<p>hey guys, i need some help here...</p>
<p>should i take chem14A or chem20A? chem20A is harder, right?</p>
<p>and for chem 20A it says that there's a "Enforced requisite: successful completion of Chemistry Diagnostic Examination."
is this diagnostic exam difficult to pass? what's on it? basic chem?</p>
<p>someone pllllleeeeeaaaaaasseee answer</p>
<p>what are you majoring in? i have the feeling that if you don't NEED the higher series for your major (such as psych) then don't take it. If ur a bioengineer or somethin, then take the harders series.</p>
<p>i'm premed.</p>
<p>so what about that exam?</p>
<p>i'm not sure about the exam, but premed isn't a major. check ur major requirements, but to fullfill the basic premed requirement all you need is the 14 series.</p>
<p>if ur premed then shouldnt ur major be somewhere along the lines of bio?</p>
<p>no premed can be any major. To the OP, unless you are an Engineer or a Chem major I don't believe the 20 series is required of you.</p>
<p>What's your major? Saying that you're "pre-med" is insufficient, because there are plenty of pre-med students taking Chem 20A and Chem 14A on either side. Don't take Chem 20A if you don't have to, because it's definitely more difficult. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Don't take Chem 20A. I found out after taking it that I could've taken 14A instead (which they hadn't yet mentioned on my DPR, grr) and hate myself now.</p>
<p>well, how much more work are we talking about for the 20 series? Isn't it more impressive to get a good grade on a harder series for the med school admissions to see?</p>
<p>I just don't understand why you would take the 20 series when the 14 series is more applicable to pre-med. Same with 3 series vs. 31 32 series for math, and 6/1 series for physics.</p>
<p>i highly doubt that taking the harder chem series will give you any advantage in the med school admissions process</p>
<p>
[quote]
well, how much more work are we talking about for the 20 series? Isn't it more impressive to get a good grade on a harder series for the med school admissions to see?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>No its in no way impressive, seriously. 20/30 series has more labs, the labs are more difficult, and has an additional lecture (and covers more difficult concepts than the 14 series). Just remember that if for some really odd reason you want to switch series later on, you can always upgrade to the 20/30 series, but you can never downgrade from the 20/30 series to the easier 14 series.</p>
<p>i highly doubt that taking the harder chem series will give you any advantage in the med school admissions process</p>
<p>It won't in any way. Med school pre-reqs are just that. As long as you fulfill them, you're good. Med schools only require "one year of physics (with lab)" - at many other universities, they offer the option for algebra-based physics, which I would imagine is quite a bit easier than the calculus-based physics that UCLA has. Unfortunately, we don't get that option, but even if we did, it wouldn't help our applications in any way to take the harder class.</p>
<p>"No its in no way impressive, seriously. 20/30 series has more labs, the labs are more difficult, and has an additional lecture (and covers more difficult concepts than the 14 series). Just remember that if for some really odd reason you want to switch series later on, you can always upgrade to the 20/30 series, but you can never downgrade from the 20/30 series to the easier 14 series."</p>
<p>I don't believe you can switch from the 20/30 series to the 14 series... at least not in the middle of the series because the two series covers completely different topics throughout the different classes. My room mate took the 14 series and I'm just about done with the 30 series now and we actually compared topics and it was completely different. And by the way, the 30 series really isn't that terrible... the worst part about it is having lab with Dr. Bacher.</p>
<p>People who started in the 14 series are allowed to switch at the junction point between gen chem and ochem into the 30 series, but once you start the 20/30 series, you can never downgrade to the 14 series.</p>
<p>I still think that the higher chem , physics, and math series may give one an advantage if it is a more advanced class. It wouldn't make sense any other way then noone would want to take the 20 series unless it was required of them.</p>
<p>If you think it gives you some sort of advantage then go ahead and take it, but for everyone else, know that it does not. And the vast majority of those in the 20 series actually are required to be in it (as is the physics 1 series, as is the math 30 series) btw.</p>