Step I Molecular Biology

[cdql]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

While going over my booklist, I realized I don't have a single book for Molecular Biology. (Nor was one recommended by my school)

I also can't find too many topics about it in the 1st Aid book/Qbank questions/UW Questions

Is it worth getting a book for this topic? And if so, which one?

 

[lord_jeebus]

I liked HY Molecular & Cell Biology (the old, small 1999 edition)

 

[WhoisJohnGalt]

I liked HY Molecular & Cell Biology (the old, small 1999 edition)

I second this... it can be picked up pretty cheaply on Amazon.

 

[wxl31]

i only have the new edition and there's not enough time to buy an old one. is it worth looking at? are there select chapters i should look at? thanks.

 

[UCLAstudent]

I found the new one to be very frustrating --- I only used the first few chapters and then got fed up with it. Lol. It might be okay if you're good at picking out the most important details from a bunch of unnecessary text, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a review book. The old version was very good and a quick read.

 

[anesthesiarocks]

While going over my booklist, I realized I don't have a single book for Molecular Biology. (Nor was one recommended by my school)

I also can't find too many topics about it in the 1st Aid book/Qbank questions/UW Questions

Is it worth getting a book for this topic? And if so, which one?

honestly, I wouldnt worry about it. While I did have some molbio questions on my test, none of the review books would have helped at all(ie it didn't require knowledge of stuff like what dnagyrase does or which direction bacterial dna polymerase goes or stuff like that). They were just common sense questions preceded by a long experiment.

Im glad I didn't waste any time even reviewing the FA part of molbio(in the biochem section)

 

[cpb80]

honestly, I wouldnt worry about it. While I did have some molbio questions on my test, none of the review books would have helped at all(ie it didn't require knowledge of stuff like what dnagyrase does or which direction bacterial dna polymerase goes or stuff like that). They were just common sense questions preceded by a long experiment.

Im glad I didn't waste any time even reviewing the FA part of molbio(in the biochem section)

Thanks for your advice anesthesia. When you say common sense though, does that mean that you could arrive at a logical answer, only if you knew all of the molec bio lab techniques. I ask b/c some of us like myself don't have personal lab experience, which would probably make those experiment questions less intimidating. Thanks again

 

[anesthesiarocks]

Thanks for your advice anesthesia. When you say common sense though, does that mean that you could arrive at a logical answer, only if you knew all of the molec bio lab techniques. I ask b/c some of us like myself don't have personal lab experience, which would probably make those experiment questions less intimidating. Thanks again

I can only speak for my test, but I had several questions dealing with enzymes that would only cleave at certain points in a strand or protein or whatever. One question dealt with a protein marked X and then they gave the molecular wt of X, and they showed at what points(I think what aa's) the enzyme cleaved. Then they would give you choices A-F showing gene or protein Y and asking you what combinations of cleavages would be produced if it were cleaved by the same enzyme.

So no it didn't require any fancy molecular technique stuff. You just really had to stay with the question and think they all the possibilities. Knowing any molbio in detail would have been a total waste of time for my test.

I'd probably want to know stuff like the difference between western blot and southern blot(ones looks for protein, the other dna), but I'd hardly call that "molecular lab techniques".

 

[shivasHeroLike]

good book, i highly recommend it as well.

 

[surprisedgirl]

i only have the new edition and there's not enough time to buy an old one. is it worth looking at? are there select chapters i should look at? thanks.

im sure someone at your school hs it....be tht annoying person that sends out a mass email asking for it 🙂

 

[The Buff]

Posting for no other reason than to vent/agree that High-Yield C&M (2nd ed.) might be the worst review book ever written. What I don't get is the author has written other good review books, but decided to write a text book for his new edition. More is not always better.

The first edition was very nice, though, highly recommended.

 

[surfgirl2]

There are also a few chapters in the Golgan RR book that seem sufficient for molecular. They worked for me and didn't take too long....

 

[cdql]

Thanks for the quick replies! I've since picked up a copy of HY Cell and Molec Bio and given it a quick readthrough (I'm surprised our campus bookstore still had an old edition in stock)

I also stopped by to take a look at the BRS version Cell Biology and Histology (5th edition). A couple of my classmates have been using that and flipping through it, I thought the material in there seemed to be much more detailed that that of the HY Cell Biology. Any reason to tack the BRS Cell Biology book onto my study schedule as well?

 

[domer621]

I really liked the last few chapters in Lippincott's Biochem book about DNA/RNA/protein synthesis. HY Cell and MB was ok, but not explained thoroughly enough for me.