Originally Posted by jordan19

would you recommend specializing or just staying in biochem core?

Since you're considering graduate school, I highly recommend that you choose a specialization. You won't get enough prerequisite lab time in core alone.

Biochem students get a lot of "is this program hard?" questions. Any University program is challenging to a certain degree, but to answer your question here's a copy+paste of a response I gave to another prospective biochemistry student:


"It's hard to say if your marks will "improve" based on the program you choose because that's entirely up to you. There isn't a ridiculously high jump in difficulty from level 1 science to level 2 biochemistry, but if you you slack off and take your foot off the gas pedal your marks will drop. I pretty much tell this to all students interested in entering the biochemistry program and worrying that their marks will drop: if you put in a fair and genuine amount of work into your classes, you'll get a Dean's Honour List GPA (>9.5). In terms of the courses, here's my quick rundown of them (in my opinion):

Biochem 2L06: Easy, but don't underestimate it. The class average was around 85%. Out of the 18-20 labs we did throughout the year, only one of them lasted four hours. They're usually 2-3 hours long.
Biochem 2B03: It's pretty much pure memorization. The group project and exam makes this class a double digit grade class (10,11,12).
Biochem 2BB3: I loved proteins before this class and hated them afterward. The content is dry and the weekly quizzes are wordy.
Organic Chemistry 2OA3: Hard class. Put a lot of work into it and you can get a good mark (I suck at organic chemistry and I pulled off a decent grade here)
Organic Chemistry 2OB3: Very hard class. Lots of reactions and mechanisms to know. The exam for this class was probably the hardest I've written at University.
Chem Bio 2P03: Not too hard. The midterms have two types of questions: computation (i.e. calculations) and theory (statement) questions. The former are easy if you know the formulas, the latter are a bit tricky. The group project and homework assignments make this a double digit class though.
Biology 2B03: Easy class. Double digit.

When I say "easy", I mean if you genuinely study 4-6 days before the midterm/exam, you will get a good mark. When I say "hard", I don't mean give up all hope because it's impossible to get a good grade: I just mean that I found the class challenging.

In terms of workload, yeah there is a lot. You definitely won't be deprived of a social life, but you will need to put a lot of effort into your schoolwork."

plus you can always choose to specialize, and then its easier to drop down to core than it would be to switch to a specialization from core (limited spots)

i think all biochem, specialization or not, is the exact same in 2nd year anyways right?

Originally Posted by zango

plus you can always choose to specialize, and then its easier to drop down to core than it would be to switch to a specialization from core (limited spots)

i think all biochem, specialization or not, is the exact same in 2nd year anyways right?

Correct. And you're absolutely right that it's easier to go from specialization to core after 2nd year.

What types of labs do we do in the 2L06 course?
I know in one of them biochem course reviews, it mentions something about DNA primers? cool =)

i think its all about obtaining DNA samples, PCR, RFLPs, southern blotting, etc. techniques... upper year would have to comment on it though, im going based on what i think

so pretty much the stuff we covered in wilson's section..
well at least we get to see theory in action!

Originally Posted by Mz.Morra13

What types of labs do we do in the 2L06 course?
I know in one of them biochem course reviews, it mentions something about DNA primers? cool =)

I've actually been meaning to write a proper course review for 2L06 (I'll get around to it eventually) but you essentially begin first term working with nucleic acids and the folA gene from E. Coli. You perform several biochemical techniques dealing with DNA/RNA such as PCR, Site-Directed Mutagenisis, bacterial transformation and DNA Recombination. The goal is to induce a specific mutation in the genetic code which translated a new mutated protein product. You spend the entire second term purifying and assaying the wildtype and mutant proteins, which involve techniques such as nickel chromatography, Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Bradford & Lowry Assaying and spectrophotometry.

I think this is the first time second year students will also be doing a Western Blot in addition to SDS-PAGE.

Originally Posted by kenneth526

I've actually been meaning to write a proper course review for 2L06 (I'll get around to it eventually) but you essentially begin first term working with nucleic acids and the folA gene from E. Coli. You perform several biochemical techniques dealing with DNA/RNA such as PCR, Site-Directed Mutagenisis, bacterial transformation and DNA Recombination. The goal is to induce a specific mutation in the genetic code which translated a new mutated protein product. You spend the entire second term purifying and assaying the wildtype and mutant proteins, which involve techniques such as nickel chromatography, Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, Bradford & Lowry Assaying and spectrophotometry.

I think this is the first time second year students will also be doing a Western Blot in addition to SDS-PAGE.

That sounds pretty awesome. How'd you find the follow up reports? Were they like.. every week and what not?

Yep, you have an informal lab report due every week after every lab. It's similar to the carbon-copy discussions you did in Chem 1A03/1AA3, only that they're due the next week and not at the end of the lab. For some labs, they post your results on webCT (specifically gel pictures).

There are only two formal lab reports for the entire class, one the at the end of each semester. The second lab report is the big one because it's cumulative and encompasses everything you've done the entire year (in essence, 2L06 is one big experiment - you'll see what I mean when you read the course outline in September).

Originally Posted by kenneth526

Yep, you have an informal lab report due every week after every lab. It's similar to the carbon-copy discussions you did in Chem 1A03/1AA3, only that they're due the next week and not at the end of the lab. For some labs, they post your results on webCT (specifically gel pictures).

There are only two formal lab reports for the entire class, one the at the end of each semester. The second lab report is the big one because it's cumulative and encompasses everything you've done the entire year (in essence, 2L06 is one big experiment - you'll see what I mean when you read the course outline in September).

Yeah I was gonna say, it seems like you're building up to an ultimate goal or whatever with each lab..
It sounds sort of intimidating with the fact that there's a lab due every week.. but I guess that makes up for the fact that there's no exam right (did i hear that right from someone?)

How about people wise.. does everyone in biochem get close at all since everyone pretty much takes the same thing?

The report every week isn't that hard: you already write the introduction/safety/procedures section before you enter the lab, you take observation and results notes during the lab so you only have to write the discussion section when you get home (which, on average, is only 1.5-2 pages hand written per lab). And yes, there is no final exam for this course, but the final lab report will take a chunk out of your studying time for other classes.

In addition to your lab partner, you get to know the people at your lab bench pretty well. You'll be sharing the same reagents, equipment, etc with them the entire year. In terms of the program as a whole, you take a total of 24 units of classes together, so you'll probably recognize all 130 faces of the students in biochem by the end of the first term

The final lab report is written in second term right?
Which is kind of good for me.. the way it worked out both of my electives are that term so more time to focus on my core courses.

More about the personal stuff though.. lol don't laugh. but my bf n i happened to pick the same program, and the way the scheduling got set up we have..well almost everything together including the lab. do u reccomend working with a boyfriend/girlfriend in the lab as a partner? or is it better to just like be on the same lab bench but not a partner?

Yeah, the big final lab report is in second term. There's another formal lab report at the end of the first term, but it isn't as long/heavily weighted as the second one.

Interesting question, I don't think working with your boyfriend/girlfriend will really affect lab performance, but lab partners are assigned alphabetically based on last names anyway.

That's good. Our last names are L and M..so maybe we'll end up on the same bench. How many people per lab.. I'm gonna guess like 35? cz there's 110 people in the program right..?

Overall, what would u say was the key to doing well, yet still being able to go out and enjoy your time at school? I realize it varies for each person, but it's interesting to see different methods right? =) thx a lot for all the replies btw!

Yeah, there are two lab rooms and each one has about 30-35 students.

Since you had academic success in first year (I came to this conclusion because you got into the biochemistry program ;-) ), I would suggest keeping up whatever good study habits you used in second year as well. It's a tad difficult coming up with the biochem manifesto of success, but if you continue doing what you did right in first year and learn from your mistakes, you'll find a decent balance between school work and social life.

For courses like Biochem/Biology 2B03, and Chem 2OB3 where there is A LOT of memorization involved, I find studying a little bit everyday helps a lot more than cramming a week before the midterm/exam. For 2L06, it will seem somewhat simple at first since the course content overlaps with Biochem 2B03 in first term and 2BB3 in second term, but I highly recommend that you genuinely spend time working on the lab write-ups and reading the pre-lab theory.

I think the material learned in a lot of the required classes are naturally interesting to biochemistry students (yes, even some of the organic chem stuff ), and I feel that there is a strong correlation between interest level and success in courses.