Hello, Class of 2012:
Many of you have emailed wondering about what you could be doing to fill the time between now and Orientation in August.
Dr. Horst, one of my favorite interviewers and Basic Science Professors, has a suggestion which I've included below.
The main book that we will use in Biochemistry this Fall (08) is
Marks Basic Medical Biochemistry 3rd Ed., by Lieberman, M and Marks, A.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; (April 1, 2008)
· ISBN-10: 078177022X
It is available from Amazon (and probably other sites); please do NOT purchase the 2nd edition by mistake.
Pages of reading :
Start with Chapters 1-11;
- Read the Introduction first, then the summary at the end of the chapter; THEN start reading the text and explain each figure in your own words at the end.
- If time allows, go on to Chapters 19-23, with the same strategy. When in doubt, work the problems at the end of the chapters.
I can be reached at this email; leave questions as they occur to you and I will try to get back within 24 hours
[email protected]
If you get started on this, I can promise it will make your Fall a LOT less stressful.
Dr Horst
Have fun!
This is the e-mail we received. I guess there are some people out there chomping at the bit to get started. Not me. But I don't think this is required, just suggested if you find yourself with nothing to do this summer.
It's funny you should mention Dr. Horst. Just this past Friday, two of my classmates and myself were commenting on how much we like and respect Dr. Horst. He's an icon at the school and has been around as long as the school has. He has a rare quality among professors: he's as good a teacher as he is a scientist. For those of you starting at Mercer this fall, you'll soon realize that there isn't a better or more qualified basic science faculty member to kick off your medical education than Dr. Horst.
Your first phase (Phase A, or "The Cellular Basis of Medicine") will focus heavily on biochemistry and cell biology. However, remember that the Mercer model is integrated. Thus, you will also juggle a fair amount of microbiology, pathology, histology, pharmacology, and maybe another discipline or two at the same time. A big mistake a lot of 1st years make is focusing too much on the most heavily represented discpline. At test time, the others come back to haunt them. Remember, passing the MDE isn't the only thing you have to do: you have to maintain a passing average in each individual discipline as well...otherwise, kiss you summers goodbye, you'll be remediating.
I would recommend that you not do ANYTHING this summer except enjoy yourself. This is especially true if you've had an undergrad course in biochemistry. However, if you're just super worried, Marks is a great place to start. The book was co-authored by one of Mercer's former Biochemistry professors (Coleen Smith) and is almost tailored to our curriculum. I think its probably the most student-friendly text book I've ever read. You'll come to appreciate it.
Please note: there are some differences in the biochemistry you learned in undergrad, and the biochem you'll be expected to master in med school. First of all, we had biochem majors coming from UGA who didn't do so hot on the biochem portion of the Phase A MDE. Why? They know biochem the way a biochemist would teach it...not from the perspective of a medical student. Medicine will focus MUCH more on the regulation of pathways and less on the intricate details of which carbons go where, etc. For example, most people at one time or another probably had to learn to draw out all of the steps of glycolysis including the carbon skeletons, enzymes, etc. You'll need to be able to do that again for med school, but what is more important is regulation of glycolysis (i.e. the rate limiting step depends on the enzyme PFK-1 because this is the first committed step of the glycolytic pathway). You'll need to know the allosteric activators and inhibitors of the enzymes, and how the different pathways are active/inactive under certain physiological conditions (fasting vs fed state, starvation, excercise, etc).
As you can start to see, the focus is slightly different. So, if you do read Marks focus on these things. If you've never had biochemistry, I'd focus on the bare essentials: know the name/structure of the 20 common amino acids, know which are essential, understand the basic structure of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.
Sorry for the expose...just trying to help. By the way, the biggest waste of money IMHO is the summer "crash course" Mercer offers. It is not even taught by med school faculty...they hire undergrad profs who are looking to make some extra money for the summer. Don't let yourself get worked up over it. Here are the facts:
1.You're not the first person to start at Mercer with only the basic pre-med requirements
2. You're not the first person to start at Mercer with a non-science degree
3. You're not the first person to start at Mercer as a non-traditional student who hasn't had a science class in several years
4. You're not the first person to start at Mercer after being accepted off the wait-list
5. You're not the first person to start at Mercer with a really low MCAT and/or GPA
I don't care what your unique circumstances are, you can succeed. What you do this summer will not determine whether or not you'll be successful. What you do on your first day of school WILL set the tone for the phase and thus the year. Success in med school is a function of time invested in studying. The people who failed out in my class didn't fail because they weren't smart enough. In most cases, it was probably an issue of time. Because of the integrated model of Mercer's curriculum no one will be at an advantage regardless of their undergrad major, so do not let people intimidate you and DON'T INTIMDATE ANYONE ELSE! You can answer every biochem/cell bio question on the MDE correctly and still fail miserably.
Good luck and please PM with any specific questions because most people don't want me to post things this long!
By the way my stats are cumulative GPA 3.95, science GPA 3.97, 28O MCAT, so there is hope for people below 30. Good luck to everyone else.
