Biochem exam, where to start?

[BeMD13]

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What do you do to study when there is an overwhelming amount of material? I don't know if I should go back through notes or just start doing random practice questions. They gave us no objectives or guidance and it is over about a third of our entire biochem text. We have no lectures so there aren't any class notes to review and when I read, there is too much and usually I pick the wrong things to focus on. I was thinking about just reading through First Aid and doing questions. I only have tonight and tomorrow afternoon/evening to study

 

[Lannister]

Are your exams written in house or are they NBME?
Don't stress too much, this is a learning experience, the only way you can figure out the best study method is through experience.
And next time, start studying earlier if you can. Procrastination doesn't fly in med school.

 

[BeMD13]

Are your exams written in house or are they NBME?
Don't stress too much, this is a learning experience, the only way you can figure out the best study method is through experience.
And next time, start studying earlier if you can. Procrastination doesn't fly in med school.

We have three exams written by our professors and we take the NBME at the end. We are only two weeks into this module and a lot of us have not figured out a good way to study yet since it is all team based learning in a brand new curriculum. I like watching online videos and lectures but we are assigned so many chapters a night that there is barely time to even get through the reading. A lot of the questions come from footnotes or other tiny details so I can't really avoid using our assigned text. Right now I am going through First Aid because I feel like there is too much to get all the details for class so at least I'll be getting something out of my study time since I'll need to do that eventually anyway. I still have to pass though 🙁

 

[Prometheus123]

What do you do to study when there is an overwhelming amount of material? I don't know if I should go back through notes or just start doing random practice questions. They gave us no objectives or guidance and it is over about a third of our entire biochem text. We have no lectures so there aren't any class notes to review and when I read, there is too much and usually I pick the wrong things to focus on. I was thinking about just reading through First Aid and doing questions. I only have tonight and tomorrow afternoon/evening to study

I have no idea what you're expected to know for your exam. However, I will say for what it's worth that when I took Biochem at the undergraduate level, it really helped me to draw out all the pathways over and over again, then check for mistakes, reflect on the mistakes, and try again. It also helped me to think about eating specific foods and the biochemical pathways that would handle that.

Also, if you're in med school, aren't enzyme deficiencies like G6PD deficiency super high yield? To remember these, it might be helpful to picture a person you know who matches some of the risk factors for the disorder, imagine them having the symptoms, and then ask yourself what's wrong with them. E.g. think of a black woman you know and imagine seeing her jaundiced after she eats some flava beans. What's probably wrong with her?

The more you can make the abstract concrete, visual, and personal, the easier it will be to remember. For specific facts you keep forgetting, Anki and just thinking about it a lot and writing it down a lot might help.

EDIT: For the NBMEs, my wife recommends Becker's videos.

 

[BeMD13]

EDIT: For the NBMEs, my wife recommends Becker's videos.

Oh I have those! I might do that tonight since I'm directionless for this exam but I know it will help for the final. Thanks!

 

[FindMeOnTheLinks]

Do you have a qbank? If yes:
Read thru First Aid biochem
1. Do practice questions from qbank
2. Spend extra time looking up (on Wikipedia, or in your fav biochem textbook) or watching videos on stuff that comes up in the qbank that you didn't know or weren't sure about.
3. Review first aid again, with particular attention to the topics you missed before

The idea is that since you're running out of time, your time is best spent focusing on your weaknesses. The best way to find your weaknesses is to do practice questions. Then, you want to rectify those weaknesses with focused study on those topics.

If you don't have access to a qbank, try to think to yourself about the topics that you would most hate to see come up on the test. The kind where you start reading the question and it instantly pissed you off because you hated/ignored that concept. We all know what those topics are for ourselves haha. Do the same thing with them - study them until you feel more confident.

Good luck

 

[BeMD13]

Do you have a qbank? If yes:
Read thru First Aid biochem
1. Do practice questions from qbank

I don't have one but is there one you know of that you can narrow down to specific subject/topic? I won't be able to understand many integrated questions for boards since this is our very first med school class

 

[Lannister]

We have three exams written by our professors and we take the NBME at the end. We are only two weeks into this module and a lot of us have not figured out a good way to study yet since it is all team based learning in a brand new curriculum. I like watching online videos and lectures but we are assigned so many chapters a night that there is barely time to even get through the reading. A lot of the questions come from footnotes or other tiny details so I can't really avoid using our assigned text. Right now I am going through First Aid because I feel like there is too much to get all the details for class so at least I'll be getting something out of my study time since I'll need to do that eventually anyway. I still have to pass though 🙁

My school uses basically the same format, weekly exams written by the course directors and then an NBME final. It's hard to know how similar your school is to mine, but for my exams, I rely 100% on the materials assigned by my school rather than board prep materials because First Aid is not even close to being in depth enough for our weekly exams. The good news is, if your school is like mine, the weekly exams will be difficult enough that it'll make the NBME exam seem easy by comparison!

E.g. think of a black woman you know and imagine seeing her jaundiced after she eats some flava beans. What's probably wrong with her?

Good suggestion, except picture a black man because G6PD deficiency is X-linked recessive haha. Or a Mediterranean male since they tend to have the more severe variant.

Edit: OP, if you want practice questions, check out the BRS biochem textbook.

 

[Misrepresenting Reality]

What do you do to study when there is an overwhelming amount of material? I don't know if I should go back through notes or just start doing random practice questions. They gave us no objectives or guidance and it is over about a third of our entire biochem text. We have no lectures so there aren't any class notes to review and when I read, there is too much and usually I pick the wrong things to focus on. I was thinking about just reading through First Aid and doing questions. I only have tonight and tomorrow afternoon/evening to study

Pick a starting place, and start studying and keep going and going and going and going

 

[Prometheus123]

My school uses basically the same format, weekly exams written by the course directors and then an NBME final. It's hard to know how similar your school is to mine, but for my exams, I rely 100% on the materials assigned by my school rather than board prep materials because First Aid is not even close to being in depth enough for our weekly exams. The good news is, if your school is like mine, the weekly exams will be difficult enough that it'll make the NBME exam seem easy by comparison!



Good suggestion, except picture a black man because G6PD deficiency is X-linked recessive haha. Or a Mediterranean male since they tend to have the more severe variant.

Edit: OP, if you want practice questions, check out the BRS biochem textbook.

D'oh! Thanks for the correction!

 

[Lannister]

D'oh! Thanks for the correction!

I'm glad all the time I've spent studying anemia over the last week and a half has paid off haha.

 

[libertyyne]

My upper classmen recommended BRS, I am in a traditional curric, but the books have decent questions at the end of the chapters.