Hi,

I was wondering, are biochem 2B03 and biochem 2BB3 good courses worth taking (fairly easy and not so stressful) if I'm going into a Molecular Biology & Genetics program for second year, and just want a little bit of biochem?

Thanks!

Originally Posted by sarahyuan

Hi,

I was wondering, are biochem 2B03 and biochem 2BB3 good courses worth taking (fairly easy and not so stressful) if I'm going into a Molecular Biology & Genetics program for second year, and just want a little bit of biochem?

Thanks!

2B03 goes more indepth than what you would normally learn in Mol Bio courses so I wouldn't say it's easy but I didn't find it stressful. I thought it was a good course and it strengthened what I already learned and helped me in my later courses.

I cram studied 2B03 about 2 days before each midterm and was fine. Dr. Li could be easily convinced to reveal details about what we would be asked questions on. That being said the material was pretty nitty gritty but has come up a lot in future courses / projects. I loved 2BB3 but the assignments took a long time to perfect (in the end, I learned a ton from doing them). Just from what I've heard, I think these courses are much better/more interesting than 3G03 (the antireq).

Both are not too bad. Very easy to obtain 10-12 in both (you know what I mean, you can't do nothing obviously...)

For one of them, is it true that there is no exam but just weekly quizzes? I also read somewhere that these quizzes were also fairly tricky.... is that true?

Yes that would be the Biochem 2bb3 course. They were indeed tricky but more so because you had to think about all the possibilities to decide if a particular statement was true or false.

Would Biochem 2EE3 be an "easier" (less tricky, different format of the course) course?

I recommend going with what you're interested in. If you prefer memorization, go with 2EE3. If you enjoy both memorization and the chance for application, go with the two biochems. They are definitely interesting, but both require work. I can't vouch for 2EE3 as I haven't taken that yet. Even despite crapping out on my quizzes, I did well in the course because I put a lot of time into the assignments and final essay. And not having a final exam was a nice bonus.

Take biochem courses if you need to fulfill something, unless it really interests you, but since most people are asking if they are "easy", why not just take micro or something.