<p>Hi guys, I am going to be a college freshman in fall and I am planning to do EMT training, tutoring, and sales work this summer. My main concern however, is my freshman classes. I have read this forum and it seems that getting the highest gpa possible is paramount to successfully matriculating to med school. So in this spirit I was thinking about doing some self study for freshman Bio and Calculus. I was just wondering if this is a good idea and if anyone has done this before. My follow-up question is which books would you all suggest for self studying Biology/Chemistry? Thank you very much for any help you can provide. xD</p>
<p>im confused about your question. do you mean self-study over the summer? or during the course of the year? because over the course of the year you should be doing self-study to keep up with the material.</p>
<p>if it’s over the summer, look at the textbooks listed for the specific courses at your college and see if u can obtain a syllabus early. some courseinfo sites are posted over the summer with all this information.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend self-studying over the summer, especially biology. Usually, the professor will jump around chapters since the textbooks are huge and cannot be covered in an entire semester. Also, even within chapters there will be sections you do not need to know and if it is confusing on a first read you’ll just get frustrated. I would just skim the first chapter of each textbook the day before the first class since those will probably be covered, then once you get the syllabus try to always stay ahead of the lectures (easier said than done but definitely the most effective way to know the material).</p>
<p>agree with arez. i would honestly just relax this summer unless you’re feeling especially motivated.</p>
<p>what about doing this for physics? I plan on taking the intro course in college, probably not calculus based, and i feel im at a disadvantage having not taken physics in high school. Would it be worth it for me to browse some AP physics review books @ the library?</p>
<p>if u plan on going to all the lectures and studying the material, you should have no reasno to study ahead of time. an intro course means that they’re assuming you’ve had no introduction to the material prior to that course.</p>
<p>If you do plan on doing some minor studying over the summer, I would suggest getting a copy of Campbell & Reece and start reading as much of it as you can. If you want to get more hardcore, buy the accompanying workbook and start doing it. Apart from a few complex subfields, biology is a very easy subject to teach yourself, since much of it is understanding basic concepts and memorizing details.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone but particularly thank you arez and azngod. I will look into the Campbell and Reese and see what I can do about Calculus as well. I won’t go too crazy, but if I can find a dense book with a breadth of info on Bio/chem/calc I will be fine. xD</p>
<p>Relax. Enjoy your summer. If you continue at this level of stress over things you will burn out long before applying to Med school.</p>
<p>If you can’t handle the undergraduate science work load in the time allotted, you will NEVER be able to handle Med school where you often cover what would have been a year’s worth of undergrad material in 4-5 weeks.</p>
<p>Seriously, enjoy your summer.</p>
<p>According to what i heard from my D (college junior), that would be waste of time. her freshman bio was one of her hardest classes even though they used the same book as her freshman HS Honors bio, after which she took AP Bio and got an “A”. Freshman bio was weed out after which good number of Honors students have changed their major. There is no way to self study for that. Take it easy, rest up, you will need it the most. Calc should be easy though - here is your relaxation time, like my D’s college Stats and some other classes. Not everything will be hard.</p>
<p>To echo what everyone else said:
Don’t waste your time “pre-studying” for a class over the summer. You can find better ways of spending it than that. Just relax and have fun.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I guess I was just a bit too anxious. I will take it easy xD. I appreciate your thoughts DAP and GoldShadow.</p>