Learning Strategies in Biochemistry:
Some Aids for Reviewing Important Concepts from General and Organic Chemistry
   Most biochemistry texts start with review of important concepts from general and organic chemistry. Take these reviews seriously -- the time you spend recovering some basic chemistry skills will pay off in easier development of new skills in biochemistry. Here are a couple of additional aids:
Writing Reaction Mechanisms ("Electron Pushing")
   Few biochemistry texts give you review of the important skill of electron pushing -- that at-first obscure but powerful tool for making clear just what's happening in a reaction. And though I find it hard to believe, some organic instructors do their students the great disservice of not requiring them to learn how to write mechanisms. Here's a great book for helping you gain or regain this skill:
   Pushing Electrons: A Guide for Students of Organic Chemistry, Daniel P. Weeks, 2nd ed., Saunders College Publishing, NY 1992.
   This book is a self-guiding tutorial that will have your writing complex mechanisms before you can say "Merrwein-Pondorf-Verley-Oppenauer redox reaction."
Review Organic and Preview Biochemistry, In One Painless Operation
   A few years ago, before the web made sharing our work so easy, I wrote a chapter of organic review, using glycolysis as the context and source of all examples. Like an idiot, I sold the chapter to a publisher (in today's world, I would just put it on the web). But you can get your hands on it, and get yourself a lot of additional problems to solve, by buying this relatively inexpensive book:
   The Biochemistry Student Companion, Allen J. Scism, Prentice Hall, Inc. NJ, 1996 (ISBN 0-13-449091-6).
   The review chapter is Chapter 1: Prelude to Biochemistry, A Review of Important Concepts from Organic Chemistry. In it, you'll learn lots of neat things about glucose metabolism while you review structure, stereochemistry, and reactions from organic chemistry.
USM Students: Borrow a copy of this text from me if you want to study this chapter!
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