<p>What do you suggest or wish you could have done the summer before college that may affect your performance in pre-med? Thanks :)</p>
<p>Work and save money, volunteer at a hospital or something if you want, do stuff with friends, and take a break for awhile. You’ll have plenty of time to do everything you need, so enjoy the one summer you have left before you have more opportunities for “pre-med activities” that will fill the rest of your summers.</p>
<p>I wish i had taken more of a break. Not that I did anything but I still worked. Little did I know it was my last free summer till before medschool (which will prob be my last summer ever). Trying to study or reading textbooks will not help because you have no idea how a professor handles the material till you’re there.</p>
<p>I wish I’d had more fun.</p>
<p>Fall of 2010 will be my freshmen year as well. I am lightly self-studying organic chemistry as well as E&M. Less working out problems (no textbook, will just do loads when I take actual class), more simply understanding concepts. Or at least getting a very weak grasp of the concepts so I’m not totally confused when I first see it in college. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t advocate ruining vacation and leisure time, but getting a light, not by any means thorough, introduction/perspective of the concepts you will need to know for classes where concepts are hardcore definitely will help when you learn it the first time. Don’t really worry about attacking problems, and you won’t really be able to anyway, no text. Even if you read a prep-organic chem book through and didn’t bother to understand all that much, you’d still be ahead of the game when you entered into your orgo class.</p>
<p>thanks engineerhead, i was thinking of just doing that. But im also thinking i would need to take a speed reading class to improve my skills before college. However, i dont know anything else similar to that. And I really do have a long summer and relaxing the whole time kills me :p</p>
<p>The speed of your reading is not important. It will not help you very much in many respects, and almost minimally helps you on the MCAT, if at all. It’s better to be able to read things through once and thoroughly understand it all. The main way to achieve that is to be able to train your brain to actually enjoy every piece of writing you read, even if you know it truly is an absolute bore. What’s more important than reading fast is being able to answer multiple questions based on the readings, fast. That would be a better goal to work on.</p>
<p>Side comment:
Barron’s THE EASY WAY series has a pretty good prep book for organic chemistry. It’s the book I’m reading, and I get things pretty well without much issues.</p>
<p>^^^^you guys need to relax before starting college. When you do start college, you will be working your asses off, and you don’t want to burn out during your freshman year. Go get wasted and laid. Go to a bar, or to a club.</p>
<p>It’s not that hardcore, it’s just like reading a novel during your leisure. School’s out, not really much to do but go hang out at a house or go to the movies anyway.</p>
<p>My daughter taught and played tennis in the morning and in the afternoon shadowed a doctor at a trauma one hospital the summer before her freshman year. She read a ton of books for fun that she had not had time to dig into during the school year. Prepping academically before you actually arrive at undergrad might be a little bit of overkill. JMHO.</p>
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<p>Sounds like a good plan to me…quit prepping for orgo…read a REAL book for pleasure and relax…your amount of truly “free” time is numbered; enjoy it while you can.</p>
<p>Unless prepping for orgo actually is pleasurable to you ;)</p>
<p>…it is for me. 
Bahaha</p>
<p>@Colleges00701, hahah why would i need to worry about getting laid</p>
<p>^^^ I am just saying, getting laid should be the number one priority on everyone’s mind.</p>
<p>hahah sometimes i find it hindering in logic :/</p>
<p>lacking* logic</p>
<p>All,</p>
<p>If you could find a good research job that pays you $3K the summer before college to build your credential, would you do it? You would still have the time during weekends. Furthermore, I believe that you could do anything you want the summer before medical school. You can go to Europe for a month if the Euro gets even weaker in the next 4 years. If you can’t get into a medical school, you would have plenty of time to do anything you want anyways. Just need to make sure that you can find a good job.</p>
<p>I would do it if I was interested in the research, not because I wanted to build my credentials. I got several research jobs during my freshman year and decided not to pursue them because I decided that I wasn’t interested in them yet.</p>
<p>Since you are so gung ho about using the summer before undergrad for resume boosting, what makes you think that you won’t do the same thing in the summer before medical school? You don’t stop being who you are just because you get into medical school ;)</p>
<p>The best thing that will help you in college is not prepping for a specific class. Classes come and go. You want actually improve yourself and you ability to process information? Read. Read read read read read. Find an author you like and read his entire collection. Buy a subscription to the economist and read it. Start reading the New York Times every day before bed. Start reading a scientific journal and wiki concepts that you don’t understand. These are things that will improve you, will make you more knowledgeable, and are ultimately more useful than poking organic chem with a stick. If you can’t do well in orgo in that amount of time, you aren’t going to find yourself at the top of the class because you pre-read.</p>