question for all curent students

<p>wondering if any current bio majors could let me know how difficult it is overall to get an A... and is there a difference in the difficulty of courses between CALS and CAS</p>

<p>The bio courses are the same. CALS and CAS bio majors take the same bio classes together. Overall, not difficult if you are semi-smart and work semi-hard. A lot of the bio majors aren't actually great at bio or science. They just want to be doctors. So don't worry about the competition.</p>

<p>eh, i'm not a bio major but i would say its harder than "semi-hard." i think it comes easier for some than it does for others. you might find bio real easy, you might find it a living hell. how tough it is to get an A is really subjective...</p>

<p>would ppl who come from an average high school without any of that extra stuff u hear ppl doing still be able to get an A? oh and when u say semi smart norcalguy would that be the ppl with maybe a 4 on the AP test or just the ppl who made a 5? srry just trying to see the chances of me actually getting an A since the median grade was around a B for the intro to bio and chem classes....<br>
ty...</p>

<p>Getting an A in intro bio is a lot harder than getting a 5 on the AP test if that's what you're asking. I had an A in BioAP in HS as well as a 5 on the BioAP test and I still ended up retaking intro bio because it covered a lot more stuff than my AP class. I still found it pretty challenging at Cornell. But, I stand by my earlier opinion that bio in general is not terribly difficult. In fact, most upper level bio courses are easier than intro bio.</p>

<p>Bio is pretty tough, but not impossible. I'm a biological sciences major in CALS and I'm not pre-med (pre-PhD: actually want to go into research). I hated intro bio lecture, the professor was horrible, the class was too big, and I really didn't know how to study for it. I also was sick a lot my first semester, probably b/c of too much partying and not enough sleeping. I loved the lab though, but that's probably just me. I came from a small high school where 80% of students go to community college and I got a 5 on the AP exam. So I used my AP credit for the second semester and it was a great choice b/c I found the upper level bio courses much easier to get better grades (not necessarily easy though), with grades ranging from a B to an A+ in them. </p>

<p>My best advice would be to try to figure out the best way to study early on, figure out what works for you, and dont give up if you get a bad grade on the first test; balance the partying and the studying, get enough sleep, and take less than 15 credits, and you shouldn't have a huge problem. You might not get an A, but with a mean of a B-, a B or B+ is really good for intro bio. I went from having a 3.1 GPA freshman year, to a 3.7 GPA after that b/c I finally learned how to study and what I needed to do in order to succeed. </p>

<p>Good grades were important to me, but as a senior, the most valuable thing that I learned from Cornell was not how to do well on a test. I can't stand some of my pre-med friends sometimes, who switch to the "Bio and Society" or "Science and Technology Studies" majors b/c they are "easier" and they can raise their GPA. I got an amazing education certainly worth the pain and the money by sticking with biological sciences.</p>

<p>well i got a A in both bio 101 and bio 103 and i have to say bio lab is MUCH harder than bio 101. Bio 101 is a joke. High school bio is like 100x harder. I sleep or talk in bio lecture all the way at the back ( gardner yelled at me twice lol). Only go for clicker questions which count for 5% of your grade. THe tests are pretty easy and they have huge curves. I messed up my first bio prelim and i still got a A. The essay portion for the final exam is worth 10% of your total grade and they basically tell you the essay question before hand so you can study for that easily. The web quizzes seem a bit challenging at first but most answers are out there in the book or lecture slides online. Maintain like a 90% on quiz and should be no problem. The homework readings aren't important for daily lectures, i read everything 2 days before prelim to make it really fresh in my mind. </p>

<p>For bio 103 lab part if your taking it, its completely based on ranking as well but the classes are TINY. for my class it started off with around 36/7 and at the end there were 32 after drops, TOP 5 gets As, (A+,A,A-) I assuming rank 1 gets A+ cause i got a A as rank 2.. maybe 4 and 5 are A-? not quite sure about that. but lab teacher curves median to a B-. meaning half the class gets B- and lower = out of 32 kids, 16 gets B- and LOWER which could be a killer if you mess up on a midterm. Just know that the final exam is ur grade determiner basically, the ranking can totally change cause of final cause its worth 27%. While midterm 1 and 2 are 11% and 13% respectively for my term.</p>

<p>For chem, i dont know about 215 but i have a few friends in 215 and they mentioned they were getting A- but that doesn't really tell me the difficulty. For 207, just review the materials really well. Dont kill yourself for getting 1 or 2 questions wrong, chances are others did too!! TIME IS A MAJOR FACTOR which isn't the case for bio exams. Almost no one leaves early, u often have to rush to finish. I learned that the hardway when i needed to go to the bathroom and i messed up a few questions cause of it. But overall chem is an easy class cause there are plenty of things to balance ur exam grades like Lab and Homework. (lab unlike bio lab is 100% easy, which is 100% opposite from chem homework which is 100% hard, but work in groups for homework or go to office hours or sessions)</p>

<p>Anyway, id say study hard for the prelim 1 and use that as a basis to see how well the rest of cornell does compared to you. If u do pretty well on all of your prelim 1s, then you got it covered, if not. study more, get more help. then you should do fine.</p>

<p>wow, very detailed. thanks for all the info. i hope 2 use it all next year.</p>