How do college classes work?

sweet48 · July 1, 2010, 11:33am

Incollegeforundergradhowlongisasemester?Doesayearusuallyhave2semesterssofor4yearstogetlikeaBSinscience(orisaBAbetterforpremed)doItake8semestersoverall?Soforpremedoneyearofmath,bio,chem,andphysicsisnecessarysoiseachclassonesemesterlong?Soorganicchempluslabisonesemester?SooverallIwouldtake2physicsclassesand2bioand2math?Howmanyclassesdoessomeonetakeperyearorsemester?Soattheendofeachsemesterthereisafinal?SolikeIwouldtakechemfreshmanyearandbiosophandphysicsjunioryearandmathsenioryearplusallmyrequirementsforabiomajor?SoifItake5classespersemesterwouldItake2hardand3electives(wouldtheelectivesbeforaminor).IfIhavelike5bioclasseshowdoIstudyforallofthem?*DoItakenotesfromthebookforeachclassorwilltheprofessorgivemeallthenotesIneedforeachclass? Is the lab a seperate class (like a seperate semester)?

Formedical(gradschool)itsayslikeimmunesystem15weeks.Soforthe15weeksidon'thavetostudyanythingelsebuttheimmune*system?OrdoIhavethatplussevenotherclasses?

sweet48 · July 1, 2010, 11:35am

I’m sorry I don’t know why there are stars.

hj0519 · July 1, 2010, 1:56pm

Depends on your school. Not all schools have semesters, some are on the quarter system. My school has the semester system, fall is from September to just before Christmas break, spring is from after Christmas break to May. If you go to a school on the semester system, then there will be two semesters a year so if you go for four years you’ll go for eight semesters (typically…of course, you can take summer classes and graduate early or take few classes each semester and graduate late). Each class is a semester, some are in two parts…like at my school the first introduction biology class that every bio major takes has two semesters - Biological Principles I and Biological Principles II, but in other science classes, like in the chemistry department there is General Chemistry I, which is one semester, and then you move right on to Organic Chemistry second semester.

How many classes you take per year depends on your school. At my school, everyone takes five classes. At others, people may take four classes or six classes, or they may vary between semesters.

At my school, at the end of each semester there’s “finals week” where there is a final scheduled for every class. But not every class takes a final, I’ve had several classes where instead of a final we had a paper or a project due during finals week.

If you want to be a biology major, it would be silly to wait until your sophomore year to take biology, and it wouldn’t necessarily make sense to take math your senior year. At my school, bio majors are required to take calculus, and all science majors generally have a schedule like this first semester: Calculus 1, General Chemistry, Biological Principles I, and then two other general education classes.

This will really vary by school. There is no set standard, not all colleges are the same. Usually there’s some type of recommended schedule for each major for your first semester and your advisor will help you schedule your requirements.

How many classes you take towards your major each semester depends on how many classes is even required for your major. And your elective classes could be used to fulfill a minor, but most schools also have general education requirements - like, a social science, a humanities class, foreign language etc. (this also varies widely by school) that you also need to fulfill.

How many notes you take in class/from the book will also depends on your professor. Sometimes you’ll have classes where you’ll need to take notes out of the textbook to understand what’s going on, in other classes the professor may just be repeating exactly what the textbook says.

Labs are usually a separate class but still part of the class. They’ll be at a different time than your lectures, but you do take the lab for a class at the same time that you’re taking the lecture for the class.

As for your med school question, try asking in the medical school forum on here.

sweet48 · July 1, 2010, 4:08pm

Thank you so much. I understand so much better now.

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