The best class I have taken TO DATE.
Posted by Anay Rohatgi on 05/24/2024Organic Chemistry is HARD. Biochemistry even MORE so. However, Ms. Schwartz's lectures, the course textbook, and the office hours really helped me do well in this course.
I will not sugarcoat anything. The course is extremely difficult. I spent anywhere between 10 and 15 hours a week depending on my prior knowledge of the concept and its difficulty. There are a lot of functional groups, naming conventions, reactions, and common names. And this is only Organic Chemistry. Biochemistry is even harder, with all the biological pathways, intermediates, enzymes, coenzymes, vitamins, side effects, and diseases. The course builds on itself, and if you miss out on the earlier parts of the course, it is VERY hard to understand the reactions taking place in the biochemistry portion of this class. However, if you keep up with the course, you can often look at an enzyme and a reactant and immediately know what the product will be. There is a lot to learn and remember in the class. This becomes especially clear during the revisions for the chapter tests, midterm, and final exams. I remember quite vividly as I submitted my final exam for this class today... :)
However, all this complexity is quite exciting. As someone who loves biology, I love expanding my knowledge of what goes on in the mitochondria. Why exactly is it the powerhouse of the cell? What reactions take place in it that make it the place where the majority of our body's energy is produced? Why is it so bad when our liver starts to fail, what processes suffer? Why do we need to eat our vegetables? This course took my interest and knowledge of biology and chemistry, and it dialed it up to 1000.
Ms. Schwartz does an amazing job of connecting all the dots between concepts and real life. Whether it be by giving examples of real chemicals that contain the functional groups described in class, what reactions can show when a medicine goes bad, or by describing what diseases are caused by deficiencies of various vitamins. I am sure that if you asked her to expand upon why these diseases happen, she would not hesitate to answer. Over the entire year, Ms. Schwwartz has entertained many of my queries related to my self-study in biology, and extra material above the class. She also provides us all with motivation, and encouragement throughout the course. It is evident that she enjoys teaching, and will often leave great comments and explanations if you have any doubts during the quizzes and tests.
Mrs. Schwartz also keeps up with the latest developments in the field of biochemistry and isn't afraid to tell us when we are only scratching the surface of a concept, or when textbook material might be considered outdated when we take this course in college: due to new research.
Overall, I loved the course and would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in biology, and/or chemistry. It requires a lot of hard work and dedication throughout the course, but once you finish, I guarantee that you will have a newfound appreciation for your body, your cells, and the complexity of life.