Cell Physiology Professor Van Breukelen

This was a very hard class. It's a 400 level and 600 level course. Understanding the physiology of the cell. Cell signaling pathways, communication, and organelle function, in the greatest detail ever! Yet what you learn is that we don't know very much, and there are still mechanisms that we have no clue how it works. One thing that I learned that I will never forget is the ever so interesting phosphatidylinositol, and ubiquitin degradation :)

Tips:

Record the lectures
Write everything down he writes on the board
Take extremely good notes
Study the figures

Organic Chemistry Professor Pradip Bhomik

If you like to sleep. Don't like headaches. Enjoy your weekends. This class is not for you.
Organic Chemistry is an extremely demanding course. Practice makes perfect in this class. I think every Organic Chemistry course taken anywhere is a challenge, but if you were taking it with me Fall 2009, you knew the kinds of emotional roller coasters there were.
This class is insane. The tests are painful. I remember walking out of my first exam really happy that I studied effectively, and I thought I did a good job. I got sick immediately after I recieved my exam. I have never felt like vomiting, and my heart closing up after seeing my exam score. I could see the looks on my fellow students as they recieved their exams. People were scoring less than 50% on their exams. My first exam score I recieved a 44%. I studied for hours! Days! I practiced, I read all the chapters assigned. I did all of my homework with understanding. What happened! I felt so hopeless. After I got my grade I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I felt like a loser. My friend Sarah and I both scored pretty awful scores, and I immediately decided to go to the academic success center. There we met the best Organic Chemistry tutor ever: Alan Stephens. Without Alan I would have failed the course.

We also met some other students in our course who had recieved pretty awful scores as well. So I felt better. I am so thankful there is a place like the Academic Success Center. They really saved me. The subsequent exams were just as painful to study for and take. I did discover the beauty of Organic chemistry and can't wait to enjoy Organic Chemistry II, with Bhomik again :)

Here are some tips:
A lot of people have old Exams, Professor Bhomik has been teaching at UNLV for a very long time, and his test look the same every year. Yes it is helpful to use his old exams to study, but if you don't know what you are practicing and don't practice with understanding, you will Fail. I promise that you will fail without practice. This is not an easy A or easy B class.

You can go to class everyday, take good notes. Do the homework and still FAIL.
I would highly suggest the academic success center. They have great tutors.
I bought Orgo Cards from Borders. They are great, but I didn't use them.

Getting Ready for Spring 2010

Wow, is it Spring 2010 already? Yay! If things go as planned, I should be done in July.

These are the courses I will be taking January 11, 2010.

Biology 415 Evolution with Daniel Thompson (TR 8:30-945)
Biology 486 Animal Behavior (Taxonomy) Michelle Eleckonich (MW 8:30-9:45)
Organic Chemistry II, Pradip Bhomik (MW 2:30-3:45)
Organic Chemistry II Lab (W 11:30-2:20)



In the summer I need to complete

Biochemistry I
Anatomy

That should be the last undergraduate course I take at UNLV.

Molecular Genetics Biology 304 Professor Andrew Andres

Why did I take this course?

Sequencing the DNA of an entire mammalian genome now seems routine. The challenges of the 21st century is what to do with this data. If you take "classical" genetics, it will probably cover a lot of the fundamentals, but molecular genetics will prepare you to start thinking of disease pathologies and what kinds of effective therapeutic interventions have been done.

I was very happy to learn on the first day of class that you can take Molecular Genetics in place of Biology 300 Classical Genetics. It is also an acceptable prerequisite for Evolution but only if you get a pre-requisite waiver from the Biology Department. Don't quote me, but in order to get into Evolution you need to have taken Biology 300, Classical Genetics, but if Classical Genetics is not offered, you can take Molecular Genetics and get a waiver to get into Evolution.

This course is a course that you must be prepared for. Be in shape to absorb as much information as possible if you are not used to it. Professor Andres does a lot to help students do well in the course, but it is a VERY challenging course and it covers a lot of material. If you have never been exposed to Genetics before, or the terminology and concepts of the gene, it would probably be a good idea to pick up the book for the class and look over the main concepts. Read the chapter summary. Familiarize yourself with the big picture, as you will be learning tons of detail. Not only will you be learning about gene and it's role in protein synthesis. You will study all the names of the enzymes involved in all of the mechanisms of protein synthesis. I put a copy of the exam results from exam 1. The classroom size was very large. It was a full class, I had to petition to get into this course and was lucky he let me in because it already seemed as if it reached its capacity. By the midterm, a little less than half the students dropped.

How much do you have to study in order to get a good grade?

I studied a lot.
There were days that I studied 6 hours, and sometimes 8 hours.
I had to balance my other courses and being a mother.
If I had to do it again.
I would fit a good uninterrupted 2 hours everyday.
The book is needed to reference his lecture notes. I don't think I could have done well without the book. If you don't want to purchase the book, it would be a good idea to find it at the Library. That is what I did. The only annoying thing about that is that it is due after two weeks and if you are not careful you could go without a book for a week or end up with late fees.
But his powerpoints are so detailed, some people don't think the book is really necessary.

Each week you will be presented with 2 lectures, 3 hours worth of information.
Before each class he posts a partial powerpoint, and if you go to class and fill out the powerpoint it could be a good way to learn while in class.
I made a huge mistake of trying to write everything down. Even though he provides you with all of the information after class. I wasn't thinking very effectively.

This course started at 8:00am Monday and Wednesday. I would have liked to be given the powerpoints that he posted over the information he was going over before class so I could read what he was going to go over before class, but that wasn't an option available to me. I saved all of the PDFs so that if I needed to retake the course another time, I would have them.

It would probably be better to just try to pay attention in class and still take very good notes. Dr. Andres believes that if you take good notes in class you will retain more of the class, and it did turn out to be a better way for me to learn. My mistake was I took too many notes, because I didn't trust my brain to retrieve any information. I had this class back to back with Ochem, so by the time I exhausted myself by writing everything down that I could, I was pretty tired at the end of Ochem, which ended at 11:15am. The days that I got good rest I would go over recent lecture material with a friend, but most of the time I took a break and prepared for Cell Physiology at 2:30pm. My schedule was long, and if I had to do it again, I would take less courses or take less challenging courses.

Dr. Andres does write new test questions every year. But the one time that someone gave me one of his old exams, using it to study was very helpful and helped me get a better score.

Do the extra credit.
There is no curve in this class.

Released the Yoke

I haven't had time to update everyone on how things have been the past months because I have been tied by a yoke and have been too busy tugging Ochem, Mol Gen, and Cell Phys to the finish line. I have to admit I was drained and often times felt a roller coaster of emotions. My exams were hard, and at times I felt very hopeless.

A week before the 9th, Herbie and Ricky went on a trip to Benecia to visit his Grandma Lucy. I was so relieved because I desperately needed time away from the family during finals to focus on my classes. Even though I work all weekend, it feels great. Work is a nice walk in the park compared to school.

Nothing really exciting has happened, so let me go and review my classes now.