kaplan biochem

[Arctic Char]

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any good? comments welcome . . .

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

I thought it was one of the best resources I used for board prep. Its very complete (i.e. ~300 pgs), but you can get through it in a week. I absolutely recommend it.

HamOn

 

[neoucomsucks]

Hey Ham. Did you go through kaplan biochem before your 11 week study marathon, during it, or both? Do you think its advantagous to get through it 1x-2x prior to boards studying and then use HY cell/bio and HY biochem for time considerations. I'll have about 8 weeks of soley board prep time. Let me know what you would advice. Thanks man.

 

[Taurus]

I heard Kaplan biochem is good, but I was wondering what you guys heard about RR biochem. Is it just as good? Lipponcott's is too much reading for board prep.

 

[fun8stuff]

I thought it was one of the best resources I used for board prep. Its very complete (i.e. ~300 pgs), but you can get through it in a week. I absolutely recommend it.

HamOn

wouldn't it be a little foolish to spend a week on biochem? if you did reasonably well in the course, you really shouldnt spend more than 1-2 days on it and most people have said that what was in FA was enough.

 

[Arctic Char]

i honestly can't imagine NOT reading lippincott at least a little. the chapter summaries are perhaps the most efficient and terse treatment of the material you find out there, and they only take a few minutes each to read. but i would like a more comprehensive outline/organizer than first aid.

 

[Arctic Char]

p.s. i haven't heard anything about RR biochem . . .

 

[felicia2001uk]

I have heard.RR biochem is very good so also is Kaplan lecture notes Biobhem.Lippincott's also very good.It all depends on you. For boards,I would suggest either Kaplan or Rapid Review.
You can never go wrong with either or both.Up to you.Whatever you do,make sure you read Dr Dudek's book..HY MCB
All the best.

 

[felicia2001uk]

I have heard.RR biochem is very good so also is Kaplan lecture notes Biobhem.Lippincott's also very good.It all depends on you. For boards,I would suggest either Kaplan or Rapid Review.
You can never go wrong with either or both.Up to you.Whatever you do,make sure you read Dr Dudek's book..HY MCB
All the best.

 

[felicia2001uk]

I have heard!RR biochem is very good ,so also is Kaplan lecture notes Biochem.Lippincott's also very good.It all depends on you. For boards,I would suggest either Kaplan or Rapid Review.
You can never go wrong with either or both.Up to you really.Whatever you do,make sure you read Dr Dudek's book..HY MCB
All the best.

 

[Arctic Char]

do i have to read it three times??😉

 

[surprisedgirl]

hamonwholewheat, do you recommend using the video lectures along w/ it?

 

[mountainman123]

I finished the Biochem.Genetics book yesterday and I thought that it was pretty well done. I have done about 200 questions on Biochem/Genetics on both USMLERx and on Qbank and am getting an average of 86% or so. So I must have learned something. It did miss one huge topic of the Leukotriene/Prostaglandin pathways. I plan to go through it again in a few weeks just due to the massive amount of material and details on Amino Acids and Fat Catabolism/Lipoproteins.

 

[scaredtodeath]

I finished the Biochem.Genetics book yesterday and I thought that it was pretty well done. I have done about 200 questions on Biochem/Genetics on both USMLERx and on Qbank and am getting an average of 86% or so. So I must have learned something. It did miss one huge topic of the Leukotriene/Prostaglandin pathways. I plan to go through it again in a few weeks just due to the massive amount of material and details on Amino Acids and Fat Catabolism/Lipoproteins.

wow thats really great! are you talking about RR biochem or the kaplan biochem genetics book?

 

[mountainman123]

It was the Kaplan book- 2006/2007 version and I also listened to all of the lectures. They were long and boring, but definitely increased my retention time.

 

[surprisedgirl]

UNM2009, how long did it take you to get through everything? And this is probably a stupid question, but did you read it as you saw the lectures or read it first then go through lectures.

Also, when r u taking step, are you a second year?

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Hey Ham. Did you go through kaplan biochem before your 11 week study marathon, during it, or both? Do you think its advantagous to get through it 1x-2x prior to boards studying and then use HY cell/bio and HY biochem for time considerations. I'll have about 8 weeks of soley board prep time. Let me know what you would advice. Thanks man.

Biochem at my school was very "big picture" with essay exam questions, which doesn't work very well for Step I. Also, genetics wasn't taught well at my school either, so for that reason I studied Kaplan Biochem pretty intensely (~7+ days if I remember correctly). Kaplan Biochem is really Biochem+Genetics, and it does an excellent job at both. You'd be surprised by how many dumb little "reverse this DNA strand and invert it, and clip the introns, and ...." questions you can get wrong by missing one little detail. For me, Biochem and Genetics was a huge weakness so I had to put time into it.

Cell and Molecular was another weak area for me, so I spent 5 or so days reading, understanding, and then memorizing HYCellBio. That book was fantastic too, and it covers material that isn't even touched in Kaplan Biochem. So its important to do both, IMO.

I studied HYCellBio and Biochem early, so I could constantly review it as I studied other things. For example, if you know a given drug modulates an RTK pathway, then you can take a time out to re-cover the stages of the RTK pathways. Everytime I learned a drug, or relevant disease, I would re-learn the 2nd-messenger pathway involved. By the time I was done studying, I had the cell and molecular basis of all the relevant diseases covered as though it was 2nd nature. I had to do it that way because I was so weak in Cell and Molecular prior to boards studying.

With that said, Cell and Molecular was ALL OVER MY EXAM. I had a bunch of Genetics questions I would've missed without Kaplan (strand permutations you'd kick yourself for missing). Only a few "pure" Biochem questions per section.

When people say "only spend 'X' amt of time on Biochem because its not well represented", I think that's missing the big picture. Only you know what you're weak at. Every question you miss is hit on your score, whether its a pathology question or Biochem or whatever. You have to focus on your weaknesses, not what you think will be most represented on the boards.

For example, I studied path religiously during the school year, and ended up barely touching it during boards studying. I knew I was strong in it, so I didn't bother until the last minute. I honestly don't think I missed more than 2 path questions (out of 90 or so) on the real deal. Had I used the logic "study what's most represented on the exam", I would've missed the majority of the 30-35 Biochem/Genetics/CellBio questions.

That's just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. If you want to make sure you've got Biochem/Genetics/CellBio covered, Kaplan and HYCellBio are the way to go. The more help you need, the more time you should alot for it. Good luck.

HamOn

P.S. - to the person who asked, I didn't use the lectures so I don't know if they're good. I 'm a book person, and the Kaplan biochem book rocked.

 

[felicia2001uk]

what is RTK pathway?

 

[Arctic Char]

receptor tyrosine kinase

HamOn - so. . . how did you do? just curious. and thanks for sharing your thoughts

- mountain

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

receptor tyrosine kinase

HamOn - so. . . how did you do? just curious. and thanks for sharing your thoughts

- mountain

259. I don't say that to brag. I just want to qualify my advice.

Good luck,

HamOn

 

[Arctic Char]

nice, thanks again. since i have you on the line, and since you have some clout with that score, what Q sources did you use?

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

nice, thanks again. since i have you on the line, and since you have some clout with that score, what Q sources did you use?

Just Qbank and the Robbins Question Book. I only did 50% of Qbank and averaged about 80% for random sets of 50 by the end. I did the Robbins Question book cover to cover, and that was an EXCELLENT resource. Its great in that it shows nice juicy color pictures to go along with the questions.

Overall I'm a textbook person, so I focused primarily on studying rather than questions. I just used questions as a periodic review to expose gaps in my knowledge. That doesn't work for everyone though, so definitely go with what works for you.

HamOn

 

[Arctic Char]

thanks nonetheless.

 

[medicinehopeful]

does anyone know how i can get a hold of the kaplan biochem notes? kaplan obviously doesnt sell just their biochem notes. and ebay has the whole lecture package, which i dont need. any suggestions?

 

[mountainman123]

My method is to read the corresponding lecture notes and then listen to the lecture and add the things they say and follow along to see it twice and see what the important points are. They say alot in the audio that is not in the lecture at times. I am a 2nd year and I take step 1 on the 24th of February. I spent about 4 days total on all of Biochem and Genetics, approximately 9-10 hrs/day.

 

[Taurus]

My method is to read the corresponding lecture notes and then listen to the lecture and add the things they say and follow along to see it twice and see what the important points are. They say alot in the audio that is not in the lecture at times. I am a 2nd year and I take step 1 on the 24th of February. I spent about 4 days total on all of Biochem and Genetics, approximately 9-10 hrs/day.

Why does your school make you take Step 1 so early?

 

[surprisedgirl]

medicine do you want a pdf form of them?

 

[medicinehopeful]

medicine do you want a pdf form of them?

yes please.