Reading biochem/cell textbooks

[thedelicatessen]

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For the people who have completed M1, is it necessary to read the textbook for medical biochemistry and cell bio? We are given detailed powerpoints during lecture, which are pretty clear to me. During undergrad, I found that the book usually went into far too much detail, but I don't know how critical it is for med school. The lecturers know we're training to be physicians and not PHDs, but med school is intense too...

 

[bubbles!]

I can't speak to your school- but I found the lecture notes and review books to be enough for 90% of biochem- I read the textbook chapters only for three or four subjects that I wasn't quite getting. For cell bio, class notes were more than enough, I resented that textbook the entire year for sitting on my shelf and being expensive and useless.

 

[MadameLULU]

You should really ask the people in the class ahead of you, but I find that powerpoint presentations/notes are enough for classes like biochem and cell bio, and I only use a textbook if I need clarification on a subject

 

[Slide]

Though it isn't general advice, I've found wikipedia to cover the major points not covered in my ppts/lectures.

 

[pretenda]

My instructor for cell told us that he expects us to know a lot about nucleic acids, amino acids, and orgo already . Honestly, I am really lost on the outside material that they have told us that we should know already but I am not really lost in class or during the lectures. Should I still try to catch up on the stuff that they expect us to know or is cell bio pretty much straight from the lectures as well? Im sure it varies from school to school but if any M1's or M2's have been in a similar predicament I would really appreciate it if they could put in their two cents on the topic.

 

[Green Chimneys]

Most professors at some point in their notes tell you everything you need to know to get the exam questions correct. Successfully getting the questions right may require an understanding of the material rather than a rote memorization of the molecules and enzymes. It may help you to read a textbook to get the information from a different narrative perspective, but then again it may not. It's totally a personal preference. You will have to ask your specific professors if you are responsible for any material not covered in class...but I doubt it.

 

[tacrum43]

In general, no. They are best used as a reference for when you need extra info to understand a topic that there isn't enough on in the lecture notes/syllabus for you to understand what's going on. I think I only used my Biochem text (Lippincott) for amino acid structures and the TCA cycle. Wikipedia is generally much faster and more helpful for most questions you may have, anyway.

 

[EMH]

M1 here. While I can't answer to what degree reading all the assigned chapters will be useful I have already determined that if I do all the readings then that will be all I have time for. I also have already discovered that various online resources are easier for me to use as reference instead of the books.

Online resouces I've been using for biochem/cell listed by frequency:

Wikipedia
AccessMedicine
StatRef
Just plain Google

Your school will have to have access to the middle two for you to use them.

 

[CindyLou]

wikipedia is GREAT!!!

i do read before lecture, take notes on the reading, and use just those notes as well.

 

[Law2Doc]

wikipedia is GREAT!!!

i do read before lecture, take notes on the reading, and use just those notes as well.

More and more news stories have been coming out recently about inaccuracies in Wiki that it should give you a little pause. ANYONE can edit those posts. So it is only as good a resource as the last person to enter data. I think a lot of us have come across inaccuracies on it.

 

[LegacyDoctress]

check out lippincott's illustrated...if you're a visual learner, it's a great tool to see how exactly pathways connect.