GREENE B L
Great lecturer and absurdly smart. You cannot get a good grade in his class without really understanding the content. Sometimes he had trouble stooping down to our level, and his tests were definitely very difficult, but I think that ended up working in our favor. He definitely wants us to succeed. Be engaged in lecture and do the book problems!!!
The material is insane for one quarter, and his application-based exams did not make it any better. He was humbled with our 33% average on M1, and made M2 a bit less challenging, but still hard. He gave resources, which helped, but you do need to read. He speaks very monotone and fast at the same time, making it difficult to stay engaged in class.
Be prepared to study a lot in the class and the textbook is your holy grail. His tests are extremely difficult with the first midterm having an average of 33%. He is a nice guy but needs to lighten up the difficulty of the questions on the exams. No matter how much you study, there will still be questions you cannot answer at all in 50mins.
Professor Greene has insightful lectures and there are ample opportunities to earn credit besides the exams. The weekly quizzes are a great way to consolidate the dense content in the lectures and I found the exams more than reasonable for the breadth and complexity of content in 142b.
As difficult as this class was, I am glad to have taken it. Prof Greene is rigorous in his instruction yet very knowledgeable about biochem. Use the learning goals he put on Canvas to structure your reading of the textbook. Read the book in depth, at length, and do all practice problems and you will succeed. His office hours are also very helpful.
I don't know why he gets such a bad rep. His tests are definitely hard but he really cares about his students and actually listens to feedback. Biochem is just such a dense subject, so get ready to read and be sure to stay on top of it.