hello! I am a high school senior who has committed to UCLA. I will be majoring in biology on a premed track! I would appreciate any advice on being a premed, including the following.
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• can someone provide me with a four year plan (i.e. a outline)? what classes should I take freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year?
• how much do I need to study per day to be a premed?
• how does UCLA’s grading system work? I know that the premed field is very competitive.
• what can I do to obtain research and internship opportunities at UCLA?
• are there key clubs and organizations that will specifically give me more opportunities?
would you advise me to take the chem 14 series or the chem 20 series?
Here is a link to a sample schedule. https://www.eeb.ucla.edu/ugrad_biomajor.php
Note: There was a change last year to the LS series. You’ll see the new series when you register. There was also a change to the physics series.
Many good students find they spend 2-3 hours outside of class for every class hour. A typical class meets 3x a week, so that is 6-9 hours of outside study (doing homework, reading the text, doing extra practice problems, etc)
Get the problem-solver books for Calculus, Chem, etc. These are like SAT-prep books on the subject with thousands of worked examples. You work on the ones matching your chapter until you are getting them right, then you’ll get them right on the test too.
Also read the book “Make It Stick” that talks about the science of learning with plenty of tips for HS & college students. Many kids have never been taught how to study and have relied on native smarts in HS; this won’t work in college when all the kids around you are just as smart.
there are premed solver books? or mcat solver books?
they are workbooks for any college student taking the subjects they cover. You use them while you are taking the college classes to get extra problems to work.
At orientation your adviser will map out a plan with you. No need to really do it now.
To biologyandbooks: How much time you will want or need to study, while or if in 1st year chem.14 and LS-7 biology series depends lots on what type/how much you already learned in high school for those two fields of study. For s.one who took AP biology and scored a 5 on AP biology exam, then plenty of first two quarters of biology LS-7 series (and much of chem 14a) will be review. However, if you did not take AP biology and chem in high school, (or did but didn’t do that great on those two AP exams) then plan on studying. This is coming from s.one who did NOT take AP Biol. or AP chem, yet still did well in these courses (I’m is spring quarter of freshman yer currently; and btw just ignore my profile name, as it no longer applies). And I hadn’t bought those recommended extra books mentioned in above post.