Biochemistry · Chemistry
I learned some biochemistry, much of which was relevant for my hopes to become a physician.
Glycolysis, TCA, Fatty Acid Synthesis, Application of knowledge
I learned about the unfortunate marriage of biology and organic chemistry and that I am officially, after 3 years of premed classes, not a science person.
Sugars, fats, proteins and their monomers, gibbs free energy, X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, enzyme kinetics, glycolysis, glugoneogenesis, PDH complex, TCA cycle, ETC, ATP synthesis, FA metabolism, protein metabolism, various shuttle systems, interchange between recurring molecules, repeating chemical pathways and mechanisms, and etc in great detail.
Major biochemical pathways and their role in disease processes
How major metabolic pathways function, and how they are regulated.
a lot of biochemical pathways like glycolysis and TCA
I'm not sure about recommending this class because it is very helpful for MCAT prep and for general understanding of biochemistry, but obviously horrible for GPA. I don't want to narrow everything down to grades and numbers, but considering a large majority of the class hopes to go to medical school or graduate school, being able to do well in a class is kind of important.
Since the course is not curved, and given that it is a stem course, it was very hard to maintain a good grade over the course, especially since we can't drop one of the exams. I think that pressured me in a negative way in studying the course a little bit. I feel like the learning experience of biochem could be a little more not pressuring than it is.
I wish wish wish I had listened to the online reviews of this course. Do what you can to not take it. A small example, instead of curving exams, if a large portion of the class does poorly on a question on the exam, Professor Ho just removes that question from the exam afterward. This method of pseudo-curving punishes the students who did do those questions correctly on the exam - they lose points for others not knowing the solutions. Questions on the exams were often way too hard for comprehension and often resulted in this scenario. Additionally, the weekly quizzes would either be extremely easy or extremely random and specific so you never had an idea of how to/ how much time to study for them. those are just two small examples.