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Colorado State University (CSU) Principles of Biochemistry (BC351)-
BC 351 | Principles of Biochemistry - CSU Online
I took this course the fall of 2015. Enough people have asked me about the course so I thought I would do this write up. I am a non-traditional student who took my pre-reqs at a local university. When the MCAT switched I knew I needed biochemistry, but my local university’s course attendance was too strict to accommodate my job. Thus I began look at online courses. I had emailed a few professors from different places and Dr. Sholders (Aaron Sholders) emailed me back within 2 hours. The correspondence here pretty much nailed it for me, considering my biggest concern was losing the feel of having a professor as a go to in a hard science class.
This class is called “Principles of Biochemistry” and is 4 credit hours. I don’t know if some schools that explicitly require “Biochemistry 1” (typically a 3 hour course) will have issue with it. I had interviews at schools “highly recommended” the course was taken. There were no eyes raised with this course, and it was obviously online considering I live in Texas and it was in Colorado. To quote one interviewer “life happens and you have to be flexible”.
Your grade is in this class is a combination of four exams (100 points each) and 14 quizzes (5 points each – total of 470 points).
The book for the class is online and written by Dr. Sholders. Exams directly correlate to his lectures, quizzes and the book. Each chapter has a quiz that you get two attempts at (highest score is graded) – one attempt is considered initial attempt and other is post studying/lecture. Access to each set of quizzes closes on the day the exam is due.
All lectures are recorded and are about 50 minutes in length. There is a PowerPoint for each lecture/chapter that he annotates on (you can see this) while he lectures. I think he said something along the lines of that you need to listen to 4 lectures a week to stay on track. For the summer course Dr. Sholders has told me you need to listen to 1.5 to 2 recordings a day (about 8-9 a week - condensed course obviously). There are 1 week (or so) periods where exams become available and you must take them. Can either do this in an official university proctor lab (never did this) or ProctorU. If you have never used an online exam proctor site ( I hadn’t) it’s not a big deal. You just need a dedicated area where you will be uninterrupted while they monitor you on webcam (they also do a quick system check for background programs to make sure you aren’t cheating). Exam times are pretty flexible (multiple a day).
The class starts with basic protein structure (bonding, structure types, acid-base implications in life processes and amino acids) and goes through enzymes, enzyme kinetics, bonding, membrane proteins/transport, carbohydrate metabolism, metabolic control, gibbs free energy/implications for protein folding and finally glycolysis/citric acid cycle/oxidative phosphorylation. I didn’t hit every topic but wanted to show the range of topics so you can compare to a “traditional” biochemistry course.
The course was EXTREMELY applicable to my MCAT practice and exam. There was nothing in the biological/biochem portion that I couldn’t handle. I have a pretty weak science background (just the necessary pre-reqs) and was able to score 80th percentile on this section of the MCAT.
I would recommend taking the course. Was able to make an A (don’t remember grade distribution, but a relatively small portion of the class did make As) through pre-reading, taking quiz, listening to lectures and annotating my powerpoint and then continuing reading after this. Dr. Sholders is ALWAYS available. It’s incredible the times on weekends I’d email him and he’d get back to me promptly with a good explanation and what sort of depth I needed to cover my question in. He is very passionate about teaching and his students.
It has been over a year since I took the course but I have been in contact with Dr. Sholders (emailed him today about this to ask him a question about the course). He is teaching this class in the summer and fall. Feel free to ask questions and I will answer to my best ability.
There is another professor who teaches this class but I don't know anyone who has taken it with them.
EDIT 4/26/17: Listen to 4 recordings a week to stay on track. Approximately 1.5 to 2 recordings (8-9 a week) a day for the condensed summer course.
@atothetwo
@glockgirl
BC 351 | Principles of Biochemistry - CSU Online
I took this course the fall of 2015. Enough people have asked me about the course so I thought I would do this write up. I am a non-traditional student who took my pre-reqs at a local university. When the MCAT switched I knew I needed biochemistry, but my local university’s course attendance was too strict to accommodate my job. Thus I began look at online courses. I had emailed a few professors from different places and Dr. Sholders (Aaron Sholders) emailed me back within 2 hours. The correspondence here pretty much nailed it for me, considering my biggest concern was losing the feel of having a professor as a go to in a hard science class.
This class is called “Principles of Biochemistry” and is 4 credit hours. I don’t know if some schools that explicitly require “Biochemistry 1” (typically a 3 hour course) will have issue with it. I had interviews at schools “highly recommended” the course was taken. There were no eyes raised with this course, and it was obviously online considering I live in Texas and it was in Colorado. To quote one interviewer “life happens and you have to be flexible”.
Your grade is in this class is a combination of four exams (100 points each) and 14 quizzes (5 points each – total of 470 points).
The book for the class is online and written by Dr. Sholders. Exams directly correlate to his lectures, quizzes and the book. Each chapter has a quiz that you get two attempts at (highest score is graded) – one attempt is considered initial attempt and other is post studying/lecture. Access to each set of quizzes closes on the day the exam is due.
All lectures are recorded and are about 50 minutes in length. There is a PowerPoint for each lecture/chapter that he annotates on (you can see this) while he lectures. I think he said something along the lines of that you need to listen to 4 lectures a week to stay on track. For the summer course Dr. Sholders has told me you need to listen to 1.5 to 2 recordings a day (about 8-9 a week - condensed course obviously). There are 1 week (or so) periods where exams become available and you must take them. Can either do this in an official university proctor lab (never did this) or ProctorU. If you have never used an online exam proctor site ( I hadn’t) it’s not a big deal. You just need a dedicated area where you will be uninterrupted while they monitor you on webcam (they also do a quick system check for background programs to make sure you aren’t cheating). Exam times are pretty flexible (multiple a day).
The class starts with basic protein structure (bonding, structure types, acid-base implications in life processes and amino acids) and goes through enzymes, enzyme kinetics, bonding, membrane proteins/transport, carbohydrate metabolism, metabolic control, gibbs free energy/implications for protein folding and finally glycolysis/citric acid cycle/oxidative phosphorylation. I didn’t hit every topic but wanted to show the range of topics so you can compare to a “traditional” biochemistry course.
The course was EXTREMELY applicable to my MCAT practice and exam. There was nothing in the biological/biochem portion that I couldn’t handle. I have a pretty weak science background (just the necessary pre-reqs) and was able to score 80th percentile on this section of the MCAT.
I would recommend taking the course. Was able to make an A (don’t remember grade distribution, but a relatively small portion of the class did make As) through pre-reading, taking quiz, listening to lectures and annotating my powerpoint and then continuing reading after this. Dr. Sholders is ALWAYS available. It’s incredible the times on weekends I’d email him and he’d get back to me promptly with a good explanation and what sort of depth I needed to cover my question in. He is very passionate about teaching and his students.
It has been over a year since I took the course but I have been in contact with Dr. Sholders (emailed him today about this to ask him a question about the course). He is teaching this class in the summer and fall. Feel free to ask questions and I will answer to my best ability.
There is another professor who teaches this class but I don't know anyone who has taken it with them.
EDIT 4/26/17: Listen to 4 recordings a week to stay on track. Approximately 1.5 to 2 recordings (8-9 a week) a day for the condensed summer course.
@atothetwo
@glockgirl
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