study block.. HEELLLPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!

well, the quick intro to get the gist of what I'm up to now...

While still in a slump for a month and after encouragement from my aunt.. I ended up registering for the GRE, stands for Graduate Record Examination (Biochemistry). This 9th April.

It was 25th of February when I registered. The GRE is sort of like a qualifying exam (like MUET) for people who are interested to further their postgraduate studies in USA... (I'll post up another blog much later about how I got to this USA-exam-masters frenzy) and this is the Biochemistry subject test. The general one is like MUET,comprising of English but a few basic mathematics stuff, but I've decided to take care of this subject test first.

The exam comprise of 180 MCQ questions and this is what I'm suppose to study:

I. BIOCHEMISTRY — 36%

1. Chemical and Physical Foundations
   • Thermodynamics and kinetics
   • Redox states
   • Water, pH, acid-base reactions and buffers
   • Solutions and equilibria
   • Solute-solvent interactions
   • Chemical interactions and bonding
   • Chemical reaction mechanisms
2. Structural Biology: Structure, Assembly, Organization and Dynamics
   • Small molecules
   • Macromolecules (e.g., nucleic acids, polysaccharides, proteins and complex lipids)
   • Supramolecular complexes (e.g., membranes, ribosomes and multienzyme complexes)
3. Catalysis and Binding
   • Enzyme reaction mechanisms and kinetics
   • Ligand-protein interaction (e.g., hormone receptors, substrates and effectors, transport proteins and antigen-antibody interactions)
4. Major Metabolic Pathways
   • Carbon, nitrogen and sulfur assimilation
   • Anabolism
   • Catabolism
   • Synthesis and degradation of macromolecules
5. Bioenergetics (including respiration and photosynthesis)
   • Energy transformations at the substrate level
   • Electron transport
   • Proton and chemical gradients
   • Energy coupling (e.g., phosphorylation and transport)
6. Regulation and Integration of Metabolism
   • Covalent modification of enzymes
   • Allosteric regulation
   • Compartmentalization
   • Hormones
7. Methods
   • Biophysical approaches (e.g., spectroscopy, x-ray, crystallography, mass spectroscopy)
   • Isotopes
   • Separation techniques (e.g., centrifugation, chromatography and electrophoresis)
   • Immunotechniques

II. CELL BIOLOGY — 28%

Methods of importance to cellular biology, such as fluorescence probes (e.g., FRAP, FRET and GFP) and imaging, will be covered as appropriate within the context of the content below.

1. Cellular Compartments of Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes: Organization, Dynamics and Functions
   • Cellular membrane systems (e.g., structure and transport across membrane)
   • Nucleus (e.g., envelope and matrix)
   • Mitochondria and chloroplasts (e.g., biogenesis and evolution)
2. Cell Surface and Communication
   • Extracellular matrix (including cell walls)
   • Cell adhesion and junctions
   • Signal transduction
   • Receptor function
   • Excitable membrane systems
3. Cytoskeleton, Motility and Shape
   • Regulation of assembly and disassembly of filament systems
   • Motor function, regulation and diversity
4. Protein, Processing, Targeting and Turnover
   • Translocation across membranes
   • Posttranslational modification
   • Intracellular trafficking
   • Secretion and endocytosis
   • Protein turnover (e.g., proteosomes, lysosomes, damaged protein response)
5. Cell Division, Differentiation and Development
   • Cell cycle, mitosis and cytokinesis
   • Meiosis and gametogenesis
   • Fertilization and early embryonic development (including positional information, homeotic genes, tissue-specific expression, nuclear and cytoplasmic interactions, growth factors and induction, environment, stem cells and polarity)

III. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS — 36%

1. Genetic Foundations
   • Mendelian and non-Mendelian inheritance
   • Transformation, transduction and conjugation
   • Recombination and complementation
   • Mutational analysis
   • Genetic mapping and linkage analysis
2. Chromatin and Chromosomes
   • Karyotypes
   • Translocations, inversions, deletions and duplications
   • Aneuploidy and polyploidy
   • Structure
   • Epigenetics
3. Genomics
   • Genome structure
   • Repeated DNA and gene families
   • Gene identification
   • Transposable elements
   • Bioinformatics
   • Proteomics
   • Molecular evolution
4. Genome Maintenance
   • DNA replication
   • DNA damage and repair
   • DNA modification
   • DNA recombination and gene conversion
5. Gene Expression
   • The genetic code
   • Transcription/transcriptional profiling
   • RNA processing
   • Translation
6. Gene Regulation
   • Positive and negative control of the operon
   • Promoter recognition by RNA polymerases
   • Attenuation and antitermination
   • Cis-acting regulatory elements
   • Trans-acting regulatory factors
   • Gene rearrangements and amplifications
   • Small non-coding RNA (e.g., siRNA, microRNA)
7. Viruses
   • Genome replication and regulation
   • Virus-host interactions
8. Methods
   • Restriction maps and PCR
   • Nucleic acid blotting and hybridization
   • DNA cloning in prokaryotes and eukaryotes
   • Sequencing and analysis
   • Protein-nucleic acid interaction
   • Transgenic organisms
   • Microarrays

Looks a handful ain't it? Well, at the time I had a month and a week left, and I've just come across it (looking at the GRE website and stuff) and this test is only conducted 3 times a year! The next date being in October. At the time, I thought, "Heck, I have a month and I'm not working, not fulltime anyway, so why not? This is the right time before I really get a full time job"(which I've already applied a handful of, so I might expect someone calling). My BFF also think it's possible. So,on 25th Feb (last day of registration) I registered, paid, got the verification and....

My, my .. my mind sure is simple...

What I haven't anticipated is how slow I take to digest information now... and I haven't been able to really focus. Since then, I had to call people, go to library to gather the books I need first. Then I went to Jakarta (booked to go since last year)... ZIP!!!!... and it's already the second week of March!!

I can't focus like I used to, can't digest a lot fast enough... and I feel I'm going to have a nervous breakdown... but luckily I'm an optimist and having this exam has given me something to be more optimist about life and where I'm going again.

I've decided that the jitters won't help me much, I'm eating vitamins to boost up my stamina, eating 21 raisins per day sometimes a lot (with a lil bit of prayer of course), I'm trying all the 'petua's !!

But still.. I feel so frustrated with my progress!!!

Damn, can't study tonight... I wish I can cry this feeling out but can't either..gahhh..
Maybe writing this will make me feel better?

Ok, tomorrow will really start early..

Bye bye.

PS: for people who want to give me comments regarding this, only encouragement and tips at this point (a bit of nagging also I can accept). But no negative comments for now please. That is just not what I need right now. I don't have enough time to feel depress..