<p>with regards to difficulty, competitiveness, and quality of professors, are chemistry major requirement classes (such as organic chemistry and physical chemistry) more difficult than the NBB requirement classes (like nbb 301)? I heard these three courses are one of the most difficult but how do they compare with each other? Why is NBB 301 difficult- is it because it is alot of memorization like bio, or is it because it's a weedout class? or the profs suck?</p>
<p>Why not just have both majors (or one and concentrate in the other) like a lot of people who enjoy both subjects here? Chem major is definitely tougher though. Just more tough classes to go around whereas NBB 301 just has one particular tough core requirement and it isn’t as tough as some of those for the chem major. 301 is tough because it is unusual for a traditional biology/neuroscience class in that it requires you to strongly understand and integrate your skills in chem, physics (mainly circuits), and biology (it is very concept based. If it was memorization, students here would be elated and it would not have the reputation that it enjoys). Needless to say, if you are weak in any of these areas or rusty, you’ll have to be a fast learner to do well in there. The professors for it aren’t bad at all, but the fall section is pretty large and has a character of a weedout course. Here’s the difference though. Averages on NBB 301 exams are typically mid/high 70 to low 80s and are perhaps curved. Harder chemistry courses with certain professors are consistently range from the 50s to the 70s. Even general chemistry averages can often be lower than respective NBB 301 averages. Eisen’s Cell biology class probably had tougher exams merely because the 301 tests were at least somewhat predictable (Eisen just pulls random scientific abstracts of modern biology out of his behind and asks one to speculate on what may be going on and then asks us how we would go about proving it) 301 is much less creative/critical thinking intensive than such a course but is indeed problem based and takes a lot of practice/studying like traditional pre-med classes. Harder chemistry courses are somewhat like it and depending on the professor, they can be between it and Eisen’s class (these are usually only the better professors fortunately).</p>