Biochem

[MDpride]

---

Members do not see this ad.

KAPLAN BIOCHEM is TOO long i guess for BOARDS to use with TAUS plan.

is RR - rapid review BIOCHEM short and better?

 

[McGillGrad]

I used RR biochem and was very happy with it.

 

[badasshairday]

Damn that is a bummer. I got a copy of Kaplan's Biochem for free, was hoping to use it..... but I don't like long books either. How much longer are we talking?

 

[wAyRadikull]

I used RR biochem during M1 and am now using Kaplan Biochem for board prep. I actually like Kaplan biochem over RR because its less dense and I can get through it a bit quicker. Sure it has more pages, but the amount of material covered in each page is a lot less than you think and because of that, it looks like a bigger book. Its also more spaced out as well so you can add your own notes or re-write something so you could understand a specific concept better. Either ways, both books are solid.

 

[Mehrdad1]

I agree that RR Biochem is much thinner, but just compare the mechanisms in RR with the Kaplan book. The RR Biochem has a lot more steps per mechanism, that the Kaplan book doesn't have. This translates to more memorization, and more time being wasted. I mainly used Kaplan, but supplemented with the RR book. Just pick whichever one you're most comfortable with. In addition, don't forget that the Kaplan book also has Medical Genetics tacked onto it as well. So it makes the book look much more sinister than it is. I felt that the genetics section of the Kaplan book was far superior than that of the RR book.

 

[GotTheSikhness]

I still have one week til the exam, but I have used both and prefer the RR.

I used the Kaplan at the beginning of my board prep, but then switched to RR after noticing how many things I saw in NMBEs and on UW that I couldn't find in Kaplan.

I agree that RR has a lot more detail that is not necessarily needed for the boards, but it also has quite a bit of info that seems essential for doing really well.

 

[username456789]

I used RR biochem and was very happy with it.

Did you basically just read it straight through?


[I know this is an old thread, sorry]

Edit: I'm trying to read it right now, and WOW is it a slow read for me. I'm not sure if I just have bad ADD tonight or what, but it's absolutely terrible.

 

[vicinihil]

Is FA and the end of Lippincott's Biochem not enough? I hear that only knowing essential rate limiting enzymes and diseases associated is important. Why are you guys reading the whole text?

 

[thechad]

...

 

[ChiDO]

Kaplan has about 32 hours of biochem video, which is far too much and dense. What i've done thus far is use FA on conjuction with RR. Read something in FA, read the corresponding thing in RR and filled in the missing gaps.

 

[username456789]

Yeah I'm starting to realize that FA might be pretty sufficient for Biochem. I can refer to RR if I need clarification.

But, overall, how did you guys approach this subject when studying for the boards? I've had two really light days class-wise so I've spent some time doing some boards studying, and I've started going through Biochem (I figured I'd try to get through the most boring stuff first at least once so when I go back to it again it will be less painful), but some of the stuff just seems like it's impossible to relearn. It's been more than a year, and some of it just feels a bit overwhelming.

Any tips?

 

[vicinihil]

One of my friends swore by UCV-Biochem. It delineates the important cases of Biochem and presents them to you in a case format. It isn't overladen with pathways but stresses understanding presenting sx and a brief description of the pathophys of the dz. Def a worthy buy imho.

 

[username456789]

Blarg, I feel like I just wasted 4 hours trying to relearn some biochem and it was all for nothing. Definitely my least favorite subject.


Maybe I'll check out the UCV book. Anything to make this less painful.

 

[illixir]

I read RR biochem actually over a break since I felt my biochem was real weak; I agree that it's dense, I took it piecemeal and just did a chapter a day(maybe a bit over an hour, no more than two) and got through most of the book, don't try to understand info from multiple chapters at once; I felt like they had decent separations. The UCV book is also good, it does not overall have as many disease enzyme correlations as RR but for each one it does have it gives a page long vignette with a differential and explanation on back; it goes into all the endocrine ones and alot of the metabolic ones really well that aren't hit as well in other biochem sources. The kaplan biochem videos..... 32 hours is alot but I was considering giving it a once over at some point during my next 3 months of prep; might only do some but definately at 2x.

 

[username456789]

I read RR biochem actually over a break since I felt my biochem was real weak; I agree that it's dense, I took it piecemeal and just did a chapter a day(maybe a bit over an hour, no more than two) and got through most of the book, don't try to understand info from multiple chapters at once; I felt like they had decent separations. The UCV book is also good, it does not overall have as many disease enzyme correlations as RR but for each one it does have it gives a page long vignette with a differential and explanation on back; it goes into all the endocrine ones and alot of the metabolic ones really well that aren't hit as well in other biochem sources. The kaplan biochem videos..... 32 hours is alot but I was considering giving it a once over at some point during my next 3 months of prep; might only do some but definately at 2x.

Yeah I'm going through some carbohydrate metabolism and it's not as terrible as I thought it would be, but still not fun at all.

Did you write stuff down in FA while going through, or just read it straight through without any annotating/highlighting/etc?

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm very much not a fan of biochem, so unless it's a really horrible idea, I'm probably going to stick with FA and the ludicrous number of practice questions I have in my possession to re-teach me what I need to know. I can't imagine trying to plow through a review book for that course again. Ugh^2.

 

[McGillGrad]

Did you basically just read it straight through?


[I know this is an old thread, sorry]

Edit: I'm trying to read it right now, and WOW is it a slow read for me. I'm not sure if I just have bad ADD tonight or what, but it's absolutely terrible.

I followed the the Taus method and read through it one time and annotated what I found was important (and missing in FA). I did very well in the biochem/genetics section of the step.

 

[McGillGrad]

I'm very much not a fan of biochem, so unless it's a really horrible idea, I'm probably going to stick with FA and the ludicrous number of practice questions I have in my possession to re-teach me what I need to know. I can't imagine trying to plow through a review book for that course again. Ugh^2.

The review books offer an overall and comprehensive look at how biochem fits into clinical medicine and other subjects in basic sciences. It is much more than just regurgitating biochem.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Is that an indirect way of saying, "What you're planning is a really horrible idea?"

 

[McGillGrad]

Is that an indirect way of saying, "What you're planning is a really horrible idea?"

I can only speak for my prep. I wasn't a big fan of biochem in basic sciences. Once I read through RR biochem, it all fell into place and was easy to remember.

You know your own learning style, but I didn't have to memorize as much once I understood comprehensive concepts. Those concepts were elucidated by reading through the review book one time.

 

[illixir]

Yeah I'm going through some carbohydrate metabolism and it's not as terrible as I thought it would be, but still not fun at all.

Did you write stuff down in FA while going through, or just read it straight through without any annotating/highlighting/etc?

I didn't have the 2010 FA that I'm using for prep at the time and I haven't really done much annotating into first aid and have yet to decide if I'm even going to since I don't know how useful that will be for me considering the amount of time needed to do it. I plan on looking over the RR book again; I highlighted important areas.

 

[C6789]

I'm also following Taus plan, and as someone who majorly needed to review biochem, I found RR to be extremely dense. It took me two days to get through one chapter, and I didn't remember any of it. I ended up switching to the Kaplan book and have found it to be a very fast read that follows along closely with FA. Seems to be the perfect level of detail for me.

I might go back to RR and check out the margin notes. Are they as helpful as the ones in RR Path?

 

[engineeredout]

Is the genetics in the biochem section of FA good enough for the boards? Just wondering if any of this **** they threw at us during genetics is gonna appear again, its certainly not in FA.

 

[sswang00]

Is the genetics in the biochem section of FA good enough for the boards? Just wondering if any of this **** they threw at us during genetics is gonna appear again, its certainly not in FA.

i second this question
Is the Genetics/Molecular Bio necessary to read?
Also, alot of people reccomend HY Molecular Bio, is this better than Kaplan?

 

[username456789]

So I've been trying to back to RR Biochem (I abandoned it a bit about a month ago) and go through FA with it, but I'm really getting hung up on things it seems. I know I shouldn't be trying to memorize every little detail (this is more of a Taus first pass deal) but I can't help but feel like I should be writing out all these pathways myself. And then there are paragraphs and paragraphs on each reaction. It's just tough to have a good idea of what I really need to know, and I hate this subject with a passion.

Any input/advice? I don't want this to bog me down and keep me from moving on to other areas of FA.

 

[badasshairday]

So I've been trying to back to RR Biochem (I abandoned it a bit about a month ago) and go through FA with it, but I'm really getting hung up on things it seems. I know I shouldn't be trying to memorize every little detail (this is more of a Taus first pass deal) but I can't help but feel like I should be writing out all these pathways myself. And then there are paragraphs and paragraphs on each reaction. It's just tough to have a good idea of what I really need to know, and I hate this subject with a passion.

Any input/advice? I don't want this to bog me down and keep me from moving on to other areas of FA.

Just read through RR biochem. Understand concepts. Then memorize FA. I have Kaplan biochem and Lippencott but am just going to use them as reference to FA. Remember the major thing on boards is to know rate limiting enzymes, enzymes that are associated with pathology, and pathway dysfunctions (ie. excess alcohol causing increase NADH which results in more triglyceride synthesis, etc).

 

[McGillGrad]

Just read through RR biochem. Understand concepts. Then memorize FA. I have Kaplan biochem and Lippencott but am just going to use them as reference to FA. Remember the major thing on boards is to know rate limiting enzymes, enzymes that are associated with pathology, and pathway dysfunctions (ie. excess alcohol causing increase NADH which results in more triglyceride synthesis, etc).

👍 100%

 

[username456789]

Thanks for the input, I think that's what I'll try to do.

Out of curiosity, how long did it take to read through RR Biochem (if anyone happened to)?

 

[turkeyjerky]

i did it last week. went through rr biochem once and fa biochem twice--it took me about 12 hours over two days

 

[illixir]

The first time it probably took me a good hour or two just to read and process each chapter of RR. I really recommend doing their 350 online questions after you read the book. It takes like 8-10 hours but it's worth it to make sure you don't gloss over when you read because it's particularly easy to do that with this book.

 

[Blondnuttyboy]

My frustration: I understand biochem, I get the clinical picture, I get the assoc. findings, etc

HOWEVER - all q-bank seems to care about are enzyme def. and accum. substances.

So screw understanding --> here's to memorizing 👍

 

[kryptik]

My frustration: I understand biochem, I get the clinical picture, I get the assoc. findings, etc

HOWEVER - all q-bank seems to care about are enzyme def. and accum. substances.

So screw understanding --> here's to memorizing 👍

cheers

 

[username456789]

Here's a super newbie-ish question, but I just realized I have no idea what specific book the "Kaplan Biochem" book is. Is it an actual published text? Or a note set? Or what?

I was considering taking a look at it if possible to see if it's something i'd want to try to run through once.

 

[mq123]

Here's a super newbie-ish question, but I just realized I have no idea what specific book the "Kaplan Biochem" book is. Is it an actual published text? Or a note set? Or what?

I was considering taking a look at it if possible to see if it's something i'd want to try to run through once.

I'm pretty sure it's not a published text. I have a friend's old Kaplan lecture note set, and I'm just using the Biochem book. It's annotated lightly with live lecture material, so it's great.

You might want to ask around school -- a lot of people have them. Mine is from 2005 -- not a lot changed in Biochem, and whatever did should be in FA...🙂

 

[username456789]

Thanks for the info guys.

In other news, for those of you who used RR Biochem, did anyone have trouble loading the quiz questions? I click on "click here to launch tests" on studentconsult's website, and it opens a window, and just says "Loading" forever. It works when I do RR Path, but it just gives me this stalled out window for Biochem.

 

[turkeyjerky]

Thanks for the info guys.

In other news, for those of you who used RR Biochem, did anyone have trouble loading the quiz questions? I click on "click here to launch tests" on studentconsult's website, and it opens a window, and just says "Loading" forever. It works when I do RR Path, but it just gives me this stalled out window for Biochem.

that happened to me the first time i tried using it. you just have to close the window and reload it. fyi, the online questions suck--they're mostly direct recall questions ("what is the rate limiting enzyme of glycolysis?") and they are repeated too.

 

[illixir]

that happened to me the first time i tried using it. you just have to close the window and reload it. fyi, the online questions suck--they're mostly direct recall questions ("what is the rate limiting enzyme of glycolysis?") and they are repeated too.

If I recall, over half of them are written in vignette form. There are like 15 questions repeated out of the 350. The questions are pretty picky with the disorders but I've seen questions exactly like them and even shorter and more detailed on NBMEs I've taken. It's also much much quicker to get through b/c of that since just biochem though prob 30-40 min for each block.

 

[turkeyjerky]

If I recall, over half of them are written in vignette form. There are like 15 questions repeated out of the 350. The questions are pretty picky with the disorders but I've seen questions exactly like them and even shorter and more detailed on NBMEs I've taken. It's also much much quicker to get through b/c of that since just biochem though prob 30-40 min for each block.

yeah, but all the vignette ones are duplicates of questions in the back of the book (which are excellent imo). i was just disappointed to log on expecting another 250 good questions and get, "which of the following reactions requires biotin as a cofactor?" But, yeah, I mean if those types of questions are prevalent on nbmes then I stand corrected.

 

[illixir]

yeah, but all the vignette ones are duplicates of questions in the back of the book (which are excellent imo). i was just disappointed to log on expecting another 250 good questions and get, "which of the following reactions requires biotin as a cofactor?" But, yeah, I mean if those types of questions are prevalent on nbmes then I stand corrected.

Ahhh, I haven't done the ones in the back of the book, I was saving them so I guess I saw all those excellent questions online. Disappointing sort of lol but if they're the same thing, that's one less thing I have to go through.

 

[dnslay]

I got a lot more out of RR when I had memorized the lists of weird storage diseases and whatnot out of FA. Then I did a few Uworld questions after the memorzing, which helped me realize my deficiencies. After that I was able to read through the mind-numbing pathways with purpose and notice the important stuff. Saw my Uworlds go up consistently in Bioch after that

 

[DrVanNostran]

I need some input from those of you who used RR or Kaplan.

I need to refresh my biochem on a conceptual basis. What I need to memorize will come from FA. Which is a better approach, RR Biochem or Watch the Kaplan DVDs and flip through Kaplan as I watch the videos?

Its about 23 hours of Video vs. 20 hours of reading....? I am just wondering what will give the best overview of biochem. I don't plan on memorizing either book.

 

[kryptik]

i've been using kaplan and i think its good for conceptual connections. you really dont need the videos but if you have time for it then of course watch them. i have no experience with RR biochem.

 

[illixir]

I need some input from those of you who used RR or Kaplan.

I need to refresh my biochem on a conceptual basis. What I need to memorize will come from FA. Which is a better approach, RR Biochem or Watch the Kaplan DVDs and flip through Kaplan as I watch the videos?

Its about 23 hours of Video vs. 20 hours of reading....? I am just wondering what will give the best overview of biochem. I don't plan on memorizing either book.

I did kaplan videos over 2-3 days making my own notes( I didnt have their book). I also read RR biochem a while back and flipped through it a little bit then and will again. If I could have only done one then I would say kaplan esp if you want conceptual, the videos are pretty decent at explaining things but I think RR has more high yield stuff and board specific details, that book is smaller than biochem too so I'd say you could get the benefit of both if you followed along with that.