Am I Going to Overload?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi! </p>

<p>I just finished my freshman year of college as a pre-med.</p>

<p>During this past year I took a year of general chemistry (221,222,223) in which I got B+ the first two terms and an A during the spring term. I also took principals of biology (251,252,253) in which I got As all the way through the year. Besides these I took university inquary classes, required by university to make us "well rounded". So now my cumulative GPA is 3.86 (this includes some classes I took through my high school and got college credits for)</p>

<p>This summer I am enrolled in a CNA course as I work in a care facility and was offered certification training covered through the facility. This will be good in getting me experience in working as a medical professional in the health care field.</p>

<p>The problem is that I am registered to take O-chem, physics with calc, calc I, and inquary classes during my sophmore year. I heard from many students and tutors that physics with calculus makes more sense and is more straight forward - However I have not taken calculus yet. I would have taken it this summer but I'm in the middle of a CNA course. Instead I have picked up "Calculus for Dummies" and started to read and am registered to take calc I in the fall while I will start physics with calc. </p>

<p>I have spoken to the professor teachign physics with calculus at my university and asked if taking calculus for the first time while starting physics with calculus doable. He said this is fine with him although many students say this is too hard. </p>

<p>I know that these are hard classes on their own and don't want to get myself in over my head leading to a drop in my GPA. </p>

<p>The pros about going through with this plan is that I would complete the classes I need in order to take the MCAT after my sophmore year and everything would be fresh in my mind to take the MCAT; if I don't like my MCAT the first time around I would have plenty of time to retake it after I take more courses my junior year and take some more time to study.
The cons: these courses my be an overload and I may just get medioker grades in all of the classes</p>

<p>My other option would be to take just O-chem, calc and other courses I need (such as genetics) and wait another year to take physics with calc then take the MCAT. The pros of waiting to take physcis with calc my junior year are 1) I will have taken calculus before taking physics with calculus, instead of starting them both at the same time and 2) I will have taken more courses for background knowledge for when I take the MCAT after my junior year.
The con: the main subjects on the MCAT that I will have taken my freshman and sophmore year will not be as fresh in my mind. </p>

<p>WHAT SHOULD I DO???? Please advise me!</p>

<p>I thank you in advance for all those who will offer their guidance.</p>

2

<p>jacky,
I’m going to move this thread to our Premed Topics forum. You’re much more likely to get help there.</p>

3

<p>I, too, am taking physics and calculus all in one year. On top of that I’m also taking a research methods course for Psychology which is more heavy math.</p>

<p>I’m kind of worried as well, as I have not done any calculus before. I too, picked up a calculus for dummies type book, in hopes of reviewing for it before the class starts. I’m already stuck on the first of 34 chapters. Maybe I need a better book? I don’t know.</p>

<p>I got a 680 for the math section of the SAT, and I’ve gotten nothing but A’s in all my math classes thus far. But, as I stated before, I have never taken a calculus class (in high school I took pre-calculus, if that means anything).</p>

<p>Am I really just over-reacting? And it’s not as bad as I think it would be?</p>

<p>Has anyone gone into calculus without any prior experience and done well?</p>

4

<p>To answer godnick, I took pre-calculus in my junior year of high school, and my first calculus class my freshman year of college. I was able to do very well. I found calculus to be quite different from previous math classes I’d taken, however like high school math, strong algebra skills and a good work ethic are your best tools.</p>

<p>In short, I think you’re overreacting. If you put in the work, I’m sure you’ll excel.</p>

5

<p>You have no idea how much that means to me. Like nearly everyone I talked to said that they either dropped out of calculus or did poorly. My parents aren’t helping either, but they’ve never even taken calculus.</p>

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<p>calc is easy, just dont fall behind. basic calc rules are essential to do well in class so learn the concepts well. its all concepts imo.</p>

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<p>I’m not worried about taking the calculus class. I’m worried about taking the class “calculus based physics” only at the same time as I start to take the actual calculus class. </p>

<p>So the actual calculus class is a pre-requisite for calculus based physics class. I have not taken calculus yet and plan on starting to take calculus while I start to take calculus based physics even though I really should have taken calculus before starting to take physics with calculus.</p>

8

<p>It’s going to depend entirely on your teacher.</p>

<p>I took gen physics w/calc, and while knowledge of calculus certainly helped, it was absolutely not necessary. I could have passed the class even if I’d only had a very minimal knowledge of calc.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I’ve also heard of physics w/calc classes where calculus was used very heavily, and most tests involved integration and derivations and proofs and theorems and whatnot.</p>

9

<p>Even though calc. was a co-req (meaning I either had to have taken calc. or be taking calc. at the same time) for my first physics class, I don’t recall using a whole lot of calculus in Physics I. I used it a lot more in Physics II.</p>

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<p>Now I see that you guys understand my problem. Thanks for the advise so far. More is welcome</p>

11

<p>I’ve been thinking - Maybe I should just take regular algebra based physics rather than calculus based physics than I won’t have to worry about whether I know enough calculus to have a good shot at doing well in the class. See I know someone said earlier that they feel they would have passed the class even if they only had every few calculus concepts - but my goal is to keep my GPA up too. I don’t want to just pass and want to do better than pass. </p>

<p>1) First, does calculus based physics really make more sense? Is it true that its “easier”?</p>

<p>2) Is it much more prestigious to have calculus based physics on your transcript rather than just general physics? - I’m thinking that getting on ok grade in calc base physics is equal to getting a good grade in gen physics, only that getting on ok grade in calc based physics would hurt my GPA </p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

12

<p>From everything I’ve read and heard, I would recommend taking non-Calc based physics. The MCAT doesn’t require calc-based physics and med schools won’t be impressed with one over the other. I have heard one medical school adcom that I talked to say that they looked at overall courseload, but GPA is much more important. The calculus will help you understand non-calculus based physics because many of the formulas wills be derived using calculus. Thus you’ll have a better understanding of the topic with calculus regardless. OChem, Physics, and Calc should be challenging but doable.</p>

13

<p>Calc based physics is way more physics than calculus. Every once in a while you have to use basic calculus skills derivatives/integrals for position/acceleration/velocity problems but other than that the physics part is what’s hard.</p>

14

<p>This post is almost a year old and the OP hasn’t been around for a long time.</p>