Whenever I was initially interested in taking this class, I looked at this blog and read several reviews of the class. I just (literally 2 hours ago) took my final exam so I wanted to give yall my input because I thought some of the reviews on this (that I read at the beginning of the year, not necessarily the more recent ones) weren't a realistic review in my opinion.
To give you a tiny background on myself, I graduated from my undergrad at a university in TX last year. My science GPA was 3.6. I am pre-PA. I didn't originally plan on taking biochemistry because only 1 TX PA program required it. However, I changed my mind, for several reasons, after learning about this online class opportunity once I had graduated. In my undergrad, I took several online courses, ranging from 3 weeks long (mini-mester) to a full semester long. So online courses are not a stranger to me.
Facts about the class:
The class is expensive. It cost me $1225. It is completely online and self-paced. You are given a start date and and a "scheduled completion" date. Mine was about 3 1/2 months after. You can complete the class faster if you can. There also is an option of requesting a 10 week extension. I did this. So in total, I had 6 months to take this course.
The class is split up into 4 units. There is an exam after each unit. Unit 2 exam is the midterm and is 90% from Unit 2 and 10% from Unit 1. Unit 4 is the final exam and is 90% from Unit 4 and 10% over all the other units. Within each unit, the information is split up into modules. Each module has 1-2 lectures and lecture materials provided on the website. Each module has a "pre-quiz" that your supposed to take before completing the module then a quiz you take after that actually counts for your grade. Unit 1 and 3 exam are 30 multiple choice questions. Unit 2 and 4 are 50 multiple choice questions. Unit 2 and 4 are also proctored. Since its online, you make an account through ProctorU and someone literally watches you, through webcam, taking the exam. You schedule the exam in advance on the website so that it can work. Here's the breakdown.
Unit 1:
Module 1-6
[Unit 1 Exam]
Unit 2:
Module 7-10
[Unit 2 Exam]
Unit 3:
Module 11-13
[Unit 3 Exam]
Unit 4:
Module 14-16
[Unit 4 Exam]
Your grade is made up of...
60% Summative Exams (Unit 2 and 4)
20% Formative Exams (Unit 1 and 3)
20% Module Quizzes
88-100 = A
78-87 = B
68-77 = C
My opinion of/advice for this course:
First off, this is an online class. Do NOT sign up for this course expecting it to not be completely up to how much work you put into the course. Everything is already on the website provided for you. The lectures are recorded into a video. The only thing missing is how much you want to put into it. What it takes to complete this course is time, effort, dedication, memorization, HARD work etc. So if you haven't ever taken an online course that is intensive in anyway, do not be mad when you realize how much work this class takes because it is solely online. Instead of a regularly scheduled class that you go to on campus that, in a sense, forces you to learn the new material, you have to make your own "schedule" for this class and be able to keep up with it. Regardless of the specific class, it already requires MORE work and self-dedication to keep up with it all since its completely online and the only "deadline" is completing the course. If this is your first time taking an online course, please don't be discourage by this but just be aware of the expectations an online course takes.
Secondly, this is MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY. If you sign up for this class hoping for a "blow off" or easy course, please take my advice and DO NOT take this class. Actually, for that matter, do not take medical biochemistry anywhere hoping for an "easy A". Every single one of my friends I talked to while taking this course that had taken it previously somewhere else said some comment about how extremely difficult biochemistry is. That includes people that are pre-med (even someone who just completed med school), pre-nursing, and pre-PA. My friend (who completed her undergrad in 2 years with a 4.0 in biomedical science at Texas A&M University) who just completed med school and is applying to her residency said "I really liked that class but it was very hard". That should put something into perspective for you. So, I cannot stress enough, regardless of everything else, this class is difficult. (Potentially) enjoyable but difficult.
Thirdly, because of the combination of the above 2 things I said, I do not recommend taking this class while taking a full-load of courses and/or working full time. However, it IS possible. Just takes more work and dedication from yourself. So DO NOT sign up for this class doing either one of those and then are surprised at how hard it was completing this class... I literally was laughing when I read a few reviews of people stating how many other things they have going on in their life and were shocked at how hard this class was. I'm not saying its impossible by any means. But I'll put it this way, it doesn't make it easier by any means. I took this class from May to October. During May, June, July, and August, I was working overtime hours at my job and applying to PA schools. However, I spent endless hours studying when I got off work into the early hours of the morning to be able to complete this class. Since I was working so much, I did put this class off for the first 2 months. I literally didn't even know what a day off felt like so studying wasn't exactly appealing on my few hours I had off. But I found a way to complete everything in time.
Honestly, I really never seemed to figure out what worked best for me to memorize everything. So I can't provide much advice about how to study.. Normally I am a notecard studier and that works wonders. I tried that and spent endless hours making notecards that didn't seem to help as much as they have for other classes. Now that I've finished the class, it seems like almost the entire course is processes. Processes, the names of molecules at each step in each process, the enzymes that complete each step in each process, and things that activate/inhibit that enzyme. Also knowing the overall impact of each process and what happens if there's deficiencies at any of the steps in any of the processes. You are expected to know all that and THEN be able to compare them all to each other and keep all the molecules/enzymes separate from beginning to end. I bought a whiteboard and wrote out the processes hundreds and hundreds of times. For example, while studying the urea cycle that's at the end, I wrote that one out many times. I'd feel very confident with it. But then I always seemed to have forgotten all the other processes that I had already studied. That seemed like a theme throughout the entire class. Seems like the class could be relatively easy if you are good at memorizing something and literally never forgetting it. There's so many processes and most either pertain to, for example, when insulin is high (energy is high) or when glucagon is high (energy is low). Anyway, all the processes are just overwhelming to me, especially at the end because things I had already gone over, I couldn't remember so it was just frustrating. I also didn't exactly space out my studying as well as I had planned/hoped when I started the class so that probably didn't help.
Unit 1 and Unit 3 exam are easier in my opinion. But that's probably because its only over that one unit's info. Unit 2 exam was harder than those and Unit 4 exam that I just took tonight, was insane hah. But when I took the final, I just kept mixing up things that I had never mixed up before and just got overwhelmed and couldn't keep things straight. However, I did pass the exam (barely but I did pass). Based off the amount of info on each exam, I most definitely think that each exams difficulty was definitely appropriate.
Just FYI, I ended up getting a B in the class. So its definitely possible to do okay in this class. I put in HOURS studying and got a B. And that's with terribly spacing out my studying, putting the class off for the first 2 months, and as a result, basically binge studying towards the end to get this class done. If you do not appropriately space out your time while enrolled in this course to study, its not the end of the world. But I cannot stress how much time I had to spend in the last month, especially, to finish this course because of the choices I made from the start. I literally finished within less than a week left in my deadline (after getting an extension). So I just had to put in waaaay more effort than I would've had to do if I just studied regularly and spaced it out evenly from the start.
My "professor" was Renee LeClair. I put professor in quotes because I'm not exactly sure how all the professors would vary in this class. Seems like it doesn't really make a difference. But I emailed Renee for a few things throughout taking the course and she responded quicker than any professor that I have ever had. Her response's were always very straight forward and helpful.
In summary..
Medical Biochemistry online thru UNE is very hard. But it is very much possible to do well in this class. Biochemistry is known for being hard anywhere that you take it so taking it online, doesn't exactly do the class any justice. However, I definitely think this class is a very good alternative to taking it at a college. Medical biochemistry, for anyone in any type of pre health field, can definitely be enjoyable. But you have to know what to honestly expect and know its difficulty level. If you understand that and are pre-health, I really think you will enjoy the information in this course.
I cannot stress enough again, DO NOT take this course if:
1) you expect a blow-off, easy A, or easy version of biochem.
2) you are already enrolled in a full course load and/or work full time and expect it to be relatively easy. Its most definitely possible (I was working overtime hours throughout the course) but you have to put in double the effort to complete it.
3) you have never taken an online course and expect the same, or easier, compared to a regular lecture class where you have to show up to the lecture hall every week at a scheduled time. I have a history of taking several online classes and my opinion, regardless of which class, is the same. They all take more dedication than regular courses since you are not required to show up to class at a certain time to learn the material.
I keep repeating all those reasons not to take this course because some of the reviews I read on here awhile ago were from people frustrated at how much work the class was in general, frustrated that its not a professor teaching you regularly (even though a professor kindly recorded her voice and talks thru every single slide), and frustrated they didn't do well/or shocked at how much work they had to put in while they took full course load or had a ton of other things going on in their life (kids, work, etc..). Again, please take my opinions into consideration based off my background I provided at the beginning.
I just wanted to share my very honest opinion of this class in hopes of encouraging everyone who reads this to either 1) definitely sign up for the class and know generally the amount of work it takes to complete this course or 2) decide against this class so they don't waste their time/money because they don't think they can handle it. This class teaches you so much and I am very happy that I chose to take this class. But I am truly exhausted haha. Definitely well worth my time though. I hope my (extensive) review can help some of yall out! Expensive, hard, but so so so worth your time if you are pre-health.
Good luck to anyone taking this class!
