<p>So I received a 5 on both my AP Chemistry and AP Biology exams. This lets me exempt General Chemistry 1. My question is should I still take General Chemistry 1 or would Medical Schools like to see me take General Chemistry 2 my freshman year instead. Assuming I make a good grade in General Chemistry 2 would that be impressive to Medical Schools rather than making a good grade in General Chemistry 1.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Two comments:</p>
<p>1) that a very big assumption to make</p>
<p>2) med school adcomms won’t be impressed</p>
<p>I excel in General Chemistry 2 so I am not really to worried about the grade since I am willing to work for it and because it is really the only hard class in my schedule right now. But anyways are you saying that starting off with General Chemistry 2 and making an A is not more impressive than starting off with General Chemistry 1 and making an A. I don’t really want to take General Chemistry 1 because there are going to be so many people in the class, and all of the honors seats are taken up for Honors General Chem 1.</p>
<p>No taking gen chem 2 and making an A will not impress adcomms. They are notoriously hard to impress. (Also they won’t look that closely at your transcript to see that you skipped a class. Skipping an into class isn’t that big of a deal. Plenty of kids have AP/IB credits.)</p>
<p>Now if you become a Rhodes Scholar, compete in the Olympics, sing a solo at the Met, publish multiple first author journal papers in Nature, start an international non-profit to improve the health of children in ______----that will impress an adcomm.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>‘Right now’ is the key. I tried to warn D1 to not take AP credit and to just start with gen chem. But she insisted that she didn’t want to repeat material and so took the credit and jumped straight into orgo. That wasn’t too bad, but she wasn’t so happy later when she had to take biochem to get her second year of chem ;).</p>
<p>@Fihita,
Yes, take the credit or advanced placement and start with whatever class you are placed into. If that’s genchem2, so be it. Many universities will give you credit for both genchem1&2 for a 5 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>Your goal is not to impress anyone at this point. Your goal is to get a great education and retaking high school level classes is not how you get there. I started freshman year with organic chemistry 1&2, and because of this I was qualified for a great summer program after freshman year that I otherwise would not have even been considered for. Don’t try to game the system. Instead, work hard and chase your dream. :D</p>
<p>BTW, I entered college with 55 AP credits and didn’t retake any of them. Best of luck.</p>
<p>@wayoutwestmom</p>
<p>So your saying that I should really focus on extracurricular activities in order to jump out to medical schools.</p>
<p>@plumazul</p>
<p>Yeah I get what your saying but I feel like I might have forgotten some Chemistry. Do you know if General Chem 2 will review General Chem 1 in any way</p>
<p>^^ Fihita, don’t worry about it. It will come back to you in a flash. If you took AP Chem and scored a 5, you have already taken genchem 2. The entire class will be review. I took organic chemistry freshman year and I am teaching OrgoII this summer at my university. I was concerned about how much I forgot after two years but it was not a problem. It all came back to me. :D</p>
<p>In my opinion, I don’t think you should skip it. I could’ve skipped genchem 1 but I’m really glad I didn’t. Already knowing some of the material helped me get used to the college atmosphere and it wasn’t as much review as I thought it would be. Plus, as entomom said, then you’ll have to take biochem to fulfill your 1 year genchem requirement.</p>
<p>If biochem is a difficult class than I would like to take it sometime in the future because medical schools are becoming more competitive and it would be good for me to take it.</p>
<p>Biochem will included on the 2015 MCAT–so it’s highly likely you’ll be taking it regardless.</p>
<p>Also an increasing number of med schools are requiring it.</p>
<p>^didn’t know that. At my school, we don’t have a genchem 2 and so we all take biochem regardless. But I thought they were debating whether to add biochem or something else like psychology to the 2015 mcat, isn’t that what the trial section is for?</p>
<p>It’s been decided already. Starting 2015, the MCAT will have 4 sections: biological sciences, physical sciences, human behavior and verbal.</p>
<p>Bio sciences will include biochem, ochem, biology. Phys sciences will include gen chem and physics. Foundations of behavior will include sociology and psychology, maybe some medical ethics. All of these sections (plus the verbal) will include stats and research methodology.</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/faqs/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/faqs/</a></p>
<p>The trial section is to test and standardize new questions that will be included on 2015 MCAT. The trial section will be discontinued next year.</p>
<p>There are actually two separate questions here:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Will you do well in later courses after skipping the introductory courses? You may want to find your college’s old final exams for the courses to be skipped to compare what you know with what the college’s courses expect, in order to better answer the question.</p></li>
<li><p>What are the implications for medical school admissions? In many cases, AP credit may not be accepted for pre-med course requirements, so you may have to take a more advanced course in the same subject area later, or something like that.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Something else to think about: I am convinced that I would have done better in orgo if I had been allowed to jump straight into it. For some reason at Brown, the chem class you place into with a 5 in AP Chem is essentially a repeat of AP level thermodynamics (which was a surprise since the word “intro” or “basic” is nowhere to be found in the course title/description). It was a joke for me and my roommate although we knew many people who found the class exceedingly difficult. When orgo 1 came next semester, I figured that if people said the chem class I had just taken was hard but I didn’t think so, that the same would be true for orgo. I took the same exact approach to the class that got me test scores in the upper 90s for the class I took in the fall and nearly failed the first exam in the spring for orgo. By this point it was already too late in the semester to really turn it around so I had to push through just to get a C but I wonder if I had hit the ground running with regard to studying (like I initially did with the thermo class before I realized it wasn’t necessary) would I have gotten an A. Maybe just being told the classes were drastically different in difficulty would have been enough.</p>
<p>I have no idea what things are like at your school but I am writing this because you need to be wary of being lulled into a false sense of security by taking a class that is a repeat. At least I wish someone had told me this when I first got to Brown.</p>
<p>I would ask a professor in the Chem department at the school you will be attending. At some schools, Chem 1 is a repeat of AP material and you’d probably be better off just skipping it. At other schools they assume students coming in have all had AP Chem and go far deeper into the subject than AP does. If you skip this class you could be missing foundations other students will have in later classes.</p>
<p>No one on this forum is going to have that answer for you - esp since we don’t know which college you’ll be attending. Contact someone in the Chem department at your school and see what they suggest (someone who has had experience, not a newbie). I’ve yet to see a student steered incorrectly regarding AP/DE when they check with professors who know what is covered and how students traditionally do coming from each path.</p>
<p>ps Do not trust an adviser, esp if not versed in pre-med and Chem. They often don’t know.</p>
<p>I think you have time to go back and review some of the material and get a feeling for how you feel about it. My son got a good grade in his Chem AP but he took it early in 10th grade and said that he would not skip it if he was required to take it. On the other hand he also got a 5 on cal bc and would not consider retaking the same material. Look online for chem 101 classes to see what you think of the material. If you feel confident move to more difficult stuff. College is a long process do not get stuck on things you already know.</p>
<p>‘Right now’ is the key. I tried to warn D1 to not take AP credit and to just start with gen chem. But she insisted that she didn’t want to repeat material and so took the credit and jumped straight into orgo. That wasn’t too bad, but she wasn’t so happy later when she had to take biochem to get her second year of chem .</p>
<p>My son skipped Gen Chem and went right to OChem…and then took BioChem. However, someone told him that he didn’t have to do that since Ochem was the “next level”. I wasn’t too sure about that because Ochem was already a req’t.</p>
<p>By the way I ended up exempting general chem 1 and general chem 2 is a breeze for me. In case anyone was wondering.</p>