser pointers so he just points up at complicated text heavy slides expecting us to what he's talking about. For BCHM461, he gave us very little resources to study for the exam, which greatly confused and stressed out many students. He is a great guy and cracks jokes during lecture, which he also records which is a pro. But his monotone, slide-only teaching style did not fit my learning style. Overall, he is alright, but I would not recommend him if there is another option available.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/10/2024	I will admit that I don't think teaching is Dr. Lee's strong suit, but I think he does his best to explain the content. His slides aren't always the most helpful, and he doesn't record lectures BUT if you show up to class you will be fine. Most of our exam questions came from practice problems that he did in class and went over. He sometimes goes through a lot of material quickly, but those don't show up on exams. The content that he repeats over and over are the things that show up on exams. Overall, this is a tough class, but Dr. Lee is really helpful if you ask him questions, and he genuinely wants to see his students succeed.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 05/02/2024	Terrible handwriting so it is impossible to go over lecture notes without having to rewatch the recordings. The exams give very vague questions and he looks for very specific answers (if you don't say a certain keyword you don't get credit). Graders this semester were extremely harsh and nothing was done to counteract this, exam averages just remained low. Also not very sympathetic if you go to office hours to discuss exams with him. I was disappointed because during lecture I felt as though I thoroughly understood the material, but that understanding was never reflected on the exams because the questions were written so poorly. The exams are pretty much your entire grade besides a few 4 point homework assignments. I feel like if you are a good test taker this class could be fine but otherwise I would go with a different professor.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/15/2024	Overall pretty good experience. Pros: - Lots of review and in class practice. Takes times to do practice questions that would be on the exam and always holds review sessions before the exam. He generally teaches slower than the other professors. For example, he goes over each amino acid one by one. - Exams are very straightforward and if you studied the basics you should do well on the exams. - Lenient Grading. There were often extra credit points on the exam. There was one pymol assignment which was worth 5% of the grade and it was graded very leniently. There was also a pretty heavy curve at the end. - Fast grading. Generally you can expect feedback on exams in around 1 week from the time you take it. - Generally nice and understanding. He recently pushes for an increase in class participation, and enthusiastically teaches at 9:30 every morning, ever semester. Cons: - Slides aren't great. A lot of the practice questions are not legible the way he formats them, so going to class is important. - Less material covered compared to other biochem 1 classes. He does not cover sugars, dna, or lipids. It's all proteins. I think I had a lesser understanding of biochemistry compared to my peers in other classes. However, it does make the class an easy A.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/28/2024	Handwriting is terrible, lecture notes are elementary.
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/19/2024	If you are a biochemistry major or cell bio or have any reason to take more than one biochemistry class, take biochem with Capp! All of the professors do different things but I think he prepares you the best for the content in 462 (or at least glycolysis and some other beginning mechanisms). He teaches using the blackboard which is highly appreciated but you need to pay attention in class because his slides do not cover everything. He also doesn't record lectures :( But he loves his job and is really good at teaching or at least it worked for me! I will say though his exams are kinda long and he only gives 1 hour out of the 1 hour 15 min (idk how it would work with a 50 min class). He also is a little condescending sometimes - he sent out a whole message after the first exam basically saying that some of us should reconsider if we need biochem if we're struggling which is valid but still :/ Anyway, take his class if you can but be prepared to do work and pay attention in class!
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2023	I honestly don't believe I could have had a better professor for this course than Dr. Capp. Prior to this past semester, I was absolutely dreading taking biochem, especially since I was awful at organic chemistry. However, Dr. Capp did an amazing job during lecture of taking these extremely complicated topics and breaking them down into their simple, individual components in order to help with understanding. Additionally, he encourages students to come to office hours and is happy to answer questions there or via email. His exams are difficult, no question about it, and you are required to begin to sort of think like him. However, I don't feel like any part of this course was unfair or unnecessary, it's certainly possible to do well in this course so long as you study and practice. Highly recommend Dr. Capp for biochem, and hopefully UMD does everything in their power to keep him considering how many lackluster professors are currently in our chem department.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2023	Never left a review before but let's give it a go. Alright, I won't lie, it's a tough class. Here's my pros and cons: Pros: -teaches biochemistry that is actually used in the research field/ lab-setting. He is very practical and won't spend a lot of time teaching you concepts that you don't need/ are outdated -forces you to learn graduate-style level teaching. Not all professors will hold your hand, and they certainly won't in upper-level classes. Sometimes you have to learn to use alternative resources to learn the content and fill in the blanks, and this class teaches you the importance of that. -little to no graded outside work. The quizzes are free points (yeah a few points will be lost here and there but in the grand scheme they don't matter) and he gives you two months notice for the major assignment that's worth 5% of your grade. -he has become more empathetic about students having other exams and other class content to study for. As a result he has significantly slowed down the pace of teaching content -large curve Cons: -office hours are far away (which is inconvenient for a lot of students), and for our semester it was at very inconvenient times during the day (around 11-ish twice a week which is when I had other classes) -very textbook-dependent (if you actually want to understand the class content and its importance). You will often have to attend the lecture, and then immediately after read the textbook chapter that was covered in class. You could also do it before if you happen to have the time. The good news is that every individual lecture covered at most 5-10 pages of content and you can easily skim the textbook to get to the parts you recognize in the lecture. To be honest, not a lot of students do it, and I think that's why this class can be so confusing. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. -the exams will be a bit tricky to follow sometimes as the professor gets a bit creative with his questions. However, if you ask for clarification, the TA (who's super nice!) or the professor will try to clear it up for you so that you have a better idea of what the question is asking. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The averages will be around 50-60% because there is little to no partial credit, making exams stressful. To be honest, this was not as bad a course as some of the comments I read before the semester made it out to be. Here's my advice: -read the textbook chapter before or after class -ask questions and actively participate in class. Blurt out the answers to his open-ended questions during the lecture and if you get it wrong you'll remember the right answer because you'll be engaged. -do the Pymol assignment (5% of your grade) as soon as you can to get an idea of how Pymol works and how to get around its features -REMEMBER/ REVIEW ENZYME KINETICS FROM GEN CHEM II -study with your peers and try to teach each other Honestly, he's a pretty smart and nice guy if you engage and participate. You guys got this!!!!
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2023	Teaching style is horrible and he has awful handwriting. He records lectures which is nice, but that's the only helpful thing he does. Past exams are given with no answer key and they aren't anything close to the real test. Mean person and you can tell he doesn't want to speak to students during office hours or after class at all. I only got an A- because I studied an insane amount for the final and the curve was pretty big(about 9%). But even with the curve, awful class and very difficult to do well it.
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	honestly hardest class I've had at umd. This class was more memorization than I expected and I'm not the biggest fan of capp's lecturing style. He normally covers the material verbally with some diagrams on the chalkboard. Make sure you write down everything he says because even the most seemingly irrelevant stuff can be questioned. One exam he had a 8? point question on x-ray crystallography even though he probably spent a minute and a half covering it. He has slides but he self admits that they're not meant to be comprehensive regarding the material, and if you only looked at the slides you'd fail. I'd prefer it a lot if he were to record lectures but he didn't like how students in the past would just skip lecture because of that so I guess he stopped. It would've been way easier if he recorded lecture though. He's a great lecturer and very kind, just a bad fit for my learning style personally. 6/10 class, I didn't find the material terribly interesting and it was difficult, 8.5/10 professor, great guy just not my style.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/20/2023	As a professor he seems to be more fixated on his own research which prevents him from focusing on the class. Unfortunately for students this means you have to heavily rely on showing up to class and reading from the textbook (he will never post his slides). Even with practice problems from the text book and showing up to class the exams will kill your grade. The most alien, thought provoking questions show up on exams which you are expected to answer with a short amount of time. As almost everyone says about this class, the curve will blow your mind above a 30% is considered passing. As someone who is expected to continue with biochemistry courses I worry that perhaps I don't have a strong enough concept of biochemistry to do well in the classes following. He's a sweet professor but don't expect him to respond to your emails or schedule exam reviews.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Eliser003 12/19/2023	Could not disagree with the previous reviews of this professor more- his exams are NOT based on textbook, lecture or homework problems. There is no homework for this class except for weekly quizzes worth 0.75 points PER QUIZ since the class is out of 100 points TOTAL. This man lives for biochemistry and his exams are beyond this courses understand
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/17/2023	A lot of these reviews are misleading. During lecture, he is a good lecturer and presents the information pretty well and makes us understand the material. I learned a lot of information in this class. However, my grades do not reflect that because his exams are made so poorly. He asks a vague question and expects a specific answer which is so frustrating. I know all the material and yet I couldn't answer his questions just by the way he asks it. He is the kind of teacher that makes the tests deliberately harder just because people are doing well (first exam went very well and the second exam was so hard for no reason). Also, your grade is solely based on your exam grades (he has like 20 points of homework which makes no difference). Adding on, he doesn't really help you when you need help. We tried to ask for any tips for the final since it is all cumulative and there is equal chance of anything to be on the test, but he said he can't give us tips and that it isn't his job. He is a professor. His job is to help us. He can be very condescending and rude at times and I am annoyed that I learned so much and understood all the material, but the way he asked questions on the exam were so unfair and not reflective of what I knew. I would not recommend him to anyone.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/15/2023	Wow. This was a rough class to take. Let me say this, Dr. Lee is a very sweet person but I truthfully do not think he should be teaching this class. Typically, chem professors provide some type of practice exam or answer keys to midterms for us to understand what went wrong. For this class, it didn't happen. He provided us with questions from the textbook, which did help a bit but did not prepare us for the exams as much as we needed to be prepared, as only a handful of questions from the textbook were on the exam. For the first midterm, the average was pretty high, in the 70s. Dr. Lee wasn't a fan of how people left before the exam time finished and made the second exam longer, leading to many people being unable to finish on time. One question (which was from the textbook), we were never taught or provided a conversion for. Even if you did do this question from the textbook, if you didn't remember the conversion you were screwed. The average for this exam was in the low 50s. For both exams, an answer key was not provided. After being asked to provide an answer key, he told us he would have to look for it. I guess he never got around to looking. He created discussion boards for us to ask questions but would only respond to 1/3rd of them a few days before the exam. He would answer a few during review sessions but for the most part, those review sessions were primarily based off of bits and pieces of the discussion board which didn't really help overall. The final exam was a doozy, to say the least. It took the whole two hours to complete and it was rough. I would honestly not recommend this professor. If you can take it with anyone else, please do. Dr. Lee is a nice person, but not a good professor.
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Anonymous 12/07/2023	LISTEN. He's a perfectly nice person, will take the time to explain things to you but, the exams he makes and the content he teaches, in my humble opinion is way too much. Capp enjoys teaching, you can really tell that through his lectures, but it's really frustrating that he strives to make exams that are long to "prevent cheating." Honestly if you're cheating in biochem good for you because it's a lot easier to actually study than to cheat. Also, he talks at a manageable pace and repeats his points a lot, which is nice however, this led to us not finishing lectures on time BECAUSE PEOPLE WOULD ASK SO MANY QUESTIONS. Essentially, don't take his class if you like to ask a lot of questions during lecture and also don't take this class if you're bad at memorizing a lot of things or bad with time management.
Bonnie Dixon BCHM461 Expecting a B ReakatheGOAT 06/26/2023	If you don't already hate chemistry get ready to. Dixon expects student lives to revolve around chemistry. Forget about your other commitments and other classes and expect to fail if you don't go to OH. Dixon will use your questions and real life problems as an excuse to make fun of you while being utterly unhelpful. No late work accepted and insane homework problems not based on the course material. Dixon is the absolute WOAT, wait to take Capp.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2023	Biochemistry is a hard class, but Julin makes it so much easier. I will say, you have to give time to the class as it is a 400-level biochemistry course but Dr. Julin's lectures are great and the info is very often translated to exams. He is very funny and has some witty one-liners to make biochem engaging. If you do not give this class the effort it deserves, you will fail. It is not just an A handed to you, it is hard. Take him before he retires because he offers the tools to succeed. I will say, he got applauded by our section on the last day due to his greatness this spring.
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/29/2022	Truly an amazing professor. He challenges his students and really helps you fully understand biochemistry in an interesting way! I really enjoyed that his style was to apply knowledge in unexpected circumstances on his problem sets/exams. Take Dr. Capp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A florm 12/24/2022	Julin is one of the best lecturers in the chemistry department, with some great dry humor. He writes everything out on the chalkboards that he shows on his slides, making it really easy to take notes while he talks. He only assigned 4 homework assignments the entire semester, and they were all super short and easy. All of the exams were pretty lengthy and really tough, and definitely require a lot of studying. He provides a bunch of practice problems that were really similar to the kinds of questions he asks on exams. Glad to have had him before he retires next year! :)
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Anonymous 12/22/2022	I think he’s one of the worst professors I’ve had here. I learned absolutely nothing from his lectures. Had to find supplemental videos to teach myself. He’s unreasonable and hard to contact. Our grades were basically only our exam scores. The exams are really difficult and if you asked him anything regarding the final his only answer was “maybe, maybe not.”
Christopher Capp BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2022	Dr. Capp is an excellent lecturer, he communicates the information he is trying to teach in a way that can be both fun and intellectually challenging. However, in terms of class structure, Dr. Capp is severely lacking and may have you in struggling in your other courses. He does not plan lessons around the relative difficulty of a concept, even though he creates his calendar well in advance. For example, the lecture before a midterm he claimed it would be a review session only to expect us to memorize two more enzyme mechanisms and fully conceptualize them. As well, he put an exam the day after thanksgiving break, leading me to study over what was supposed to be a break.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2022	All the bad reviews are from one year where he taught gen chem. He's an amazing biochemistry professor though
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Anonymous 06/01/2022	exams are unbelievable and his slides/notes are pretty much worthless. Basically, just read the textbook, but even then there will be totally alien things on the exam. But, he himself is nice and does not make class a hostile environment (like Dr. Friedman for example). And, the curve is superrrrrr generous and it is very difficult to not pass (getting above a 30% is a pass I believe). Getting a good grade on the other hand is another story and will require some serious work.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2022	Super chill biochem professor. Though his lectures can feel long and boring, if you stay relatively on top of things and know what is going on, you can get a good grade without too much stress. I studied for exams the day or 2 before, and just kept up with taking notes in the lecture and making sure everything made sense to me. I got an A after getting 75-85 on every exam. The guy is helpful and the class teaches you a lot even though it seems very slow and conceptual! Highly recommend.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Anonymous 05/13/2022	Allow me to summarize his style of teaching. Teaching style: -Very textbook heavy. -Each lecture consists of 50-60 slides and every slide is compacted with information. -Alway read from the slide and half of the time does not know what he’s talking about. -Does not record the lecture (so good luck with that) -Rarely post any written or annotated notes he made on the slide to elms. If he does, you’ll notice it won’t be a fews days after. -NO SCHEDULED OR EXAM REVIEW DAY. But he does answer any question that students may have on the day of the l lecture before the exam and he’ll go over them. -When you ask questions, he would often say “would do you think?” (I mean seriously if I know the answer I wouldn’t be asking the question). Half of the time he never really answer the question. -Rarely go over any practice problems yet the midterms consist mostly short answers and calculations. (I managed to get an A on the second midterm, but that is only when he posted a key to the practice problems we’ve done. AND literally whole class asked him to post the key. So, what does that mean? It means that he didn’t even considering posting the key if not the whole class asked. But the average was still below 50% for the 2nd midterm. So, I was very lucky). -BTW, the midterms and final combined are 85% of your grade. So failing one midterm will put you at most a C. Homework/assignments: -Only worth 1 point total -Mainly consists of completing the problems from the textbook, usually falls in the range of 15-25 questions. -BUT, he specifically said on the first day of class that he will only grade ONLY ONE QUESTION and give you the whole credit if you got it right and showed work. -That means if he grade the ONLY one question you got it wrong on the assignment you will get a 0. Doesn’t matter if you got every other questions correct. Quizzes -Fairly easy. -Around 4-6 points -You’ll be okay as long as you read over the slides. Midterms (I don’t even know where to start) -Consist of 2 midterms -Consist of 25 points total -Around 15 questions (some of the question consists of multiple parts) -Few multiple choices questions that is derived from the quizzes. -The rest are short answers and calculations. -Very ugly, but you’ll do just fine if you look over the practice problems he did during lectures, but as previously stated he rarely post any annotated notes to elms. So, you’re essentially screwed if he doesn’t post it. -Class average are below 50% for both midterms. So, essentially means more than half of the class failed. -But he does give out a huge curve for both exams based on the average, A lot of people are happy with that, but in my opinion you should know that giving out a huge curve is not a good thing. It means that the reason why the whole class in failing mainly lies on the professor. -I even heard that the TA struggled to grade his midterms. Final (You’ll feel like giving up 10 minutes into the exam). -Consist of 35 points -Around 21 questions (including questions multiple parts, so around 30 questions in total) -NO MULTIPLE CHOICE. ALL SHORT ANSWERS AND CALCULATIONS. -Very very ugly. It’s like taking the exam from another course that you’ve never taken. -Previous midterms and practice problems are no help. -Almost over half of the exam consist of unfamiliar questions and materials. -There will be questions that was never covered in the previous midterms. Or should I say that barely any questions from the previously exams will be on the final. Guided Study Section (GSS) -HIGLY RECOMMENDED. This is the only time I feel like I understood something from lecture. Seriously, even the GSS instructor are better at teaching. This is hands down the worst class I have since first day of college. Even Organic Chemistry I & II is lot easier compare to this class.
David Fushman BCHM461 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/13/2022	TAKE HIM. He's a bit sassy when you don't do the nongraded homework(lol) but he's a very fair and good professor. There was not one test in this class I felt was unfair or had unexpected material. Literally, as long as you go to a lecture, look over practice problems, and devote some time to studying you will do fine. Again he was very fair on all the graded material and overall a great lecturer. I felt like he prepared us very well for bchm 2.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2021	My favorite professor in the chem department I have ever had! He truly wants you to understand course content. His research is in nucleic acids, so he teaches this more in depth compared to other 461 professors I think. Exams were fair and some questions were similar to old exams or GSS content. He records his lectures which was super helpful for review. In live lectures he does a good job at answering student questions. His lectures provide all you need to know for exams, you don't need a textbook. Class had a big curve in the end. Would take him again!
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2021	This is an expected 400 level class. Lots of information needs to be absorbed quickly from lecture to lecture, which is arguably the hardest part of the class. However, the information itself is not inherently difficult and should be easy to understand. What really irked me was the lack of study material in the form of past exams or questions. Past exams were provided but without a key which meant that it would be difficult to know what a complete answer should be. That being said, Dr. Paukstelis was great during office hours and available to answer questions quickly. The curve for this semester was also quite heavy (9% ish) but that's probably because this was the first semester in person and people were still adjusting from online exams to in-person ones. Overall compared to other BCHM461 professors he would be your best bet, and while lectures can sometimes be dull he does record them and posts them the same day.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2021	This semester was pretty ok. The curve was around 8% (pretty normal). I think Paukstelis is a great lecturer but his notes were a bit messy and unorganized. Exams were pretty fair in my opinion and were made to make you truely understand biochem. Paukstelis even provided recorded lectures which were a big help. If you are planning to take BCHM642, I wouldn't recommend taking Paukstelis because I'm fairly certain the stuff Paukstelis teaches is different than other BCHM professors such as Julin (which you should take if you're going to take 462 because he teaches it).
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2021	This is a difficult class with very little support available to students. Paukstelis is not helpful, his lectures are messy and unorganized, he seems to put the bare minimum of effort into teaching this class. In fact, the only effort he does put forth is whenever he can make life more challenging for students, he seems to enjoy when students are having a difficult time and when exam averages are unreasonably low. He records online lectures which may be the only redeeming thing about taking him since you don't have to sit through the boring lectures. From what I've heard his 461 class does nothing to prepare you for 462. If possible, avoid him and take someone else.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Anonymous 11/08/2021	I have him currently for BCHM461 and he is an amazing professor. He quickly responds to email even at 8pm the night before the exam. When he lectures, he thoroughly explains the slide before showing the slide so you aren't scrambling to take notes while he's talking about something else, preventing you from missing information. He offers plenty of practice problems and a review session before the exam and his exams were fair.
Paul Paukstelis BCHM461 Anonymous 01/22/2021	This is an intense class with a lot of material. While some concepts can simply be memorized, you will need to be able to connect concepts together to do well on the exams. Two lecture videos were uploaded weekly. I found the lectures hard to get through in one sitting, but they provided most of the material needed to do well on the exams. I definitely recommend using office hours and discussion to ask questions. Dr. Paukstelis and the TAs were both very nice and approachable.
Dorothy Beckett BCHM461 Anonymous 12/10/2020	This course was my most challenging and unfair this semester. I am a current BCHM461 student during the Fall 2020 semester (online and during the pandemic). The amount of lecture time we were required to attend was unreasonable. We signed up for a class that meets twice a week for an hour and 15 min each, which in person would be 2 hours and 30 min per week of class time. This semester, we were required to watch 2 x 1 hour long lectures on our own time AND attend zoom calls during our scheduled class time - almost doubling the amount of class hours per week. I quickly began falling behind in the class due to the amount of hours we were required to put in JUST to watch and attend class (not even counting hours to study the material, complete other assignments, and juggling other courses). Also, her lectures were incredibly hard to follow, as they were disorganized, included blurry slides, and some of her explanations were cut off or unfinished. In addition, the way quizzes were conducted in the beginning of the semester were incredibly stressful. It took several weeks of students raising concerns regarding the turning in process of the quizzes and internet struggles before the professor agreed to switch things (which I and many of the students appreciated greatly). Whenever students did experience problems submitting quizzes, as 80 students trying to submit an assignment at once and many using the unstable campus wifi usually resulted in issues, Dr. Beckett responded by saying her students "needed to work harder" in order to overcome these issues. Her lack of understanding and regard for concerns brought up by her students added to the stressful nature of the course and this semester overall. Lastly, I often felt as though Dr. Beckett did not treat her students respectfully. Whenever majority of the class did not understand a concept thoroughly enough (based on exam or quiz scores), she often blamed her students for not studying hard enough instead of trying to teach the material again in a better way for her students to understand. On several occasions she spoke to us in a demeaning manner and it felt very discouraging most of the semester. I understand that this semester was stressful for professors as well, but it was no excuse for professors to take it out on their students. Several students have tried to approach her with clarifying questions regarding the course or the material itself and were often met with angry responses from Dr. Beckett, so that students became afraid to ask her questions.
Dorothy Beckett BCHM461 Anonymous 10/22/2020	I can't let this woman have a good 4/5 rating with how terrible she has been this semester. I am a current 461 student during the pandemic. I understand that the online switch is hard, but this woman is the most disrespectful person I have ever met. She gives us 10 minute quizzes that should take at least 20 and constantly gets mad at us when we don't upload on time even though many people experience wifi problems. I do not show up to the lectures anymore because of how terrible she was at explaining all of the concepts. She yells at people during lectures and overall is just not a kind person. I know people write reviews after they have a terrible encounter with a professor as a way to blow off some steam, but I am telling you she sucks as a professor and has been receiving complaints for multiple students for the past 2 months. DO NOT TAKE HER.
Jinwoo Lee BCHM461 Expecting a B mintman 05/18/2020	Do not take any classes with this man! He said our test average was too high and made our last 2 exams so hard the averages were in the 40s. Also an awful teacher and just reads off slides.
Nicole LaRonde BCHM461 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2019	I don't know what to say about laronde. Her teaching is not very good, her exams are meh, and her final was completely odd. I did fine in her class, but I came out feeling like I knew less than I started with. 50% of the class was asleep or on their phones during her lectures. If you are good at learning on your own, take laronde, cause her tests are easy. But if you need a lecturer or want to actually learn something, take someone else.
Nicole LaRonde BCHM461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/31/2019	I made a typo in my previous review. Here's an updated version. + Really nice, even in office hours + HW & clickers are grade boosters, you only need to meet a certain threshold to get full credit + 1 of our 3 midterms was take-home + We get a notecard for exams and she even gave us the notecard in class + Puts "things to know" on the end of her lecture slides which serves as a study guide + Posts powerpoints & old exams Sit in the front b/c it's hard to hear in the back This class is taught slightly differently depending on the prof. I think she incorporated more bio than gen chem, but this could be a pro if you like bio better. *We had this awful group protein project, but it's because another professor is obsessed with 3D printing. The project was being piloted the semester I took 461, so it might be easier for you all. Biochem is a traditionally hard subject, but Dr. LaRonde makes it possible to do well.
David Fushman BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2017	Lectures are a bit dull but his exams are fair and he gives a lot of practice.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A impart 12/01/2016	I had Dr. Julin for both BCHM461 and BCHM462 in Spring and Fall 2015. My grades on the exams were B-C-B-A (BCHM461) and B-B-A-B (BCHM462) and I got an A in both courses. Brilliant man, very kind, dry sense of humor (but my friends and I thought it was hilarious), cares about students, and is a wonderful lecturer in biochemistry. He's responsive to e-mails and student concerns. His notes are so clear and organized (except his arrows for mechanisms haha). He writes on the chalkboard and uses a powerpoint. Bchm is a hard class no matter how you look at it. He recommends (and so do I) that after every lecture or so, you recopy your notes and go through it to keep up. His exams are challenging, but absolutely brilliant in the way they make you think. They are definitely fair - they test what he teaches, though in novel ways. He gives you a bunch of his old exams to practice. Based solely off his lecture notes. I definitely recommend Julin (and so do my classmates).
Jason Kahn BCHM461 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/29/2016	I loved Dr. Kahn. He truly wanted his students to learn the material, even if it costed him precious lecture time. I think we did not have enough time to go over two units but we mastered everything else. Kahn used different programs such as Pymol and MatLab to go over certain abstracts that were difficult. He clarified many concepts and briefly went over GenChem II material in the beginning of the semester. That set the proper foundation for the entire course and I have to say, he clarified GenChem 2 information so quickly and easily, I do not understand why he has such bad reviews for CHEM271. The way he teaches CHEM271 definitely prepares you for biochem. Anyways, I went off on a tangent. Kahn posts all of his old exams on his website which definitely helps you prepare for his exams. The best way to study for his class is to master his classnotes two nights before the exam and then practice his old exams the night before. I always ended up getting very close to the high on all the exams (including the final). Also, when I took the course, Kahn did not make his final exam cumulative. We were relieved temporarily until we saw the exam. He included A LOT of derivations that he did not go over in class but he gave us the proper foundation in class to find the answer. Honestly, the reason why I respect Kahn so much is because students genuinely have to understand the material to do well. There are some professors that re-use problems and if you memorize it, then you are set for the exam. You are not learning. For Kahn, if you do not fully understand the material, then you will not do well on his exams. He also asked us very trivial questions like "In the MatLab project I gave you, what was this one file called that gives you this graph? [picture of the graph]" Now this Matlab project was very difficult and it took me days to get the correct answer. I had to look through all the files like 30 times each so even though I did not spend time memorizing the name of these files when I was studying for the exam, they were in the back of my head and I was able to get that question right. If a student just copied answers from someone else, then there will be no way that he or she can get that question correct. Anyways, if you get the chance to take Kahn, take him. Well at least take him for biochem!!! He knows his stuff and is very good at explaining it. For CHEM271, he will definitely prepare you for biochemistry. I guarantee it.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Anonymous 11/10/2015	Julin is really smart and has a WICKED SENSE OF HUMOR!!! He's the sort of professor you see in movies; those who sits down and talks with you about all the things in the world. I found that charming! He inspires your imagination and your enthusiasm. His lectures are great and he sometimes make subtle not-so-innocent jokes which makes everyone laugh. I felt so free and happy, till I took his exams. If you love biochem or love the enlightening aspect of study, by all mean take it. If you need a good GPA, I suggest you look elsewhere.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/20/2014	TAKE HIM FOR BCHM461. There is a lot of mixed opinions about Dr. Julin and the truth is that this class is NOT easy, but he is hands down one of the best professors I have ever had. He is INSANELY smart, just from listening to him speak in lecture or office hours you will realize that this man in brilliant. It's because of this that it can be a bit of a disadvantage because I don't think he realizes how little some students may know. That being said he is the BEST biochem professor there is! A lot of students will say that he is a bad Gen Chem II professor but a great BCHM professor and this is true, that is because BCHM is his field of research. His exams are tough, but honestly really fair. You have to study lecture notes. He doesn't surprise you with any "new" material. Whatever is on the exam will be from lecture. That being said I've found that the best method is to record his lectures and then recopy notes. RECOPY RECOPY RECOPY. It's a 400 level class, you honestly can't expect to look at your notes the two nights before the exam and do well.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2014	Had him for 271 and he was terrible. When I found out I was having him for biochem (they switched teachers on us) I cried because he was so bad for Gen Chem 2. BUT I WAS SO WRONG. Julin KILLS it in biochem. I am so happy that I had him as a teacher. His style of teaching goes along with this topic material soooooo much better then gen chem 2. He really loves bio chem and is a great resource if you ever have questions. I have actually made my schedule next semester so that I could specifically have him again because HE IS AMAZING for biochem. Take him for biochem if at all possible, but avoid him at all costs for Gen Chem 2. His level of understand really reflects in his teaching.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/16/2012	Dr. Julin is a wonderful professor and very willing to help his students learn. His teaching style is great - very similar to Dr. Dixon. I really enjoyed this class because I actually understood what I was learning and it connected all the dots between biology and chemistry courses previously taken. I went to his office hours frequently and he was very helpful. His tests were tricky but you really have to study hard and understand the concepts. You do have to memorize basic facts (i.e. amino acids, their pKas, and some other small things here and there), but it's mainly applying concepts.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2011	Dr. Julin is a great professor! His lectures, as described in the reviews below, are well structured. He teaches on the whiteboard along with powerpoint slides of graphs and pictures. He goes over the material a bit fast though. Make sure to take good notes because he tests on what he teaches. I think retaking notes helps a lot for studying. What I did was retake every lecture after class and even glue the slides on to my notebook. By this, you can know what you didn't understand in class and you can ask him questions through email or just after class. Looking over the sections of the book (he will say which pages) also helps because some definitions are not described very clear in class. He holds a review section a day before the exam/final for us to ask questions. He also answer emails pretty fast and clear. I ask about 2 sentences and he will reply me with a paragraph. As for the exams, study your notes and the sections of the book. His exams are difficult and are basically all short answers (lots of writing!) and some drawings. He likes to use the graphs and experiments described in class and ask what if happen if you change something. Study a week or two before hand, cramming and pulling a allnighter won't do any help. The averages for our exams were 66, 68, and 64. As for the final the average was a 75. For the final, it is not as detailed comparing to the exams but you still need to understand all the material ! As for the grade cutoffs(%), A>81.6, B>71.8, C>51.6, D>42.4, F>30.8. As long as you study, and know the material he teaches in class, you will do fine.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 Expecting a C 800meters 12/15/2011	Julin is cool, but his exams are pretty difficult. Paying attention to his lectures can be challenging because you get bored after like 10 minutes. The class is curved, and so every year the grades are based upon how that particular class does as a whole.
Douglas Julin BCHM461 notqualified 05/11/2011	He is simply a brilliant professor. He is very structured, organized, and rational. Very knowledgeable about the material. He lectures very clearly. He's not really funny though.
Michael Montague-Smith BCHM461 Anonymous 12/18/2009	Great professor. Fun to attend lecture. I love his thing about including a break in this 1.25 hour long classes. Really helps. His exams are ok, not too bad. He tells you exactly what mechanism is going to be on it so you know what to study. Oh, also you may want to check his structures. He tends to get them wrong in little places because he's so excited about teaching it.
Michael Montague-Smith BCHM461 Expecting an A rbterp 05/03/2009	I really liked Dr. MS's style of teaching biochemistry, which is his actual specialty. He writes out notes on the overhead, so its easy to take notes with him throughout lecture. He was very clear as to which mechanisms would be tested and he often gave examples of test questions after finishing various topics. He added humor to what could otherwise be a dull topic.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/22/2024

DO NOT TAKE HIM IF YOU HAVE TO TAKE BIOCHEM 2!!!!!!! Cannot emphasize this enough, in our whole semester we have yet to finish protein and we are behind, other professors finish proteins half way through the semester and start carbs, lipids, etc, which is vital knowledge to have for biochem 2, so do not take him if you need to advance forward. He goes super fast in lecture, skimming over topics that ultimately are very important for exams. Sometimes when a student has a question, he literally whines like a child and says he does not want to because "it will take too much time" or "he doesnt feel like it" and youll have to go to his office hours for more clarification, where he is also lazy there. Would also like to emphasize the fact that the class itself is out of only 100 points, with 3 25 point exams (one is dropped), 35 point final, 10 points of quizzes and one project worth 5 points, meaning every point off in his class is a whole percentage point. He also is snarky when it comes to exams; we had a pretty high average on the first exam which he made very fair if you went to class, studied his in-lecture practice problems, and did the gss worksheets, he did not like the high average and made the second exam exponentially harder and was happy and proud of himself when the average dropped by nearly 8 points. He is a nice and funny guy and does want to help i guess, but he is not suited to be a professor. This is the only class he teaches because he runs a full-time lab on campus, so his priorities for this class fall no where near ours as students. He has stuffed animals that get passes around the class and you WILL have it at least once a week and you have to answer whatever the question is, he will give extra credit sometimes if the answer is hard and you get it correct, but you will have to speak (and fail at some points) in front of the whole lecture. Overall, to me the class isnt horrible in my opinion, i think orgo 2 was worse because this content is definetly crammable, however, he makes it hard to study and succeed.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/22/2024

He goes really fast sometimes but he also does a lot of practice and review to make sure people understand it. His exams can be tough and you definitely need to study but if you pay attention in class you'll be fine. He tends to emphasize in class the kind of questions he will ask on exams. If you don't understand a topic, he is very open to explaining it to you in office hours or after class and he is pretty responsive to emails. The way he holds class is also pretty engaging and he manages to make it interesting (in my opinion at least). Go to class, don't fall behind on the material, pay attention to his slides, ask questions if you need help, and you'll be fine. The only time I've ever seen him be rude or snarky about questions is when students ask questions about material we went over a long time ago.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
11/21/2024

Paul, Paul, Paul. Lecture was him mostly yapping and I don't think we have finished a lecture without him saying we are behind. His notes are useless so you def need to attend class. In terms of exams, the practice exams and notes from class will not help. I recommend searching the topics he presents in class and studying them yourself

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Anonymous
11/14/2024

He needs to work on his teaching. He speeds through many important concepts. We have pop extra credit quizzes that he goes over before we turn them in. Multiple people asked him to draw the mechanism on the board for the specific problem we did because they did not understand the answer. He stated, "That would take a lot of time," then moved on to teaching the next topic. I would not take a class taught by him again because he is very rude when people don't understand something and want him to go over it. He'll make snarky comments such as "study more your exam is in 2 weeks" instead of helping those who don't understand. Exams are also brutal... The first exam was fine, but he said that since the average was too high on the first exam, he had to make the next exam harder. The second exam was way too difficult to the point where everyone stayed for the entire hour and 15 minute class time to take the exam.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/01/2024

I had such high hopes for this professor, especially since he does not require any textbooks for this course. Boy, was I in for a shock. While he does not provide any old exam keys, I personally didn't mind because I learned more about the content that way. However, the exams themselves are egregiously difficult. The amount of interpretation and confusion with some of the questions, which are worth so many points, is not worth it. I have never met such a petty teacher. Yes, he does record the lectures. But if many students don’t attend the lectures, he purposefully WITHHOLDS the recordings AND the lecture notes until close to exams. After the exams are passed out, going to his office hours feel so tense. He is unwilling to try to sympathize with how terrible the exam design and questions were. Overall, his ego is HUGE! DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!! Oh, and by the way, even if he does post the lecture notes, the majority, if not all, are incomprehensible and illegible, so you would still need to watch the lecture recordings that he withholds. Good luck to those that do have to take him...

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting a B
Anonymous
06/01/2024

I had such high hopes for this professor, especially since he does not require any textbooks for this course. Boy, was I in for a shock. While he does not provide any old exam keys, I personally didn't mind because I learned more about the content that way. However, the exams themselves are egregiously difficult. The amount of interpretation and confusion with some of the questions, which are worth so many points, is not worth it. I have never met such a petty teacher. Yes, he does record the lectures. But if many students don’t attend the lectures, he purposefully WITHHOLDS the recordings AND the lecture notes until close to exams. After the exams are passed out, going to his office hours feel so tense. He is unwilling to try to sympathize with how terrible the exam design and questions were. Overall, his ego is HUGE! DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR!!! Oh, and by the way, even if he does post the lecture notes, the majority, if not all, are incomprehensible and illegible, so you would still need to watch the lecture recordings that he withholds. Good luck to those that do have to take him...

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/31/2024

Recommend taking biochemistry with Capp! The class was definitely difficult, but he prepared me well for the topics discussed in biochem 2. I put a lot of effort into studying and memorizing for this class, but it paid off - his exams are pretty fair. Agree that he can be condescending to the class overall at times, but one-on-one he is very nice and willing to help! Also recommend to pre-meds as he is very thorough in the content that is high yield on the mcat.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/27/2024

You guys. PLEASE TAKE THIS CLASS. I have been losing my love for chemistry and this man was able to reignite it. he loves to teach and is good at it. his exams are always fair. He also makes the content simple and fun to learn. absolute king. Super easy to talk to. He loves to answer questions and is ALWAYS down to help someone who is struggling. A lot of people in this class i knew (including myself) got an A, Which is really impressive for a biochem class. LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/17/2024

PAUKSTELIS MY MAN. What a guy lol he’s the goat. This class is structured pretty typically, with three 100 point midterms, and then the final was worth 150 points. Additionally, there were about six homeworks this semester, and combined they totaled to about 20-25 points. The homeworks don’t really make a big impact on your grade, but it is important to do them and understand them, because he pulled some concepts almost directly from the homeworks onto the final (when he hadn’t really done on midterms). He also provides his lecture notes and lecture recordings after each class, which is extremely helpful to go back and review. The material can be a bit dry at times, but Dr. Paukstelis did his best to make the class engaging, especially considering it was at 8am. You will learn a lot in depth about proteins and nucleic acids, and it is all fundamental information I am sure all bio/chem students will use going forward. In that sense, a professor like Paukstelis is critical to ensuring you have a strong foundation in the subject. He would always try to incorporate real-life analogies and visual representations with the Pymol software to illustrate the concepts. He’s also funny lol. He has his own interesting sense of humor that runs a bit on the dry side, but that I appreciated a lot, especially at 8am. I still remember a whack story about inhibitors and his annoying neighbor lol. Also, I don’t know why but I get the feeling he’s a huge 80’s-90’s rock fan, which is right up my alley lmao. He does give you practice exams before each exam, usually about a week before. He emphasizes at the beginning of the semester itself to start early, and he’s right. He does not give answer keys for his practice exams, however, you honestly wouldn’t need them unless you started studying the night before. Before each exam, he hosts a review session during class time, and he would spend the entire time period answering any questions we had relating to the practice exams or the course content in general. He also hosted multiple office hours in the week that you can (and should) go to for extra clarification. The exams are very doable with both of these resources, and he would sometimes pull directly from the practice exams for the actual midterm (which was really nice of him!). Would it be nice to have the answer keys to old exams as well? Sure, but I don’t think it's the end of the world like some people make it out to be. He genuinely wants to help you succeed, but he wants to see that you’ve put in an honest effort to make headway yourself first. Overall, the class is what you make of it. If you are proactive in studying ahead and asking good questions during class and during office hours (not just stuff you can find word for word in his lecture notes), you will be more than fine. There is a huge curve at the end which is more than generous. After the third exam, I genuinely thought my grade would be three grades below what it was, but the curve is massive. TLDR: He’s funny, extremely accessible and helpful in class/office hours, wants you to do well, and gives fair exams, with a large curve at the end. But the class is what you make of it, and you have to make sure you start studying ahead of time so that you can get your questions answered beforehand.

Jason Kahn
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2024

Dr. Kahn is a tough but good professor. He emphasizes understanding over memorization, and often tells us that he doesn't want us to memorize mechanisms, but to understand the background information well enough to be able to figure a mechanism out in the moment. His exams are tough but he grades VERY leniently, so it makes figuring out a mechanism/problem on an exam less high stakes. He also explains concepts very thoroughly, and focuses on quality over quantity when it comes to course content. If he thinks something is too complicated, or that students won't understand it on an exam, he doesn't teach the topic or put it in his tests. I removed a star because he is SO slow with grading. We took our last exam over a month ago. The final is tomorrow, and it still is not graded. Because of how slowly he grades it can be hard to get a pulse on how you're doing in the class or how much you need to study. Also he is a very funny and nice person, and attending class is usually an interesting experience. Highly recommend

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Anonymous
05/13/2024

He record all of his lectures and tests on things that he said during class. He writes his notes as he lectures, there are no presentation/slides. You can not go off just his notes. I felt the need to nearly transcribe everything he said in class because some of his questions were on things he said and never wrote. Lectures were relatively interesting but the way he presents information is very ineffective. His handwriting isn't good either. His exams are not like the past exam he provides in class, so keep that in mind when studying. Would not recommend him. Exams are very application based and very little recall. There is also a big jump from Gen Chem 2 to Biochem so prepare yourselves and don't underestimate this course.

Jason Kahn
BCHM461

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/12/2024

Dr. Kahn is a nice guy, but extremely unorganized. He grade assignments super late and frequently goes off on tangents about unrelated material. He refuses to use laser pointers so he just points up at complicated text heavy slides expecting us to what he's talking about. For BCHM461, he gave us very little resources to study for the exam, which greatly confused and stressed out many students. He is a great guy and cracks jokes during lecture, which he also records which is a pro. But his monotone, slide-only teaching style did not fit my learning style. Overall, he is alright, but I would not recommend him if there is another option available.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/10/2024

I will admit that I don't think teaching is Dr. Lee's strong suit, but I think he does his best to explain the content. His slides aren't always the most helpful, and he doesn't record lectures BUT if you show up to class you will be fine. Most of our exam questions came from practice problems that he did in class and went over. He sometimes goes through a lot of material quickly, but those don't show up on exams. The content that he repeats over and over are the things that show up on exams. Overall, this is a tough class, but Dr. Lee is really helpful if you ask him questions, and he genuinely wants to see his students succeed.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Anonymous
05/02/2024

Terrible handwriting so it is impossible to go over lecture notes without having to rewatch the recordings. The exams give very vague questions and he looks for very specific answers (if you don't say a certain keyword you don't get credit). Graders this semester were extremely harsh and nothing was done to counteract this, exam averages just remained low. Also not very sympathetic if you go to office hours to discuss exams with him. I was disappointed because during lecture I felt as though I thoroughly understood the material, but that understanding was never reflected on the exams because the questions were written so poorly. The exams are pretty much your entire grade besides a few 4 point homework assignments. I feel like if you are a good test taker this class could be fine but otherwise I would go with a different professor.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/15/2024

Overall pretty good experience. Pros: - Lots of review and in class practice. Takes times to do practice questions that would be on the exam and always holds review sessions before the exam. He generally teaches slower than the other professors. For example, he goes over each amino acid one by one. - Exams are very straightforward and if you studied the basics you should do well on the exams. - Lenient Grading. There were often extra credit points on the exam. There was one pymol assignment which was worth 5% of the grade and it was graded very leniently. There was also a pretty heavy curve at the end. - Fast grading. Generally you can expect feedback on exams in around 1 week from the time you take it. - Generally nice and understanding. He recently pushes for an increase in class participation, and enthusiastically teaches at 9:30 every morning, ever semester. Cons: - Slides aren't great. A lot of the practice questions are not legible the way he formats them, so going to class is important. - Less material covered compared to other biochem 1 classes. He does not cover sugars, dna, or lipids. It's all proteins. I think I had a lesser understanding of biochemistry compared to my peers in other classes. However, it does make the class an easy A.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/28/2024

Handwriting is terrible, lecture notes are elementary.

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/19/2024

If you are a biochemistry major or cell bio or have any reason to take more than one biochemistry class, take biochem with Capp! All of the professors do different things but I think he prepares you the best for the content in 462 (or at least glycolysis and some other beginning mechanisms). He teaches using the blackboard which is highly appreciated but you need to pay attention in class because his slides do not cover everything. He also doesn't record lectures :( But he loves his job and is really good at teaching or at least it worked for me! I will say though his exams are kinda long and he only gives 1 hour out of the 1 hour 15 min (idk how it would work with a 50 min class). He also is a little condescending sometimes - he sent out a whole message after the first exam basically saying that some of us should reconsider if we need biochem if we're struggling which is valid but still :/ Anyway, take his class if you can but be prepared to do work and pay attention in class!

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/27/2023

I honestly don't believe I could have had a better professor for this course than Dr. Capp. Prior to this past semester, I was absolutely dreading taking biochem, especially since I was awful at organic chemistry. However, Dr. Capp did an amazing job during lecture of taking these extremely complicated topics and breaking them down into their simple, individual components in order to help with understanding. Additionally, he encourages students to come to office hours and is happy to answer questions there or via email. His exams are difficult, no question about it, and you are required to begin to sort of think like him. However, I don't feel like any part of this course was unfair or unnecessary, it's certainly possible to do well in this course so long as you study and practice. Highly recommend Dr. Capp for biochem, and hopefully UMD does everything in their power to keep him considering how many lackluster professors are currently in our chem department.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Never left a review before but let's give it a go. Alright, I won't lie, it's a tough class. Here's my pros and cons: Pros: -teaches biochemistry that is actually used in the research field/ lab-setting. He is very practical and won't spend a lot of time teaching you concepts that you don't need/ are outdated -forces you to learn graduate-style level teaching. Not all professors will hold your hand, and they certainly won't in upper-level classes. Sometimes you have to learn to use alternative resources to learn the content and fill in the blanks, and this class teaches you the importance of that. -little to no graded outside work. The quizzes are free points (yeah a few points will be lost here and there but in the grand scheme they don't matter) and he gives you two months notice for the major assignment that's worth 5% of your grade. -he has become more empathetic about students having other exams and other class content to study for. As a result he has significantly slowed down the pace of teaching content -large curve Cons: -office hours are far away (which is inconvenient for a lot of students), and for our semester it was at very inconvenient times during the day (around 11-ish twice a week which is when I had other classes) -very textbook-dependent (if you actually want to understand the class content and its importance). You will often have to attend the lecture, and then immediately after read the textbook chapter that was covered in class. You could also do it before if you happen to have the time. The good news is that every individual lecture covered at most 5-10 pages of content and you can easily skim the textbook to get to the parts you recognize in the lecture. To be honest, not a lot of students do it, and I think that's why this class can be so confusing. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. -the exams will be a bit tricky to follow sometimes as the professor gets a bit creative with his questions. However, if you ask for clarification, the TA (who's super nice!) or the professor will try to clear it up for you so that you have a better idea of what the question is asking. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The averages will be around 50-60% because there is little to no partial credit, making exams stressful. To be honest, this was not as bad a course as some of the comments I read before the semester made it out to be. Here's my advice: -read the textbook chapter before or after class -ask questions and actively participate in class. Blurt out the answers to his open-ended questions during the lecture and if you get it wrong you'll remember the right answer because you'll be engaged. -do the Pymol assignment (5% of your grade) as soon as you can to get an idea of how Pymol works and how to get around its features -REMEMBER/ REVIEW ENZYME KINETICS FROM GEN CHEM II -study with your peers and try to teach each other Honestly, he's a pretty smart and nice guy if you engage and participate. You guys got this!!!!

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/23/2023

Teaching style is horrible and he has awful handwriting. He records lectures which is nice, but that's the only helpful thing he does. Past exams are given with no answer key and they aren't anything close to the real test. Mean person and you can tell he doesn't want to speak to students during office hours or after class at all. I only got an A- because I studied an insane amount for the final and the curve was pretty big(about 9%). But even with the curve, awful class and very difficult to do well it.

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2023

honestly hardest class I've had at umd. This class was more memorization than I expected and I'm not the biggest fan of capp's lecturing style. He normally covers the material verbally with some diagrams on the chalkboard. Make sure you write down everything he says because even the most seemingly irrelevant stuff can be questioned. One exam he had a 8? point question on x-ray crystallography even though he probably spent a minute and a half covering it. He has slides but he self admits that they're not meant to be comprehensive regarding the material, and if you only looked at the slides you'd fail. I'd prefer it a lot if he were to record lectures but he didn't like how students in the past would just skip lecture because of that so I guess he stopped. It would've been way easier if he recorded lecture though. He's a great lecturer and very kind, just a bad fit for my learning style personally. 6/10 class, I didn't find the material terribly interesting and it was difficult, 8.5/10 professor, great guy just not my style.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
12/20/2023

As a professor he seems to be more fixated on his own research which prevents him from focusing on the class. Unfortunately for students this means you have to heavily rely on showing up to class and reading from the textbook (he will never post his slides). Even with practice problems from the text book and showing up to class the exams will kill your grade. The most alien, thought provoking questions show up on exams which you are expected to answer with a short amount of time. As almost everyone says about this class, the curve will blow your mind above a 30% is considered passing. As someone who is expected to continue with biochemistry courses I worry that perhaps I don't have a strong enough concept of biochemistry to do well in the classes following. He's a sweet professor but don't expect him to respond to your emails or schedule exam reviews.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Eliser003
12/19/2023

Could not disagree with the previous reviews of this professor more- his exams are NOT based on textbook, lecture or homework problems. There is no homework for this class except for weekly quizzes worth 0.75 points PER QUIZ since the class is out of 100 points TOTAL. This man lives for biochemistry and his exams are beyond this courses understand

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/17/2023

A lot of these reviews are misleading. During lecture, he is a good lecturer and presents the information pretty well and makes us understand the material. I learned a lot of information in this class. However, my grades do not reflect that because his exams are made so poorly. He asks a vague question and expects a specific answer which is so frustrating. I know all the material and yet I couldn't answer his questions just by the way he asks it. He is the kind of teacher that makes the tests deliberately harder just because people are doing well (first exam went very well and the second exam was so hard for no reason). Also, your grade is solely based on your exam grades (he has like 20 points of homework which makes no difference). Adding on, he doesn't really help you when you need help. We tried to ask for any tips for the final since it is all cumulative and there is equal chance of anything to be on the test, but he said he can't give us tips and that it isn't his job. He is a professor. His job is to help us. He can be very condescending and rude at times and I am annoyed that I learned so much and understood all the material, but the way he asked questions on the exam were so unfair and not reflective of what I knew. I would not recommend him to anyone.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/15/2023

Wow. This was a rough class to take. Let me say this, Dr. Lee is a very sweet person but I truthfully do not think he should be teaching this class. Typically, chem professors provide some type of practice exam or answer keys to midterms for us to understand what went wrong. For this class, it didn't happen. He provided us with questions from the textbook, which did help a bit but did not prepare us for the exams as much as we needed to be prepared, as only a handful of questions from the textbook were on the exam. For the first midterm, the average was pretty high, in the 70s. Dr. Lee wasn't a fan of how people left before the exam time finished and made the second exam longer, leading to many people being unable to finish on time. One question (which was from the textbook), we were never taught or provided a conversion for. Even if you did do this question from the textbook, if you didn't remember the conversion you were screwed. The average for this exam was in the low 50s. For both exams, an answer key was not provided. After being asked to provide an answer key, he told us he would have to look for it. I guess he never got around to looking. He created discussion boards for us to ask questions but would only respond to 1/3rd of them a few days before the exam. He would answer a few during review sessions but for the most part, those review sessions were primarily based off of bits and pieces of the discussion board which didn't really help overall. The final exam was a doozy, to say the least. It took the whole two hours to complete and it was rough. I would honestly not recommend this professor. If you can take it with anyone else, please do. Dr. Lee is a nice person, but not a good professor.

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Anonymous
12/07/2023

LISTEN. He's a perfectly nice person, will take the time to explain things to you but, the exams he makes and the content he teaches, in my humble opinion is way too much. Capp enjoys teaching, you can really tell that through his lectures, but it's really frustrating that he strives to make exams that are long to "prevent cheating." Honestly if you're cheating in biochem good for you because it's a lot easier to actually study than to cheat. Also, he talks at a manageable pace and repeats his points a lot, which is nice however, this led to us not finishing lectures on time BECAUSE PEOPLE WOULD ASK SO MANY QUESTIONS. Essentially, don't take his class if you like to ask a lot of questions during lecture and also don't take this class if you're bad at memorizing a lot of things or bad with time management.

Bonnie Dixon
BCHM461

Expecting a B
ReakatheGOAT
06/26/2023

If you don't already hate chemistry get ready to. Dixon expects student lives to revolve around chemistry. Forget about your other commitments and other classes and expect to fail if you don't go to OH. Dixon will use your questions and real life problems as an excuse to make fun of you while being utterly unhelpful. No late work accepted and insane homework problems not based on the course material. Dixon is the absolute WOAT, wait to take Capp.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2023

Biochemistry is a hard class, but Julin makes it so much easier. I will say, you have to give time to the class as it is a 400-level biochemistry course but Dr. Julin's lectures are great and the info is very often translated to exams. He is very funny and has some witty one-liners to make biochem engaging. If you do not give this class the effort it deserves, you will fail. It is not just an A handed to you, it is hard. Take him before he retires because he offers the tools to succeed. I will say, he got applauded by our section on the last day due to his greatness this spring.

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/29/2022

Truly an amazing professor. He challenges his students and really helps you fully understand biochemistry in an interesting way! I really enjoyed that his style was to apply knowledge in unexpected circumstances on his problem sets/exams. Take Dr. Capp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
florm
12/24/2022

Julin is one of the best lecturers in the chemistry department, with some great dry humor. He writes everything out on the chalkboards that he shows on his slides, making it really easy to take notes while he talks. He only assigned 4 homework assignments the entire semester, and they were all super short and easy. All of the exams were pretty lengthy and really tough, and definitely require a lot of studying. He provides a bunch of practice problems that were really similar to the kinds of questions he asks on exams. Glad to have had him before he retires next year! :)

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Anonymous
12/22/2022

I think he’s one of the worst professors I’ve had here. I learned absolutely nothing from his lectures. Had to find supplemental videos to teach myself. He’s unreasonable and hard to contact. Our grades were basically only our exam scores. The exams are really difficult and if you asked him anything regarding the final his only answer was “maybe, maybe not.”

Christopher Capp
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2022

Dr. Capp is an excellent lecturer, he communicates the information he is trying to teach in a way that can be both fun and intellectually challenging. However, in terms of class structure, Dr. Capp is severely lacking and may have you in struggling in your other courses. He does not plan lessons around the relative difficulty of a concept, even though he creates his calendar well in advance. For example, the lecture before a midterm he claimed it would be a review session only to expect us to memorize two more enzyme mechanisms and fully conceptualize them. As well, he put an exam the day after thanksgiving break, leading me to study over what was supposed to be a break.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2022

All the bad reviews are from one year where he taught gen chem. He's an amazing biochemistry professor though

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Anonymous
06/01/2022

exams are unbelievable and his slides/notes are pretty much worthless. Basically, just read the textbook, but even then there will be totally alien things on the exam. But, he himself is nice and does not make class a hostile environment (like Dr. Friedman for example). And, the curve is superrrrrr generous and it is *very* difficult to not pass (getting above a 30% is a pass I believe). Getting a good grade on the other hand is another story and will require some serious work.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/23/2022

Super chill biochem professor. Though his lectures can feel long and boring, if you stay relatively on top of things and know what is going on, you can get a good grade without too much stress. I studied for exams the day or 2 before, and just kept up with taking notes in the lecture and making sure everything made sense to me. I got an A after getting 75-85 on every exam. The guy is helpful and the class teaches you a lot even though it seems very slow and conceptual! Highly recommend.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Anonymous
05/13/2022

Allow me to summarize his style of teaching. Teaching style: -Very textbook heavy. -Each lecture consists of 50-60 slides and every slide is compacted with information. -Alway read from the slide and half of the time does not know what he’s talking about. -Does not record the lecture (so good luck with that) -Rarely post any written or annotated notes he made on the slide to elms. If he does, you’ll notice it won’t be a fews days after. -NO SCHEDULED OR EXAM REVIEW DAY. But he does answer any question that students may have on the day of the l lecture before the exam and he’ll go over them. -When you ask questions, he would often say “would do you think?” (I mean seriously if I know the answer I wouldn’t be asking the question). Half of the time he never really answer the question. -Rarely go over any practice problems yet the midterms consist mostly short answers and calculations. (I managed to get an A on the second midterm, but that is only when he posted a key to the practice problems we’ve done. AND literally whole class asked him to post the key. So, what does that mean? It means that he didn’t even considering posting the key if not the whole class asked. But the average was still below 50% for the 2nd midterm. So, I was very lucky). -BTW, the midterms and final combined are 85% of your grade. So failing one midterm will put you at most a C. Homework/assignments: -Only worth 1 point total -Mainly consists of completing the problems from the textbook, usually falls in the range of 15-25 questions. -BUT, he specifically said on the first day of class that he will only grade ONLY ONE QUESTION and give you the whole credit if you got it right and showed work. -That means if he grade the ONLY one question you got it wrong on the assignment you will get a 0. Doesn’t matter if you got every other questions correct. Quizzes -Fairly easy. -Around 4-6 points -You’ll be okay as long as you read over the slides. Midterms (I don’t even know where to start) -Consist of 2 midterms -Consist of 25 points total -Around 15 questions (some of the question consists of multiple parts) -Few multiple choices questions that is derived from the quizzes. -The rest are short answers and calculations. -Very ugly, but you’ll do just fine if you look over the practice problems he did during lectures, but as previously stated he rarely post any annotated notes to elms. So, you’re essentially screwed if he doesn’t post it. -Class average are below 50% for both midterms. So, essentially means more than half of the class failed. -But he does give out a huge curve for both exams based on the average, A lot of people are happy with that, but in my opinion you should know that giving out a huge curve is not a good thing. It means that the reason why the whole class in failing mainly lies on the professor. -I even heard that the TA struggled to grade his midterms. Final (You’ll feel like giving up 10 minutes into the exam). -Consist of 35 points -Around 21 questions (including questions multiple parts, so around 30 questions in total) -NO MULTIPLE CHOICE. ALL SHORT ANSWERS AND CALCULATIONS. -Very very ugly. It’s like taking the exam from another course that you’ve never taken. -Previous midterms and practice problems are no help. -Almost over half of the exam consist of unfamiliar questions and materials. -There will be questions that was never covered in the previous midterms. Or should I say that barely any questions from the previously exams will be on the final. Guided Study Section (GSS) -HIGLY RECOMMENDED. This is the only time I feel like I understood something from lecture. Seriously, even the GSS instructor are better at teaching. This is hands down the worst class I have since first day of college. Even Organic Chemistry I & II is lot easier compare to this class.

David Fushman
BCHM461

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/13/2022

TAKE HIM. He's a bit sassy when you don't do the nongraded homework(lol) but he's a very fair and good professor. There was not one test in this class I felt was unfair or had unexpected material. Literally, as long as you go to a lecture, look over practice problems, and devote some time to studying you will do fine. Again he was very fair on all the graded material and overall a great lecturer. I felt like he prepared us very well for bchm 2.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2021

My favorite professor in the chem department I have ever had! He truly wants you to understand course content. His research is in nucleic acids, so he teaches this more in depth compared to other 461 professors I think. Exams were fair and some questions were similar to old exams or GSS content. He records his lectures which was super helpful for review. In live lectures he does a good job at answering student questions. His lectures provide all you need to know for exams, you don't need a textbook. Class had a big curve in the end. Would take him again!

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2021

This is an expected 400 level class. Lots of information needs to be absorbed quickly from lecture to lecture, which is arguably the hardest part of the class. However, the information itself is not inherently difficult and should be easy to understand. What really irked me was the lack of study material in the form of past exams or questions. Past exams were provided but without a key which meant that it would be difficult to know what a complete answer should be. That being said, Dr. Paukstelis was great during office hours and available to answer questions quickly. The curve for this semester was also quite heavy (9% ish) but that's probably because this was the first semester in person and people were still adjusting from online exams to in-person ones. Overall compared to other BCHM461 professors he would be your best bet, and while lectures can sometimes be dull he does record them and posts them the same day.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/20/2021

This semester was pretty ok. The curve was around 8% (pretty normal). I think Paukstelis is a great lecturer but his notes were a bit messy and unorganized. Exams were pretty fair in my opinion and were made to make you truely understand biochem. Paukstelis even provided recorded lectures which were a big help. If you are planning to take BCHM642, I wouldn't recommend taking Paukstelis because I'm fairly certain the stuff Paukstelis teaches is different than other BCHM professors such as Julin (which you should take if you're going to take 462 because he teaches it).

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2021

This is a difficult class with very little support available to students. Paukstelis is not helpful, his lectures are messy and unorganized, he seems to put the bare minimum of effort into teaching this class. In fact, the only effort he does put forth is whenever he can make life more challenging for students, he seems to enjoy when students are having a difficult time and when exam averages are unreasonably low. He records online lectures which may be the only redeeming thing about taking him since you don't have to sit through the boring lectures. From what I've heard his 461 class does nothing to prepare you for 462. If possible, avoid him and take someone else.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Anonymous
11/08/2021

I have him currently for BCHM461 and he is an amazing professor. He quickly responds to email even at 8pm the night before the exam. When he lectures, he thoroughly explains the slide before showing the slide so you aren't scrambling to take notes while he's talking about something else, preventing you from missing information. He offers plenty of practice problems and a review session before the exam and his exams were fair.

Paul Paukstelis
BCHM461

Anonymous
01/22/2021

This is an intense class with a lot of material. While some concepts can simply be memorized, you will need to be able to connect concepts together to do well on the exams. Two lecture videos were uploaded weekly. I found the lectures hard to get through in one sitting, but they provided most of the material needed to do well on the exams. I definitely recommend using office hours and discussion to ask questions. Dr. Paukstelis and the TAs were both very nice and approachable.

Dorothy Beckett
BCHM461

Anonymous
12/10/2020

This course was my most challenging and unfair this semester. I am a current BCHM461 student during the Fall 2020 semester (online and during the pandemic). The amount of lecture time we were required to attend was unreasonable. We signed up for a class that meets twice a week for an hour and 15 min each, which in person would be 2 hours and 30 min per week of class time. This semester, we were required to watch 2 x 1 hour long lectures on our own time AND attend zoom calls during our scheduled class time - almost doubling the amount of class hours per week. I quickly began falling behind in the class due to the amount of hours we were required to put in JUST to watch and attend class (not even counting hours to study the material, complete other assignments, and juggling other courses). Also, her lectures were incredibly hard to follow, as they were disorganized, included blurry slides, and some of her explanations were cut off or unfinished. In addition, the way quizzes were conducted in the beginning of the semester were incredibly stressful. It took several weeks of students raising concerns regarding the turning in process of the quizzes and internet struggles before the professor agreed to switch things (which I and many of the students appreciated greatly). Whenever students did experience problems submitting quizzes, as 80 students trying to submit an assignment at once and many using the unstable campus wifi usually resulted in issues, Dr. Beckett responded by saying her students "needed to work harder" in order to overcome these issues. Her lack of understanding and regard for concerns brought up by her students added to the stressful nature of the course and this semester overall. Lastly, I often felt as though Dr. Beckett did not treat her students respectfully. Whenever majority of the class did not understand a concept thoroughly enough (based on exam or quiz scores), she often blamed her students for not studying hard enough instead of trying to teach the material again in a better way for her students to understand. On several occasions she spoke to us in a demeaning manner and it felt very discouraging most of the semester. I understand that this semester was stressful for professors as well, but it was no excuse for professors to take it out on their students. Several students have tried to approach her with clarifying questions regarding the course or the material itself and were often met with angry responses from Dr. Beckett, so that students became afraid to ask her questions.

Dorothy Beckett
BCHM461

Anonymous
10/22/2020

I can't let this woman have a good 4/5 rating with how terrible she has been this semester. I am a current 461 student during the pandemic. I understand that the online switch is hard, but this woman is the most disrespectful person I have ever met. She gives us 10 minute quizzes that should take at least 20 and constantly gets mad at us when we don't upload on time even though many people experience wifi problems. I do not show up to the lectures anymore because of how terrible she was at explaining all of the concepts. She yells at people during lectures and overall is just not a kind person. I know people write reviews after they have a terrible encounter with a professor as a way to blow off some steam, but I am telling you she sucks as a professor and has been receiving complaints for multiple students for the past 2 months. DO NOT TAKE HER.

Jinwoo Lee
BCHM461

Expecting a B
mintman
05/18/2020

Do not take any classes with this man! He said our test average was too high and made our last 2 exams so hard the averages were in the 40s. Also an awful teacher and just reads off slides.

Nicole LaRonde
BCHM461

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/19/2019

I don't know what to say about laronde. Her teaching is not very good, her exams are meh, and her final was completely odd. I did fine in her class, but I came out feeling like I knew less than I started with. 50% of the class was asleep or on their phones during her lectures. If you are good at learning on your own, take laronde, cause her tests are easy. But if you need a lecturer or want to actually learn something, take someone else.

Nicole LaRonde
BCHM461

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
03/31/2019

I made a typo in my previous review. Here's an updated version. + Really nice, even in office hours + HW & clickers are grade boosters, you only need to meet a certain threshold to get full credit + 1 of our 3 midterms was take-home + We get a notecard for exams and she even gave us the notecard in class + Puts "things to know" on the end of her lecture slides which serves as a study guide + Posts powerpoints & old exams *Sit in the front b/c it's hard to hear in the back *This class is taught slightly differently depending on the prof. I think she incorporated more bio than gen chem, but this could be a pro if you like bio better. *We had this awful group protein project, but it's because another professor is obsessed with 3D printing. The project was being piloted the semester I took 461, so it might be easier for you all. Biochem is a traditionally hard subject, but Dr. LaRonde makes it possible to do well.

David Fushman
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2017

Lectures are a bit dull but his exams are fair and he gives a lot of practice.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
impart
12/01/2016

I had Dr. Julin for both BCHM461 and BCHM462 in Spring and Fall 2015. My grades on the exams were B-C-B-A (BCHM461) and B-B-A-B (BCHM462) and I got an A in both courses. Brilliant man, very kind, dry sense of humor (but my friends and I thought it was hilarious), cares about students, and is a wonderful lecturer in biochemistry. He's responsive to e-mails and student concerns. His notes are so clear and organized (except his arrows for mechanisms haha). He writes on the chalkboard and uses a powerpoint. Bchm is a hard class no matter how you look at it. He recommends (and so do I) that after every lecture or so, you recopy your notes and go through it to keep up. His exams are challenging, but absolutely brilliant in the way they make you think. They are definitely fair - they test what he teaches, though in novel ways. He gives you a bunch of his old exams to practice. Based solely off his lecture notes. I definitely recommend Julin (and so do my classmates).

Jason Kahn
BCHM461

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/29/2016

I loved Dr. Kahn. He truly wanted his students to learn the material, even if it costed him precious lecture time. I think we did not have enough time to go over two units but we mastered everything else. Kahn used different programs such as Pymol and MatLab to go over certain abstracts that were difficult. He clarified many concepts and briefly went over GenChem II material in the beginning of the semester. That set the proper foundation for the entire course and I have to say, he clarified GenChem 2 information so quickly and easily, I do not understand why he has such bad reviews for CHEM271. The way he teaches CHEM271 definitely prepares you for biochem. Anyways, I went off on a tangent. Kahn posts all of his old exams on his website which definitely helps you prepare for his exams. The best way to study for his class is to master his classnotes two nights before the exam and then practice his old exams the night before. I always ended up getting very close to the high on all the exams (including the final). Also, when I took the course, Kahn did not make his final exam cumulative. We were relieved temporarily until we saw the exam. He included A LOT of derivations that he did not go over in class but he gave us the proper foundation in class to find the answer. Honestly, the reason why I respect Kahn so much is because students genuinely have to understand the material to do well. There are some professors that re-use problems and if you memorize it, then you are set for the exam. You are not learning. For Kahn, if you do not fully understand the material, then you will not do well on his exams. He also asked us very trivial questions like "In the MatLab project I gave you, what was this one file called that gives you this graph? [picture of the graph]" Now this Matlab project was very difficult and it took me days to get the correct answer. I had to look through all the files like 30 times each so even though I did not spend time memorizing the name of these files when I was studying for the exam, they were in the back of my head and I was able to get that question right. If a student just copied answers from someone else, then there will be no way that he or she can get that question correct. Anyways, if you get the chance to take Kahn, take him. Well at least take him for biochem!!! He knows his stuff and is very good at explaining it. For CHEM271, he will definitely prepare you for biochemistry. I guarantee it.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Anonymous
11/10/2015

Julin is really smart and has a WICKED SENSE OF HUMOR!!! He's the sort of professor you see in movies; those who sits down and talks with you about all the things in the world. I found that charming! He inspires your imagination and your enthusiasm. His lectures are great and he sometimes make subtle not-so-innocent jokes which makes everyone laugh. I felt so free and happy, till I took his exams. If you love biochem or love the enlightening aspect of study, by all mean take it. If you need a good GPA, I suggest you look elsewhere.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/20/2014

TAKE HIM FOR BCHM461. There is a lot of mixed opinions about Dr. Julin and the truth is that this class is NOT easy, but he is hands down one of the best professors I have ever had. He is INSANELY smart, just from listening to him speak in lecture or office hours you will realize that this man in brilliant. It's because of this that it can be a bit of a disadvantage because I don't think he realizes how little some students may know. That being said he is the BEST biochem professor there is! A lot of students will say that he is a bad Gen Chem II professor but a great BCHM professor and this is true, that is because BCHM is his field of research. His exams are tough, but honestly really fair. You have to study lecture notes. He doesn't surprise you with any "new" material. Whatever is on the exam will be from lecture. That being said I've found that the best method is to record his lectures and then recopy notes. RECOPY RECOPY RECOPY. It's a 400 level class, you honestly can't expect to look at your notes the two nights before the exam and do well.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2014

Had him for 271 and he was terrible. When I found out I was having him for biochem (they switched teachers on us) I cried because he was so bad for Gen Chem 2. BUT I WAS SO WRONG. Julin KILLS it in biochem. I am so happy that I had him as a teacher. His style of teaching goes along with this topic material soooooo much better then gen chem 2. He really loves bio chem and is a great resource if you ever have questions. I have actually made my schedule next semester so that I could specifically have him again because HE IS AMAZING for biochem. Take him for biochem if at all possible, but avoid him at all costs for Gen Chem 2. His level of understand really reflects in his teaching.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
07/16/2012

Dr. Julin is a wonderful professor and very willing to help his students learn. His teaching style is great - very similar to Dr. Dixon. I really enjoyed this class because I actually understood what I was learning and it connected all the dots between biology and chemistry courses previously taken. I went to his office hours frequently and he was very helpful. His tests were tricky but you really have to study hard and understand the concepts. You do have to memorize basic facts (i.e. amino acids, their pKas, and some other small things here and there), but it's mainly applying concepts.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2011

Dr. Julin is a great professor! His lectures, as described in the reviews below, are well structured. He teaches on the whiteboard along with powerpoint slides of graphs and pictures. He goes over the material a bit fast though. Make sure to take good notes because he tests on what he teaches. I think retaking notes helps a lot for studying. What I did was retake every lecture after class and even glue the slides on to my notebook. By this, you can know what you didn't understand in class and you can ask him questions through email or just after class. Looking over the sections of the book (he will say which pages) also helps because some definitions are not described very clear in class. He holds a review section a day before the exam/final for us to ask questions. He also answer emails pretty fast and clear. I ask about 2 sentences and he will reply me with a paragraph. As for the exams, study your notes and the sections of the book. His exams are difficult and are basically all short answers (lots of writing!) and some drawings. He likes to use the graphs and experiments described in class and ask what if happen if you change something. Study a week or two before hand, cramming and pulling a allnighter won't do any help. The averages for our exams were 66, 68, and 64. As for the final the average was a 75. For the final, it is not as detailed comparing to the exams but you still need to understand all the material ! As for the grade cutoffs(%), A>81.6, B>71.8, C>51.6, D>42.4, F>30.8. As long as you study, and know the material he teaches in class, you will do fine.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

Expecting a C
800meters
12/15/2011

Julin is cool, but his exams are pretty difficult. Paying attention to his lectures can be challenging because you get bored after like 10 minutes. The class is curved, and so every year the grades are based upon how that particular class does as a whole.

Douglas Julin
BCHM461

notqualified
05/11/2011

He is simply a brilliant professor. He is very structured, organized, and rational. Very knowledgeable about the material. He lectures very clearly. He's not really funny though.

Michael Montague-Smith
BCHM461

Anonymous
12/18/2009

Great professor. Fun to attend lecture. I love his thing about including a break in this 1.25 hour long classes. Really helps. His exams are ok, not too bad. He tells you exactly what mechanism is going to be on it so you know what to study. Oh, also you may want to check his structures. He tends to get them wrong in little places because he's so excited about teaching it.

Michael Montague-Smith
BCHM461

Expecting an A
rbterp
05/03/2009

I really liked Dr. MS's style of teaching biochemistry, which is his actual specialty. He writes out notes on the overhead, so its easy to take notes with him throughout lecture. He was very clear as to which mechanisms would be tested and he often gave examples of test questions after finishing various topics. He added humor to what could otherwise be a dull topic.

Reviews for BCHM461