Medical Biochemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology I

 This is arguably the most difficult subject in the first year, many people fail mid terms and more fail the semi final. There are fewer calculations this time and they are easier but the volume and detail of the theory is colossal. Some of the tips from the medical chemistry subject will apply here too.

 Lots of what you will memorise here will seem useless, mainly structures (and it is mostly) but it will come up again in the second year.

How to pass
Turn up to all the lectures, even when you know they are going to be awful, it will help to focus your studying

Read through the lectures and make notes of the little details, these are likely to be asked in exams

Participate fully in the lab experiments, you will be tested on them later

If you don't understand something read about it online or in books or ask

Coon and friends will help you with the basics and pass the mid terms but not the semi final

Lots of the multiple choice questions are from a Lehninger exam preparation book, there is a digital copy called Mother of them all bank, read through the relevant topics to get an idea of the types of questions asked. There are a lot of them though so memorising will be difficult but not impossible

Learn the structures perfectly, they are basically free points, this is very important as the open questions are very difficult and the structures can get you to the 50% needed to pass the first part of the exam

Learn the base structure for each type and how to modify it to create others, this is often easier than memorising every structure individually

Learn to build up the vitamin structures from other easier structures

Calculations can be practised using the Selected Collection of Chemical Calculations and Biochemical Exercises book, however, there are some mistakes in the answers

The teachers can be slightly subjective with their markings, working hard and showing enthusiasm could earn you the extra point need to pass or increase your grade. This is more important in this semester as there are more open questions

The exams Midterms:

5 open questions

2 calculations or structures

Lab exam:

Short essay explaining one of the labs that was done through the semester

Final:

2 parts:

1st:

10 structures

1 calculation

5 open questions

2nd:

40 multiple choice questions

The difficulties
The  semi final exam, all of it

The list of structures are very complicated and detailed

The multiple choice questions can be worded in a very confusing way, often with minor differences between the options

The open questions can vary from being one word ultra detailed monsters to being so vague you could write a several page essay. Chances are you will not get many of these correct

Conclusion This is hard, very hard, you will be told it is hard many times by many people are they will all be correct but it is possible to pass, many do and when you do you will feel great. This is a subject that you will pass not because of how much you study but how smart you study