Help with Biochem

[deleted600623]

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Hi

I'm scheduled to take biochem 1 this fall and am seeking some advice on study techniques to be successful. Is it like O-chem where practice is crucial or is it mostly memorization?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Lannister]

It probably varies by school but for me biochem was like maybe 70% biology, 30% chemistry (and that was the chemistry major course, I hear the pre-med course is more like 90-10). It was definitely more memorization than like understanding mechanisms. I only had to know maybe like three mechanisms throughout the entire semester. And I sucked at ochem and did very well in biochem.

 

[deleted600623]

That's good to hear. Thanks for the help!

 

[On Eagle's Wings]

A lot of memorization. You definitely have to understand both the big picture and all of the details. Biochemistry has lots of pathways and you need to know how they all fit in with each other and their purpose for the body in general, while also knowing all of the details for each individual pathway (enzymes, substrates, activators, inhibitors, etc).

 

[Lannister]

I didn't learn a single "pathway" in my biochem class It was all much more detail-oriented for us, like learning how very specific enzymes work. Like one of the mechanisms we needed to know was how in serine proteases, an aspartate residue stabilizes a histidine residue so that it can deprotonate a serine residue, and the serine then acts as a nucleophile and attacks the substrate. So it really does vary depending on where you take it.

 

[Bermie]

My experience with Biochem: 1st semester was basically a biology class with some O-chem and detailed enzyme stuff like

serine proteases, an aspartate residue stabilizes a histidine residue so that it can deprotonate a serine residue

2nd semester was like previously stated, dominated by pathways in a similar way O-chem was dominated by mechanisms. The nice thing about pathways is they are much more straight forward for the most part: X turns on Y which activates W decreasing the concentration of Z so B can inhibit A. It is really important to map everything out and understand how the pathways work together and how they are regulated. Flashcards won't help much in my opinion, my strategy was to read problems and map the pathways out on the whiteboard, this helped me learn the best.

 

[deleted600623]

I will only be taking Biochem 1 because that is all that is required for the MCAT and I'm not a biology or chemistry major. I like the idea of it being mostly memorization however, I felt that doing the ochem mechanisms over and over really helped me learn them well. (Took ochem 2 last spring and can still do addition to benzene mechanisms). I'll ask other pre meds that have taken it and see what is more prominent.

 

[NeuResurgens]

It's a synthesis of Ochem and Biology. When you do glycolysis, kreb's cycle, gluconeogenesis, etc. there will be some mechanisms and you'll need to practice those. It's essentially the application class for ochem concepts, and it requires a lot more memorization than ochem did. I personally really enjoy it.

 

[taffer]

Get a whiteboard. Draw it until you know it.

 

[Fedekz]

I'd watch the Moof university biochemistry videos on YouTube. Hands down best videos I've ever seen, better than Khan. I learned all my biochem from him. It's detailed enough for most courses scope, except for transcription and translation... The videos lacked there, BUT everything else is great.

I got an A in biochem, but had I watched the videos before hand I would have breezed through it

 

[moemoekyun]

It really depends on how your professor teaches it. If you're bored, you can start memorizing structures of amino acids, simple sugars, lipids, and nucleotides. 4+ professors at my school made sure students learn them. My class had little math practice, so stuff like enzyme inhibition graphs were challenging, but the other professor at my school loved math and made it more of a math class (you drink antifreeze by accident, how much whisky do you drink to save yourself was one question I remember). There were some mechanisms I remember learning like RNAse A, which took practice. I'm not sure about your school, but mine taught biochem 1 as the structure and properties of proteins, carbs, fats, and DNA,with a few mechanisms, where biochem 2 actually taught metabolism and all those pathways.
I thought biochem was easier than orgo imo.

EDIT: I also remember the huge emphasis on hw, ungraded. Practicing concepts, drawing, and math from the book is one way to go.

 

[Eb123]

It probably varies by school but for me biochem was like maybe 70% biology, 30% chemistry (and that was the chemistry major course, I hear the pre-med course is more like 90-10). It was definitely more memorization than like understanding mechanisms. I only had to know maybe like three mechanisms throughout the entire semester. And I sucked at ochem and did very well in biochem.

Think this varies a lot. Where I took biochem it was more like 70-80% chemistry. Lots of specific mechanisms, memorizing pathways, and enzyme kinetics (hardest part of the class IMO). For mechanisms I suggest writing them out over and over, in sequence for a pathway like glycolysis. Look for general trends, like what residues participate in what types of reactions (i.e. lysine forms schiff bases, serines act as proteases, etc).

Good luck!

 

[deleted600623]

I'd watch the Moof university biochemistry videos on YouTube. Hands down best videos I've ever seen, better than Khan. I learned all my biochem from him. It's detailed enough for most courses scope, except for transcription and translation... The videos lacked there, BUT everything else is great.

I got an A in biochem, but had I watched the videos before hand I would have breezed through it

Thanks for the recommendation! I just watched one and it was very informative and easy to follow.

 

[deleted600623]

It really depends on how your professor teaches it. If you're bored, you can start memorizing structures of amino acids, simple sugars, lipids, and nucleotides. 4+ professors at my school made sure students learn them. My class had little math practice, so stuff like enzyme inhibition graphs were challenging, but the other professor at my school loved math and made it more of a math class (you drink antifreeze by accident, how much whisky do you drink to save yourself was one question I remember). There were some mechanisms I remember learning like RNAse A, which took practice. I'm not sure about your school, but mine taught biochem 1 as the structure and properties of proteins, carbs, fats, and DNA,with a few mechanisms, where biochem 2 actually taught metabolism and all those pathways.
I thought biochem was easier than orgo imo.

EDIT: I also remember the huge emphasis on hw, ungraded. Practicing concepts, drawing, and math from the book is one way to go.

Thanks for the advice! I really think it will be more of the structures with a few common mechanisms (glycolysis, krebs etc.) I'm not too worried about the mechanisms because those came easy in Org 2. It's more of the memorization that will be a challenge.

 

[moemoekyun]

Thanks for the advice! I really think it will be more of the structures with a few common mechanisms (glycolysis, krebs etc.) I'm not too worried about the mechanisms because those came easy in Org 2. It's more of the memorization that will be a challenge.

NP. For my school, glycolysis and tca cycle were taught in biochem 2, but they're not hard to understand if you put time into it. I didn't think the memorization was that bad. Everything has a basic structure, and related in some way (each AA has same backbone, and some can be organized into groups like nonpolar, basic, etc; thymine, cytosine, and uracil have the same "shape" with some changes. Only the lipids were kind of challenging because there are glycolipids and lipoproteins, so there's a lot to draw. Also DNA-DNA or DNA-RNA, as they have to line up, and you have 50 minutes for the whole test).

 

[GrapesofRath]

Think this varies a lot. Where I took biochem it was more like 70-80% chemistry. Lots of specific mechanisms, memorizing pathways, and enzyme kinetics (hardest part of the class IMO). For mechanisms I suggest writing them out over and over, in sequence for a pathway like glycolysis. Look for general trends, like what residues participate in what types of reactions (i.e. lysine forms schiff bases, serines act as proteases, etc).

Good luck!

Just to show how classes vary at different schools mine couldn't have been more opposite than this. Mine involved reading alot of science papers on relevant material and tests that had questions about their methods and how they came to their conclusions on top of your usual Krebs Cycle/Lipid Metabolism/DNA replication type stuff which was the part of the class based more on memorization and tricky multiple choice questions. Basically nothing about chemistry. Never had to draw or know a mechanism(when I'm talking mechanism I'm talking ochem electron pushing mechanism) for an exam and really a homework problem either.