TBR Biology II: Section 8 Passage 5

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kg21

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I'm on my first week of the S2N 3-month study schedule. I've just read EK Bio Ch. 1, and am working on the first 1/3 of the passage questions. My question is regarding Passage V from Section 8 of TBR Biology II (found on pg. 237).

When I read through EK Bio Ch. 1, I felt pretty confident. Most of the things I had already seen, and was quite familiar with. However, my confidence was shot after trying this passage... That chapter didn't mention anything about the Calvin cycle. The only questions I got right were 24 and 25.

Even looking at the explanations to the answers, I am COMPLETELY lost. I was under the impression that it was unnecessary to memorize the structure and name of intermediates, the specific action of each enzyme in every step, and yet the answers seem to call upon these facts as if they should be known by heart.

I'm a very strong student in school. I've been doing decent at the other passages (never below 60%, often 80ish). Should I be worried, or is this simply a rare, very difficult passage? :(

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Those metabolic passages from TBR are notoriously difficult. I haven't gotten to my FL practice (only a few days away) but from what I gathered on SDN, it seems like TBR goes into excessive detail in those metabolic chapters.

I just took them with a grain of salt and tried not to stress out about the questions that asked for very specific outside knowledge. (Easier said than done)
 
I'm on my first week of the S2N 3-month study schedule. I've just read EK Bio Ch. 1, and am working on the first 1/3 of the passage questions. My question is regarding Passage V from Section 8 of TBR Biology II (found on pg. 237).

When I read through EK Bio Ch. 1, I felt pretty confident. Most of the things I had already seen, and was quite familiar with. However, my confidence was shot after trying this passage... That chapter didn't mention anything about the Calvin cycle. The only questions I got right were 24 and 25.

Even looking at the explanations to the answers, I am COMPLETELY lost. I was under the impression that it was unnecessary to memorize the structure and name of intermediates, the specific action of each enzyme in every step, and yet the answers seem to call upon these facts as if they should be known by heart.

I'm a very strong student in school. I've been doing decent at the other passages (never below 60%, often 80ish). Should I be worried, or is this simply a rare, very difficult passage? :(
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TBR has a reputation for being more difficult than the actual MCAT. If you want to do better on TBR: 1. Answers tend to be in the passage and diagram more so than on other practice exams. 2. Read the summary on the 1st page of the chapter before taking TBR end of chapter tests. 3. Passages usually aren't as difficult as they sound. They use to cause me test anxiety because they sounded scary. Got so nervous I got silly questions wrong. 4. TBR passages fluctuate in difficulty. Some are nearly impossible, others aren't that bad. So don't let one rotten passage ruin your day. If I remember right, passage 8 was a rotten one. (And passage 2 in section 7.)
 
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I'm with you on this question. I've taken a lot of biochemistry and related coursework and this passage was brutal (2/6 correct). I'm starting to wonder about the validity of using EK for content review and TBR for practice questions.

My scores for the first third of the TBR questions that correspond to EK Biology chapter #1 are as follows: chapter 7: 27/33 correct (81%); chapter 8: 23/34 correct (68%). How did you turn out?
 
I didn't actually keep track of the total percent of questions I got right, i've been calculating percentages passage by passage. That sounds about right where I was though. I'm about to do the 2nd third of the questions and am hoping for better.

EDIT:
I'm three passages in to the 2nd 1/3 of the Biology passages, and it's not getting any better. One question requires knowing how to assign amino acids to R or S, then converting to D or L. How am I supposed to know that based on the EK Bio Chapter 1? Really starting to doubt the S2N's method of studying biology :S
 
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I'm with you on this question. I've taken a lot of biochemistry and related coursework and this passage was brutal (2/6 correct). I'm starting to wonder about the validity of using EK for content review and TBR for practice questions.

My scores for the first third of the TBR questions that correspond to EK Biology chapter #1 are as follows: chapter 7: 27/33 correct (81%); chapter 8: 23/34 correct (68%). How did you turn out?

Eh, I wouldn't sweat it. I think pretty much everyone who does SN2ed's schedule has this initial reaction. EK's content is relatively solid, and as you go forward some of the passages from TBR will mirror that a little bit better.
 
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