<p>Hey guys, I'm premed and I'm doing pretty well in Bio + Chem. Math, however, not so much. I want to drop it but don't know how 3 classes look on transcripts for medical schools?</p>
<p>Drop period ends this friday. Drop it this week and it’ll be taken off your transcript. Like it was never there!</p>
<p>It’s pretty routine for pre-meds to take 3 courses when they’re loaded up on premed classes. Bio, chem, and two labs can wreck you if you’re trying to do a full courseload and don’t have the time.</p>
<p>Source: upperclassman friends.</p>
<p>^I second that. At other schools under quarter-system, taking 3 courses is very common.</p>
<p>Any tips for upcoming students on how to keep up/catch up in challenging classes? S is coming from a public school where he feels he’s had “meh” physics and calculus training, and has had no organic chem but will start out in organic (ISP). </p>
<p>Any tips for surviving those first few quarters?</p>
<p>Review your notes a bit before you get here.</p>
<p>Don’t die. Hit the ground running–syllabus week isn’t a thing. We get syllabus 15 minutes, then we start learning topics the first course. And midterms are about three weeks away once you start classes.</p>
<p>Don’t panic if things aren’t going swimmingly–be open to changing course at a whim, and don’t think that it reflects poorly on you if you can’t keep up–a lack of aptitude in one area shouldn’t crush a whole person’s self-worth. That said, go to office hours. Sometimes the prof will explain something a different way, and it clicks. Study with friends too. Good insight things happen there.</p>
<p>And don’t take math with the other engineers if you can help it.</p>
<p>It isn’t that bad though, really. We just complain a lot because we have nothing better to do.</p>
<p>@PieceofToast - Many thanks for the tips. I’ll pass them along to S.</p>
<p>I think most of my concern stems from D. Like S (and probably all NU students) she’d always found math incredibly easy and got 5s on AP tests, yet totally crashed in her first NU math class. She felt the teacher didn’t teach the material that was on tests and that it was gratuitously hard (ie a Weed Out rather than a teaching class). Granted she was quite ill her first 2 months of school, had no interest in pursuing college math, didn’t know she could drop a class, and probably enrolled in a class for which she didn’t have the prerequisites. Since that first class she’s made the Dean’s List, so it was a blimp on her academic radar, but made mom nervous for S in any case. </p>
<p>And knowing you’re an NU student, I honestly can’t believe you have nothing better to do. :)</p>
<p>Ah, well, it’s more a matter of coming in ready to roll, and knowing what to expect. I got a 3 on the AP calc exam, and I ended up with a B+ in my first math. I wasn’t in ISP math, of course, but still… it definitely got things moving a lot faster.</p>
<p>As long as you adapt to the new pace of things quickly, there’s no reason to worry. The tests combine multiple concepts into single problems, which can trip people up. The tests are a good deal harder than weekly materials. I suspect that’s to make it easier for the profs to curve the exams. They have a certain distribution they want, so they essentially lay out the scores high to low and eyeball the cutoffs.</p>
<p>@PieceofToast - Well that sounds very promising. Maybe D just had an unusual experience, which may have been largely due to how ill she was that first quarter.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>