BIOC 302

BIOC 302 (with Dr. Justin Lee, Dr. Robert Maurus, Guest Lecturer: Dr. Adeleke Aguda)

• Course Taken: MWF 8am (January, 2015 - April, 2015)
• Format: Dr. Lee lectures about central metabolism (carbohydrates, amino acids) during the first half of the course, and Dr. Maurus lectures about DNA during the second half of the course. Dr. Lee posts extremely detailed notes while Dr. Maurus' only posts a basic set that needs to be annotated during the lecture. The midterm covers only Dr. Lee's material and the final only covers Dr. Maurus' material. There are tutorials each week that go through weekly problem sets (not for marks) which are helpful to ensure you are staying on track. 
• Grading Scheme: Midterm which is essentially a Final (50%), Non-cumulative Final (50%) 
• Textbook: Principals of Biochemistry 5E or 6E by Lehninger (not required, but most people still own this textbook from BIOL 201). Personally, I found the online notes/ Power Points sufficient to study from. 
• Class Average: 70% 
• Personal Experience: Overall, I found this course to be quite dense especially the first half, the second half is easier since it also covers experimental techniques  which is more conceptual based learning. If you are interested in learning about how various lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, nucleotide bases are made and broken down then this course is for you. Dr. Lee is an amazing lecturer with a great sense of humour (perhaps slightly too happy for my 8am brain), he talks at a good speed with great enunciation. He takes great care to develop clear course notes that use analogies and acronyms to help students understand and remember. I would definitely recommend any course taught by Dr. Lee. Dr. Maurus is difficult to understand during lecture especially if you sit at the back of a large lecture hall. While his material is easier to grasp, his handwriting and less detailed notes make this half of the course equally challenging. The tutorials are well run by the TAs and the worksheets are helpful if you have been keeping up with the class. Good way to study for the midterm/ final is by doing the tutorial questions and drawing molecules/ pathways. Definitely recommend studying A LOT for this course.