Hey All.
I’m hoping you wise OPMs can give me some advice on biochem. I never had a chance to take it as an undergrad because of my work schedule, coupled with the fact that there wasn’t a school around that offered it in the evening. My school teaches in blocks and biochem is integrated throughout the first year with a heavy emphasis in block 1.
Are there any good books I can purchase between now and August that will give me a crash course in biochem so I will not be entirely lost from the beginning. I hate to start med school behind from the beginning.
Thanks so much for all of your help!
Lippincott’s Illustrated Review Biochemistry by Champe and Harvey is pretty good. Has a lot of nice flow charts and diagrams if you are a visual person.
We also used Basic Medical Biochemistry by Marks (I think), which wasn’t too bad.
I think Marks’ Basic MEdical Biochemistry is what I used for review the summer before med school. If you had a really good freshman bio or genetics class, with lots of emphasis on DNA replication and the joys of transcription and translation, you’ll be kind of set to begin to digest biochem. A tour around the Citric Acid cycle will also be helpful to you, and if you’re feeling really, really frisky, flashcarding out the chemical structures of the 20 amino acids humans have can be helpful.
Keeping up in med school biochem is all about pre-reading the notes, paying some attention to lecture, and memorizing the living behoosus out of whatever pathways are presented that day. Like most of first year med school it’s not conceptually difficult; there’s just too darn much of it. You’ll be okay, really.
Thanks Emergency and Samenewme! I’ll definitely check out both of these suggestions. I really appreciate your help!
I second Lippincott