This is the best professor, I've ever had! He is so gracious and understanding. He will help you pass so long as you want to pass. Do not skip class and stay on top of your notes. Go to office hours and ask for help when you don't understand and I ensure you will at least get a B in the class.

If you take this class, be prepared for your life to revolve around biochemistry for an entire semester. Grisham is pretty clear about his expectations for the class (the syllabus says, "Three hours of study out of class per course credit per week will be likely to earn you a C for this course"). Do not take that lightly. There are three exams in the semester, each one averages 50-60% (but don't let that scare you because there is a big curve at the end).
For the exams, you do pretty much have to know the textbook inside and out, but most important are the practice problems at the end of the chapter. There were always a few questions on the exams that made you kind of just stare blankly at the screen if you didn't memorize the textbook, but the good portion of the exam was manageable. In lecture, Grisham will be pretty clear about what will be on the exams, so make sure to do the problems he mentions multiple times and engrain anything he mentions will be on the exam into your brain. If you don't do the practice problems over and over, don't expect to be on average for the exams.
In regards to PSAFE, I never procrastinated on the assignments and it saved my mental well-being. One of the PSAFE assignments was quite literally due a few hours after one of our exams. I personally thought the PSAFE was kind of fun and an interesting aspect of the class (as well as a major grade saver - it's 20% of your grade and if you put in the effort, you'll get an A on it). But when the TA tells you not to do it last minute, do not do it last minute.
Grisham loves to mention how much his class prepares you for the MCAT, and after taking it, my practice test scores did rise by several points, so even if his class is kicking your butt, just know that it really will help you in the long run.
Overall, Grisham truly loves teaching and wants all his students to succeed. For anyone who gets imposter syndrome in their stem classes like I do, I rarely felt that in this class and felt like I truly belonged to be there. But you do get out of it what you put into it.

On the syllabus Grisham explicitly says you will need to devote 9 hours a week to this class for a B. For every exam in this class I essentially neglected all of my other classes for about a week before the exam to study. Average on the first exam was 51%. Take from that what you will. I somehow managed an above-average grade in this course so my advice is:
-Grisham recommends to "draw every structure/mechanism/etc in the book" when you take notes. Be smart with your time! Focus on the ones he highlights in lecture and if you're not sure, email him or go to office hours.
-He drops a million hints about what will be on every exam. Keep track and know those subjects incredibly well.
-Memorize the amino acids early bc it will help you a lot.
-Do the practice problems he recommends for every chapter. You will fail every exam if you only study the content in the chapters and don't do the questions.
-Do PSAFE early in the week. They will schedule exams and huge PSAFE projects within 24 hours of each other & it's cruel.

Grisham says this class is great to prep for MCAT...I'm not pre-med so I can't really speak for that. He curves generously at the end & if you're worried about your grade after an exam, he would love to talk to you over email or in person. Genuinely nice guy but killer course.

Course: informative course, but only in the sense that most of the learning is self-motivated. Reading the textbook and going through the powerpoint slides are helpful for the sake of knowledge. The lectures are tangential. Grisham is a good speaker, but he's just reading off the slides. >95% chance you'll fall behind the syllabus throughout the semester and have to either skip intended chapters or cram them all in for superficial learning near the end of the semester. Tests are ridiculous: does not test material directly, but makes you apply the knowledge in roundabout ways. Aka this is the scenario for a lot of students: you study a lot, do a bunch of practice problems, and know the material forward and backward but still test badly. Success mostly depends on your critical thinking abilities and test taking skills (or even luck tbh), which probably were already set before you entered this course or generally out of your control in the few months you're enrolled in this course. You'll definitely learn if you do the work, but your grade might not reflect that. Don't freak out, there's still a curve in the end (upward trend helps).
Professor: as a person, possibly the worst tenured professor at UVA, and I truly truly promise I'm not exaggerating. I know this from personal experiences that I won't delve into. Tldr this man ruined my mental health and I had to get counseling--not his course, but him.. so that's saying something, and I'm too scared to this day to report it. I didn't believe it when people from previous years said he seemed nice at first, but is actually rude, untruthful, and egotistical, but this is exactly the case. He makes himself out to be a nice guy who knows a lot about biochemistry (the biochemistry part I cannot dispute), but in reality he's extremely misogynistic (he has a powerpoint slide titled "When NO means YES" for something about nitric oxide as some cruel joke), racist, a liar, judgmental, and demeaning to students and those who work for him and around him. He gets a kick when you compliment him or ask him to talk about himself (unrelated to biochemistry), and he certainly picks favorites (which does affect your grade) based on who gives him the most ego padding. Anyway, I'm writing this to say _be careful_. Take the course to learn and use your TAs (course and PSAFE) as resources, and then move on. Let your learning define your experience and let that be it. Try to stay away from Grisham.

Grisham is an excellent lecturer but terrible test writer. Be prepared to do every problem in the back of the book comfortably if you want to get a good grade in the class. It is quite an engaging class and if you can figure out what things you need to memorize from him or the TAs you will do fine.

I may be biased because I love Professor Grisham, but I thought he was an amazing teacher. I love professor who are enthusiastic about what they teach and Prof. Grisham was exactly that. He loves what he does and that is evident through his explaining of the concepts. Yes, he does read off the slides but definitely not in a boring manner. He is engaging and does emphasize what will be on the exam. He drops major hints at his office hours so I'd go to them regularly, or at least before exams. The pop quizzes do suck considering that they are pop quizzes but they don't really count for much of your grade. Plus, he gives you one free 10/10 and then only counts your highest 3 quizzes (out of 6) so they aren't terrible. His exams are fair in that all the information can be found in the slides/textbook but they are difficult regardless. If you want to do well, you should be doing the recommended practice problems (no one has time to do all of them so look through and pick the difficult ones/ ones that look like they could be potential exam questions) and going to office hours. The TAs can be really helpful so go to their office hours too. I read the textbook but found that focusing on the lecture slides and doing the practice problems were much more helpful on the exams (he covers everything from the textbook anyways). But if you decide to skip reading the textbook, you should still read the little "human biochem" boxes throughout the chapters because they could show up as an exam question or even an extra credit question. PSAFE should help your grade (my class struggled a bit because of our TA but that is not the norm). There is even an extra credit assignment at the end for PSAFE that is super easy and will bump your grade up. PSAFE can seem challenging initially but you'll quickly realize that they're relatively simple to do (again, just go to the PSAFE TA's office hours and ask for help). Overall, a much better class than the bio department's biochem (from what I hear from my friends) and a worthwhile course even if we are all taking it for our major requirement.

Grisham is a very good lecturer - I though 80-90% of the lectures were both informative and interesting.
Tests were very hard(and surprisingly short time wise!). Requires in-depth knowledge of all the chapters you go over(and their associated practice problems), although the content of some is not tested much due to tests being so short. Don't try to guess which chapter this will be though! Most of the stuff he tests on are main concepts and example problems he mentions or does in class as clicker questions.
PSAFE was hit or miss based on the protein you were assigned. Some people had well characterized proteins and writing their report was not that hard, and others got a more difficult protein and had to be...creative to fill up the required pages. Was not graded too harshly either way.

Grisham is a very nice man. He is very personable in office hours, passionate about the material, and cares for his students well-being. That being said, I do not believe he came to lecture prepared. There were constant tangents in lecture where he would discuss interesting- albeit ancillary- information. If you were 800-series chem, this class is entirely review. The textbook for this class is not good. It is incredibly expensive AND HE WROTE IT. He wrote his own poorly-ranked textbook and is hocking it to his students for $300. You can't even buy a used one because he updates it every two years. Furthermore, you (or one of your friends) needs to purchase the solutions manual because a majority of the important answers you need for end-of-chapter questions are not included. I believe this is in very poor form as a writer and exceptionally poor taste as a university professor/ employee. He pulls exam questions almost directly from end of chapter problems and many of these questions require you buy the solutions manual to see the answer. If this class was not a requirement for my major, I would drop it and/or wait until another professor took over. I talk to prof Grisham a lot and like him- but not as my professor.

Heard terrible things about both this class and Grisham, only to be pleasantly surprised. This is a very time-intensive course, so do not take it if you are not fully cognizant of that fact. However, I found that if I did the readings after class/paid attention in lecture (especially to note what he emphasized) the tests were pretty easy. Grisham was also a great guy. He really went out of his way to help students out, and it was immediately apparent that he was passionate about the material. Unlike a few classes I've taken, I think in Chem 4410 with Grisham you will get the grade you work for. I worked really hard, and I got an A. But it wasn't easy keeping up with the work!! Definitely make sure you know how to grind if you're gonna take this course. Also PSAFE sucks.

Grisham's class is very difficult and memory-intensive, especially since he wrote the textbook and knows every little word in it. If you accept this fact and work really hard, then it's not a bad class. He presents the material well even if he is a little awkward and laughs at his own jokes ALL the time. For tests, be prepared to know structures inside and out, know the details of every little "fun fact" box in the textbook, and write down every name he mentions in class because it can and will show up on at least the first test. PSAFE sucks but it is what it is.