How hard is biochem in D1???

[yankpak786]

So I've never taken biochem in my undergrad and everyone keeps telling me it's going to be hell, I mean, I honestly would not mind reviewing and studying the summer before D1 begins at NYUCD, but I'm worried if I really screwed myself over by not taking it in college. Does this mean I won't get an A? Does knowledge of orgo or bio matter at all, because I aced both..

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DentalDoge]

Having taken undergrad biochem with the toughest professor at my school (I mean people-failing-out-of-her-gen-chem-class tough), I can only safely say that biochem is a whole different monster from Orgo and Bio.

The closest thing to biochem is probably molec. Molec is the less butt-rape-without-lube version biochem.

I really cant imagine biochem material much harder than the way my undergrad professor taught it. But I wholly expect it to be.

 

[ModifiedBass]

Of course it doesn't mean you "won't get an A".

I really cant imagine biochem material much harder than the way my undergrad professor taught it. But I wholly expect it to be.

It most likely won't be. The biochem at my undergrad was more difficult/in-depth than what I had here in D-school. The difference is the speed of it, some people just can't keep up with it and the other classes you're taking at the same time. If you had a difficult biochem in undergrad, you should be perfectly fine.

 

[THS]

I took all the biochems offered at my undergrad, and didn't have too much trouble with D1 biochem. Yes, it was fast, but not that bad. The people in the class that never took it had a lot of trouble though.

 

[Rubberpulp]

I thought D1 biochem was just the same as undergrad. It's not hard. The material is very basic but you have other courses to worry about. Just pass d school.

 

[DentalDoge]

I thought D1 biochem was just the same as undergrad. It's not hard. The material is very basic but you have other courses to worry about. Just pass d school.

Aha, but I'm gunning for specialties. So I'm going to use my biochem degree to my advantage.

 

[Rubberpulp]

Everyone is going to be a specialist right before they start school....

 

[DentalDoge]

Everyone is going to be a specialist right before they start school....

Thought everyone wanted to be a GP

 

[onebigsmile]

I took a year of biochem in undergrad and it was on the same difficulty level for me as o chem. I'm a d2 and my school doesn't even do biochem even though it is on the boards so it is a pre req for acceptance. The biochem on the boards was not that hard.

 

[Dr.PetesAFDDS]

Just finished biochem. My professor at UNMC (Nebraska) writes board questions, so I thought the class itself was difficult. I think he over prepares us so we do well on boards, but honestly, you should scrap the whole "I'm gonna get As" thing. I wanted As too, but it's all about survival once you're in.

 

[NMC2010]

It depends on the professor. We had about 8 professors for biochem that divided up questions on the exam based on how much they taught. 5 of the professors were straightforward, told you what to study, 2 were a little more mysterious, and one was ridiculously tough. For example, the tough professor had a larger chunk in the first exam, but minimal parts in our last 2. As a result, our class average was much lower on the first exam than the last 2.

 

[iwantcandy]

Yeah, everyone wants to be a specialist these days because that is where the top money is

 

[DentalDoge]

Yeah, everyone wants to be a specialist these days because that is where the top money is

Last I've heard is that you dont have to specialize to make a good living as a dentist.

Heard some GP were making close 1 mill/yr. Something about being smart and making good business decisions.

 

[free99]

Yeah, everyone wants to be a specialist these days because that is where the top money is

Specialize if you truly love the procedures done by the specialty. There is more money in specialities, but given the extra years of education and cost of specialty training, the "break even point" comes later than I think you may be imagining.

 

[ToothbrushBuddy]

I think you should look into taking a biochem course during the summer before dental school. Unless you took a hard enough molecular biology course, then you will probably be fine. Or you could just get the course textbook that the dental school uses and pre-study it. Or you could get the power points from upper class-members and look over those to get prepared. Biochem is hard, which is why it was a pre-req for many schools, but if you are a good student that did well in cell biology or molecular bio, you will be just fine.

 

[Springs01]

To me it was hard, but not the most difficult class I've taken in D1, especially because I had taken it before in undergrad. However, in undergrad I got an A and in dental school I dropped almost two whole letter grades. So yeah expect it to be hard!

Personally I wouldn't study in the summer. If you stay on top of things during the semester and study enough, it's manageable to do decent, but I won't expect an A or anything. It's just crazy to expect an A. Very few people get A's, in not just biochem but the other science classes as well. One thing I've learned in dental school is that effort/amount of time spent studying is not proportional to the grade you'll recieve. That's just my opinion. Anyways good luck. I think you'll be fine. Take the summer off and enjoy it while you still can!

 

[ToothbrushBuddy]

To me it was hard, but not the most difficult class I've taken in D1, especially because I had taken it before in undergrad. However, in undergrad I got an A and in dental school I dropped almost two whole letter grades. So yeah expect it to be hard!

Personally I wouldn't study in the summer. If you stay on top of things during the semester and study enough, it's manageable to do decent, but I won't expect an A or anything. It's just crazy to expect an A. Very few people get A's, in not just biochem but the other science classes as well. One thing I've learned in dental school is that effort/amount of time spent studying is not proportional to the grade you'll recieve. That's just my opinion. Anyways good luck. I think you'll be fine. Take the summer off and enjoy it while you still can!

So true, now I need to stop messing around on the internet and get back to studying, some more, and more.

 

[Bis-GMA111]

to be honest, it doesn't matter if you learned the material before. professors teach subjects differently. i mean it would help, but at the end of the day if you're willing to learn minutia then you'll be o.k.

 

[Glimmer1991]

Don't study before the semester starts--you have NO CLUE what your professors will emphasize during class. Unless you can get ACTUAL course notes from upperclassmen, you're totally shooting in the dark.

I think the degree of difficulty will be totally dependent on the school. At UNC, it was hard. I had to teach myself the whole course. We luckily had a (hefty) course packet that I could use to study, but lectures didn't do anything for me, even though the professor was nice and meant well. I always left class feeling absolutely CLUELESS about what went on... and I don't think I was the only one! However, somehow, I'd always pull it together before tests.

Biochem in undergrad was much easier. All of my undergrad classes were much easier, actually.