bio question: metabolism

[jon0013]

so chapter one of bio sci deals with good old glycolysis, FDC, krebs, etc...this is the part of bio i've always hated this stuff..my question is how important is this stuff on the diags and real test?

thanks,
Jon

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[dfleis]

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[MoosePilot]

In TPR the first three chapters seemed the most important. There were lots of metabolism and biochemistry type questions.

so chapter one of bio sci deals with good old glycolysis, FDC, krebs, etc...this is the part of bio i've always hated this stuff..my question is how important is this stuff on the diags and real test?

thanks,
Jon

 

[UCLAstudent]

I had some of it on my MCAT.

 

[kaikai128]

so chapter one of bio sci deals with good old glycolysis, FDC, krebs, etc...this is the part of bio i've always hated this stuff..my question is how important is this stuff on the diags and real test?

thanks,
Jon

I remember from mine that it was on there some, I don't remember how much. However, these things are not going to go away for a long time.

It seems that almost every upper level bio class that I took required me to know them at some level or another...you might as well store them in long term memory in great detail now...it will save you agony in the future.

 

[elias514]

The most important thing to keep in mind regarding the MCAT is that it's NOT a detail-oriented exam but rather a critical thinking test. Thus, you need not learn all the excruciating details of intermediary metabolism, there are only a few major facts and concepts that you should bring with you to test day; everything else will be provided for you in the MCAT passage:

1. The purpose of each biochemical pathway. For instance, glycolysis partially oxidizes glucose, thereby generating some reducing power (high energy electrons in NADH) and some ATP. THe Krebs cycle fully oxidizes what is left of glucose, following glycolysis and pyruvate decarboxylation, thereby generating a ton of NADH and FADH2 (and a modicum of ATP); further, the Krebs cycle functions as a sort of hub of metabolism, meaning that a lot of things feed into it and many things can be synthesized from the intermediates in the cycle.

2. The location of each process (e.g., pyruvate decarboxylation occurs in the mitochondrial matrix) and the implications of this location from the standpoint of energy production--HINT: the NADH produced by glycolysis must go to the inner mitochondrial membrane to participate in oxidative phosphorylation, but NADH doesn't exactly cross biological membranes with ease.

3. Understand negative and positive feedback--this is REALLY important.

4. Understand the significance of aerobic and anaerobic environments (e.g., when oxygen is not present, then fermentation occurs and the Krebs cycle and ETC are inactive)

5. Know the ultimate products of each pathway, but not necessarily the exact number of each product, the one exception being the number of ATP's generated by each pathway.

6. Know the relationships between electron shuttling, proton movement across biological membranes, and phosphorylation of ADP in the electron transport chain. It's critical that you fully understand why the ETC relies on an electrochemical gradient for ATP generation.

 

[MoosePilot]

The most important thing to keep in mind regarding the MCAT is that it's NOT a detail-oriented exam but rather a critical thinking test. Thus, you need not learn all the excruciating details of intermediary metabolism, there are only a few major facts and concepts that you should bring with you to test day; everything else will be provided for you in the MCAT passage:

For the most part that's true, but there are definitely free standing questions, some of which you can not answer without prior knowledge. If you don't have that knowledge, you're hosed on that question. So while you should concentrate on improving your critical thinking skills, studying to refresh your knowledge never hurts (and not doing it *can* hurt).

I memorized the rough formula for glycolysis and I remember thinking at the time that it provided the information I needed for one question.

 

[elias514]

Free-standing factual questions (otherwise known as 1st or 2nd order questions) on the MCAT are very rare. You can ace the MCAT (95th percentile or better) without memorizing all the ridiculous minutiae of biology, o.chem, etc. I did it, and I'm certainly not alone in this regard.

 

[MoosePilot]

Free-standing factual questions (otherwise known as 1st or 2nd order questions) on the MCAT are very rare. You can ace the MCAT (95th percentile or better) without memorizing all the ridiculous minutiae of biology, o.chem, etc. I did it, and I'm certainly not alone in this regard.

Well I won't argue. There are generally three sections of about 6ish freestanding questions if I remember correctly. And sure you can do great without knowing each piece of factual knowledge, just like you can skip a verbal passage if you do great on all the others. It's easier to do well if you don't ignore a question type, though.

 

[horrorshow]

Free-standing factual questions (otherwise known as 1st or 2nd order questions) on the MCAT are very rare. You can ace the MCAT (95th percentile or better) without memorizing all the ridiculous minutiae of biology, o.chem, etc. I did it, and I'm certainly not alone in this regard.

i completely disagree with this. i was a computer sciencemajor, and i had to learn all the details of bio, chem, orgo, and physics in order to really understand the concepts. i think those people who say that you don't need to know details are probably people for whom concepts come easily (or they are bio major who have learned this over a lifetime). for most other people, concepts only come by studying the details. that's how i see things.