"Intermediary Metabolism" or "Biochemistry 1"

[BlueOceanMint]

At my school, a course called "Intermediary Metabolism," (which is pretty much a specific part of biochemistry I guess) is offered under the Biology department, and uses a biochemistry textbook. The course description is as follows:

"An advanced study of metabolic pathways including synthesis of macromolecules (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates), mechanisms of metabolic control and utilization of metabolic intermediates."

Based on that course description, is this class adequate for biochemistry on the MCAT, or should I take the "Biochemistry 1" course that is offered under the Chemistry department?


Thanks for the help in advance.

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[toffee_bloom]

Have you talked to students in both of those classes to get their take on it?

Personally, at my school intermediary metabolism was MUCH more extensive and helpful than biochem 1. They just finished with glycolysis/gluconeogenesis. It was more of a genetics course and memorizing structures than understanding the pathways and their biological significance.

But again, this could be very different from the classes at your school.

 

[BlueOceanMint]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Unfortunately, I don't personally know anyone that took the biochem class, and the people I know that took metabolism will be taking next month's MCAT so i don't know how well the class has prepared them.

I know the metabolism class difficulty/helpfulness could differ by schools, but do you feel like the class at your school covered everything biochemistry related on the MCAT?

 

[toffee_bloom]

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Unfortunately, I don't personally know anyone that took the biochem class, and the people I know that took metabolism will be taking next month's MCAT so i don't know how well the class has prepared them.

I know the metabolism class difficulty/helpfulness could differ by schools, but do you feel like the class at your school covered everything biochemistry related on the MCAT?

Yes, my class definitely did! The tests were essay and short answer, so honestly on the last couple there was just so much information that I had to pick my battles and didn't learn things like the urea cycle in order to focus on other topics for the exam. The last part of the class we went over fatty acid metabolism and the newest stuff is always fuzziest in my mind so that was one of the things I had a little trouble with when going through content review for the MCAT. But as for the overall class, we pretty much hit everything that was on the aamc list of things to know regarding biochem. It was an extremely difficult class (was also for grad students), but I felt it prepared me very well for the biochemistry on the exam (and they're hitting on that HARD).

Definitely don't skimp on a good biochem education if you can help it. Now that it's on the new MCAT, underclassmen are filling up the metabolism class so quickly because they don't want to take the biochem one, so my old professor might have to open a new section or change the format of the exam to accommodate more students!

 

[futuredoc331]

This is going to be tough. At my school we didn't cover any metabolism in Biochem I. We covered proteins, enzyme kinetics, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleotides, and DNA technologies. All of the metabolism stuff is left for Biochem II.

The problem is that all of these topics are tested on the MCAT and it's really going to depend on what area you're already strong in. Biochem I is going to cover things like the Michealis Menten equation and amino acid chemistry that you may have not seen before. The metabolism course will obviously focus on metabolism, but you've probably covered the majority of it in your General Biology courses already.