Advice for Biochemistry?

[StressfulMD]

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This awful class is coming up next semester, and was wondering what tips y'all have on doing well (its a biology-based biochem--less emphasis on chemistry).

Using Lehninger's as a reference text, will probably start reading it soon and at least trying to memorize the AA's.

The professor primarily asks experimentally-based questions (a LOT of "Design your own experiment" stuff) and I have heard that those in a wet lab have an advantage (not me lol).

Any advice from y'all? Thanks

 

[993444]

Biochemistry is one of those classes that is taught completely differently based on who the professor is. Some professors teach a 100% "rote memorization" form of Biochemistry where the exam questions are pure memorization. Other professors teach Biochemistry the way your professor will.

The biggest tip I can give is to go to office hours. Professors have a soft side for office hours students because they know that they are there to learn. So these professors usually emphasize certain concepts or certain modes of thinking that the test questions will align to during office hours.

 

[StressfulMD]

Biochemistry is one of those classes that is taught completely differently based on who the professor is. Some professors teach a 100% "rote memorization" form of Biochemistry where the exam questions are pure memorization. Other professors teach Biochemistry the way your professor will.

The biggest tip I can give is to go to office hours. Professors have a soft side for office hours students because they know that they are there to learn. So these professors usually emphasize certain concepts or certain modes of thinking that the test questions will align to during office hours.

Ok, thanks. Would you happen to have some pointers with regards to answering experimental-based questions? How best do I familiarize myself with lab procedures?Just by practice through reading papers?

 

[Wayfinder]

Hi I have tutored for two separate Biochemistry professors one using the Voet book and the other Lehninger. I agree with TRexLife4 that it is a course that differs greatly between professors, which I witnessed first hand. You can memorize your amino acids if you want because that is background knowledge you will need, other than that I really wouldn't try to get too far ahead until your class starts.
As for experimental based questions, an example of techniques I have typically seen have been reading the results from SDS-Page gels or asking about different types of chromatography. If asked a question about these topics one would first have to understand the properties of the macromolecules they are analyzing and the types of bonds it forms. Your class will probably go into detail for whatever techniques you would need to be able to use.
However, if you really want to prepare, make sure you review your general chemistry course work. Review types of bonds, relative strength, where you would be expected to find these types of bonds, etc. Also, a review of basic kinetics, equilibrium, acid-base, and oxidation-reduction could be useful. Even if the course has weaker stress on the mathematics behind these concepts, these are the concepts that you will see built upon when learning about enzyme kinetics, laboratory techniques, and metabolism.
Finally, have fun with it, I liked biochem more than my general chemistry and organic chemistry coursework. It is one of those courses that can bridge a lot of topics together and showcase how interconnected various concepts are. Good Luck! (also listen to TRexLife4 and go to office hours)

 

[deleted895369]

For the less experimentally-inclined students (like myself without much wet bio lab experience), I found that The Princeton Review MCAT Biology review book had a good chapter about experimental techniques. This could be helpful to borrow from a library via inter-library loan or something just so that you can read that chapter and familiarize yourself with lab techniques before the class starts.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Biochemistry is one of those classes that is taught completely differently based on who the professor is. Some professors teach a 100% "rote memorization" form of Biochemistry where the exam questions are pure memorization. Other professors teach Biochemistry the way your professor will.

The biggest tip I can give is to go to office hours. Professors have a soft side for office hours students because they know that they are there to learn. So these professors usually emphasize certain concepts or certain modes of thinking that the test questions will align to during office hours.

I do disagree with that statement. Professors hate being annoyed with the kiss-up pre-med trying to score points at office hours. If you're going purely for facetime, don't bother. However, if you have legitimate questions, feel free to go. Be prepared. Bring the lecture slides printed out, and have googled the answers and still ask a clear concise question. Nothing is more annoying than making your professor wait because your wifi isn't loading or you don't have the ppt downloaded.

That said, biochem is a beast. Memorization will come up. Learn your amino acid structures, full name, 3 letter shorthand name, and one letter variable. Learn the classes to which they belong and unique properties. For glycolysis, krebs, ETC., memorize everything. Hemoglobin and enzyme kinetics can be tested with critical thinking.

 

[993444]

Professors hate being annoyed with the kiss-up pre-med trying to score points at office hours. If you're going purely for facetime, don't bother.

IMHO, this is based more in stereotype than in reality. And even when the stereotype does hold true, I've noticed professors not be too annoyed because the gunner at least comes up with some very good questions that benefits all students. So it's a net positive for everyone.

Our undergrad experiences may very well just be quite different.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

IMHO, this is based more in stereotype than in reality. And even when the stereotype does hold true, I've noticed professors not be too annoyed because the gunner at least comes up with some very good questions that benefits all students. So it's a net positive for everyone.

Our undergrad experiences may very well just be quite different.

i'd go with different. My professors would spit on pre-meds/anyone they assumed was pre-med. At office hours with the exception of a few professors, students would be redirected to read the textbook or bother grad TAs instead.

I don't mean to criticize your post, I meant to solely elaborate on it. If a student is passionate with good questions, then by all means go to office hours. If its to kiss up, professors have been at the game for a longggggg time, and they'll know what you're doing, and it won't win you any benefits imo.

 

[993444]

i'd go with different. My professors would spit on pre-meds/anyone they assumed was pre-med. At office hours with the exception of a few professors, students would be redirected to read the textbook or bother grad TAs instead.

I don't mean to criticize your post, I meant to solely elaborate on it. If a student is passionate with good questions, then by all means go to office hours. If its to kiss up, professors have been at the game for a longggggg time, and they'll know what you're doing, and it won't win you any benefits imo.

It's all cool. I honestly think we just had different experiences. All the professors at my university were super chill and helpful to students.

 

[907914]

Be prepared. Bring the lecture slides printed out, and have googled the answers and still ask a clear concise question. Nothing is more annoying than making your professor wait because your wifi isn't loading or you don't have the ppt downloaded.

Am I the only one who reads material before class so that I already have my questions ready to ask in class when we get to that point of the lecture?

 

[993444]

Am I the only one who reads material before class so that I already have my questions ready to ask in class when we get to that point of the lecture?

Most of my classes had professors that didn't allow questions during lecture.

 

[SterlingMaloryArcher]

I do disagree with that statement. Professors hate being annoyed with the kiss-up pre-med trying to score points at office hours. If you're going purely for facetime, don't bother. However, if you have legitimate questions, feel free to go. Be prepared. Bring the lecture slides printed out, and have googled the answers and still ask a clear concise question. Nothing is more annoying than making your professor wait because your wifi isn't loading or you don't have the ppt downloaded.

That said, biochem is a beast. Memorization will come up. Learn your amino acid structures, full name, 3 letter shorthand name, and one letter variable. Learn the classes to which they belong and unique properties. For glycolysis, krebs, ETC., memorize everything. Hemoglobin and enzyme kinetics can be tested with critical thinking.

Depends on the professor you can't say either statement as an absolute or even an in-most-cases statement.

 

[907914]

Most of my classes had professors that didn't allow questions during lecture.

That...sounds unusual to me. Actually unheard of to me. I have never been in a class that denied active participation. I would say my average number of questions per class period across all of my classes these last several years has probably ranged around 5 or 6...

 

[993444]

That...sounds unusual to me. Actually unheard of to me. I have never been in a class that denied active participation. I would say my average number of questions per class period across all of my classes these last several years has probably ranged around 5 or 6...

What size classes did you have? Mine averaged 600.

 

[907914]

What size classes did you have? Mine averaged 600.

Well that would explain it. How the hell can you manage in a class of 600? My largest class has been intro psych. A class of 200 in which only 100 attended, and I still asked questions with routine frequency (only one that asked questions...) I have not had a single upper division course with more than 35 students.

 

[907914]

Well that would explain it. How the hell can you manage in a class of 600? My largest class has been intro psych. A class of 200 in which only 100 attended, and I still asked questions with routine frequency (only one that asked questions...) I have not had a single upper division course with more than 35 students.

I think the largest lecture hall on my entire campus can only hold like 350 students....And that is only for the intro english class that literally everyone has to take.

 

[993444]

Well that would explain it. How the hell can you manage in a class of 600? My largest class has been intro psych. A class of 200 in which only 100 attended, and I still asked questions with routine frequency (only one that asked questions...) I have not had a single upper division course with more than 35 students.

Consider yourself lucky. Some of my professors were just completely removed from the course in an emotional sense (minimum effort in lectures, unhelpful during office hours, didn't create a message board....). They just gave lectures and then exams. The exams were sometimes just completely insane and weird.

My whole college experience was just a Survival of the Fittest experiment....

 

[907914]

Consider yourself lucky. Some of my professors were just completely removed from the course in an emotional sense (minimum effort in lectures, unhelpful during office hours, didn't create a message board....). They just gave lectures and then exams. The exams were sometimes just completely insane and weird.

My whole college experience was just a Survival of the Fittest experiment....

Real question - is that how most people go through college? Did I luck out in picking my school based on the cheapest option in my state?

 

[993444]

Real question - is that how most people go through college? Did I luck out in picking my school based on the cheapest option in my state?

It all boils down to what kinds of facilities and resources are provided to students.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Depends on the professor you can't say either statement as an absolute or even an in-most-cases statement.

I'm being conservative in my approach. It is professor dependent, but we are discussing biochemistry, which is a core pre-med class now. Do it in non-premed classes and professors will likely be nicer, my opinion, based on my experience.

 

[Dr. Stalker]

Am I the only one who reads material before class so that I already have my questions ready to ask in class when we get to that point of the lecture?

We need more students like you!

 

[MyOdyssey]

Consider yourself lucky. Some of my professors were just completely removed from the course in an emotional sense (minimum effort in lectures, unhelpful during office hours, didn't create a message board....). They just gave lectures and then exams. The exams were sometimes just completely insane and weird.

My whole college experience was just a Survival of the Fittest experiment....

Did you by chance attend U Cal Berkeley?

 

[CaptainPoopyPants]

It helped me a lot to memorize the chemical structures and characteristics of all the amino acids. This made future information easier to understand because I could picture the expected chemical interactions.

 

[907914]

It helped me a lot to memorize the chemical structures and characteristics of all the amino acids. This made future information easier to understand because I could picture the expected chemical interactions.

This was my mnemonic that I made up that really helped me:

CSTNQ (Pronounced See-Stank) are the polar ones, they are Stanky like a stripper POLE

AVLIM (pronounced as AVLIM) are nonpolar, because this sounds like the name of a very introverted person who doesn’t want to interact with anyone

FYHW (pronounced feeyou) are the aromatic ones, FEEYOU *ways hand across nose* that AROMA sure is smelly

DEKR (pronounced decker) are the charged ones, you’ve gotta CHARGE up your punch before you punch someone *you are the decker*

Then just GP - general practitioner, the ones that don’t belong in any group.

 

[atm14834]

I took 3 semesters of biochem for my major. I used Lehninger for all three semesters. I had the same professor for biochem 1 and 2 and he was very thorough with material, and rarely did I refer to the book. For the third semester, I had a different professor and had to refer to the book a little more. It's pretty good, but sometimes it takes some serious focused reading to understand what its talking about. For intro biochem, my exams were about half memorization (what amino acid is this, draw this amino acid, etc.) and the other half were more application based. At my school, our biochem 1 course doesn't have a lab, so my professor didn't really ask too many experiment based questions. Personally, I don't think biochem is that bad (I also had a really good professor.), but it does take a good bit of studying.

 

[lull]

I just finished taking biochemistry(took the final today) and the single-handedly most effective thing I've done all semester is draw and memorize all the structures of every pathway, every amino acid, etc (even if your teacher says there's no point in drawing amino acids/glycolysis/krebs/tca structures, it will help you visualize the mechanisms and underlying concepts that your teacher will likely want you to know.

 

[deleted966164]

Am I the only one thinking that if you’re thinking of medicine then biochemistry and physiology should be THE classes to love???

 

[993444]

Am I the only one thinking that if you’re thinking of medicine then biochemistry and physiology should be THE classes to love???

I feel like so many pre-meds are so engrossed in competition for scoring the highest in the class that they've atrophied the genuine love for the scientific material. It's sad 🙁

 

[907914]

I feel like so many pre-meds are so engrossed in competition for scoring the highest in the class that they've atrophied the genuine love for the scientific material. It's sad 🙁

Am I the only one who could care less about the grade I receive and just go to class ready and wanting to learn? Like...if you don’t focus on the grade and you focus on learning the material, the grade will follow.

 

[Cornfed101]

Am I the only one who could care less about the grade I receive and just go to class ready and wanting to learn? Like...if you don’t focus on the grade and you focus on learning the material, the grade will follow.

In every class? No way... I like learning, but there were definitely some classes that I learned only what was necessary to do well. Anatomy and Physiology? I killed that class because it was freaking awesome and I wanted to know everything. I agree that the grade follows if you want to learn, but can you honestly tell me that you were thrilled to learn in every single general education class you had to take?

 

[907914]

In every class? No way... I like learning, but there were definitely some classes that I learned only what was necessary to do well. Anatomy and Physiology? I killed that class because it was freaking awesome and I wanted to know everything. I agree that the grade follows if you want to learn, but can you honestly tell me that you were thrilled to learn in every single general education class you had to take?

I can, yah. I literally just love learning, and if I am paying for a class then I am going to take full advantage of learning what is being offered. You are right, the truly engaging stuff that stimulates the mind the most is the science. But even with let’s say “African American History post civil war” or “Women in Religion” or whatever other gen Ed’s I took, I showed up and asked just as many questions. The ‘human condition’ can be just as fascinating to learn as the human body.

 

[Cornfed101]

Some advice for OP:

• Mnemonics are great for amino acids (like the one shared above by @MemeLord). You can also look into memory palaces, which are an awesome way to store information in sequence.
• Using image occlusion on Anki is the best way to learn the pathways IMO
• Biochem is super useful for the MCAT so maintain the stuff you learn in this class

 

[premed20172017]

I actually LOVE Biochem. I had an amazing professor! Memorize your amino acids like there’s no tomorrow. Mnemonics are super helpful. You’ll get a ton of points on the MCAT if you learn them well now, so definitely invest the time and energy. It’ll pay off for this class, the MCAT, and Med school.

There’s a ton of memorization. Just accept that now and you’ll be fine. Practice writing things out - structures, pathways, amino acids, etc.

Use khan academy if you’re confused about anything.

Have fun! (Omg I’m such a nerd)