CHEM 4420

This class is labor-intensive. Not much of the material is that difficult to grasp but there is a lot of it and you need to know all of it. Dr. Landers does a good job of trying to keep the class relevant and includes a lot of interesting material about what happens when things go wrong. He also digresses from the lecture material to talk about things like Frankenstein which I didn't like but is a nice break for most people.

I loved going to lecture for 442, in stark contrast to 441. Landers is a great showman, and he makes a very valiant effort to (a) bring outside material into the lecture and (b) answer questions he cannot answer by the next lecture. My one complaint about this class is the grading. The graders have no idea what they're doing (e.g. marking out CO2- and writing COOH, or marking out K=[c][d]/[a][b] and writing a+b=c+d), which is one complaint about this class. True, regrades tend to be fairer, though it was pretty annoying to turn in 9 regrades in one semester. Another complaint would be the amount of memorization required for this course that is not really that profound (e.g. draw Pol III, draw acetyl-CoA carboxylase). But overall, I think the net effect is a positive experience in this class.

Amazing class, cannot even compare to CHEM 4410. The Slides are informative and good summary of the important things in the book. Exams are long and hard (especially the thinker questions) but manageable if prepared. Lectures are dynamic and engaging but very fast. Landers is amazing at everything, except getting to class on time. Hardest class I've taken at UVA yet the most worthwhile.

Great Professor

Landers is a great professor. Infinitely better than Grisham. He actually makes the subject interesting and has a pretty good (if not dry) sense of humor. Absolutely no book reading is required, all info comes from the powerpoints. Semi-weekly quizzes force you to review the material, in a good way. Very difficult though.

Expects alot. Tests are very detailed and gives pop quizzes about every week.

He has a great personality and is a great lecturer, but his exams are memorization intensive. Some questions are excessively broad, but the answers are extremely specific so not only do you have to remember the answer, but also what he is really asking. He will not accept your answer unless it is worded exactly like the answer sheet(I agree that grad students suck at grading!). If you have a photographic memory, this course is for you. If not, get ready to live, breathe, and eat biochem for a semester. Getting graded down by almost a full letter grade on each test because my answers were not exactly the same as the answer key is not right.

Amen to the person below with him not giving you points even if your answer is right, if it doesn't match the key exactly. and he doesn't curve, which could make up for it

Professor Landers is awesome. He is by far the best professor I've had at UVa and biochem. has been my favorite course. If you study and prepare for the exam at least 3 days before, you'll do fine!

Dr. Landers was an amazing Biochem professor; leaps and bounds better than Grisham mainly due to the way he structured the course. We had 10 Pop Quizzes which counted as 25% of our final grade along with 3 Midterms (each 25% of our final grade) and thus we were always on our toes and somewhat paranoid about when a quiz would be handed out. This fear/paranoia, however, lead to LOTS of studying outside the class which in turn lead to actually learning the extreme amounts of information that Biochem semester II entails. Overall, study the slides and basically memorize every square inch of each slide in order to get an A in the class. He was very enthusiastic, funny, and extremely engaging in class since he'd call people out in class to answer his questions. He's also very approachable and I can say that I learned and retained a lot more than I expected and was pleasantly surprised by the quality education I received from Dr. Landers. This is what I was expecting to learn as a Biochem major and his class definitely lived up to my aspirations...I definitely recommend him to every Biochem major. I left having acquired a TON of useful, fascinating biochemical and medical information which in turn boosted my confidence as a pre-med and as a chem major.