Thursday, May 26, 2016

Biochemistry – How to study?


We see many requests coming to our study groups, asking for few tips to study Biochemistry. Today I thought we should talk about it for the sake of our 1st year Medicowesomites!! Yay!
Ok, Biochemistry, as the name itself implies is about Chemistry in Biological systems. So what do we most encounter in Biochemistry and how to tackle them?

Mostly we encounter the 4 main types of Biological Macromolecules. i.e , Carbohydrates, Proteins, Lipids and Nucleic Acids, and their Metabolisms.

We further more encounter, many related topics such as Enzymes, Porphyrins, Biologic Oxidation, Vitamins, Minerals, and Clinical Biochemistry etc.

  1.  Don’t cram Biochemistry. This is all about understanding. The stronger your foundation in Biochemistry is, the stronger you will grasp Pharmacology in the subsequent year.
  2. Try to understand what means what. Eg – What does a kinase basically do? , What is the connection between Porphyrin and Hemoglobin? ,
  3. Learn some basic Latin and Greek. This always comes in handy for Biochemistry as well as for Anatomy.
  4. Always try to understand the holistic picture before delving yourself into details. If you go inside details, you will be sunk in the vast lot of information you have, without knowing where the limit to stop is.
  5. Read your books, consult some YouTube videos. There are some people explaining topics much better than our professors will ever do. (Sorry ma’am!! :P )
  6. About books, we always used International books in our college. Our basic reference was Harpers, with some using Lippincotts and Lehningers. All three books are amazing, but in my idea Lippincott is easier to undertand, but the other two are more detailed.
  7. Always write and write and write the pathways etc. You will always forget where the ATP was, and if it were 1 or 2. You will misplace the NADPH and omit the H2O altogether. Always practice, and connect the step with the enzyme always.
  8. Understand what are rate limiting steps are what are the rest. So you can directly get few MCQs without losing some of your hair on the desk. :P
  9. Understand the basic concepts like Racemic mixures, Dextro-Levo rotatory, and understand how things like Boat or Chair structure occur, not by heart them.
  10. Understand keypoints of the lesson and try to build connections with the other topics you have already completed. Trust me at the end of the year, you will feel all topics fall in its place in a huge matrix!! :D
  11. Biochemistry is not hard if you focus into the larger picture then go into the details, not the other way round. Numbers and figures are very important in this subject so always focus on them. Don’t count the tiles on the floor in the exam while thinking if it was 1,25-DHCCF or 24,25-DHCCF. :P
  12. Always focus on the chemical figures. We had to identify and draw several chemical structures in Biochemistry subject. One less –OH will make you lose that point to pass the subject!!!

So these are few of the points I wanted to emphasize. I’ll add more as time goes on. Thanks a lot.

And ya we have a good news….we are no longer a blog, guys! We are a website now!!

Happy www.medicowesome.com guys!!! Enjoy your studies! :D

With love,

Jay J



1 comment:

  1. Hi, I am an engineering premed. And I will be studying some of these topics myself to tackle MCAT as they are a requirement for the exam. What subsequent topics should I be studying in order to be able to start studying Biochem?

    ReplyDelete

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