Memorize Sugar Common Names?

[Ryan71]

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Shall I? Or, shall I not?

Seems like a pain.

 

[bobow98]

Honestly,
all you need to know is
fructose, glucose, galactose, and their disaccharides - 2 glucose = maltose (I'm pretty sure), gal + glu = lactose, glu + fru = sucrose

Everything will be in the passage in BS


Oh and also, maybe amylose = long chain of a-glucose
and cellulose (beta gluc), etc.

 

[Sloow]

I wouldnt memorize any of them, any passage on the MCAT that involves the sugars will be more technical questions, like maybe giving you a never before seen molecule and asking if it is a sugar, or maybe giving you 2 sugars and asking if they are enantionmers or epimers w/e, they arnt gonna give you anything as easy as "Is this Fructose or GLucose?" lol.

 

[latrala2300]

EDIT: was being stupid. he's right.

 

[Prateek]

uhh....galactose = glucose + lactose iirc

Nope Glucose + galactose = Lactose

 

[fizzgig]

might depend on how much seeing sugars makes your heart rate go up. with no biochem and almost no time at the end of orgo spend on carbohydrate chem, it made me feel a bit better to remember just a few names, that cellulose and lactose have the beta linkages, and which way the OH goes in alpha vs beta glucose...

 

[PennFranklin]

That seems like a very low-yield strategy. I would instead spend my time making sure I understand all the different types of reactions sugars can undergo. That's much more likely to get you points instead of just remembering which side the hydroxyl group is on in the fisher projection.

 

[nadaba]

That seems like a very low-yield strategy. I would instead spend my time making sure I understand all the different types of reactions sugars can undergo. That's much more likely to get you points instead of just remembering which side the hydroxyl group is on in the fisher projection.

I agree. I had a sugar passage on my actual exam, and if I remember correctly pretty much all the needed info was in the passage.

 

[fizzgig]

yes, knowing the reactions is key. the reason i did a couple of small fact checks was because of a passage where the answer hinged on me knowing which sugars were alpha vs beta. it's one of those things that i guess isn't high yield but once you get screwed on a passage you suddenly want to know it 🙂