how hard is Biochemistry?

[balder1]

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hey guys!

title says it all. i might take it next spring with biochemistry lab too. anyone who took it, how did you guys feel about the course? hopefully it is similar to organic chemistry

 

[Iapyx]

As hard as the professor makes it.

 

[rxlea]

hey guys!

title says it all. i might take it next spring with biochemistry lab too. anyone who took it, how did you guys feel about the course? hopefully it is similar to organic chemistry

I am taking biochem right now and it is awesome material but my prof made us memorize every step in the glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and krebs cycle, the pentose pathway, all the amino acids, all the cofactors/coenzymes, lipids, and now we are on nucleotides and we have our final next week. It is a LOT of information all at once and sometimes my brain wants to explode. But, overall, it is actually an interesting class. I enjoy it.

EDIT: he makes it interesting because he incorporates things about pharmacology.

 

[Tiktaalik]

hey guys!

title says it all. i might take it next spring with biochemistry lab too. anyone who took it, how did you guys feel about the course? hopefully it is similar to organic chemistry

It's more fun than organic chemistry, by which I mean it's easier to see how it applies to medicine. Difficulty will depend on how deep into memorization your prof decides to go. I found it a little easier than orgo.

 

[The Enchanter]

Not at all like organic. In O Chem, the focus is more on understanding how organic molecules behave (theory) with a smaller focus on knowing specific facts (memorization). Biochemistry is much more focused on knowledge of specific pathways (memorization), while much of the theory is derived from your inorganic and organic classes.

O Chem is much more about problem solving than Biochem. Biochem is difficult only because of the amount of material, not so much because it is conceptually difficult to understand.

 

[GlamDoc]

For me, biochem was a welcome relief after OChem. And I definitely agree with the poster above. OChem is problem solving, biochem is more memorization. It depends on which you prefer. 🙂

 

[Stewie32]

I know that someone else said that it depends on how hard your professor makes it, which I would tend to agree with for most classes. If you know who the professor is for next semester, perhaps look her/him up on ratemyprofessors.com . However, take everything that is said on there with a grain of salt because it tends to be students that are struggling with the class that go on there to bash the professor.

 

[AH3]

It's one of the hardest classes at my school is a boat-load of information. Luckily, my teacher gave weekly quizzes, which forced me to study the material often and helped me learn it better. My teacher made it focus a lot on problem solving (ie. modifying some enzyme or step in a pathway to get a desired effect), so it was somewhat fun to figure out. One of the most interesting and challenging courses I've taken, but overall it was worth it. Helped me a lot on the MCAT, along with my physiology course.

 

[FirefighterDoc]

I know that someone else said that it depends on how hard your professor makes it, which I would tend to agree with for most classes. If you know who the professor is for next semester, perhaps look her/him up on ratemyprofessors.com . However, take everything that is said on there with a grain of salt because it tends to be students that are struggling with the class that go on there to bash the professor.

Love it, i dont pick any of my classes without it. Like anything on the Internet though ( SDN included), you have to take everything with a grain of salt.

 

[EndangeredPasta]

I find ratemyprofessor.com pretty accurate if there is a lot of consistency with the reviews. If there is a general consensus then it usually seems correct. Just remember that even the best teachers will have people bashing on ratemyprofessors becuased they just did not try or they were not handed an 'A'.

 

[JmanDO]

I liked the material, hell I even ran study groups while taking the class. I hated the prof, couldn't get his material straight in lecture and his exams were even more convoluted and downright contradictory. I felt cheated-but not stupid.

 

[Danlee07]

If I take biochem with physics AND genetics, is that overload?

 

[vickpick]

uhhh.. lots and lots of memorization at my U.. the test are freaking 10 page long - all essays / definition/ drawing amino acid structures and crap.. I think its ridiculous but helpful

 

[rxlea]

uhhh.. lots and lots of memorization at my U.. the test are freaking 10 page long - all essays / definition/ drawing amino acid structures and crap.. I think its ridiculous but helpful

That's how my exams are...and drawing the amino acids was the easiest part!

 

[justinbaily]

Second semester biochemistry may be my favorite science class after organic. We had to learn every step, enzyme, cofactor, mechanism, ect. in all of the metabolic pathways. I could literally draw mechanistic steps to go from glucose to nearly any common metabolic molecule (i.e., FA's, AA's, other sugars, etc.).

My professor also included some cool sections on our exam that we hadn't actually covered in class, but which we were expected to be able to interpret and answer questions about. It was similar to the MCAT.

Definitely take it! It makes sense of the metabolic steps that you have probably been forced to memorize throughout your undergraduate career without ever understanding why the molecules progressed the way that they did through the cycles.