CHEM 4410

Although difficult, this class is very rewarding especially for students interested in pursuing health sciences or pharmacy. Professor Grisham's enthusiasm makes lectures interesting and engaging. The PSAFE project was well run this semester and really helps solidify your understanding of the subject. Pay attention to lectures as Professor Grisham often hints at what may come on the exam. Studying from slides is a great guide however you still need to read the textbook chapters at least once. The solutions manual is optional but I highly recommend renting it or buying it. Overall a great class, it is well worth the time and effort.

This course requires knowing a lot of information, but it relatively easy to navigate if you pay attention. Prof. Grisham gives large hints about what will be on the exam because he spends extra time on the topics in class, and will sometimes even tell you what is on the exam. There was only one previous exam available to us, of which only one problem was relevant throughout the semester. Make sure you read the textbook, and be sure to pay attention to the boxes in the text that talk about connections of biochem to life.

Lectures are pretty worthless other than to find out the small details that Grisham wants you to know. PSAFE project is easy but a pain because the program is not very intuitive

Class Overview:
As all chemistry majors know, this class is required. Grisham is the co-author of the textbook with Professor Garrett in the biology department. The class is essentially a survey of the prototypical biomolecules: proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and sugars. After that is covered, Grisham discusses broad characteristics of enzyme function and membrane structure and function. Your grade in the class is derived from your grade on the two (three?) midterms, the final, and the overall grade from the PSAFE project.
The goal of the PSAFE project is to introduce the students to protein modeling using MolSoft. Exemplar projects have the opportunity to be submitted as an appendix to their textbook.
Lecture:
In essence, it felt as if Grisham was Bob Barker and we were on the Price is Right with biochemistry. It seemed as if he was showcasing biochemistry to us rather than instructing it from a principle/application standpoint. With that said, there was a lot of material and a lot of memorization.
Expectations:
Grisham starts the semester by saying that dedicating 3 hours of study time per 1 hour of lecture time will be about enough to get a C in the course. With that, he stressed that he won't test us on minutiae, yet instead focus on larger principles. Unfortunately, every test had sizable sections dedicated to name-dropping scientists or bare memorization of data extracted from one table, on one page of the text. At other times, the questions he asks test an important concept but is presented in such a convoluted fashion that it becomes more of an eyesore than anything else. At times it felt as if the most important concepts from that section were glossed over/absent in the test and other minor/insignificant details were stressed.
PSAFE project:
Program is user-unfriendly. We can't blame Grisham for this since he practically detached his responsibility over the project's administration. It was left solely in the hands of a TA who was responsible for grading ~100 assignments. There were 10 minor assignments related to the project that had to be submitted over the course of the class. This means that an undergraduate TA was solely responsible for grading ~1000 assignments. Then, the TA had to grade the ACTUAL project at the end. With that said, it was virtually impossible for the TA to keep pace and assignments never were returned in a timely fashion/if at all. This was bad because the assignments were supposed to help introduce us to the MolSoft program, and basically set up our final project portfolio. Furthermore, the assignments were supposed to tell us what formatting requirements were expected. As a result, formatting irregularities became a common reason for point detraction for the final product. An example is that the right type of red was not used.

Overall, just get the class done.

This course was brutal. Grisham wrote the book and so expects you to know everything in it with CRIPPLING AGONIZING DETAIL. The exams only have questions on maybe half the material so you have to sort of guess which things he's going to ask about. I usually guessed wrong.
I averaged about 10 hours of study per week and the week before the test i increased that to about 15 per week and still did not do well.
There is a long term project which is easy and will save your grade. Your TA's undergrads who took the class the previous semester and the edvice they give is just STUDY STUDY STUDY. If you have the time, take this course and nothing else and you might do alright.

Hard class. Useless lecture. Don't take it if you don't have to. I didn't understand most of what he said.

This is the big class for biochem majors. If you aren't a biochem major, I recommend taking the one semester class offered in the Biology department. It's fewer credits that will count against you. However, if you either love biochem or are really good at biochem, take this class. Grisham will try and inspire you by saying everyone is terrible. From what I've heard, he's also unapproachable during office hours. He'll grill you over the number of times you read the text before he'll let you talk to him. The protein project is the grade saver in this class (it's not unheard of to get a 100 on it), especially if you have the right TA. For studying, do the following: read the chapter before class, attend lecture, read the chapter again, making note cards for structures and outlining general concepts. Also, make sure you are comfortable with the gibbs free energy equation. That will rear its ugly head when you least expect it.

Terrible professor, worse TA. Taught myself more than anything in this class as Grisham likes to read his powerpoints and book to you, which you can do yourself. Sad excuse for a fourth-year biochemistry class. Getting Landers in the Spring will show you just how bad Grisham is.

Grisham's a great and enthusiastic lecturer. Thankfully, he wasn't monotonous or anything like that, because I'll admit that there were times that things got a little dull (all he did was read off his slides) and I might have fallen asleep or something otherwise. But overall, I thought the class was really interesting; and it wasn't that hard, either. Having a good memory obviously helps since you'll have to know a few random details (like how trehalose prevents the formation of ice crystals in fish blood) as well as molecular structures, but it's quite possible to study smart and not necessarily hard. He drops big hints by emphasizing which topics are important enough to be on the test, so really pay attention in lecture. For example, later on in the semester when we were going over enzyme kinetics, he flat out told us that there would be 20 or 25 points out of 100 on the test that would be devoted to Michaelis-Menten--we'd be given kinetics data, and we'd have to graph it (as a double reciprocal plot) to figure out what kind of inhibition was involved (among other things). But for the details, focus on ~cool facts~ like those found in text boxes of the textbook. The PSAFE project isn't bad, either. The molecular modeling software, ICM Browser Pro, isn't that unfriendly - you could figure a lot out if you just messed around with it a little - and if it really wasn't cooperating, Erna did a good job of helping us out.

Grisham clearly cares about the subject matter, and his book isn't badly written. The concepts aren't difficult in and of themselves, but the bulk of material provided is intimidating. Overall, Grisham is not my favorite person, but he makes a decent professor. I learned a ton.