<p>Well in my current school, one of my bio TAs who is a grad student, recently graduated from Cornell. He told me that biochem is a killer because he also had to take quizzes in the help room which consisted of an oral part and a written part and he had to pass them to take the prelims. </p>
<p>What topics are in biochem 2? And is the class structure similar to biochem 1. Is biochem 1 necessary or they are totally different courses?</p>
<p>Technically they tell you to still go to lectures- most people do not. It isn't necessary- you need to take 2 of the exams (out of 3 or 4) and all you need to do is pass them, which isn't difficult. </p>
<p>You meet in section groups 2/3 times a week, and before each section you'll read 1-2 articles, and then discuss them in section. Each week a student will lead the discussion by coming up with questions and leading everyone to the main point, but everyone is expected to at least read the article beforehand. The papers I don't remember being difficult. The lit review- we got to pick any topic we wanted related to evolution. We had several weeks to do it as far as I remember, and my TA was around to give a lot of guidance if you wanted. I thought it was a good class- my section had some interesting discussions. </p>
<p>As far as this vs lecture class, I guess its whatever your personal preference is.</p>
<p>Wait, so you just need to pass the 2 exams. That is all? And of course do well on the papers. How frequently were the short write-ups due. Also, when you talked about the 4-6 pg papers, was outside research necessary? Or did the prof assign topcis or you chose your own for those also?</p>
<p>Grading was mainly our papers, lit review, participation in discussion. </p>
<p>As far as the general lecture course's exams: they basically were a very small, easy part of our grade, so lecture isn't necessary.</p>
<p>I don't really remember if outside research was necessary for those- I took it 2 years ago. Hopefully I gave you a general idea of what the course is like though.</p>
<p>That's cool. I just want to confirm something, in the gen bio labs that freshman take, 103 I believe, is it solely quizzes? What experiments are done and what topics are covered? Do you work in groups? Do you also write lab reports, papers for it, etc.?</p>
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What topics are in biochem 2? And is the class structure similar to biochem 1. Is biochem 1 necessary or they are totally different courses?
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<p>Bio 331 covers proteins and metabolism. Has the 1 midterm and 1 final and the weekly quizzes. Feigenson is awesome. There's no oral component to the quizzes. I think your TA might've been talking about BioBM 330, which is the autotutorial version of BioBM 331-332.</p>
<p>Bio 332 covers molecular biology and focuses on nucleic acids. As I previous mentioned, there are 3 midterms (you can drop one) and the final. It's only 2-credits for some reason. Tye sux as a teacher but not much you can do there.</p>
<p>BioBM 331 and 332 are pretty much unrelated. In fact, I took BioBM 332 before 331. </p>
<p>As has been mentioned before, in intro bio labs, the most important component is the long practical at the end of the semester that covers all of the labs of that semester. The labs are usually easy but uninteresting. You don't do the typical chem style (objective, procedure, results, conclusion) lab reports in a lab notebook. Instead, you buy a packet of worksheets and turn those in as you do each lab. There will usually be a couple of quizzes along the way to make sure you're up to speed. There is a lot of variability in terms of now hard your quizzes are (depending on your TA). But, remember that everyone (across different TA's) take the same practical and that each TA must follow the same curve. In other words, don't be jealous if your friend who has another TA shows you her easy quiz. It'll even out in the end because she will be curved against the TA's other students.</p>
<p>woah, guys, is it already time for us to worry about choosing our courses? and I am a freshman majoring in engineering.</p>
<p>Any advice on what to memorize before hand for biochem 2, such as amino acids, proteins, etc? Do you by any chance have any notes from that class or something so that I may see how hard it truly is?</p>
<p>Why don't you just enjoy your summer?</p>
<p>Well because I am afraid of failure and I know that Cornell will be the toughest life experience to date. I need to be ready so that I may do well, attain a decent GPA, make time for research, and hopefully get into a med school (preferably an MD/PhD program).</p>
<p>You need to memorize amino acids for BioBM 331 but there's nothing to memorize for BioBM 332. I found that attending the big review session they have before each exam in BioBM 332 really helped. Tye used to tell the TA's what was going to be on each exam so the TA's really focused on those topics in the review session. It's only 2 credits so whether you get an A or B, it's unlikely to hurt your grade too much.</p>