<p>I'm going to be a sophomore, not sure what i want to major in. I got a 5 in Chem AP junior year/ 790 chem SAT 2. Would it be a horrible idea to skip directly into Chem 3A?</p>
<p>not horrible, but not necessarily a great idea.</p>
<p>from what i have heard from friends in 3a right now, chem 1a comes in handy .00000000000000000000000000000000000001%</p>
<p>i think you should be fine. try contacting the prof to see what he says about this.</p>
<p>^
dood. Chem 1a killed my gpa.. this past fall.. i dunno *** was wrong.
I'm taking chem 3a right now.. chem 1a barely helps.. at all</p>
<p>If you mean kill your gpa as in went from an A to a B then yeah chem 1a screwed me over too. that damn final blew my A to a B. i was so mad. (and confused as to how I did so poorly haha)</p>
<p>but to answer question, it's really eh. if you remember the basics of chemistry, you should be able to handle ochem. (though for me, i guess it would be a bit more difficult b/c i took chem junior year and pretty much forgot everything in HS by summer after senior year.)</p>
<p>As long as you still know the basics of chem 1A, of which you can brush up on with a simple book or online tutorial from sparknotes or something, you should be fine skipping Chem 1A.</p>
<p>i went from B to C... -.- ***</p>
<p>Go ahead and skip 1A. Chem 3A has very little to do with 1A material. And as it was mentioned several times, 1A is a tough class to get an A in.</p>
<p>If you are pre-med, sometimes med school requires you to take gen chem and AP credits can't be used for it. You'll have to check w/ individual schools.</p>
<p>^ oh right...that is true. so i guess you may have to take chem 1a for major reqs...totally forgot bout it. I think for IB you can skip it, but not sure for mcb and others.</p>
<p>im not premed so yeah i think i will go ahead and skip, thanks guys :)</p>
<p>How are the GSI/Teaching Assistants for these chemistry classes? Are they helpful? Is the lecture given by the professor sufficient?</p>
<p>@Batman17, other than math, IB and MCB have the exact same prereqs and the same AP credit policies. Both IB and MCB students can skip Chem 1A</p>
<p>My GSI for Chem1A knew absolutely nothing. Her reviews were so bad that she was unable to teach the following semester.</p>
<p>My GSI for Chem3AL was a 3rd year (I was a 1st year)... it was cool to have someone younger to relate to since he had taken the class... I never went to OH so I don't know how knowledgeable he was.</p>
<p>My GSI for Chem3BL knew nothing. At OH, she constantly had to defer to other GSIs to answer my questions. However, she was an easy grader so that was good. She didn't seem to really care about learning but more about getting out earlier.</p>
<p>GSIs really vary - it's all about a matter of luck.</p>
<p>I know someone who didn't take Chem 1A but got an A on the first 3A midterm. I would say that 1A or even having a really strong chem background isn't that necessary. I took 1A (I'm now in 3A) but hadn't taken chem since freshman year of high school. I have so far been doing well in chem at Cal. Really, as long as you work your butt off, you can succeed in any class.</p>