Biochem advice

[toothdds]

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hello everyone,

I am going to be talking biochem this fall and I was wondering if anyone would suggest any supplement tal books they thought helped them get through the course, a good amino acid memorizing chart, or just any other words of advice. Also did you pre study the amino acids before starting the course?

Thank you so much!!

 

[artist2022]

I didn't use any supplemental materials besides my textbook...but personally I found biochem super enjoyable because it was cool seeing a lot of the things you were exposed to in the past (like domains, amino acids, pKa, chirality) all come together. As for amino acids, I did not study them before, instead I made a super pretty/colorful page with the R groups highlighted and all and with the 3-letter and 1-letter abbreviations for all and I just came up with silly mnemonics for the +, -, nonpolar, and polar amino acids. I did get an A more enjoyable than ochem for sure. Hope this helps! 🙂

 

[fit2]

I liked it less than ochem and studied way less than ochem. It was a lot more memorization than like reaction/problem solving; however the application questions in biochem can be quite tough. Keep an open mind don't just blindly memorize. Understand patterns (i guess this can apply to ochem but it's more than just linking reactions) and think about cycles as a whole but also focus on the important details. Hopefully your prof will do a few problems in class on top of just teaching to prep you for exams!
Biochem is fun but no way it beats ochem haha IMO. It's applicable to processes in body (and plants) which is interesting

 

[I-hate-alginate]

The ppts we went over in class were more than enough. Just make sure you don't hit the delete button once you take an exam because the material builds up on itself. My advice to you is to pay attention in class and go over the ppts or handouts your teacher passes out. Don't overthink this subject, it's not bad at all.

 

[toothdds]

I didn't use any supplemental materials besides my textbook...but personally I found biochem super enjoyable because it was cool seeing a lot of the things you were exposed to in the past (like domains, amino acids, pKa, chirality) all come together. As for amino acids, I did not study them before, instead I made a super pretty/colorful page with the R groups highlighted and all and with the 3-letter and 1-letter abbreviations for all and I just came up with silly mnemonics for the +, -, nonpolar, and polar amino acids. I did get an A more enjoyable than ochem for sure. Hope this helps! 🙂

Ok great, thank you so much for your advice, it is incredibly helpful🙂 I am glad to hear you really enjoyed biochem and did really well. And thanks for your amino acid suggestion, I am totally going to do that as well. Thanks again🙂

 

[toothdds]

I liked it less than ochem and studied way less than ochem. It was a lot more memorization than like reaction/problem solving; however the application questions in biochem can be quite tough. Keep an open mind don't just blindly memorize. Understand patterns (i guess this can apply to ochem but it's more than just linking reactions) and think about cycles as a whole but also focus on the important details. Hopefully your prof will do a few problems in class on top of just teaching to prep you for exams!
Biochem is fun but no way it beats ochem haha IMO. It's applicable to processes in body (and plants) which is interesting

I personally loved ochem too! It was great! Thank you so much for your advice especially about not blindly memorizing, thats good to know🙂

 

[caffeine jitters]

The course, like any, is highly dependent on your professor's teaching style. Some will just throw power-points at you, and others will simply lecture at you. Mine was the latter. Also, he loved application questions... which made the exams very tough. The average on our first exam was a 45% lol.

My advice would be to look at AKlectures. He helps tremendously for this course in particular.

 

[toothdds]

The ppts we went over in class were more than enough. Just make sure you don't hit the delete button once you take an exam because the material builds up on itself. My advice to you is to pay attention in class and go over the ppts or handouts your teacher passes out. Don't overthink this subject, it's not bad at all.

Thank you for your advice! Good to know that your ppts in class were enough. And thank you for letting me know that the material builds upon itself. Great to hear the subject isn't too bad, I am looking forward to starting it🙂 Thanks again!

 

[toothdds]

The course, like any, is highly dependent on your professor's teaching style. Some will just throw power-points at you, and others will simply lecture at you. Mine was the latter. Also, he loved application questions... which made the exams very tough. The average on our first exam was a 45% lol.

My advice would be to look at AKlectures. He helps tremendously for this course in particular.

Wow! Ok great, thank you for the advice!

 

[averageasian]

chadsvideos.com (same as dat chad) has really awesome biochem videos. I used them last fall and it really helped me do well in the course.

 

[toothdds]

chadsvideos.com (same as dat chad) has really awesome biochem videos. I used them last fall and it really helped me do well in the course.

Ok awesome! Thank you so much for the advice🙂

 

[digzthis]

moofs university too on youtube will help

 

[Spliced]

This site greatly helped me: Amino Acids by Picture Quiz

 

[Kingfish23]

The course, like any, is highly dependent on your professor's teaching style. Some will just throw power-points at you, and others will simply lecture at you. Mine was the latter. Also, he loved application questions... which made the exams very tough. The average on our first exam was a 45% lol.

My advice would be to look at AKlectures. He helps tremendously for this course in particular.

I second AK Lectures. He's very clear and detailed. He also draws everything out on his whiteboard and has a bunch of great videos for other sciences too (such as genetics). YouTube is your friend!

 

[Mterres]

AK lectures on youtube is the only reason I got an A in Biochem. Check it out!

 

[toothdds]

AK lectures on youtube is the only reason I got an A in Biochem. Check it out!

Great, thank you so much!

 

[MendiT13]

I watched Dr. Kevin Ahern's BioChem Lectures on YouTube....Helped me so much!

 

[toothdds]

I watched Dr. Kevin Ahern's BioChem Lectures on YouTube....Helped me so much!

Awesome! Thank you so much for the advice!

 

[powerhouseofthecell]

To memorize the amino acids i used these guys, it's pretty silly but it really sticks. I was able to memorize all 20 of them within an hour by watching this video. It has a part 2 as well, just look it up!