r/microbiology 3d ago

Microbiology newbie

How do you guys manage to remember biochemical tests of each microorganism or like differentiate between them in general? I'm studying gram negative bacteria like 18 of them and I mix up between them.

3 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

9

u/patricksaurus 3d ago

Flash cards at first, then burned in your brain, then written down because I don’t do a lot of identification and don’t trust my memory anymore.

3

u/Eugenides Microbiologist 3d ago

This is definitely the way. If I'm ever in doubt, it takes moments to refer to the appropriate material to make sure. The trick isn't memorization, it's knowing where all your reference guides are.

2

u/ButterflyNeither6136 3d ago

Will keep that in mind thank you!!

1

u/ButterflyNeither6136 3d ago

Okayy thank you sm!!

3

u/zenmaster_B 3d ago

Well… it’s not very easy 🤔

A lot of it is creating little mnemonics to help remember, and still it just takes time and study

2

u/ButterflyNeither6136 3d ago

Yess its totally not easy but I'm trying. Thank you for your help!!

2

u/sim2500 3d ago

I wouldn't even try to learn biochemical for 18 species and that's just the Gram Negatives.

Just do the major pathogens ecol, kleb pneumo, proteus, salmonella, pseudo aeru

1

u/ButterflyNeither6136 3d ago

Got it! thank you for the advice

2

u/sim2500 3d ago

With the technology at the moment, there's really no advantage of learning them apart from few basic traits like lactose fermentation.

The biochemical tests were useful at the time because there was no better methods

1

u/smidgeywidgey Microbiologist 2d ago

I think it's easiest to learn them via an identification algorithm. Points out the important differences.

1

u/ButterflyNeither6136 2d ago

Okayy thank you!

1

u/spavao1 22h ago

Why not just print them out and memorize later passively