How hard are the science classes?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>How hard are the science classes? are they harder than other classes because of the material, or because of the pre meds/ gunners?</p>

2

<p>I just heard that they were filled with gunners and curved extremely low.</p>

3

<p>Honestly depends on how good you are at science. Something you probably don’t know yet, but something you’ll quickly learn. I say you don’t know because the vast majority of Cornell students come in with high GPAs from high school and while science was still their worst subject for some of them, they were still getting As. And high school science definitely doesn’t emphasize critical thinking.</p>

<p>It also depends on the science. Biology is generally vast memorization while physics is really applied math, which involves very different types of learning. </p>

<p>The reason I tend to think of science classes as “harder” is that they are what I call “failable.” Meaning, you can actually fail the exams, even with a curve. For example, in physics, if you don’t know how to solve a problem, you can easily get 0 points on that question (which is especially bad if there are only 5 questions on the test, which is likely). Further, they will try to make you think on many questions, so there is a chance you’ve never done a question in that way before, thus making it more likely for you to do poorly on a question. And if you are the type of person getting 0 on one question, you probably aren’t acing the others.</p>

<p>Most non-science/math classes aren’t failable. In any class where there are essays on the exam, it’s really hard to fail an essay. Even if you don’t know what you’re writing about, usually the worst that can happen is something in the C-range.</p>

4

<p>Im interested in this question to because I plan to major in biology? I have to take one semester of physics I believe?</p>

5

<p>It all depends on how smart you are and how hard you are willing to work. Science courses are harder but it doesn’t mean your science GPA has to be much lower than your non-science GPA. Physics for a bio major is a joke as you will only be taking introductory level physics courses. I didn’t take any physics in high school and still got an A+ in physics at Cornell.</p>

6

<p>not that hard but that depends on who you ask. some people for some reason no matter how much they study, can’t get above the mean…</p>