refusal to relearn biochem pathways bad?

[neurotrancer]

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So I don't remember any of my pathways. I think I'm going to sacrifice what will be pure pathway questions on the exam as I've heard you shouldn't expect more than 3 such things out of 300. However, my biochem plan of attack will be to make sure that I know all enzyme deficiency related diseases, lysosomal storage discorders, etc. and know the clinically relevant points about each pathway only. I will not redraw any pathways, etc. I also will go through underground clinical vignettes and FA and Qbank. I'd like to hear what anyone thinks might be pros and cons about this refusal to redraw and relearn pathways. thanks!

 

[DW3843]

As a proud Biochem-hater I would also like to hear some good advice on this selective review of what is perhaps one of the more miserable topics I have been forced to memorize and regurgitate during my gloomy med school career.

 

[dreds]

Biochem was my least favorite & most difficult class. 🙁 I just finished reviewing it for the boards--was planning 3 days, but took 5.

I was planning to just memorize FA, but found that I really wasn't getting the big picture that way. For example, I could memorize a disease, symptoms and the deficiency, but I couldn't tell you how that might affect other pathways or lead to an increase or decrease of something else along the same path.

I ended up going through Lippincott along with FA & looked up concepts mentioned in FA that weren't clear to me. It was time consuming, but I feel like I have a much better grasp now.

I think you would definitely be sacrificing some questions by not learning pathways, but not that many, as you said. Just don't be surprised if you miss questions on the disorders you memorized because they sometimes require knowledge of the path.

I think Lippincott is a great resource; I mainly used the diagrams and chapter summaries. Hope this helps.

 

[DrPharaohX]

Honestly I think the Genetics and Nutrition chapters of BRS Path cover a good chunk of biochem. Supplement with HY Molecular Bio for the molecular bio stuff. Do the rest from FA. I'm not saying it's easy - I started studying last week and biochem was first up. Needless to say it was also the bottleneck and now I needed to reorganize and reshuffle my study topics.

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Genetics + Cell + Molecular >>>>>>> Biochem.

Make sure you know cell bio cold, or else you'll regret it.

With that said, I would recommend Kaplan biochem if you have time, as its a fantastic review. I agree that overall biochem is less represented, but it is still there. It would be a shame to forfeit those questions going in. The test is hard enough as it is.

Just my $.02

HamOn

 

[quideam]

I spent the last three days with the Kaplan biochem book... and i'm just about ready to shoot myself . It's SO detailed, SO long (300+ pages!!!), and written, in my opinion, in pretty technical language (no Goljan jokes here...). Anyway, i've given up, and instead gone through first aid and then supplemented with "Secrets", which I think has an awesome chapter on biochem/metabolism that really explains the mechanisms behind a lot of the disorders in FA. When it's closer to the test, i'll do HY Cell and Molecular Bio to memorize the 2nd messangers and such.... other than that, forget it!! 😀

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

I spent the last three days with the Kaplan biochem book... and i'm just about ready to shoot myself . It's SO detailed, SO long (300+ pages!!!), and written, in my opinion, in pretty technical language (no Goljan jokes here...). Anyway, i've given up, and instead gone through first aid and then supplemented with "Secrets", which I think has an awesome chapter on biochem/metabolism that really explains the mechanisms behind a lot of the disorders in FA. When it's closer to the test, i'll do HY Cell and Molecular Bio to memorize the 2nd messangers and such.... other than that, forget it!! 😀

Actually, yeah, I shoulda mentioned that I worked through Kaplan Biochem in 7 days, but it was 12-14 hrs/day. But seriously, if you get through that, you'll know Biochem and Genetics cold. I did HY Cell and molecular and spent about 5 days really poring over that with a fine-tooth comb too. Awesome resources, both of them.

Overall, I maxed out the Biochem, Cell and Molecular sections on the real deal. So take that for what its worth. I hear ya though quideam, its a bite in the ass.

HamOn

 

[quideam]

mmm... yeah... i only have 4 days total devoted to "learning" biochem/genetics/cell bio and then 2 "review days" scheduled for the end... so i definetely don't have time to go through everything that thoroughly!! My god, how did you have so much time to do biochem?? I'm studying for 40 days (nearly 6 weeks), and i think that's about all I can handle...!

 

[quideam]

Btw, Ham, when you say "Cell bio" what exactly does that mean?

 

[HamOnWholeWheat]

Btw, Ham, when you say "Cell bio" what exactly does that mean?

The big "cell bio" topics, in my opinion, are cell-signalling pathways, transcription/translation regulation, cell cycle w/checkpoint controls, protein synthesis and export pathways (i.e. how are synthesis products labelled for various target destinations), stuff like that. Most of that is all mentioned in HY Cell and Molecular, but Kaplan Biochem/Gnetics gives all the real detail. I think I had about 40 cell bio questions on the real deal, and they all fell into one of those categories above if I remember correctly.

As I'm sure you realize though, cell bio, genetics, and biochem all kind of blur together in some questions. HY doesn't put it all together the way Kaplan did for me, but HY is still definitely a kick ass book.

A good example of this was one question that was on my actual exam. I won't repeat the question word for word or anything, but the gist of it was:
"..which of the following pathways would one expect to find MAPK as an intermediary, and what does it regulate?" It was worded better than that, but if the general answer doesn't sort of spring to mind (i.e. its gotta be a RTK, so which of those choices is an RTK mechanism?), I'd spend some time making sure you have those down. Once you see the answer in Kaplan Biochem (chapter 9 I think?), the diagram will stay with you forever.

BTW, I studied 12-14hrs/day for 11 weeks. So I had time to go through it in depth. I overstudied though. 8-9 weeks would've been enough.

HamOn

 

[YouDontKnowJack]

BTW, I studied 12-14hrs/day for 11 weeks. So I had time to go through it in depth. I overstudied though. 8-9 weeks would've been enough.

HamOn

man. i need that kind of discipline.
there is no such thing as over studying IMO, esp for this test.

 

[AtomKr]

I skipped biochem entirely (used Kaplan notes but didn't open that one OR or gross) and just took Step 1 this month. As far as pure pathway questions go, I had about three or four total questions and one of them had all the enzymes and stuff labeled so it was a non-issue as long as you understood the basic concept of congenital adrenal syndromes. Most of my biochem questions were related to diseases that could be learned from BRS Path or were genetics based. Genetics was already really strong for me, so I felt safe skipping it, but if you don't feel comfortable I would check out the medical genetics section from the Kaplan biochemistry notes.

I had more questions on child development alone than I did on biochem pathways. I'm still glad I skipped it; my path and phys knowledge rocks because I was able to spend so much more time on them.

No scores back yet- Scored 208-220 on NBME tests before I got my month off to study (had almost ZERO biochem or gross anatomy knowledge for those NBMEs) so you can easily pass or beat the mean without either of them. I know a guy who low passed/ high failed three subjects (biochem, gross and behavioral) and still got a score above 250.

 

[Bones2008]

goljan's rapid review biochem is excellent. it took me two days to go through the first time, and it helped me a lot on the test.

 

[cherrypie]

Genetics + Cell + Molecular >>>>>>> Biochem.

Make sure you know cell bio cold, or else you'll regret it.

With that said, I would recommend Kaplan biochem if you have time, as its a fantastic review. I agree that overall biochem is less represented, but it is still there. It would be a shame to forfeit those questions going in. The test is hard enough as it is.

Just my $.02

HamOn

I took my step 1 Monday, and I totally agree with this poster. The kaplan biochem book is very very good. And, also the high yield cell/molecular book. I had tons of biochem on my exam and seriously these are not the questions you want to miss. hope this helps.

 

[Steelsheen]

For those who did well on cell/mol. bio questions... which book did you use? HY? 😕

 

[Idiopathic]

For anyone who spends near 100 hours studying biochem, you should probably have over 1000 hours devoted to pathology. Seriously, I had maybe 3 biochem/cell bio/mol bio questions on my test that I needed a working knowledge of biochem to answer. Others were q's dealing with pathologic processes (i.e. glycogen storage diseases requiring you to know a specific step, or where in the urea cycle something breaks off...this does not require a biochem background, but rather good pathology knowledge.)

I might have spent a total of 12 hours on biochem/mol/cell bio and never regretted it. Wished I had used that time onb renal path or pharmacology, to tell you the truth.

 

[felicia2001uk]

very interesting.

 

[goldensnow]

I took my step 1 Monday, and I totally agree with this poster. The kaplan biochem book is very very good. And, also the high yield cell/molecular book. I had tons of biochem on my exam and seriously these are not the questions you want to miss. hope this helps.

cherry, just one more question
i am reading hy cell and molecular and i found the second edition is just too much, did u use first or second editon

 

[felicia2001uk]

I Felt The Same As Well..had To Change My Schedule.

 

[nogolfinsnow]

I tried my best to memorize the pathways in FA and found the UWorld questions to be helpful. My UWorld %age on biochem started in the dumps; like 30%, by far my worst category, but it came up big time by just repetitively drawing pathways from FA. I don't remember my actual Step very well in terms of how many biochem qs there were (took it in June) but I was definitely ready for biochem and did well on it for the Step. That being said, don't waste copious amounts of time on biochem. It's such an easy subject to burn out on. I broke up my studying by doing 1-2 hours of biochem a day for a couple weeks. I would have died from boredom if I tried to do complete days of biochem.

 

[NRAI2001]

goljan's rapid review biochem is excellent. it took me two days to go through the first time, and it helped me a lot on the test.

Did Goljan write the RR biochem?? Did anyone else use this book? Goljan RR path is awesome... wouldnt mind use other products of Goljans.

 

[McGillGrad]

Did Goljan write the RR biochem?? Did anyone else use this book? Goljan RR path is awesome... wouldnt mind use other products of Goljans.

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Review-Biochemistry-STUDENT-CONSULT/dp/0323044379

 

[NRAI2001]

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Review-Biochemistry-STUDENT-CONSULT/dp/0323044379

Ya I looked up the book on amazon after posting... anyone use it though? Recommend it over kaplan or brs?? Kaplan vs. BRS vs. Rapid Review.... which would you choose?

 

[McGillGrad]

Ya I looked up the book on amazon after posting... anyone use it though? Recommend it over kaplan or brs?? Kaplan vs. BRS vs. Rapid Review.... which would you choose?

I used it for my studying and it was great.

 

[NRAI2001]

I used it for my studying and it was great.

Cool...I guess i ll be ordering that one. Goljan is awesome👍