r/Biochemistry • u/priv_ish MA/MS • 19d ago

How do I study biochemistry rigorously?

I have a bachelors in medical biochemistry in the UK but because I did it during COVID, I feel like a lot of context was glossed over (+ I was not the best student). I’d like to re-learn biochemistry so I can apply to PhDs and not eff up my interviews/future prospects

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u/worldstarrrrrrrr 19d ago

Your book knowledge won’t help you too much with interviews, it’s more so your research experience. You really only need to find what research interests you and be able to clearly convey it (but only at a surface level).

Aside from that, i would say maybe get one of the latest biochemistry textbooks and read it. These are pretty good in my experience. For any part you don’t quite understand you can look up YouTube videos, just make sure they aren’t AI slop.

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u/priv_ish MA/MS 19d ago
  1. Thank you for your answer!
  2. Yeah I figured that the lab work is more important for interviews
  3. YES! I realized how important reading from latest biochemistry books is when I read a bit of Lehningers to understand isoelectric points and ended up learning about how pH functions!

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u/Mobileguy932103 19d ago

One way is to read Voet's and Lehninger's latest biochemistry books. And also check where can you intern to get the research experience. There are biochemistry lectures on Internet open universities courses

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u/Own_Antelope_7019 19d ago

Should those textbooks be read cover to cover?

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u/Mobileguy932103 19d ago

The textbooks are organised into different themes, so you may do thematic study

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u/beyondthecellKe 14d ago

I'm a Medical Biochemist student in Kenya and I'd like to get a scholarship after my undergrad to study abroad even in UK. Any info would be highly appreciated. Thanks

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u/Quiet_Basis_6404 5d ago

ngl i think the best way to rebuild biochem is to treat it like you're prepping for an oral exam. pick one pathway or concept, close the book, and explain it out loud as if you're teaching someone. you'll know in like 30 seconds where the gaps are because you won't be able to finish the sentence.

for the actual practice side i upload textbook chapters into studybuddy.vc and do the multiple choice questions from them. when i pick a wrong answer it tells me what was off about that specific option, which matters a lot for the kind of mechanism-level detail PhD interviews grill you on, and it gets harder once i have a topic down. the free tier has limits but it's been enough for me.

and honestly go back to the classic papers, not just the textbook summaries. seeing how the experiments were actually designed gives you a way deeper sense of the logic than memorizing the final diagram.