Review for biochem

[Tozanzibarbymotorcar]

Anyone use BnB or Physeo for biochem review?

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[AnatomyGrey12]

BnB is gold.

 

[Neopolymath]

BB+UW went from weakness at beginning of dedicated to strength

 

[sunshinefl]

Another vote for boards and beyond!

 

[Tozanzibarbymotorcar]

how about Physeo?

 

[sunshinefl]

how about Physeo?

No idea what that is. There are a ton of resources and it’s very easy to get bogged down. Find a handful of resources or less that you really think work for you. Personally, boards and beyond is life changing to me.

 

[Espressso]

+1 for physeo. I thought Physeo's biochem >> BnB. It's an incredible resource.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I just memorized zanki biochem deck. Super painful, but it’s probably my strongest subject besides pharm and embryo

Edit: probably too intense if you’re less than a month out from test day

 

[Spectreman]

B&B with LightYear. Suspend the repeats, snap in Pixorize or picmonic where you can. It’s been AMAZING for me.

 

[Neopolymath]

I just memorized zanki biochem deck. Super painful, but it’s probably my strongest subject besides pharm and embryo

Edit: probably too intense if you’re less than a month out from test day

What kind of black magic devil are you haha?

 

[Spectreman]

I just memorized zanki biochem deck. Super painful, but it’s probably my strongest subject besides pharm and embryo

Edit: probably too intense if you’re less than a month out from test day

I tried to do that back in October, it was madness. It made absolutely zero sense. If anyone reading this decides to go for that then at least watch all of B&B first or you will be scratching your head at every card and just memorizing 1400 phrases. Hoov is some kind of genius bad-a or knew a ton of biochem going into that deck because it is A MESS.

 

[Ho0v-man]

What kind of black magic devil are you haha?

I know. I have no clue why this is. It’s such a worthless thing to be good at. My school didn’t even do a good job at it either. It’s like having the most worthless super power.

I tried to do that back in October, it was madness. It made absolutely zero sense. If anyone reading this decides to go for that then at least watch all of B&B first or you will be scratching your head at every card and just memorizing 1400 phrases. Hoov is some kind of genius bad-a or knew a ton of biochem going into that deck because it is A MESS.

Neither of these is the case. But it is rough. I started it last semester when it became apparent my school was just never going to teach most of biochem. If you just keep beating your brain against the cards and glance out to a big picture schematic it eventually comes together like magic. I’d recommend it to anyone taking step in 2020.

For the sake of transparency I ended up in the 89th percentile in uworld for biochemistry. I’m sure that’s FM in North Dakota by sdn standards but I felt accomplished. My bachelors is in psych.

Edit: I have a friend who just started it three months ago and after about 6 weeks if pain started getting results. I don’t think I could have done it that fast.

 

[Spectreman]

I know. I have no clue why this is. It’s such a worthless thing to be good at. My school didn’t even do a good job at it either. It’s like having the most worthless super power.


Neither of these is the case. But it is rough. I started it last semester when it became apparent my school was just never going to teach most of biochem. If you just keep beating your brain against the cards and glance out to a big picture schematic it eventually comes together like magic. I’d recommend it to anyone taking step in 2020.

For the sake of transparency I ended up in the 89th percentile in uworld for biochemistry. I’m sure that’s FM in North Dakota by sdn standards but I felt accomplished. My bachelors is in psych.

Edit: I have a friend who just started it three months ago and after about 6 weeks if pain started getting results. I don’t think I could have done it that fast.

Voodoo evil super villain power...

 

[Medic741]

how about Physeo?

I did Physeo for biochem and thought it was really good. Like but it more than BnB

 

[Gilakend]

I know. I have no clue why this is. It’s such a worthless thing to be good at. My school didn’t even do a good job at it either. It’s like having the most worthless super power.


Neither of these is the case. But it is rough. I started it last semester when it became apparent my school was just never going to teach most of biochem. If you just keep beating your brain against the cards and glance out to a big picture schematic it eventually comes together like magic. I’d recommend it to anyone taking step in 2020.

For the sake of transparency I ended up in the 89th percentile in uworld for biochemistry. I’m sure that’s FM in North Dakota by sdn standards but I felt accomplished. My bachelors is in psych.

Edit: I have a friend who just started it three months ago and after about 6 weeks if pain started getting results. I don’t think I could have done it that fast.

Incoming M1 currently doing a "prematriculation module" that's pretty much just entirely biochem and cell bio. I'm torn between LY and Zanki for biochem, but after your recommendation think I'll try to just hit Zanki biochem hard. What did you use as a primary resource? Boards and beyond?

 

[Ho0v-man]

Incoming M1 currently doing a "prematriculation module" that's pretty much just entirely biochem and cell bio. I'm torn between LY and Zanki for biochem, but after your recommendation think I'll try to just hit Zanki biochem hard. What did you use as a primary resource? Boards and beyond?

Nothing. Just brute force. It hurt.

I would look things up on Wikipedia and make notes in the margins about conceptual aspects. I also found medbullets to be helpful and even replaced some of zankis images with medbullets images, like the one for lysosomal storage diseases. I also just added images of pathways into the existing cards. Just having a big poster of metabolism all together would be helpful.

I used some images from boards and beyond too. Boards and beyond is fine but I didn’t really get biochem until being about a month past my first exposure to the cards. Like everything else in Zanki. You just keep doing it and eventually it all clicks. This is probably the hardest deck.

Don’t know anything about LY. I’ve heard AnKing is basically a more organized Zanki. I haven’t seen it personally, but if it divides the metabolism deck into discrete subjects like gluconeogenesis, glycogen synthesis, etc, that would be amazing.

Boards and beyond is the superior resource for cell bio imo. I put a lot of slides from that into the Zanki cards.

Let me know if you have any questions and good luck.

 

[Deecee2DO]

Incoming M1 currently doing a "prematriculation module" that's pretty much just entirely biochem and cell bio. I'm torn between LY and Zanki for biochem, but after your recommendation think I'll try to just hit Zanki biochem hard. What did you use as a primary resource? Boards and beyond?

Dude its pre-matric just use the class slides. You don't need board material yet its the beginning of M1

 

[Neopolymath]

Dude its pre-matric just use the class slides. You don't need board material yet its the beginning of M1

This is bad advice for people using Anki so they don't have to study this bull**** again at the end of M2. Sorry dude.

 

[Deecee2DO]

This is bad advice for people using Anki so they don't have to study this bull**** again at the end of M2. Sorry dude.

OP is not talking about anki here hes talking about Zanki Physeo LY and BnB which is all board stuff. IMO this just overwhelms people-first few weeks of M1 should be focusing on class slides and anki for spaced rep if that works for them

 

[Deecee2DO]

Anyone use BnB or Physeo for biochem review?

Not for the beginning of M1 as a primary source no

 

[Gilakend]

Dude its pre-matric just use the class slides. You don't need board material yet its the beginning of M1

I have only 1 year preclinical so most people use these from the beginning I believe .

 

[Deecee2DO]

I have only 1 year preclinical so most people use these from the beginning I believe .

One year? are you in one of those 3 yr accelerated programs

 

[Gilakend]

One year? are you in one of those 3 yr accelerated programs

Nope it’s a 4 year program, M1 is preclinical, M2 is core rotations then M3 and M4 are more electives/in-depth clinical experiences.

There are only about 4 schools I know of that have it. It’s been hard to find others online who have similar curriculums that outlined their study strategies unfortunately.

 

[Deecee2DO]

Nope it’s a 4 year program, M1 is preclinical, M2 is core rotations then M3 and M4 are more electives/in-depth clinical experiences.

There are only about 4 schools I know of that have it. It’s been hard to find others online who have similar curriculums that outlined their study strategies unfortunately.

Then yeah you are in a different situaton. Use boards stuff

 

[Neopolymath]

OP is not talking about anki here hes talking about Zanki Physeo LY and BnB which is all board stuff. IMO this just overwhelms people-first few weeks of M1 should be focusing on class slides and anki for spaced rep if that works for them

Sorry post still stands. Doing BB biochem is simpler and less overwhelming than doing lecture slides. There is no reason to use class slides for most lectures (topic for another thread) but biochem is like the poster child of find something succinct and ignore all else. It does not matter which place you learn about PFK-1 so pick the one that is 20 minutes long and good. Essentially the whole draw of so-called board review material, a misnomer at this point is that it is better, easier, succinct, high yield than the alternative done by a PhD at school. The people who "focus" on class slides are the same people 3 blocks in that finally realize going to class and reading the textbook is usually not the way to go. No reason for OP to be the guy easing in if he doesn't need it. Students are too cautious in med school because of myths perpetuated about needing to settle in etc. He didn't just join the army.

Edit: I think you are confusing OP, ms2 asking about review specifically, with the other cat Gilakend who is starting school. In either case I disagree with your mindset if you aren't trying to suck at biochem.

 

[rg2o3]

Biochem was trash at my school and I am still struggling to learn it. I have been doing Zanki for it. Ive learned more than previously, but I still am struggling. Not sure what I should do either.

 

[Gilakend]

Nothing. Just brute force. It hurt.

I would look things up on Wikipedia and make notes in the margins about conceptual aspects. I also found medbullets to be helpful and even replaced some of zankis images with medbullets images, like the one for lysosomal storage diseases. I also just added images of pathways into the existing cards. Just having a big poster of metabolism all together would be helpful.

I used some images from boards and beyond too. Boards and beyond is fine but I didn’t really get biochem until being about a month past my first exposure to the cards. Like everything else in Zanki. You just keep doing it and eventually it all clicks. This is probably the hardest deck.

Don’t know anything about LY. I’ve heard AnKing is basically a more organized Zanki. I haven’t seen it personally, but if it divides the metabolism deck into discrete subjects like gluconeogenesis, glycogen synthesis, etc, that would be amazing.

Boards and beyond is the superior resource for cell bio imo. I put a lot of slides from that into the Zanki cards.

Let me know if you have any questions and good luck.

I'm back a couple months later into M1! Currently trudging my way through the Zanki biochem deck and I cannot for the life of me remember the positive and negative regulators of all the metabolism pathways. I ALWAYS get them mixed up. Pretty soon I think my ease % on those cards is gonna be negative.

Any tips?

 

[Ho0v-man]

I'm back a couple months later into M1! Currently trudging my way through the Zanki biochem deck and I cannot for the life of me remember the positive and negative regulators of all the metabolism pathways. I ALWAYS get them mixed up. Pretty soon I think my ease % on those cards is gonna be negative.

Any tips?

You mean like how f2,6 bp activates pfk1?

 

[Gilakend]

You mean like how f2,6 bp activates pfk1?

Like that or AMP vs ADP or NADH vs ATP vs Citrate or Epi vs Glucagon pretty much just all of those in types of things in general.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Like that or AMP vs ADP or NADH vs ATP vs Citrate or Epi vs Glucagon pretty much just all of those in types of things in general.

Some of it is just keep trucking and trust the process. But a lot of it is more like “Why is this a thing?”

First off, I think it’s very unlikely that a question will make you choose between ADP vs AMP as an inhibitor. That’s just mean.

So back to the pfk1 thing. You have to ask yourself why should I care about this? If we run out of ATP we’ll end up with AMP which will then signal us to turn on pfk1 for eventually more ATP. But that’s not the case. If that’s how it worked then every time you made slightly more ATP than the requirements of the cell at that particular moment in time pfk1 would turn off. Metabolism would basically be going backwards and forward around that step and we’d never have sufficient energy stores to go for a jog.

So in the presence of insulin some fructose 6 phosphate is shunted to pfk2 to become fructose 2,6 bisphosphate. F2,6BP overrides ATP, citrate, and PEP and basically says “I don’t care if we’ve got enough. Gotta get it while the gettin’s good!” And the gettin’s good after a meal which is why insulin is present in the first place.

But if we’re making so much that citrate is coming out, then we’ve probably got enough ATP/GTP and NADH to inhibit the Krebs cycle anyway so what’s the point? The point is that also in the presence of insulin acetyl-coa carboxylase is activated to make malonyl-coa which gets turned to fat. That’s why malonyl-coa inhibits CAT1 in b-oxidation of fatty acid bc there’s no point in breaking down fat if we’re actively making more.


But glucagon will inhibit acetyl-coa carboxylase which in turn decreases malonyl-coa which no longer inhibits CAT1 which leads to b-oxidation which then goes to ketogenesis. This is why a lack of insulin in type 1 diabetes causes DKA and why type 2 diabetics don’t really get DKA because they still have insulin so they still make malonyl-coa to inhibit CAT1.

Pretty much everything in metabolism has a cool way to tie together like that. There’s tons to just rote memorize and I could actually see the Zanki pics in my mind while typing this. But it’s easier if you step back with a big picture sometimes and try to ask yourself why it even happens to begin with. I hope this helped. If you have trouble with a specific thing like that shoot me a message and I’ll try to help. I guarantee I got frustrated with every part of that deck before I got the hang of it. Good luck!

PS: look at a picture if you don’t have this down while you read that.

 

[Gilakend]

Some of it is just keep trucking and trust the process. But a lot of it is more like “Why is this a thing?”

First off, I think it’s very unlikely that a question will make you choose between ADP vs AMP as an inhibitor. That’s just mean.

So back to the pfk1 thing. You have to ask yourself why should I care about this? If we run out of ATP we’ll end up with AMP which will then signal us to turn on pfk1 for eventually more ATP. But that’s not the case. If that’s how it worked then every time you made slightly more ATP than the requirements of the cell at that particular moment in time pfk1 would turn off. Metabolism would basically be going backwards and forward around that step and we’d never have sufficient energy stores to go for a jog.

So in the presence of insulin some fructose 6 phosphate is shunted to pfk2 to become fructose 2,6 bisphosphate. F2,6BP overrides ATP, citrate, and PEP and basically says “I don’t care if we’ve got enough. Gotta get it while the gettin’s good!” And the gettin’s good after a meal which is why insulin is present in the first place.

But if we’re making so much that citrate is coming out, then we’ve probably got enough ATP/GTP and NADH to inhibit the Krebs cycle anyway so what’s the point? The point is that also in the presence of insulin acetyl-coa carboxylase is activated to make malonyl-coa which gets turned to fat. That’s why malonyl-coa inhibits CAT1 in b-oxidation of fatty acid bc there’s no point in breaking down fat if we’re actively making more.


But glucagon will inhibit acetyl-coa carboxylase which in turn decreases malonyl-coa which no longer inhibits CAT1 which leads to b-oxidation which then goes to ketogenesis. This is why a lack of insulin in type 1 diabetes causes DKA and why type 2 diabetics don’t really get DKA because they still have insulin so they still make malonyl-coa to inhibit CAT1.

Pretty much everything in metabolism has a cool way to tie together like that. There’s tons to just rote memorize and I could actually see the Zanki pics in my mind while typing this. But it’s easier if you step back with a big picture sometimes and try to ask yourself why it even happens to begin with. I hope this helped. If you have trouble with a specific thing like that shoot me a message and I’ll try to help. I guarantee I got frustrated with every part of that deck before I got the hang of it. Good luck!

PS: look at a picture if you don’t have this down while you read that.

Thank you! I really appreciate it, I can't wait for this deck to be done.