Customer Reviews

Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry, Fourth Edition (Lippincott's Illustrated Reviews Series)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a good book. It explains what happens when a certain pathway is malfunctioning. However, I wish that it was a little more clear in explaining certain pathways. (It assumes you really know biochemistry).

For those who like pictures along with their text, this book is great. Even though biochemistry is a detailed subject this book is not too weighed down in details and will allow you to understand the material fairly well. However, I stared to turn to it more as a reference than a main source. This may be because I thought that it was not calibrated appropriately for the usmle. It seems to be written more for a biochemistry class. It lacks in clinical correlations, the ability to be quickly reviewed, and there are precious few questions to get down the material at the end of each chapter. One feature that was nice, however, was a summary section at the end of each chapter. It is definitely not a comprehensive summary, but it does allow a quick summary of good things to know. All in all, a good book to have with you, but not the best source for the boards.

I am in medical school and have had a science background. This book is wonderful at keeping things short, sweet and to the point. I love it and recommend it for all levels of biochem.

I found this book to be fantastically illustrated and just the right amount of thoroughness for a review book. I seldom used it during the Biochemistry class as it didn't go into the level of detail expected for school exams. However it was quite useful for a quick resource if I was struggling with a concept. The book was a fantastic tool in the couple of days I had to prepare for the NBME after the end of the class. I read it from cover to cover in 2 days, stopping along the way to check my notes on a few concepts that were superficially covered. I was more than pleased with my score after using this as my main source to prepare (aside from studying hard during the course, obviously).

The illustrations & flow charts are the best part of the book, they are simple and easy to read. Key words are often bolded to make skimming easy. Another thing I enjoyed with this text was that most pages have very large empty margins so there is plenty of room for writing your own notes next to diagrams/paragraphs.

I really like this text and found it to be a great supplement during the biochemistry course. It is also great for reviewing concepts for boards, expecially if it has been a while since you looked at biochem. My only problem is the price. When you start adding up board review sources, money flows from your pocket quite quickly. I did find a similar online resource at [...] that costs less than Lipincott's and offers access to good material. My advice would be to subscribe to the website I mentioned and use it in conjunction with a used (and thus cheaper) version of Lippincott's.

This was not the recommended text for my first year biochem class......however, when I could not make heads nor tails of the one that WAS recommended, I saw this one and it saved my life. Not only does it explain key concepts, it does so in a manner that pieces all biochemical pathways together - and with PICS!!! What more can you ask for?!?!

I'll preface this by saying I'm not in med school or even in the medical field. I took a year of Chemistry for freshmen engineering and a graduate biomedical engineering course but never Organic Chem or any level of Biology. I bought this book to give me a better understanding metabolism hoping to provide me with unbiased information I could use to tailor my diet and for a quick sanity check of my suppliment use.

On metabolism, I certainly feel like I have a better, truer understanding of my body's different modes of operation specifically the role each part plays, especially the liver. I haven't seen the cycles presented in this book elseware, mind you I haven't been looking too hard either.

As to my diet, the section on the feed/fast cycles reinforced my belief that more frequent smaller meals are the way to go. I've reduced my protein intake based on the information about the Amino Acid pool and how anything not used is excreated.

For suppliments I've actually increased my use. I re-introduced creatine based on the section which shows how it is used to turn ADP back into ATP and also began taking Alpha Lipoic Acid again. I am continuing my use of Glutamine and I've added Arginine and Acetyl L-Carnitine.

Will any of this help? Who knows, but if nothing else it'll keep me interested and motivated.

After purchasing the biochemistry edition of Lippincott's series, I could not resist ordering the other two books, Pharmacology and Microbiology. The authors seem to get ahead of the game, by offering timely explanation when terminology gets obscure. For example, instead of footnoting the pages, notes are introduced within the paragraphs to complement the flow of thoughts.

The most impressive aspect of the book is the colorful illustrations that show the location of the various pathway reactions and involved reactants. The introduction of colorful graphics, bold font, and frequent notes did away with the austere feature of old teaching of biochemistry.

Great credit goes for the chapter summaries that were done in neat and outstanding design to aid the reader in grasping the main principals of each chapter.

Except of few typographic errors, the major draw back of the book is meager coloring of the atomic changing of molecules after reaction. In many instances, the reader is left to count and trace the new atoms that were added or removed from a molecule that made it different.

In addition, the book reliance on reactants' names, and not chemical formulas, in many spots of the book, challenges the reader's memory in figuring out what had taken place. Even though most of the named chemical reactants have their formulas in nearby pages, the dismissal of the chemical formulas of reactants in many pages, undermine the memorization process.

Do not count on finding extensive references or historical perspectives on how scientific discoveries led to such state of art of modern biochemistry. The authors merely portray an illustrated version of biochemistry for students, not researchers.

I didnt use this book for my midterm in medical school and got a C. I used it to study for the final and got an A on the final. My final grade was a B. I wish I had started using this book starting from the first day and never stopped. Awesome book. Must read for anyone studying for their class or the boards.

Great book! Very easy to read and the color pictures are great. There's an organized "web" with all the main ideas and concepts at the end of each chapter which is also helpful. It's a little too detailed for my med school class, but I like reading a little more in detail to understand things. It does follow what we learn pretty well though. No complaints at all about this book.

Also, the seller was great (e-mail:amzntbs@textbookstudent.com). It came well-packed so nothing was damaged, and also came very quickly.