anyone take microbiology??

[UCDavisdude]

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anyone take micro??wondering how tough it is relitive to pre med courses and hows the subject material? interesting or not?

 

[jbone]

What level? Lower level...no prob. I took 2 1/2 years of upper div. because of my major (Clinical Laboratory Science) Those classes sucked...interesting but very difficult. (lots of memorization 👎 ) It will help you in med school so go for it. Good luck. 👍

 

[UCDavisdude]

What level? Lower level...no prob. I took 2 1/2 years of upper div. because of my major (Clinical Laboratory Science) Those classes sucked...interesting but very difficult. (lots of memorization 👎 ) It will help you in med school so go for it. Good luck. 👍

im taking upper division micro. lots of memorization!!!oh no. im hoping its not as much as biochem.i hated memorizing so many pathways.

 

[Boxsterluv]

I majored in Micro because I found it very interesting. It's mostly about bacteria, viruses, etc. The previous posters are right, there is quite a bit of memorization, but it's very helpful and applicable to med stuff, esp virology and medical micro where you learn about the causes of disease and stuff...

 

[jbone]

im taking upper division micro. lots of memorization!!!oh no. im hoping its not as much as biochem.i hated memorizing so many pathways.

Just a lot of little reactions ie: indole pos/neg, citrate pos/neg, ornithine, motility, smells, growth etc etc etc. Not extremely hard, but when you have to memorize all these specifics for 100+ organisms, it sucks. But like I stated earlier, I like the stuff. I do it everynight here at work (children's hospital as a MT). 😀

 

[veridisquo]

I took it after taking two semesters of general biology, and encountered absolutely no difficulty. In fact, I think my A was actually easier to make than it was in general biology, because I knew what to expect. At my school, it was a 3000 level course (junior level). I thought microbiology is generally considered to be the transitionary course between general biology and upper level courses like immunology and virology.

There was some review as far as topics like metabolism, DNA structure, replication, etc. but it went into much more detail. We also went over the basics of virology, immunology, etc. I didn't find any of the material inherently difficult, especially the stuff more unique to micro like pathogenesis, bacterial diseases, etc.

In retrospect, I consider it to be interesting. My biggest disappointment was the fact that we spent hardly any time on human bacterial diseases (the bacteria associated with given diseases, signs & symptoms, etc.). The graphic pictures in the textbook tied me over, though. 😀

ETA - the lab was a killer, however. I struggled in lab.

 

[UCDavisdude]

I took it after taking two semesters of general biology, and encountered absolutely no difficulty. In fact, I think my A was actually easier to make than it was in general biology, because I knew what to expect. At my school, it was a 3000 level course (junior level). I thought microbiology is generally considered to be the transitionary course between general biology and upper level courses like immunology and virology.

There was some review as far as topics like metabolism, DNA structure, replication, etc. but it went into much more detail. We also went over the basics of virology, immunology, etc. I didn't find any of the material inherently difficult, especially the stuff more unique to micro like pathogenesis, bacterial diseases, etc.

In retrospect, I consider it to be interesting. My biggest disappointment was the fact that we spent hardly any time on human bacterial diseases (the bacteria associated with given diseases, signs & symptoms, etc.). The graphic pictures in the textbook tied me over, though. 😀

ETA - the lab was a killer, however. I struggled in lab.

so lab was pretty bad huh, im not taking lab this quarter, taking the lab next quarter because im studying for mcats rite now. micro is the only science class im taking this quarter. was there lots of genetics in the course? ive taken genetics and actually found it to be the absolute most difficult science ive taken. and ive taken alot, even have taken pchem.

 

[jbone]

so lab was pretty bad huh, im not taking lab this quarter, taking the lab next quarter because im studying for mcats rite now. micro is the only science class im taking this quarter. was there lots of genetics in the course? ive taken genetics and actually found it to be the absolute most difficult science ive taken. and ive taken alot, even have taken pchem.

I didn't have any genetics...good thing because I hate it too! 👍
Well I did have a little, virology. Nothing too deep though.)

 

[Nikki2002]

boo gram stains!

 

[Med-tallica]

would majoring in microbiology be considered harder than straight bio?

 

[UCDavisdude]

would majoring in microbiology be considered harder than straight bio?

well, i know at my school, the micro degree requires all the bio classes that bio majors reg, but bio majors then have to take ecology and etc and npb, whereas micro majors have to take micro classes and pathology, immunolgy

 

[Telemachus]

I took micro and pathogenic micro. VERY useful later, but not really important for getting into med school (i.e. MCAT or imprerssing ad-coms). But you'll cover the material later regardless, so it is just a matter of making things a tiny bit easier later or not.

 

[veridisquo]

so lab was pretty bad huh, im not taking lab this quarter, taking the lab next quarter because im studying for mcats rite now. micro is the only science class im taking this quarter. was there lots of genetics in the course? ive taken genetics and actually found it to be the absolute most difficult science ive taken. and ive taken alot, even have taken pchem.

The book I used (Microbiology by Prescott, Harley, and Klein, 6th edition)was extremely detailed. According to my professor, you could essentially teach an introductory immunology course from the book. Granted, we had some genetics (although I have yet to take genetics, other students mentioned some overlap between the two courses), but I considered it to be basic. We went over DNA replication, mutations and repair, transcription, translation, protein synthesis, all of that fun stuff. We also covered microbial metabolism, ATP related processes, substrate level phosphorylation, glycolysis, TCA cycle, Calvin cycle, enzyme regulation and similar biochemical pathways, etc.

You're probably at the very least familiar with some of the concepts, given the fact that you've already taken genetics.

 

[UCDavisdude]

The book I used (Microbiology by Prescott, Harley, and Klein, 6th edition)was extremely detailed. According to my professor, you could essentially teach an introductory immunology course from the book. Granted, we had some genetics (although I have yet to take genetics, other students mentioned some overlap between the two courses), but I considered it to be basic. We went over DNA replication, mutations and repair, transcription, translation, protein synthesis, all of that fun stuff. We also covered microbial metabolism, ATP related processes, substrate level phosphorylation, glycolysis, TCA cycle, Calvin cycle, enzyme regulation and similar biochemical pathways, etc.

You're probably at the very least familiar with some of the concepts, given the fact that you've already taken genetics.

we covered lots of that in our bis 103 course (biochem 2)

 

[big_smiles]

I thought it was easy, but I took a 300-level course, and not a more challenging one - -like microbial pathogenesis or anything. But useful material, quick labs, and you learn a lot about the causative agents of disease - -useful for med school and MCAT, I'd imagine. If there's room in the schedule, go for it

 

[JimmyG]

Took Micro. Was interesting. Very easy. Heard it was good for the MCAT

 

[Joseph]

I love gram stains! I work as a lab assistant for micro labs. I get to make up all of the broths and agars and plates. Then I get to autoclave all of it and clean everything up after the lab is over. I also set up the lab equipment most of the time.

I would definitely recommend micro. It will help with the mcat and it will help in med school. Micro is a lot of work, and time consuming, and the class can be boring at times. But you will learn a lot. There is some genetics mixed in, and some organic chemistry also. I think that my favorite part of micro was learning how drugs work against bacteria and viruses and fungi without harming the person taking the drugs, based on differences in structure and metabolism. 👍

 

[72531]

I am a microbiology major and I just first took general microbiology last semester. I really loved the class and the lab was even better. Much better than general bio. Easy too.

 

[PurpleHaze]

I took it. Didn't think it was too bad. Class was really interesting, but there was a lot of memorization. If you like things like viruses, bacteria, etc., you'll like this class.

 

[potato51]

I thought the lab portion of it was a cinch if you put in the work.

The lecture course was about average in terms of difficulty compared to other bio courses. It didn't really help much that my instructor was a pain in the @ss. But the course is definitely doable.