how to EXCEL in BIOCHEMISTRY

[Bruin4Life]

I will be taking Biochem soon. I know studying for biochem depends largerly on the school and the instructor, but I'm sure there should be general guidelines for success in biochem. Can anyone give me any tips, hints or recommend a certain book, website which could help me excel in biochemistry?

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[kutastha]

It depends on whether it's bio-based or chem-based. If it's the former, memorize. If the latter, write out the pertinent pathways and understand how one structure makes it was to the next. Generally in both aspects, you need to write down whatever you need to know (much as you would with O-chem) and try to gain an understanding of the pathways, e.g. why do certain enzymes get turned on and shut off in response to hypoglycemia? If you think about it on a larger scale (well, I'm having low blood sugar, I need sugar put into the blood, so I need to break down glycogen, turn off glycogen synthesis, turn on gluconeogenesis, et al) you should be all right.

My class used Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry, which is an outstanding book. I have also found Mathews and van Holde's Biochemistry also very clear and concise.

Andrew

 

[MorningLight210]

Andrew has a very good point...is it a course offered by the Chemistry department or the Bio department? If it's chemistry, then I would approach it in a similar fashion as you did Orgo. Make sure you understand the mechanisms behind the processes you learn, how different phenomena can be explained on the chemical level.

I took Molecular Biology one semester, and then Biochem the next, and it was really interesting...the subject matter overlapped, but the style of teaching was vastly different. In Molecular the professor would draw little blobs to represent certain molecules, and he was just interested in their interactions -- what they did -- not in the specific nature of the molecules themselves. In Biochem we analyzed individual molecules to the nth degree...structure-drawing galore. For example, in Bio you have to know that ATP provides energy for metabolic processes; in Biochem, you have to draw the resonance structures that explain exactly why. They just involve different approaches.

We used Voet, Voet & Pratt for Biochem; I found the problems at the end of each chapter pretty helpful.

 

[audeo]

Memorize everything.

 

[Wednesday]

We didn't have to memorize the pathways in my biochem class (please, don't throw tomatoes). This obviously made the class a great deal easier. I found that everything made sense is I took the time to follow the processes through. Once you learn how things work chemically, it's not that hard to predict how changes would affect the system. I think the most important thing for all of these pre-med science classes is not to get too stressed out about how hard you've heard it is. The classes are all doable, normal people do well in them all the time. Just don't get psyched out and you'll do fine.