<p>Hi,
i got a 5 on my ap chem exam so i tested out of general chemistry. However, i heard med schools prefer students take the actual required courses rather than using ap credit to skip them. My counselor said the only way i could take the regular general chemistry course is if i take it for no credit and the grade i get won't be factored into my college gpa (the school has a dumb rule where if you pass a class with ap credit you are not allowed to retake that course AT ALL).
So, my question is: Will medical schools recalculate my gpa to include the chemistry course grade? Or will they just use my school's gpa which doesn't include that course?</p>
<p>oops, i meant med school gpa not gap</p>
<p>if it shows up on your transcript, amcas will count it in your gpa for med school</p>
<p>It’s interesting that you would take it for no credit though. I don’t know how a class that is for no credit yet shows up as a grade would factor in. Normally I’d agree that if it’s on your transcript at all, it counts toward your AMCAS GPA, which is the only GPA that med schools care about. So let’s say you took ENG101 at a community college and got a B+, transferred it to your university and your university didn’t compute it into your university GPA. Regardless, it would go into your AMCAS GPA. But, you’d also have “ENG101–5 credits–B+” instead of “ENG101–0 credits–B+.” So, who knows. </p>
<p>My understand of the prereqs rule is this. You are required to take 2 semesters of chemistry and 2 semesters of chemistry lab. You are not allowed to use AP credit to fulfill that requirement, but you are certainly allowed to use other chemistry courses to fulfill that requirement. So, if you can’t take gen chem, you could (for example) take quant and p-chem (if they have labs at your school) to fulfill the chemistry requirement. Note that organic chemistry is its own separate requirement.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! Its good to know that if the grade shows then it’ll be counted…so the class won’t be for nothing :)</p>
<p>I don’t know how schools figure this, but AP classes count as credit, but not a grade. It doesn’t matter what score you got. If the college gives credit for a particular score, you get credit, but it does not affect your gpa (grade point average). Maybe gpa is calculated on credits you took in that college.</p>
<p>According to official 2012-13 AMCAS Guide for Applicants</p>
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<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/182162/data/amcas_instruction_manual.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks WOWMom for that ^. This is what I was saying, or at least trying to convey.</p>
<p>ah thank you!!</p>