CHEM 4410

Basically what the other people have said. Book material = slides = what he tells you in class. Exams are wicked detail oriented on stuff that may/may not have any bearing on how much you actually "learned." And finally, if you're taking this class, it's probably because you're a biochem major and have to. He does tell you some of the specific things you'll have to know for the exams in class, so that helps, but avoid this class unless you're biochem.

Possibly the toughest class I have taken at UVA. You are responsible for pretty much every fact, figure, and table in the first 16 chapters of the book. Emphasizes memorization of irrelevant details such as names of scientists, length and timescale of bonds and bond vibrations. You will need to memorize probably 50+ structures. FINAL IS CUMULATIVE and ridiculous. 38 kids got some sort of A, 89 got some sort of B out of 140 kids. Grades are determined by rank and this class is full of the most intense premeds. Have fun!

Despite what Professor Grisham says at the beginning of the class, this class is mostly memorization, but he tells you exactly what you need to know so you just need to spend the time to do it. I found it was best to read the book before class so you had a general idea of the material and then when he goes over the exact same information it makes a lot more sense.

Grisham says that if he wants us to memorize he will give us an entire phone book instead of a textbook. In reality, we basically had to memorize the entire book. Grisham is a great guy but a questionable professor. He is very knowledgeable about his subject and you can sense his passion but memorizing every paragraph of the textbook is just not efficient nor useful. Also, reading off of the slides during class does not count as a lecture. Know the names of the scientists he mentions in class, bizarre chemistry, bacteriorhodopsin, how to make light beer and how to draw a perfect diagram of a top-view of an alpha helix (in 2 minutes or less). Does not give nearly enough time for exams yet he expects you to be perfect. Biochemistry is an interesting but tough subject and Grisham succeeded in making it tougher than it really is and less interesting than it should be.

Grisham is a great professor. The class is hard and requires a lot of work, but he gives you a fair warning from day one. There is a lot of memorization but that comes with the territory. Biochemistry is all about memorizing structures. I say all the complaints before and I agree with most, but after all this is a 400 level course. It is easy to dislike Grisham while taking the course, but after seeing other professors in 400 level courses, I have grown to appreciate him as a great professor.

Definitely worthwhile if you come prepared to work. If you don't have at least 10 hours a week to dedicate to studying, it is extremely difficult to do well. A lot of memorization and application is involved.

great professor. enthusiastic about his subject and extremely knowledgeable. the class is hard, he clarifies that at the beginning. he wrote the textbook so expect to learn everything for the test.

Very difficult course, average on the first exam was a 37%. Grisham wrote the textbook, which is actually pretty decent (for a book about bio molecules of course), but because of that expects you to know pretty much EVERYTHING covered in it, which is pretty much impossible. The course therefore requires a ton of studying to do well, a TON. 3 midterms $25%, and just began a "molecular document" project, which involves writing reports and modeling a presentation on a protein.

The modeling project was also fairly horrible, he gets all excited by how cool it is for all of us to makes a presentation on a protein with 3-D modeling, but the reality is that the program is very buggy, unintuitive, and takes forever to learn. It requires another big time commitment on top of the rest of course. And because the whole course is just on a curve, it won't help your grade.

This class sucks but a lot of it is knowing what kind of questions he's going to ask on the test...seems like structure drawing and mechanisms were emphasized much more than knowing concepts

This class is probably going to be one of the hardest that you take at UVA. Be ready to do a lot of work, especially reading the textbook, doing the end-of-chapter problems, and memorizing random facts. Attend the class because he emphasizes certain concepts/problems and stay on top of the reading. Also, if they continue the protein molecular document project, do not wait till the last minute because it is too much work and the T.A's are very helpful in advance. Overall the material is very interesting if you want to learn about the field or sciences in general.