Advice for a 2nd Year Pre-Med Student

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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<p>Hello I'm premed student at UCSD, finishing my first year. Ideally I am planning to take the MCAT's the summer after my sophomore year because I will be done with my pre-req classes, general chem, organic chem, physics, and biology. The issue is that I have AP credit for biology, so I AP'ed out of BILD 1, 2, and 3. What I'm wondering is what upper division biology classes were the most useful and helpful for the MCAT's?</p>

<p>For this coming fall I'm planning on taking:
Organic Chemistry (140A)
Physics (1A and 1AL)
An Upper Division Biology class (Planning on Mam Phys)
G.E.</p>

<p>I've heard that Metabolic Biochemistry (I believe its BIBC 102), Mammalian Physiology (BIPN 100) and Genetics are useful but some people have told they are and others have said they are not. Is their a specific order that I should take these Upper-Division biology classes to maximize their usefulness for the MCAT's?</p>

<p>Also, who would you recommend for Organic Chem, the professors for the fall are Ternansky, Whitesell, and Perrin. The Mammalian Physiology professers are French and Kristan. And the Genetics professor is Soowal.</p>

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<p>My friends who’ve taken Soowal (who teaches Genetics quite frequently) say she’s a good professor, but gives out hard exams (for last quarter, she added an additional 70 points to everyone’s overall grade because there weren’t enough A’s)</p>

<p>I’ve heard that Ternansky is the O-Chem professor to take if you REALLY want to LEARN O-Chem. Take Whitesell if you wanna get through O-Chem with a high grade. He teaches the bare minimum though; many of my friends are literally failing Chem 140C because their background in O-Chem is so poor after taking Whitesell for 140A/B.</p>

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<p>I HATE Soowal (at least her Genetics lectures). She doesn’t always know what she’s talking about, even though she acts like she does.</p>

4

<p><–got a 13 on the biology section of the MCAT without mammalian physiology. Took only Genetics, Molecular Bio, Metabolic Biochemistry for biology prior to writing the exam, which had 50% Genetics/Molecular Genetics/Molecular Biology, 20% cell biology/biochemistry, 15% ochem, 15% neurobiology (aka, mamm. physiology about the nervous system)</p>

<p>Genetics was good for reinforcing concepts that you should have learned in BILD1 but if you have a strong background, you don’t need to take it if there are other classes you have in mind.</p>