Hello . I want to ask is there any study guide for biochemistry that you know ? Thanks xx
Hi! I don’t know of a good comprehensive study guide (if any one does know of one, please share!) but I can give you a list of useful stuff to know for a general biochemistry course. Most of this should be covered in your course, obviously, but hopefully this will help you pick out what’s important.
Macromolecules and their components (usually taught first)
1. Amino Acids - names, abbreviations, structure, hydrophobicity, and charge at pH 7. Here’s a flashcard set, but I think it’s best to make your own and draw them over and over. They can be hard to memorize, but it helps if you sort them into groups with similar structure (like Val, Leu, Ile) and memorize the differences between them. Knowing the shape and properties of amino acids is really useful in understanding how proteins work, particularly what changing a single amino acid might do to a protein.
2. Proteins - understand primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures of proteins and know what alpha-helices and beta-sheets are. Know which forces drive protein folding and how they do it.3. Carbohydrates - if your class covers carbohydrate metabolism, being comfortable with carbohydrate nomenclature makes everything easier. Here’s a tutorial, which may be useful. It’s also good to know how individual sugars react to form polysaccharides.
4. Lipids - Most biology courses will teach you about the phospholipid bilayer, but biochemistry courses may require a more comprehensive knowledge of lipids and fats. This depends a lot on your professor or teacher, however. One of mine was super into lipid metabolism so we learned a ton about them. Generally, it’s useful to know naming and properties of lipids.
5. Nucleic Acids - Know the structural difference between RNA and DNA, and learn the structures of each nucleic acid base (Adenine, Uracil, Thymine, Guanine, and Cytosine). Sketch how complementary base pairs (AT, AU, GC) fit together in double stranded DNA or RNA. Remember that DNA strands are antiparallel to each other and know the chemical reasoning behind the 5’-3’ nomenclature. Also know that DNA polymerase can only add new nucleotides to the 3’ end (the one with a hydroxyl group) of a growing chain, so it moves along the template strand in the 5’ to 3’ direction.
Khan Academy has a good overview of macromolecules here. Enzymes
Khan Academy has a page for them here, it looks pretty comprehensive and informative!
Metabolism
The actual metabolic pathways taught will vary from course to course, so I’ll just share a good way to study them. My preferred method is to put everything on flashcards. For each step in the pathway I make two flashcards - one with the molecule formed and one with the enzyme that performed the step. I also make flashcards for metabolites that go in and out of the pathway. To study them, I lay them out in the correct order of the pathway. Here’s a picture of my Krebs cycle flashcards, since I’m not sure if I’m explaining it well.
The most important thing in a biochemistry class is to remember that it’s cumulative. You’ll build on the early stuff later in the class, so if you study hard at the beginning it will pay off. Biochemistry can be difficult, but it’s really rewarding to learn how all the intricate details of life work!
