u/Asomns47

https://preview.redd.it/9nm8g7pc1jth1.jpg?width=426&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fbc20111359322a96b9ae79a4dcdcc686e3c1d12

Og clip from here: https://youtu.be/1CyD0cr6k6w

I wanted to make a meme to slip in novel tips related to the course in the title, whilst saying good luck and well wishes to people taking the first exam.

For Gupta tests it is important to spend most of your time understanding (so the usual reading of any slides and external sources, making notes and annotation, and taking time to parse information that you do in any class can help you a lot here. You still need to know/memorize the material, don't get me wrong, but you also need to "know your understandings". Here are some good resources, for this test or future ones, in addition to he slides:

- textbooks like Molecular Biology of the Cell (its most recent version is available pretty easily with a Google search)

- YouTube videos

- Googling online resources

- random free courseware (ex: MIT/Harvard free courses with videos)

- clankers

You do not need to use any or all of these resources, I'm just listing out ways you can focus on understanding the why of things. Use whatever you want. In this subject it is imperative to focus on understanding the why of pathways. I would say you should spend 2/3 of your time understanding things and 1/3 of your time memorizing things. Just remember, spamming things on a cheat sheet does not compensate for time that needs to be spent understanding (although the crib sheet can still nonetheless be a useful tool if you study right).

Anyway here are some useful rhetorical questions to direct your thinking when studying. How does mutating, or how does messing up, a pathway affect the function (or any other possible characteristics) of things upstream or downstream in the pathway, or things at the point of where you messed up the pathway? What does that imply about the wild-type function of the pathway? What are some signs of that and what kinds of information in a possible test question could lead you to making x conclusion? How can common experimental techniques gleam information into all these pathways, and how would you know or how would those techniques suggest that? What kinds of applications can you gleam from the lecture material? Can you think of any ways material you learn can lead you to trying to predict some characteristic about a pathway or the proteins involved? There's many different units in this subject so I'm trying to make these sorts of question tips broad-sweeping enough so that they're useful as thinking questions for any test.

I know that his courses are super tough, but I hope everyone in this class ends up loving this subject in the end or comes to find smthn to like abt how cool it all is.

The post title is not meant to be a part 3 to anything, it is just meant to be a joke title (in the vain that it is a sequel to me bringing up BCH361 to last year's students and to tell them to read the guide). I'm just posting this post in the middle of my study session for another exam, but I just wanted to remind upcoming 3rd year biology and biomedical science students that I still have that BCH361 guide that I posted ages ago in my post history. I know some random people may be annoyed that I'm bringing this up again, but don't hate the player, hate the game (especially when the game keeps on getting the same lecturer who does not care about pedagogy to run the course year after year since like 2016, with constructive criticism stemming back for just as long). Like, it should literally just be easier to reassign lecturers to BCH361, like get Dr. S from Summer BCH463, or Dr. Matejovic, or Dr. Yousaf who taught BCH361 briefly in summer 2019, than it should be of trying any other route with dealing with BCH361. Even Summer BCH463, to be honest, was a much much better experience than BCH361. Regardless, I can still confirm that those study tactics work, as I used a combination of such study tactics (and some new ones) for summer BCH463 (harder sequel course) and I did better in BCH463 than I did in BCH361.

I feel like some people may struggle since they don't have enough discpline. You actually do need to grind hard and put this course at the top of your focus, and I know that people are going to say "everyone has their own study tactics etc. etc.", yes but you should still emphasize looking deeply into pre-existing literature like YouTube videos or the Textbook (or journal articles, like keep in mind that is a source of information that exists) when studying really involved courses like this. You cannot just shortcut things by looking at some summary slides or something, that is not going to work for most people. Also the slides for BCH361 are genuinely useless, outside of being used as a table of contents (this is NOT the case with BCH463).

To be able to memorize, you first need to understand the content. If I have another piece of advice right now... love his courses or hate his courses... the things that Dr. Gupta emphasizes in his courses very much do carry over to these other involved molecular biology or biochemistry classes. So, if it helps, try to think of the types of skills that were emphasized in BCH261, or BLG311, (as you are going through the process of deeply understanding and memorizing content by taking the time to go through the textbook and watching YouTube videos). Make up analogies for yourself as you're learning about random weird aspects about whatever. Unironically, the kinds of ways that Gupta tries to get you thinking about material and what sorts of crevices to crawl into at each step genuinely, genuinely help immensely when it comes to these courses, including BCH361. I legitimately think that he saved me for BCH463 (not to mention how Dr. S's questions literally just seemed like more involved Gupta-style qs imo). It's important to know how to understand and memorize, but also intuititively apply that material (there is application you need to do based on memorized info, both in BCH361 and BCH463). It's also useful to not be in the phase of "I forgot everything from the previous course, even when reviewing nothing is coming back" (emphasis on the "nothing is coming back" part when reviewing the same kind of material in a future course). That should be an indication that your study methods are not working in retaining information long-term past the course you learned that material in.

How you guys feeling after that final. All I can say is... BCH361 definitely prepared me for this grindfest of a course. Really kills my motivation to take any electives going forward. In retrospect, I did enjoy the content for this class, because this is basically my favourite subject (proteomics). But this class is just so incredibly redundant.

Just got word from Paul Rudd himself that Dave Kirsh is teaching the lower liberal CPCS182 - Life in the Milky Way Galaxy for Winter 2027. Suffice it to say, I'm glad I took summer BCH463 because now I have space in my schedule to take this class. I just want everyone to know that I guess, if they're looking for chill electives or interesting ones. However, I also want people to know, that the exams are in-person (but non cumulative). This doesn't mean that the tests are impossibly hard, however. It will be similar to CPCS181 with Peter Luca structurally, except different astronomy themed content. So please if you're interested in astronomy and loved CPCS181 with Luca, take CPCS182 with Dave Kirsh next winter. I've taken him twice before for the 2 other astronomy electives and trust me there is a reason I glaze him. Personally I think any course with Kirsh is still a "chill course" or birdy, in-person tests does not mean a course is ground-breakingly hard - birdy means you study less for a course, not turn off your mind and do nothing. So just as a summary, lectures are online but tests are in-person, this course is likely gonna be chill or bird.

Also if anyone is interested, feel free to take CIND110 in winter (?) with Dr. Bhowmick if you're a CS student interested in taking a chill online open elective and learning about SQL.

https://preview.redd.it/51sig1w4i9fh1.png?width=912&format=png&auto=webp&s=a888a09c678d31f61cee8edde167ccc3e5fc1859

I love genomics.

I was thinking about a pun with cystine (2 oxidized cysteines bonded by a disulfide bond in their R groups; prevalent in RNA reduction since those carry pairs of cysteines in ribonucleotide reductase and in that enzyme's oxidized reductants), so I decided to make a "cystine chapel" since I thought that was funny. Then I decided to add some cursed sounding DNA nanoparticles. I felt like the Windows XP background was kind of appropriate for a cursed meme, kinda like the backrooms. So these 3 are the biochemistry cryptids haunting this space.

For anyone who is a fan of structural biology, here is the where these structures were mentioned:

Liu, Y. et al. Single-Molecule Methods for Characterizing Different DNA Higher-Order Structures. Eng. (2022) doi: 10.1016/j.eng.2022.10.009

Good luck to everyone in Summer BCH463 on midterm 2 next week.

How did y'all feel about the BCH463 midterm? I'm glad I did well personally, especially after feeling indecisive about that test (I still feel it was a test with a decent number of cooked questions). I did about as well as I usually do.

Andrey K is still the goat.

Here's hoping that my love for molecular biology and Monica Sauer's BLG307 from a couple years back prepares me enough for midterm 2, which has identical content to BLG307.

Also guys, treat this partially like an organic chemistry course. If there are any long pathways with a bunch of enzymes and intermediates, DRAW THEM OUT when studying and yap to yourself and narrate relevant details as you're drawing stuff out. Basically copy sketch the shit on the slides (reactants structures and names, intermediates structures and names, enzyme name for any pathways etc, groups that enter and leave). This is key advice given for even Dustin Little's rendition of this course (although he is not teaching this summer edition), but it applies to any season this course is offered in tbh.

It can help a lot!!!!!!!! Especially as it helps you focus your eyes on key moieties for EVERY step of the pathway and help you point any relevant orgo details that fails to get pointed out as the prof just reads off the slides constantly. Also watch YouTube, read the textbook, use clankers, Google etc. do combinations of this. Treat this course like BCH361 but more involved with an actual organic chemistry component this time.

Just sharing this again since enrollment season is coming up next month (and since I'm currently taking this god forsaken course), that any biology majors who started their program in fall 2025, or before, have to take BCH463 to graduate. Only biology majors who start their programs NEXT year are exempt from ever having to take this stupid ass course. So if you're entering your third year next year, it is mandatory for you guys to take before you finish your degree.

I was just thinking to myself about random things and the importance of various things, and I was just wondering what books, either from TPL or the TMU library, someone would recommend to become better versed in this subject. I'm not interested in taking one of the SSH or PHL courses, but I'm basically just looking for content similar to what is taught in such courses or in BMS760 (though I've never taken that course either). If no one has any recommendations but does have the BMS760 slides, I'd still love to have those slides if at all possible.

Large portions of the internet are getting age-gated (or ID gated) in many countries. The reason I made this post is because I've read that Reddit has started to implement (or test) mandated age gating via Persona in many EU countries, even those that have not legislated age gating (as of yet). As you know, here we've passed such a law, including another extra one to force end-to-end encryption to be broken. I hope many of you don't compromise your privacy just to access this site. Find workarounds, if any exist, even if inconvenient. Though it's not looking good regardless, doesn't seem like anything will turn back. I'm just putting this out there here so that people may be more informed. This is a university subreddit and people do come here for all kinds of information.

Also consider going back to older media. Libraries like the TMU one or TPL are not age gated (though in some states in America libraries may be age-gated, I don't remember which one). I know that many people like to use clankers to help them expound on slides or review and summarize material, so instead of giving ID to ever use them once that happens, go back to textbooks. If you really need to use clankers (and set them up before gating occurs), then use local models if your PC can run it (though from what I know that may not be possible for a lot of people since those require higher specs, so I don't know what good alternative exists). Just remember that YouTube will also get age-gated.

Honestly, the scariest thing to me is you will need to give ID to post or whatever else, but you'll also need to do so just to even see information. As much as social media may have its hangups, it's also democratized information and made it easy to talk to anyone else. I've used this site to get information on things like stats (CMTH480 or for other things), coding (for core electives or for random chang certificate courses), learning French in my high school days and so forth. As for the communication point, I'm a massive introvert and such communication has honestly kept me motivated for things, I've met so many wonderful people on this platform. Barriers for people to go online may also mean such information may not be as readily available in the future (since we rely on other people sharing information), even in academic fields as niche as proteomics. I like that subject, that's why this concerns me.

Best of luck to you all. Stay safe.

So the D2L dropped for it and if I'm just being honest, this course already seems like a complete regression of everything Little improved upon with this course in the previous term. I've known people that really liked Little's approach that focuses on limiting the extent of any testable content to his slides, teaching well, and he also makes his questions himself. If I'm being honest, the way the course is structured gives me the vibes of having to dig through dozens of external resources again just to hope to find niche details with which to memorize and also practice, which does not bode well for an accelerated summer course. This is giving me Anne Johnson makeup final exam vibes, and I honestly don't have the energy for this anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big proponent of actually reading the textbook and using other resources, but I also think that science courses should cover all the material expected to be known within the lectures themselves, and not expect so much external focus. Little already does this... it's not that hard to do that. External materials should be a supplement, and not a mandate. I would not end up being surprised if random questions are taken from other sources and it not being within complete context of the slides, just like BCH361. Maybe you guys think I'm bullshitting, but I've been long enough in school to at least make an educated guess how courses can be like.

The weighting scheme also does not bode well with me, it's that kind of scheme that did not work out well in the first semester this course was offered. Three highly weighted exams are happening again. I get that the age of AI has really ruined things, but it's better to have some weighting on assignments, even if extremely minimal, so that no one ends up feeling the mega pressure on highly weighted tests. It's already been shown that solely 3 highly weighted tests does NOT work for this class, even with potential for reweights. Does anyone remember the averages for the first 2 tests the first time around? It was in the late 30s to early 40s. This is also compounded by BCH361 being a terribly run course, and people lacking substantial prerequisite knowledge. It's not like this course was a bird course to begin with.

Anyway, I wish anyone still sticking with this course the best of luck, but it does not seem like a good idea to me. Just wait untill winter and hope that either Little returns or if the same prof as summer BCH463 teaches, that it's improved on.

Also just as a tip from people who took Little BCH463, do not just memorize, but also treat this an orgo course. Actually spend a lot of time doing practice questions and/or drawing shown pathways in conjunction with memorization (which there will be a lot of, it's a biochem class).

Also keep in mind since this is a TMU course and not a Chang course, the full refund deadline is this Friday. So you can always change your mind...

I'm praying Little comes back.

ETA: I just genuinely love stats, that's why I enjoyed this course.

I enjoyed this class so incredibly much. No regrets with taking it.

If you want a chill math class and want to take this as a prerequisite for a later math classes in your career, like Introduction to Stochastic Processes or some other things that use this as a prerequisite, then go ahead. It's also chill so your GPA is not gonna be powned, as I said before. CMTH480 can also count towards a math minor. This class basically felt like a safe space to learn upper level stats. Feel free to take it next spring if Iryna Manzhos is teaching. Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦 (Manzhos is Ukrainian).

How do you succeed in this class?

There's not really much trickiness to this course so do these things:

For every test read the slides for 2-2.5 days, paying special attention to formulas, summative theory, and other bits of info you want to slap on your cheat sheet. Usually you should write down all versions of a formula, but you DON'T need to slap on the mathematical derivations - that is not tested at all. You can write tiny on your crib sheet, but anyway I found that you could easily fit all the info you needed even within 2 crib sheets.

Use your clanker of choice intermittently to better understand theory, or if you wanna learn things outside the scope of the course like I did a lot.

Grind the "samples" questions given and check your work. Spend the better part of a day on this, just grind all the samples. If you need more questions you can grind problem sets, but usually the samples were sufficient.

Anyway it's not a hard course, you spend at most 7 days on this course throughout the semester, you don't need to attend class, just attend the tests. You can still attend class though if that helps you learn material better and hold yourself accountable, as I did that. I enjoyed this course 10 times more than I did ecology. I'm not saying that because I did terribly in it as I got I got the same mark in that course as I did CMTH480. Ecology was just mental spiral inducing.

The following is just a roundabout way of saying CMTH480 is birdy.

Ecology is just the most recent course I can think of that was quite tedious. A hard course like ecology can take you a significant amount of time (maybe up to 3+ weeks of your semester if you were trying to estimate how much time you spent studying on a single course in total, kinda like BCH261), which imo is significant because that's around 1/3 of the time you have available to intensely grind in a single semester dedicated to a single course (especially if you want a really high grade, or an A/A- in any Krystal Nunes course because her grading always results in right skewed distributions). Literally no one got above a 90 on the final exam.

In comparison, "intermediate difficulty" courses like Molecular Biology may take half as much time total throughout a semester, and then you have some nuance in upper intermediate and lower intermediate courses. I might do a tier list of all biology courses later on tbh. Now the whole point I am trying to make is that CMTH480 is easier than a "lower intermediate difficulty" course by biology major standards, roundabout way of saying it's a bird course. My opinions on how difficult a course were do not always correlate with my enjoyment, BCH261 I think I enjoyed a LOT.

How TMSU be like:

https://preview.redd.it/f3ae9eefjh8h1.png?width=320&format=png&auto=webp&s=a1593ad40fcab6a8c8fd533ff73a3c4de7e36081

How TMSU be like when they tryna summon the power of Ram Ganesh or whoever else with an NPC name to steal millions more dollars:

https://preview.redd.it/qv40l4c9kh8h1.png?width=686&format=png&auto=webp&s=cdafacbbeca6fc4964e24225b4d13c0ecd7c1182

I finished a midterm a couple hours ago and I feel free a bit. Now I wanna shitpost. 1st image is sarcastic.

So Molecular Biology (BLG307) has been turned into an optional core elective for the Biology program (not Biomedical Sciences) only for students who start in Fall 2026 or later. I just want to specify that this change is specific to biology majors, for biomedical science students it is still a mandatory course. I think that this is a meh change. It does not matter if it is academia, industry, or hospital work, molecular biology will always be applicable. Even environmental biologists do cell work. There is a bit of a nuance too, in that the field of molecular biology is interrelated to cell biology and biochemistry (which is why universities like UofT or OTU combine both into the same courses, like cell and molecular biology or biochemistry and molecular biology). So molecular biology contextualizes those other 2 subjects while providing its own information. Also like... the main masters degree for biology/biomed at TMU is called "Molecular Science" because of molecular biology... it's not like you're gonna escape it in a masters degree. You might as well just take the subject so you're informed. This is the same even if you do one at UofT or York in the biologies/biomed sciences.

So anyway, do molecular biology as a core elective no matter what, in fall semester of 3rd year.

Also, for people who want to do more molecular biology related core electives (whether you're biomedical science or biology), look at the list of courses "Mentioned in the Following Calendar Pages" just below its description on the TMU website. https://www.torontomu.ca/calendar/2026-2027/courses/biology/BLG/307/

You may end up finding some hidden gems here. Even if a course has the most nonsense complicated sounding course description, maybe it's worth taking later and you will end up taking a course that will help you with many others, and you'll end up having taken a course that you will never regret doing.

Let's say you want a laptop with good specs that can run any software you might wanna use, and in the future you would like to have the ability to do more heavy analytical stuff with it that you might not be able to on an integrated intel GPU laptop with 16 GB ram or less. Consider going to like independent tech stores in the GTA (you know what I mean right?, places that usually will independently sell used or refurbished phones at good prices will also sell stuff like this). Try finding a good used windows gaming laptop. If you don't really care for battery life and just want something portable that can run higher end stuff without spazzing itself out, this can help you out a lot. Benefit is that on top of handling all ur higher end analytical stuff, you can also game on it if you really want to. Other benefit is that depending on the laptop, it might be "sturdier" than a typical business-type laptop, while still being in the same 700/800-1000 price range that will usually get you an alright laptop (except in this case you have a gaming laptop with better specs than a comparable business laptop). Also RAM prices are crazy these days, but regardless DDR4 ram has never been a limiting factor for me. Just the amount of space.

Ofc if you like something lightweight and with longer battery life and smaller size (and u don't want to run like very involved code or whatever else), then this advice is probably not helpful to you. You can try going for a good business laptop in that case. I believe like the smallest gaming laptop sizes I've seen is like 14 inches or 15 inches in terms of like, the length of the laptop (maybe that's too large for you).

Sorry for this random post, I just felt like sharing cuz I got myself a laptop for the first time in preparation for extra-curriculars I have next year, and cuz while my PC is good for a lot of school purposes and the general gaming I liked to do (for its specs it could handle Elden Ring with slight lag), it was not good for other things I wanted to do and would lag out if, let's say I had 50 journal articles opened up in the background and I wanted to code at the same time. Ppl love having their tabs upon tabs of journal articles in the background, so this was a no go to me.

Also keep in mind you can look for deals on FaceBook MarketPlace, Kijiji, Ebay and other places.