BIOCHEM in Undergrad Good Prep for BioChem in Dental school?

[dantheman2007]

I am registered to take Physics II this spring and plan on making some money this semester. is it worth taking biochem in undergrad to prepare for biochem in dental school?
thanks for ur input,
dan

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[shamrock2006]

It definitely doesnt hurt to have some understanding of biochem concepts before dschool starts. However, your best bet is to pray to the heavens that you get a halfway decent biochem instructor in school. We had kids w/ Masters degrees in biochem who could barely pass the class.

 

[pine88]

Do it! My undergrad class has been pretty different from our d school class, but I'm so grateful for any prior knowledge I have because our class sucks! The teachers mean well but are so incredibly boring it is impossible to pay attention to them. And lame biochem classes seems to be a common gripe on the forum.

 

[Wayne Coronado]

I am registered to take Physics II this spring and plan on making some money this semester. is it worth taking biochem in undergrad to prepare for biochem in dental school?
thanks for ur input,
dan

It sucks that a lot of schools require Physics II for admission although my alma mater (Kentucky) only required one semester. Be ready to flush that stuff once you get done as I found absolutely no application for electricity, light waves, and electromagnetics in d-school. Taking biochem could be beneficial, but I think that depends on where you end up. Shamrock's course seems to be on the more difficult end (or poorly taught). The one I took in d-school seemed to be easier than undergrad, but our situation in d-school was different. We had old unrestricted exams with lots of repeats. I could hold my own regardless (partly because of my undergrad experience), but the course definitely did little to separate those who knew the material from those who just memorized the old exams.

 

[Ital91]

I thought pretty much all schools required a couple classes in biochem as prerequisites for admission. Is this not the case?

 

[shamrock2006]

unless things have changed a ton in the past year...most schools usually have biochem as recommended class..w/ only a few actually requiring it.

 

[Frederico Albin]

Biochem is a requirement to many dental school, so there are alot of students taking it either way.

 

[dantheman2007]

Thanks for your replies!
of the 14 schools I applied to, only two require it.
The reason I am contemplating taking Biochem is bec. my science GPA is like a 3.3 now, down from a 3.4 (I took a beating this semester)
I want to show the dental schools that I can tackle the science courses that will come my way in d-school.

 

[Regmata]

When you are slammed with gross, histo, physio, whatever...the last thing you want to worry about is glycolysis. Learn it now and it will be a review for you in d school, at least in part. At my school, biochem is a two year course with the first semester being a review of the undergrad course and not as in depth. It was nice not having to pay much attention to it as I made the transition into d school.

 

[pine88]

When you are slammed with gross, histo, physio, whatever...the last thing you want to worry about is glycolysis. Learn it now and it will be a review for you in d school, at least in part. At my school, biochem is a two year course with the first semester being a review of the undergrad course and not as in depth. It was nice not having to pay much attention to it as I made the transition into d school.

Wha! 2 years? I'm glad it's not like that here. When do you take your first round of boards? There isn't any biochem on the 2nd part of boards, is there?

 

[Wayne Coronado]

Wha! 2 years? I'm glad it's not like that here. When do you take your first round of boards? There isn't any biochem on the 2nd part of boards, is there?

Part I only thankfully...

 

[pine88]

thank god. The sooner that subject is behind me the better. We just started physiology and it's already got more biochem and physics in it than I was hoping to see

 

[billyjones]

Undergrad Biochem did nothing for my D-school biochem.

 

[Wayne Coronado]

Undergrad Biochem did nothing for my D-school biochem.

Just out of curiosity, how did it not help? The one I took in undergrad was a lot more intense which, in turn, made d-school biochem easier (especially with m/c). Was it poorly taught or did it not go into enough depth in undergrad?