Advice on tackling chemistry based biochem?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
B

beastly115

The biochem I'm taking this semester is chemistry based. Anyone have any advice on how to tackle it? What about supplemental books?

Thanks.

Members don't see this ad.
 
I would recommend you read the textbook (ours was Biochemistry by Garrett and Grisham, and Grisham was our teacher for the first semester in the two semester course) before the lectures. Then, after the lectures for a certain chapter make an outline of notes and mechanisms/structures that your professor wants you to know and look over them before the exams. Also, if you want to do really well, start studying for your exams/tests well in advance (maybe 2 weeks), and don't get behind on the material. I loved the subject to death so maybe doing all of this was easier for me but I'm sure you can do it too! Good luck!
 
NoktorNoL said:
I would recommend you read the textbook (ours was Biochemistry by Garrett and Grisham, and Grisham was our teacher for the first semester in the two semester course) before the lectures. Then, after the lectures for a certain chapter make an outline of notes and mechanisms/structures that your professor wants you to know and look over them before the exams. Also, if you want to do really well, start studying for your exams/tests well in advance (maybe 2 weeks), and don't get behind on the material. I loved the subject to death so maybe doing all of this was easier for me but I'm sure you can do it too! Good luck!


that was my book too!!! it was a really nice book...the graphs helped a lot! But I have a stupid question, isn't all biochemistry, chemistry based?

As for my advice...just work the problems at the end of the chapter. They do sell a solutions manual to accompany the book although your school might not sell it (mine didn't, so I just ordered it off of amazon). To learn the mechanisms, start in advance of the test and start writing out the steps. Mechanisms are something you learn by doing them. So keep repeating them. The topics are easy enough to grasp, just make sure you study a couple days before the test and not the night before it. My professor opted against a final, so I never had the ACS standardize biochem final. I just put that in there, to let you know that is an option.

Good luck!
 
Members don't see this ad :)
americanangel said:
that was my book too!!! it was a really nice book...the graphs helped a lot! But I have a stupid question, isn't all biochemistry, chemistry based?

As for my advice...just work the problems at the end of the chapter. They do sell a solutions manual to accompany the book although your school might not sell it (mine didn't, so I just ordered it off of amazon). To learn the mechanisms, start in advance of the test and start writing out the steps. Mechanisms are something you learn by doing them. So keep repeating them. The topics are easy enough to grasp, just make sure you study a couple days before the test and not the night before it. My professor opted against a final, so I never had the ACS standardize biochem final. I just put that in there, to let you know that is an option.

Good luck!




nah..not all Biochemistry is chem based. Garrett (the other author of that book) teaches in our Biology department and teachers a one semester Biochemistry course (cop-out if you ask me!! :) ) that covers no mechanisms and is really all memorization and not much understanding. So I guess that is the difference? (of course this is a very biased post considering I switched into chemistry from biology as my major).
 
NoktorNoL said:
nah..not all Biochemistry is chem based. Garrett (the other author of that book) teaches in our Biology department and teachers a one semester Biochemistry course (cop-out if you ask me!! :) ) that covers no mechanisms and is really all memorization and not much understanding. So I guess that is the difference? (of course this is a very biased post considering I switched into chemistry from biology as my major).


Oh wow I never thought of that...At my school the chemistry part of biochem was intensive especially with amino acids for some reason (I think my prof really loved acid-base reactions with amino acids). It wasn't just rote memorization of the mechanisms, he would ask show the mechanism of how some random inhibitor only known its structure would interact and where in the chain it would change things. Maybe its because our biochem prof was a chem phd. I'm a chem major too and maybe that's why I thought it would be chemistry based.

Thanks for that NoktorNol!
 
our biochem is through the chem department, but its not too chemistry intensive. Only chem you really have to know is basic amino acid, carbohydrate, and lipid chemistry, but in much less detail then we did them in orgo. We never once had to draw up a mechanism, and while we had to know all the intermediates and enzymes in the citric acid cycle, we never had to draw chemical structures for them. Only chemical structures i ever drew were the 20 amino acids. Approach it more like a bio class.
 
I took biochem through the chem dept at my school because it was a requirement for chemistry majors. I felt like we did a ton more on enzyme kinetics and biochem thermodynamics than my what my friend, who took biochem through the bio dept., was doing at another school.
 
Study and pick a good study buddy.
 
Thanks everyone. What about supplemental/review books? Any good ones out there?
 
Top