How to improve Biochemistry score

[tootheye]

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I am repeatedly getting low scores in Biochem in UW even in multiple passes! There's a difference of nearly 10 in ave % and mine. I did Kaplan-FA-UW. I do understand the concepts.Annotaed FA. I am finding it hard to remember facts. What would be a good strategy to improve scores. Pl advice. I feel demoralized after each Biochem test. My others weren't that bad.

 

[mrx2]

For understanding: RR Biochem by Goljan is awesome
For memorizing and retaining: GunnerTraining

Keep redoing the World questions, they're the best biochem questions I've seen

 

[dangit]

I am repeatedly getting low scores in Biochem in UW even in multiple passes! There's a difference of nearly 10 in ave % and mine. I did Kaplan-FA-UW. I do understand the concepts.Annotaed FA. I am finding it hard to remember facts. What would be a good strategy to improve scores. Pl advice. I feel demoralized after each Biochem test. My others weren't that bad.

UW biochem is notoriously hard. I'd say just learn from it and not stress too much about the %. I did a search on this and found that biochem kicked everyone's butt on UW, but supposedly on the real thing, it's nowhere near as hard as the UW's question.

I feel like UW is hard is because they ask really small minutiae, which may be impt or not. Either way, doesn't hurt to learn from them. Anyway, just wanted to say don't worry. We're all in the same boat. GL!

 

[ArcGurren]

You may or may not have a biochem heavy step 1 exam; if you do however, it's worth knowing the major diseases if nothing else (glycogen storage, sphingolipidoses, metabolic/purine and pyrimidine metabolism diseases, etc).

 

[tootheye]

Thanks guys. I feel relieved. Metabolism details sp in UW were minutiae but ofcourse explanations were great. Remembering minutiae is the problem!

 

[Alvarez13]

You may or may not have a biochem heavy step 1 exam; if you do however, it's worth knowing the major diseases if nothing else (glycogen storage, sphingolipidoses, metabolic/purine and pyrimidine metabolism diseases, etc).

I feel like FA does a pretty decent job of explaining these. I've actually been cutting and pasting some Lippincott Biochem diagrams in with my notes.

Thanks guys. I feel relieved. Metabolism details sp in UW were minutiae but ofcourse explanations were great. Remembering minutiae is the problem!

GT has been amazing at super-gluing minutiae to my brain. I'm getting to the point where I can answer some pretty random stuff that won't come up until 2nd year starts. Hit me up if you want a free 1 month trial.

 

[Gullain Barre]

In my experience, the FA Biochem section is a solid outline. But if you're like me and didn't really learn about these in undergrad/MS1+MS2 (lysosomal storage diseases come to mind) about these in great detail, you should supplement with RR Biochemistry or a similar review book.

For metabolism: the biggest thing is to learn the pathways and understand how they work. Know the rate-limiting steps, how they are regulated and have a rough idea of the intermediates (something as simple as just remembering the first letter of each if they are different) so you might be able to pick out the answer.

 

[xlr8]

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[Rollo]

i wasnt that strong in biochem from the beginning, but honestly the best thing to do is know every pathway. that huge diagram with all the pathways and where they occur is helpful. if you virtually memorize the important/semi-important stuff from that and kind of make sense of it (but not every single little reaction and enzyme), + the uworld stuff, you'll be fine. biochem is something that definitely needs repetition. some people may disagree with me but it worked well for me.

👍

Memorize, memorize, memorize. And keep going over that giant metabolic pathway diagram and try to quiz yourself by guessing what the next enzyme will be.

My test was somewhat biochem heavy, and like somebody else mentioned I was tested mostly on big diseases like glycogen storage, couple of lysosomal storage, hyperlipidemia, and few vitamin deficiency questions here and there. Nothing that made me go "Fffuuuuuuu...."