I just finished the biochemistry class with an A and let me tell you that this class was extremely difficult. Extremely is an understatement. This class was 2 X harder than any prerequisite science class that I have taken at the state school I am doing my post bacc at.
Let me give you my background:
I am a 24 year old consultant who has to travel frequently. This job requires anywhere between 50-60 hours a week. The state school near where I live in Dallas does not offer Biochemistry at night. Since the only classes that I had left to take were Orgo 2, biochem, and English (the rest taken at my undergraduate school- I was Engineering and CS as an undergraduate) I decided that one online class would be permissible to a lot of the schools I would be applying to. All Texas TMDSAS schools said they took it. Worst case scenario, I would get a good background for the MCAT and would be able to show to schools that I can handle a medical school level curriculum even if I had to retake biochem before matriculating. Best case scenario I get credit. That's why I elected to not take a class at the local CC at night: I thought this class would be a better signaler than a CC class if I got an A in it.
I'll be applying in Texas, so I have a TMDSAS GPA of 3.87ish and a AMCAS GPA of 3.80ish. I went to a top 10 school (Ivy) and graduated with Honors so I think this will be enough to make me competitive for a state MD school. I mention this for two reasons:
1). To show that I'm not incompetent. A lot of people are dismissive of the opinions of others because they think that they "don't work hard" or that they're not intelligent. This isn't true in the slightest. Smart and hardworking people struggle too. If they struggle, there is a high chance that you will struggle too.
2). To show that I'm not planning on applying to osteopathic schools this cycle. As such, my advice and opinions may not apply to you.
With all being said, let's get started.
I probably studied 14 hours a day each week for just new material (Exams took extra). This wasn't because I was just bad at retaining information, but rather because of the way the course is structured. To get an A in this class, you literally need to memorize every word that comes out of her mouth. Every single detail is good to know because if not tested directly, it will be tested tangentially. The way the course is structured, the only way to get this information is to watch and re-watch each lecture. I probably watched each lecture 5+ times to make sure my notes weren't missing any information. Ultimately, the questions are designed to test you on minutia. There are very few "gimme" questions on the exams. Whether this is fair I don't know. My undergraduate didn't have multiple choice exams, so I don't know if this is the standard.
Some questions are designed to trick you. One such question was the following: Which of the following is a precursor for gluconeogenesis? Two answers were protein and glycerol. Well she said in lecture that both were precursors, but only protein was the correct answer because it is "more" of a precursor. Yeah I got that question wrong.
The class is very harsh in grading. I missed 10 questions total: 1 in Unit 1, 1 in Unit 3, 2 in Unit 2 and 5 in Unit 4 and barely got an A. Any question you miss will therefore hurt you dearly. You hear a lot of people in this class taking about getting a straight A. Well that was in the magical time of a curve. There is no curve now, which makes the class even more ridiculously unforgiving.
The lecture quality is not the best. In fact, it is outright poor. She goes over so much content that she glosses over things. This doesn't give you the depth that you need to understand things for the MCAT (this is particularly true for Unit 1 material, which I can barely remember even though I just finished this class). She also has errors in her lectures. This is inexcusable. You can't have incorrect statements in your lectures. It makes it extremely difficult for people to understand conceptually what's happening, especially in an online class (pay attention to insulin synthesis!).
You may be asking: "Well golly inajeT02 you make a lot of fine points but how do people do so well in this course?" A lot of people study extremely hard, but a lot of people also cheat. I was curious, so I wrote down a question from one of the proctored Unit 4 exams verbatim, and googled that question. Guess what? It was on the internet. That may have just been one question (a fairly easy one in retrospect) but that goes to show you that there are answers online so someone is probably using them. A lot of people also probably don't close their books for the Unit 1 and Unit 3 exams. If you're ethical like I am, you're at an inherent disadvantage.
I will say that you do learn a lot. You go through a lot of material and are expected to learn that material well. Many people say, "Well this is a medical school level class. What did you expect?" I don't mind learning. On the contrary I love learning and that's why I want to go back to school. What I don't like is a class that is not conducive for learning. This class has a lot of BS that you have to deal with that stem from its structure and harshness. If medical school is actually like this, where the lectures are awful and terrible, God help us all.
This class is a nightmare for your GPA, but good as a way to fulfill a requirement if you've already been accepted or something (where your GPA doesn't matter)
For reference, here were my final "tallies"
Time taken in weeks: 17 weeks 3 days
Hours studied: 304 hours
Grade: 94ish% (A)
PM me if you have questions or post in here if you think it'll be valuable for others to read as well. Also take my advice at face value. Other people will have different opinions. You may disagree with mine. That's fine. I don't care what you end up doing. I just want people to make fully informed decisions. This community convinced me to go back to school to be a doctor. I just want to do my part.
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