<p>Right now I am a premed student at Cal, undecided between an MCB or IB Major. However, after i took Chem 3A over the summer and have become truly fascinated with organic chemistry ever since. I think it's amazing that you can create a brand new molecule that has never existed before using the knowledge of mechanisms and synthesis.</p>
<p>I was wondering, if i got an A- in Chem 3A, would it be a bad idea to take Chem 112B? I have spoked to the professor, and he said it would be fine as long as I am willing to learn more. However, he seems like a modest guy, and was wondering if anyone here who has taken Chem 112B can give me any insight into what the lab is like and how the grades are distributed? like how many A's, B's and C's are given out? in terms of percentages.</p>
<p>I have grown to dislike courses that have a gazillion premeds in them and give out only 10% A's. I have this feeling perhaps that 112B is less of a weedout course than 3B?</p>
<p>112B is less of a weeder course, but it is ridiculously hard. </p>
<p>Grade distributions are on schedulebuilder.berkeley.edu, but I’m not sure those are representative of the difficulty level. The sort of people who take Chem 3B and 112B are very, very different. </p>
<p>My advice would be to stick with Chem 3B, and finish out the Chem 3A/B, Bio 1A sequence, and look into biochem/synthesis upper divs (which list both 3B and 112B as possible prereqs) later on.</p>
<p>Look on course rank for the grades. Honestly, if you got an A- in chem3A, you shouldn’t be thinking about jumping into 112B. An A- is a good grade for 3A, but 112B, though I haven’t taken it (I’m not insane), is crazy hard and you should see how 3B goes before doing that.</p>
<p>Also I’m pretty sure 112B has the same grade distributions as 3B. When I took 3B I think it was about 15-20% A’s.</p>
<p>I took both classes, plus Chem 3b. I personally think Chem 3b is a much needed step between 3A and 112B. This is especially true if you are going to take the very time intensive Bio 1A at the same time.</p>
<p>I check with Dr. Felix Fischer, who is teaching the course this spring, and the course gives 30% A’s, 35% B’s, 30% C’s, and the rest D-F. This seems much more generous than 3B, but like you said, its very different people that take these courses.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say thanks everyone for your input, but in the end 112B is the right choice for me.</p>
<p>I took a look at the syllabus, and both midterms plus the final is only 45% of your grade for the whole 5 units, the rest are lecture quizzes, lab lecture quizzes, homework, problem sets, lab reports, nmr spectra etc. I like that a lot of the course is based not on midterms and final, unlike 3B which is all midterms and final.</p>
<p>Also they drop your lowest grade for every grading assignment, like lowest lab report, lowest quiz, lowest nmr analysis, lowest problem set. And really small class size too! Plus, there midterms aren’t that difficult, you just have to really learn reactions and synthesis.</p>