Organic skills in Biochemistry

[Psychonergic]

At my school, Biochemistry is a single-semester course which has the pre-reqs of Orgo 1 OR instructor permission. The course is offered maybe once every 2-3 years, and it's being offered this Spring by an instructor with one of the best reputations on campus, as far as fairness and helpfulness. The professor allowed me to sign up, despite not having the organic background. He suggested checking out Khan Academy prior to the beginning of the semester.

My question to ya'll: What are the "greatest hits" of Orgo that appear in a single semester Biochem class? Are there some skills in particular that should be practiced (i.e. redox reactions) before I plunge in? Obviously, every class has a different scope of material. I believe my professor is planning to teach it with a more biological emphasis, rather than chemical.

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[farnk20]

My biochem class featured little to no organic chemistry. Acid-base mechanisms were mentioned in passing, but that was basically just shuffling some electrons around, and we were provided with a "organic chemistry review" packet. Probably varies by institution, but if the prof is any good I'd take the course and get to know him well so you can go to him for help.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

It depends entirely on your professor and your school. My biochem class was a bit of a living hell because my professor covered mechanism throughout the entire class while the book only covered reactions and concepts. This while the professor who taught the hour after us and covered absolutely no mechanisms and taught purely concepts.

 

[docemmettbrown]

My Biochem class is a two semester sequence for biochem majors but for the first part of the sequence we used very little organic... however having a little background in organic is useful

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[BestDoctorEver]

At my school, Biochemistry is a single-semester course which has the pre-reqs of Orgo 1 OR instructor permission. The course is offered maybe once every 2-3 years, and it's being offered this Spring by an instructor with one of the best reputations on campus, as far as fairness and helpfulness. The professor allowed me to sign up, despite not having the organic background. He suggested checking out Khan Academy prior to the beginning of the semester.

My question to ya'll: What are the "greatest hits" of Orgo that appear in a single semester Biochem class? Are there some skills in particular that should be practiced (i.e. redox reactions) before I plunge in? Obviously, every class has a different scope of material. I believe my professor is planning to teach it with a more biological emphasis, rather than chemical.

There was not that much Orgo in my biochem class IMO. I suggest a quick review of acid/base chemistry.

 

[Mad Jack]

You can memorize everything in my biochem class. Maybe 10% is organic chem, you can really get by without it. Perhaps the most important parts of organic chem are what you learn about enzymes in bio and le chatlier's principle to determine which direction reactions will run in.

 

[Psychonergic]

Thanks everybody! I've got the book already, and have eyeballed some of the chapters. I think you're right in emphasizing the importance of acid/base chemistry. I don't suspect that my professor is going to require us to memorize a mad number of structures or mechanisms - time will tell. Fortunately, it's the class I'm most interested in next semester, next to physics II. If anybody has any other preparatory advice, I'm all ears. I've been review both an old organic chem textbook and I purchased the As a Second Language book for first semester Orgo. I feel pretty good between those two resources.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

How did I get stuck with the nutjob that wanted me to memorize all the mechanisms, structures, and enzyme ( with specific residues involved) from Glucose to Pyruvate to Acetyl Coa to Malate/ Oxaloacetate?