How to do well in biochem?

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Any tips on how to do well in biochem? I'd love to hear from some of you guys who are doing well in the subject.

Obviously I was NOT a biochem major in college lol... anyway, it seems like there is literally an endless amount of detail to know (read: enzymes), if you wanted to know it.

So I'm not really sure how to improve in this subject. It also sucks that I don't feel like I can "make an educated guess" on Qs that I don't know, unlike in most other subjects.

As it stands, I feel like I'm just memorizing my way (read: BSing) on each practice test, in order to score a few cheap points. I don't feel like I "understand" anything. 🙁

Please don't tell me to go read some textbook... I would like to, ideally, dedicate a few days to it, and really focus on high-yield points, to maximize improvement. Any resources? Or, anything to focus on in FA?

TIA!

 

[RapplixGmed]

I find that biochem is just a mass of associations, some of which are linked to each other. I basically took a day to sit down with FA and a big pad of paper and didn't leave until I could reproduce every chart and table in the biochem section. After that day, I've reviewed my notes every 3ish days and I've done fine on qbank questions in biochem.

I took lots of biochem in college and theres no trick to it. You just memorize until your eyes bleed. Biochem is a subject that you can only begin the understanding phase once you have already memorized the pathways.

 

[Mace1370]

Draw the pathways, over and over and over.

The best way I found to do this was to:

1. Memorize the series of reactants and products. Ex: "Glucose goes to Glucose-6-P, etc."
2. Then add in the enzymes. Ex: "Hexokinase catalyzes Glucose to glucose-6-p" etc.
3. Add in any cofactors.

I did the above 3 steps in my head until I was confident I could draw it. Then just draw it over and over. There really aren't any shortcuts. If you are having problems then it is probably because you just haven't memorized enough of the steps.

 

[DrYoda]

Draw the pathways, over and over and over.

That's what I did too. I've killed a small forest in the name of biochem.

 

[raynor123456]

Learn the pathways and understanding which suffixes correspond to which "direction" a reaction is headed. After a while it becomes very easy. It's like a chemical reaction with a high activation energy, but that is very stable once it's run to completion 😛

 

[spyderracing32]

Draw the pathways, over and over and over.

The best way I found to do this was to:

1. Memorize the series of reactants and products. Ex: "Glucose goes to Glucose-6-P, etc."
2. Then add in the enzymes. Ex: "Hexokinase catalyzes Glucose to glucose-6-p" etc.
3. Add in any cofactors.

I did the above 3 steps in my head until I was confident I could draw it. Then just draw it over and over. There really aren't any shortcuts. If you are having problems then it is probably because you just haven't memorized enough of the steps.

This is where it's at. If you just build the pathways systematically and do it over and over and over it should set concretely.

 

[Hokie06]

I found kaplan lecture note for biochemistry to be very useful. it was concise and very well written with excellent diagrams. you could probably get through it in detail in about a week. it's worth the time investment imho.

 

[deleted387928]

+1 for drawing pathways. There's no better way to imprint the knowledge into your brain. Pretty soon the right answers should jump off the screen.

 

[zadiee]

I was not a wonderful student during my classroom years, and didn't make the effort to learn biochemistry as comprehensively as I should have...or at all. When the time came to study for USMLE Step 1, I panicked! Even after reading the First Aid section twice, I still felt lost.

To the rescue rode Vijay's Underground Guide to Biochemistry! In 100 concise, precisely-written, and immaculately diagrammed pages, I was able to learn the perfect level of detail on carbohydrates, nucleic acids, lipids, and amino acids. It quite truly was "everything I needed to know and nothing more" for Step 1.

It handily beats Lippincott in concision and BRS in accuracy.

The greatest strength of this book is the narrative format. Biochemistry is so hard to learn as a disjointed set of facts and pathways, and First Aid isn't the best at integration. But each chapter of Vijay's book lays out the story and guides you through the key facts from the ground up. The basic science is integrated with high-yield clinical correlations. What isn't included is any cute mnemonics or distracting asides. This is pure high-yield.

And some of the explanations far outstrip the other texts out there. For example, the First Aid section on lipids is disjointed and confusing. But Vijay's Guide, in three clear and fully-explained diagrams, clearly draws the linkages and brings home the meat of the discussion. Similarly, the discussion on carbohydrates and insulin/glucagon regulation teases out necessary subtleties that other books gloss over.

In studying for Step 1, all I used for studying was First Aid and Wikipedia. Vijay's Guide was the only other textbook. When I took the boards, I could recall the learnings from this book echoing in my head as I clicked through question after question.

Read this quick one-day, 100-page summary, and you'll feel supremely more confident about biochem. Highly recommended.