Harder Class?

[tmac01]

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What is everyone's opinion on the level of difficulty of Biochemistry and General Genetics.

They both sound pretty hardcore, so I was thinking about dropping one of the 2. Which one do you guys consider to be the harder?

 

[grincheola]

In my opinion biochemistry is harder then genetics. It has more challenging material. What other classes are you taking with these two?

 

[rx27563]

i took genetics and i didnt think it was too hard... i had a notoriously hard teacher also but the material is pretty straight forward..i plan on taking biochem next fall - i cant imagine having both in the same semester i think that would be too much workload along with other classes

 

[lvp0021]

What is everyone's opinion on the level of difficulty of Biochemistry and General Genetics.

They both sound pretty hardcore, so I was thinking about dropping one of the 2. Which one do you guys consider to be the harder?

To me biochemistry is way much harder then general genetics. If it's molecular genetics than it's about the same with biochem. But general genetics is just an overview of genetics where you just skim through mitosis/meiosis, DNA/RNA gene expression and control, gene mapping, Mendel crossing + its problems, a tiny bit of population genetics & developmental, a bit of very very simple cancer. But everything is basically general and introductory, there is no thing that hardcore and complicated in mechanism at all. That's why it's called general ! Just like pre-cal compared to cal 2
Biochem is the study of chemistry and chemical mechanism behind biological processes and functions. If you take elementary biochem, it'd not be a problem. But if you take the biochem 1 & 2 for 2 long semesters in a row than it's tough. For me it's tough as you have to pull everything together to understand how chemistry makes biological system functioning. In genetics you will have to memorize that DNA has only T and RNA has U instead of T. In biochem, you will need to use chemistry to answer WHY DNA has T and RNA has U (remember that deaminated C is a U). In biochem, you will need to figure out how the chemical structure of sugar in DNA make it more stable than RNA...In biochem, there are also a lot of maths (buffer/titration problems or calculus used to explain Michealis-Menton enzyme kinetics); these to me are harder than the crossing math in genetics. Also in biochem, most people find it hard for the first time when they have to memorize all the amino acids and their abbreviations + pKa's. Biochem also requires a lot of organic chem knowledge so you can understand reactions happening during processes. It also requires you to know about cell biol. I had a good time taking biochem though I was really stressed out and suffocated with a lot of works
You should look at the books of both classes first and see which one you can handle. If I were you and had to drop one of them, I'd no doubt drop biochem. Good luck!

 

[All4MyDaughter]

The real question is which one interests you more?

Degree of difficulty, comparative difficulty... that's going to vary from institution to institution.

I will say that I wish I had studied biochem as an undergraduate. It would have helped with pharmacy school biochem a lot, I think.

 

[fsupharmguy]

I found genetics pretty easy, and biochem quite challenging. It all depends on who you get for a professor. I thought both were equally interesting. My personal experience was that my biochem professor was a NAZI. The other section of biochem had a cakewalk experience. The professor has a lot to do with the overall experience.

 

[tmac01]

There's no doubt I will need biochem in pharm school and I also need it for my degree, so I will be taking it no matter what.

However i "thought" I had a dilemma because I want to keep my GPA as high as possible before I apply to pharm school this summer.

I don't want to ruin my chances of making a poor grade in 2 classes because I need to devote so much more effort to stay competitive in one.

I'm also taking 4 other classes besides these 2....

I Kind of just added biochem to my schedule over the break as a just in case scenario because it fit in, and I wasn't sure about genetics.

 

[ADN1226]

You def wanna keep your gpa as high as possible so I would take genetics instead of biochem... or you can do both and take 2other classes instead of 3. I did that and did well in both biochem and genetics. However, biochem was a lot harder - i had to devote more time to biochem than genetics. Oh, i just remembered. My major is biochem so our biochem was much harder compared to the intro to biochem that pharmacy majors take. still I would rather be safe and keep the gpa high.

 

[rx27563]

i took molecular genetics BTW....

 

[Hosstheboss]

I don't know man. If it is just a genetics class without a lab then I'd say genetics is a better bet. However, if you have a lab with genetics it can be a real pain in the rear. I still remember trying to keep those stupid fruit flies alive and all the time I had to take outside of class to do the experiments. Conceptually genetics is much easier then biochemistry but if you have to deal with crossing live animals it can be very very time consuming. Also I think Biochem is more useful in the long run but then again I was a biochemistry major. Haha. Good luck to ya.