Amino Acids importance

[DanniD]

I keep hearing people say amino acids were all over their test, so I'd appreciate if those of you who wrote the test already to comment on the specifics we need to know about AAs, I know the structures of the important amino acids and the different classes of amino acids Ex: polar vs. none polar ones... what else do we need to know about them, do we need to know the single word symbols of AAs as well?
Thanks

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[piii]

You need to know everything about amino acids. e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. pIs, charges with changing pH, pKas, bonds/interactions, 1 letter abbreviations, 3 letter abbreviations, structures, stereochemistry. If you haven't read the AAMC outline, you probably should.

 

[Doremonster]

Know them cold.

 

[Fedekz]

Know everything, pka of all the side chains, all thr abbreviations, structures, classifications, unique characteristics about some of them (like proline and cysteine).

 

[MCATforsale1]

pKas?? pIs?

You guys are saying the passages DID NOT provide that information? You can answer here because we're not talking about actual content of the exam.

 

[DanniD]

You need to know everything about amino acids. e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. pIs, charges with changing pH, pKas, bonds/interactions, 1 letter abbreviations, 3 letter abbreviations, structures, stereochemistry. If you haven't read the AAMC outline, you probably should.

I looked at the outline, it doesn't specify the single letter symbols of amino acids.

 

[piii]

I looked at the outline, it doesn't specify the single letter symbols of amino acids.

Well I took the test, and I can say about 6 or 7 questions and passages used single letter abbreviations. Pretty sure everyone will corroborate that.

 

[DanniD]

Well I took the test, and I can say about 6 or 7 questions and passages used single letter abbreviations. Pretty sure everyone will corroborate that.

well that sucks... gotta do some extra memorization now I guess, thanks!

 

[ChrisMack390]

It doesn't, but this has overwhelmingly been feedback from test takers.

I looked at the outline, it doesn't specify the single letter symbols of amino acids.

 

[studentdocftw]

Know...structure..polarity..single letter abbrev...interactions..pIs..pkas. These actually aren't that difficult to memorize...some mnemonics for tough AAs...gluE....so glutamate has E as its single letter abrev. F = Eq....q and E are related..hence q is glutamine (i know thats a bit of a stretch but it helped me). AsparDic acid...so D for aspartic acid. The rest IMO are pretty straightforward.