<p>take the easiest route. as long as the material covered fulfills med school requirements, then it doesn’t matter if its physics 1a or 6a.</p>
<p>preserving your GPA is one of the most aspects important for med school and they generally will not know or care if you took the “harder” series, especially if your GPA isn’t even up to snuff. Also if you find that premed is not for you, keeping your GPA high will also give you a better chance at grad school, law school or business school.</p>
<p>Unless you are a masochist or really good in the sciences/math, don’t take the engineering/physics level math, physics or chem courses unless required for your major. I know a few people who virtually destroyed their GPA because they took the engineering physics track. And no they didn’t get into med school, or they dropped out of the rat race. </p>
<p>The labs for physics 1 and Chem 20/30 are very time consuming both in and outside of class and your other classes will suffer for it, and all for what, 1 or 2 units? Competition can also be very high, thus pushing the midterm/final curves even higher. </p>
<p>Don’t bother with honors classes unless you really like and excel at the subject or prefer smaller classes. I don’t believe there is an honors program for engineering, so you will either be competing with a bunch of LS/Chem majors or physics majors, or students with a masochistic streak. =)</p>
<p>How hard is Math 31b? I took AP Calc AB in junior year and scored a 5 so I am exempt from 31a. But our school doesn’t offer Calc BC, so I couldn’t take the class in senior year. I am an incoming freshie, should I start from 31a since I probably forgot a lot about calc? I am good at math though… but I heard 31b is very tough.</p>
<p>you cannot take 31a. you have to start at 31b if you got a 5.</p>
<p>confidentially, </p>
<p>The level of difficulty of Math 31B depends entirely on the professor. I had roommates that had a really, really difficult prof for the class. However, when I took the class a quarter or two later, I had a super duper easy professor that even let us calculators on exams! (Which FYI, is not typical…)</p>
<p>Who did you take it with ckings86?</p>
<p>I had Murphy… Though if you really want to learn the material and plan on continuing on to the 32 series, I’d take a different professor…</p>
<p>bump in time for incoming freshman to stress out over enrollment. fun times.</p>
<p>What if I’m interested in the Accounting minor? They require 31A and B but say that they can be substituted with 3A and B. Should I take the 3 series (since people seem to think that it is easier) and keep my GPA up or take the recommended 31? Do any of you guys have any insight?</p>
<p>Is it important to take math and chem together or can i just take math starting from winter quarter?</p>
<p>Medicine really is a great career, there are so many positives and so few negatives compared to most careers, it’s no biggie why so many students want to pursue it. But I feel conflicted sometimes because I want to pursue a career because it’s something I really love to do, and not because of a cost benefit analysis…I feel like somehow i’m falling into the “premed stereotype…” How do I know if medicine is really right for me or if I want to do it for the perks or because of family pressures or something like that? Sometimes I feel like I don’t know why I want to do something…help</p>
<p>although I passed calc AB with a 5, I would like to take math 31A my first quarter. I don’t feel prepared for 31B + the reviews of 31B professors don’t seem very encouraging…</p>
<p>so is it true that I have to take math 31B if I got a 5 on calc AB like zzzboy says?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>… i totally feel the same. 
sigh.</p>
<p>@zmrzlina</p>
<p>Your Calc AB score can either waive you out of the placement test, allowing you to take 31A OR you can just skip 31A to take 31B…
So yeah, you can take 31A 
verify with someone or something</p>
<p>you dont get this epiphany about medicine usually. you find out by getting firsthand experience and seeing whether medicine appeals to you. volunteering, clinical research, shadowing, talking to doctors/residents…</p>
<p>I royally messed up senior year and got a 4 on the Calc BC and a 5 AB subscore. I chose something life-sciencey as a major (not sure about premed yet, I also think they are quite annoying), but I also think I should take upper classesin math and chem. I was thinking about taking math31B first quarter, but the professors (Moschovakis, STAFF, Khan, and Ouellette) either have reviews that don’t seem too great or don’t have reviews at all.</p>
<p>I’ve enjoyed the material in math and sci classes- I’m mostly a self-studier,and got by with pretty bad/absent teachers, but I am by no means a natural genius in any subject. Would math31 and the chem20 series be too much to handle? </p>
<p>Also which professors are generally preferred in the chem20/chem14/math31 series? Who should be avoided?</p>
<p>Scratch that about chem14, Lavelle is the only one teaching it in the fall. His reviews are all across the board. Much confusion and uncertainty, mmm</p>
<p>lavelle is boring apparently (i thought he was OK). class is medium diffculty. tons of resources and practice tests/materials, though. a true pre-med grinder class.</p>
<p>Thanks, and do you know what grades his students usually get?</p>
<p>I am tempted to take a chem class with Schwartz, but it seems a bit killer for first sem. Does virtually everyone bomb his chem20H? He teaches it every four years or so, so I guess it’s a tough tell. The kids on bruinwalk all seem to adore him however</p>