<p>Why is Chem 3a(Organic Chem) a prereq for Bio 1A, especially since AP Bio(which usually does not imply that you've taken organic chem) will give you credit for 1A/B?</p>
<p>Some majors allow, but do not recommend, skipping Biology 1A/1AL with AP credit.</p>
<p>[2012</a> Freshmen](<a href=“http://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad/advising/advising-office/freshmen/]2012”>New Freshmen Q&A | Molecular and Cell Biology)</p>
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<p>That doesn’t explain why Organic Chemistry is a prerequisite.</p>
<p>Because you can’t really understand biology at the molecular level unless you have learned organic chemistry. Things like DNA structure, amino acids, protein folding, all of metabolism make much more sense once you start to imagine them as chemical structures.</p>
<p>I didn’t really understand the requirement at first because I did fine in AP Bio without any OChem. Bio 1A was a completely different experience though - much more intense but also much more interesting.</p>
<p>Well, I can imagine them as chemical structures with a relatively advanced knowledge of basic chem…but maybe I’m missing out on something because of my ignorance.</p>
<p>As for the AP credit, I had a REALLY hard/in-depth AP Bio course in High School, so I think I’ll be fine skipping it and watching the video lectures if I need to review anything before taking upper division courses.</p>
<p>Just because a class is an “AP” class, does not mean it is an actual “college-level” class. AP classes are pretty notorious for being “dumbed-down” versions of an actual college class (though tougher than a normal HS class), with a few exceptions like BC Calc and AP Physics C, and even then, Berkeley’s versions of those classes are much more difficult.</p>
<p>Though I haven’t taken Bio (and will never take Bio) at Berkeley, it is pretty likely this also applies to Bio at Berkeley.
Look here at the old website [BIOLOGY</a> 1A&1AL FALL 2009](<a href=“http://mcb.berkeley.edu/courses/bio1a/Fall2009/]BIOLOGY”>http://mcb.berkeley.edu/courses/bio1a/Fall2009/), look at some old lectures, and look thru the textbook to see how well it matches up with your HS class.
Maybe you can handle upper divs without Bio 1A. But if Bio1A is going to be easy for you because you know everything, then why not take it just to boost your GPA (assuming med school), and if you don’t know anything, your GPA might suffer in upper divs because you’re “behind” everyone else.</p>
<p>I’m not planning on med school, so that’s not a concern. I’d rather not take it again so I can save time in my schedule to take other classes.</p>
<p>Put “Biology 1A final exam” in the search box of [University</a> of California, Berkeley](<a href=“http://www.berkeley.edu%5DUniversity”>http://www.berkeley.edu) . Try any of the old final exams that you find to get an idea of how your knowledge compares with what is taught in Biology 1A.</p>
<p>Do this for any other course you are considering skipping with AP credit and which is a prerequisite for a more advanced course you plan to take. This way you can better determine whether it is a good idea to skip the course with your AP credit.</p>
<p>Yeah, I went to the crazy, competitive high school that had “the best AP Biology program in the country”. You may have gone to the same school. AP Bio was still a joke compared to Bio 1A. I got a 5 on the AP Bio test but I may have only gotten ~70% of the questions right. That would be a C- in Bio 1A.</p>
<p>Just take the class. Or ignore us all and regret it later. If you’re not going to med school, it’s actually even more of a benefit to you to take Bio 1A. You’ll need it for the upper div courses and there’s a lot of material taught in Bio 1A that you may never learn again. I just graduated from MCB Biochemistry, but I never took any upper div neuro or immuno classes so all my knowledge on those subjects is from what I learned in Bio 1A.</p>
<p>I took bio 1a as a chemical engineer this semester and got an A in it. It mighta been because of my set of instructors(had a great set: malkin, urnov, firestone).</p>
<p>you don’t need prior o-chem knowledge to do well in bio 1a. i would say you need some gen chem knowledge to fully appreciate at least the biochemistry aspect, but i didnt see where ochem really helped me in understandin anything.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely watch the lectures over a summer(maybe even this one, since I have nothing else to do). How about Bio 1B?</p>
<p>Watching the lectures isn’t enough for Bio 1A. I had to memorize literally everything said in lectures to get an A in that class.</p>
<p>Bio 1B on the other hand is a waste of time (unless you actually want to go into plants or ecology). I should have skipped it.</p>
<p>Yeah, I do not relish the though of learning about plants…</p>
<p>Well, even if I take the class and memorise everything, I’m probably going to forget many details anyway…</p>
<p>Don’t spend your time watching the lectures now unless you know the instructors that are teaching in the Fall and they have previous webcasts. Bio 1A’s content is pretty dependent on the professors teaching during a given semester.</p>
<p>Also, this has just been my experience but I tend to do better when I’m learning stuff for the first time. If you watch the lectures in the summer w/o GSI/OHs/friend support, you might feel as if you’re just memorizing facts and figures. And then when it gets around to the actual class, you might feel a bit unmotivated when being introduced to the material again because technically you will have already learned it, and this could cause a consequential decline in your performance.</p>
<p>^I’m currently not planning on skipping the class, so watching the lectures would be to brush up for upper division courses.</p>