Year 2 Classes: Fall 2021

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Hey everyone! Another semester down means another installment to be made in my series about classes I’ve taken in the 6-year program. In all honesty, this was an extremely difficult semester for me especially as I was simultaneously struggling with mental health issues. I have been putting off academic-related blog posts for a bit while I recover, but I’m glad to be back at it and I hope that what I have to say might help whoever is here in search of advice. Let’s get into it!

  • BMS 9265: Human Biochemistry I (Medical)
    • Instructors: Dr. Darla McCarthy & Dr. Rosa Huang – Dr. McCarthy is the Course Coordinator for this class, and she taught most of the material as well; she became one of my favorite professors I’ve had for several reasons, mainly being the clear expectations she set for the course from day one and consistency throughout. What I mean by this is she does a good job in explaining the grading criteria for all assignments and exams, distinguishes important material, and often suggests useful study tips and habits. She frequently makes herself available, especially after exams – I met with her a few times and she never failed to be a great listener and an overall very supportive professor. Dr. Huang taught quite a bit of material as well, but I’ve never had a one-on-one conversation with her myself. She was a good professor, but sometimes it was hard to pay attention to lectures because she tended to stretch certain material over several days which was a change in pace from Dr. McCarthy’s lecture style.
    • There are a few different elements to the structure of this course, the first being that it was the first fully synchronous in-person class that our class has had thus far, but the professors still recorded every lecture and posted it on Canvas if we didn’t attend class for whatever reason. I’m not sure this will be the same policy for the following classes as this last semester was a transition period for all classes. There were only a couple “assignments,” and we did 5 of these Team Based Learning (TBL) activities, kind of like quizzes, that consisted of both an individual quiz and a team collaboration. There were 6 questions each and everyone would answer them on their own first; once the time was up, the TBL group would convene to reach unanimous consensus for each answer. There were 5 unit exams and 1 required final that replaced your lowest unit exam score. The thing about each exam (apart from the first one) is that it contains 5 cumulative questions from each of previous units, and it can really make a difference so make sure to keep up with the cumulative material because it will also help you learn the new material!
    • In full transparency, this class is hard – I found it to be the most difficult college class I’d taken thus far. Once again, I had to totally reconfigure my studying habits and techniques throughout the semester. My biggest piece of advice for biochemistry is to expose yourself to the material in multiple ways and doing as MANY practice problems that are available to you whether it’s from the Mark’s book, Lippincott’s, BRS, TopHat, or McCarthy’s step review book. Prior to this one, most classes will allow for a memorization-heavy study technique with little application involved; that changes now. Memory is only the first step in your studies in which you will need to begin applying the information and thinking about concepts in an abstract manner. Also, try your best not to fall behind. It’s inevitable sometimes and life happens, but I promise you that this is not a class where you can play catch-up of a week’s worth of material in two days; it’s not going to turn out the way you think it would. My last piece of advice, although simple-seeming, is to make a study schedule and stick to it because maintaining a high level of organization is especially key for a rigorous course such as biochemistry.
  • BIO 206: Genetics
    • Instructor: Dr. Michael O’Connor – My personal opinion is that Dr. O’Connor is an overall okay professor. His lecture style heavily disagreed with my learning style because he tends to talk straight from his bullet-pointed slides for 50 minutes and I just could never stay focused long enough for it to be of any real benefit to me. I’d only ever had two conversations with him, one so that he would re-open a quiz for me (which he kindly did) and the other to review a test I’d done less-than-ideal on. One highly contested standard he had was his expectation for each test’s class average to come in around 75% and I hold a controversial opinion that this is fair for college-level classes. What I did not think was so fair about his tests was how minute in detail they were in comparison to the mass of content we were expected to know with little guidance, and when we were given sample questions they hardly translated on exams. It was hard to figure out how to narrow down his material to what concepts were important or not.
    • Expect another test-heavy course: we had 34 quizzes (roughly 1 per lecture, equating to 50 points total in the end), 4 unit exams, and a (optional) final exam with the lowest exam score being dropped.
    • The typical runaround for B.A./M.D. students and genetics is that we tend to put it on the back-burner to make room for biochem, and I have to say that I am guilty-as-charged but that gives me more credibility to somewhat advise against this. I fully agree that biochemistry takes priority over genetics but it’s a bad idea to totally shrug off genetics until you have down-time from biochem (like after an exam). My advice is keep current with lectures at the very least, and make it easier (and more worthwhile) for yourself to prioritize biochem. Here’s what worked for me: during a unit, I would make summarized study guides for each lecture which would give me enough time to look at and think about the material in sufficient amounts which I would then use closer to the exam date to study closer. I hardly ever looked at the textbook because Dr. O’Connor pretty much pulled the material on his PowerPoints straight from there; if I ever needed a supplement, I usually referred to YouTube or rewatched the lectures/problem-solving sessions.
  • Medicine 9210 – Fundamentals of Medicine III
    • Instructors: Dr. Amy Patel and Rachel Hogan: I adored Dr. Patel’s fundies class! She is a graduate of the program (now radiologist) and so she truly understood what we needed as students and humans. It was a low-stress yet informative class that served well as a supplemental lecture to our docent experiences. There’s not much to say about this class, it’s the run-of-the-mill fundies
    • Expect the same format as the previous semesters with the biweekly quizzes or assignments, midterm, and final. We discussed intrinsic biases this semester and that was what our final essay was centered around. We chose and interviewed an individual who “should possess traits that you believe you may hold intrinsic bias against,” and then expand upon that for the course project. Once again, study the quizzes and slides and understand the major concepts that will more than likely be emphasized during lectures. What worked for me was making very simple study guides on Google Docs that just links all the concepts together in lists or formats that were easier to understand.
  • Other classes taken that are no longer available:
    • ANCH 307 – Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries in Archaeology

You should expect to work very hard this semester no matter what type of student you have been in your first year. Biochemistry will be your first heavily application-based course and from what I understand, it caused a significant amount of my peers in CO 2026 to extend. It’s hard to say what caused such a dramatic influx, but my guess is that many people struggled with the transition between online and in-person classes in addition to a very rigorous (and sometimes unforgiving) curriculum. I don’t say this to scare anyone, but rather caution you to take this semester seriously and take care of yourself. The good thing about biochemistry is even though it’s hard, the content is actually pretty interesting and Dr. McCarthy does a wonderful job at relating it to medicine which keeps things refreshing and relevant. I wish you nothing short of the best luck for this challenging semester. Please please PLEASE don’t forget to prioritize yourself and your mental health. Rely on your support system and as always, never be afraid to reach out to me with any questions or advice. Cheers!

Published by Kat Schneider