<p>I'm MCB premed</p>
<p>My schedule might look like this:</p>
<p>4 units Chemistry 1A
4 units Math 1A
4 units English R1A
And one elective course.</p>
<p>Instead of the elective course, should I plan to take Physics 8A? Or should I just stick with a Psycology or Brains and the Drugs?</p>
<p>Otherwise, does this schedule seem fine for the premed track?</p>
<p>That schedule is pretty much what is recommended for the pre-med track. Physics, english, math, and chem might be too much to handle for your first semester. Math 1A should be an easy course unless you have a completely anal professor (like I did). Chem isnt too bad and the workload for English depends on which teacher you have. Not sure if you want to add 2 hours of discussion, 2 hours of lab and lecture for physics on top of that. Go to ratemyprofessors.com to pick which teacher is good. Classes like math 1a will have 3 different teachers and almost all the time, one of them completely blow so dont take that professor. If you want to take an elective course, take one of the breadth or AC requirements.</p>
<p>i know thats the typical premed track
but i dont know why they dont recommend bio in frosh year
im premed too and i was thinking i'd exchange math or chem for bio that year.. what do y'all think</p>
<p>I'm not sure why they don't recommend bio either, but I know most students take Bio 1B before Bio 1A, mainly because 1B is the easier of the two. But you don't need to take Bio1B as a prerequisite for 1A or vice versa. But Bio 1B should almost be full since most sophmores are taking it in the fall and you might not get the lab section you want (a 4 hour chunk of time is kinda hard to fit into your schedule) since most of them seem full. If you do want to take Bio and can still get into the class, I would suggest dropping math because you can take that year of math for med school anytime (especially if you dont get the teacher you want). While Chem1A is a prerequisite for Chem 3A, etc..... so you should take it in the fall. But chem 1A is usually a huge class during the fall(around 1,200 - 1,500 students I believe) and it is supercompetitive with many pre-meds so the curve usually doesn't work in your favor. I heard the curve is much more generous in the spring with a much smaller class size(individual attention) and less competitiveness. So basically if you want to replace bio with either chem or math, I'd do it with math just because chem 1A is a prerequisite for other chem class that you should take in the spring. But english is the most "replaceable" since you can also take that year of english anytime also and its hard to get into an R1A english class in the fall. If you plan on taking R1A, sign up for it in phase I because I can 100% garuantee that there will not be a class open during phase II of telebears. And from experiences in my english classes, I can tell you that people from the waiting list don't get in so I wouldn't rely on that.</p>
<p>opcity, what english r1a professors do you commend. I signed up for Anderson, K. Do you have any idea about her? Ratemyprofessor was not really helpful.</p>
<p>I didn't take that teacher so I have no idea if she is good or not. Ratemyprofessors usually isn't helpful with English classes since there's only like 15-17 students per class. I've been pretty successful in both the English classes I've taken so far, and the key advice I can give you is to go to office hours and talk to the professor about your essay and ideas for your essay a few weeks before you turn it in. Starting your essay the night before might work in high school, but most kids I know that did that didn't get an A. A lot of the time, if your teacher disagrees with your opinion, they'll grade harder on your essay than if they agree with your opinion. So go visit your professor at your office and talk about the book your discussing and share your ideas for your essay and just incorporate her feedback into the essay and you should be set. I got through my year of English by doing that haha. But as a warning. Discussion and participation in English classes is usually a significant chunk of your grade (Around 20-30%) so you need to speak in class even if you're the shy type.</p>
<p>Do you guys think that Math1A will fill out durinh Phase II?</p>
<p>that is a good schedule, part. for pre-med.</p>
<p>The only class I would worry about out of those is Chem 1A.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Brains and the Drugs?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Drugs and the Brain.</p>
<p>i think i'll have a pretty similar schedule to theonlyone,
and i was really curious about taking 1b before 1a.
op_city your answers were really helpful, thanks a bunch!
i think i'll be doing</p>
<p>Bio 1b, since 1a is 5 units
chem 1a
math 1a</p>
<p>and i'm really thinking about an RCb course, probably something 3 units
but i don't want to overwork myself because i'm not exactly a good studier
if not, you guys think i should just take an elective? or just take bio 1a and take only the 3 classes, or with a 1 or 2 unit elective. i'm leaving for calso in a few hours (early check-in) and i don't know what to dooooo</p>
<p>oh wow. This thread was like the summer before I started at Cal. Brings back memories.:)</p>
<p>keep the 12 units, and for your elective take a seminar or PS 179, something 1 unit, it'll help you adjust into college. PS 179 is a great course, i learn more in that than in any other class.</p>