<p>I'm wondering just how HARD it is to get an A in Biology at USC. Is it doable? If one is to study the two hours per lecture hour that the course recommends, while taking advantage of office hours etc, is an A/A- a realistic goal?</p>
<p>Biology always seemed easy in high school, even with AP, but I've certainly heard some horror stories about USC's bio.</p>
<p>Can anyone shed some light on this with their experiences?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>I'm aerospace engineering at USC, and I have tons of respect for the kids that stay in bio.</p>
<p>From what I've heard it's wicked hard. I lived in honors dorms for some reason last year, and i saw bio students in Thematic Option, on scholarship, etc. drop bio like flies, though some pulled off A's. For example, my roommate did well, I dont think an A, despite getting written up for drinking 4 times, puking in our room drunk twice, puking on girls outside a window, cracking open his head riding a bike, and urinating on a campus security officer.</p>
<p>As for the two hours per lecture hour, I would doubt it. My physics professor told us to study 8 hours per lecture hour, and that has much less memorization</p>
<p>Oh, and there was no actual lectures last semester, just discussion, lab, and youtube-like videos on the class website that everyone crammed in before the midterms. Even I grew to hate those videos, and I hope they have stopped using them.</p>
<p>I have a friend who is BME, he said the class curved at C and it weeds out ppl who wants to go to med school</p>
<p>My D felt bio was definately a weeder course. At least the 2nd semester. The professors told her otherwise, but she said she as well as everyone else knew better. It was difficult to say the least - especially since she was taking chem as well. She made it through with a good grade, but said it was one of the toughest things she had ever done. On the positive side, she recently purchased an MCAT book. She got just about every answer correct on the bio portion in that book. So, USC appears to teach the right stuff - even though it may not be easy. :)</p>
<p>One more thing....expect to study very hard, and very long in that class. D was in the library many nights til 12 am. While this may not be the case for everyone, it was for her. She had many friends drop bio. I'm not sure if she knew anyone who got an A, but there are of course some who do. I remember exactly when she read the syllabus for that class (bio 2). We were driving back up to SC, she just looked up at me and said, I'm going to die. :(</p>
<p>So is bio a popular major at USC?</p>
<p>A lot of kids take Bio. The lectures are huge. I know one of my roomates was up studying at all hours of the day for Bio- always incredibly stressed out. I know she ended up doing well however, so apparently (very) hard work payed off. Another roomate dropped out however, as did about 3 of my other friends. I know a lot of people are rethinking their pre-med plans now...</p>
<p>However, despite all the horror stories, I'm planning to taking bio next year as a sophmore, because I've just realized it's important for my (non-bio) major. I'm worried about taking it with all the pre-med kids, but I'm prepared to work hard and give it a try.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>You know what, you won't get an A. You're lucky if you pass a course (Bio 220). The first professor of this course told us on the first day, "you want an A, you got to study 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday, plus 10 to 20 hours on the weekends." The second professor told us to study 8 hours a week for his physiology part.</p>
<p>Bio 120 is all about direct questions on exams. There's a lot of material, yes, but if you study it, you'll do well, and get an A. It's all direclty related to the material.</p>
<p>Bio 220, on the other hand, is a completely different story. You can memorize the whole book, the exams can be open book (which they're not), and you still won't do well. Questions on exams are so strangely worded that you won't know what it's asking you. It's not an accurate measurement of your knowledge. While at some other university you would get an A with that knowledge, at USC Bio 220, you'd be lucky if you get a C. It's a med-school type of testing, especially the second part of 220 with apply-your-knowledge, application and scenario type of questions.</p>
<p>Bio 220 has been tought by the same professors at USC for 30 years now, it's not fair. For example, you have a choice to take general chem classes with 3 different professors. In Bio 220, you're stuck with these two. They seem to forget that it is ONLY a introductory course, but they don't care. The average is even lower than in chem classes. They shoot for 65 percent average. </p>
<p>My advice: Take Bio 220 equivalent course during summer somewhere else. Otherwise, you'll still end up taking it during summer, you'll just have a bad grade on this course at 'SC.</p>
<p>everhard23: Have you taken O-chem at USC yet? If so, any insight on that class?</p>
<p>O-Chem was enough to make me drop out of pre-med. I did fine (although certainly not great) for Bio 120, 220, Chem 105a and b, but O-chem was nearly impossible for me. I barely passed the class. It requires constant studying, and tons of memorization. Don't get fooled by the first test- it is easy. After that, they get exponentially worse. After finishing O Chem and Molecular Biology (320), I realized that I wasn't enjoying any of my science classes, and decided to change my career objectives. I haven't looked back.</p>
<p>By the way, this past semester I took a class while abroad in London about Mammals and Evolution, which I loved and did well in. It isn't that I hate Bio or Chem, just that the ways that they were taught didn't work for me at all. Someday I may go back and finish the requirements. For now, I'm happy with a Bio minor.</p>
<p>bmanbs2, would you mind sending me the link to the class websites with the videos?</p>
<p>wow this is seriously giving me doubts about biology...I realzie and know you have to study alot in college but "you want an A, you got to study 8 hours a day, Monday to Friday, plus 10 to 20 hours on the weekends." is simply ridiculous...and the O-Chem horrors lol. anybody how difficult a neuroscience major is? how about phsycology? THese two majors are common paths for prospectivie med school students.</p>
<p>and now im hella scared</p>
<p>but is the fsh version of 2nd semester bio easier? well not easier.. but less of a ball-buster?</p>
<p>I don't know anything about FSH, but for freshman honors physics (which I took), it was somewhat easier for the whole class to get A's and B's, given that most students taking the honors version would probably get A's and B's in the regular version of the same class. I assume it works similarly for FSH. </p>
<p>The tradeoff for easier grading, of course, is that to pass the honors courses you have to finish all the "ball-buster" work they give you. :) You are expected to work harder and longer, but (in theory) it should be less stressful and more educational.</p>
<p>I don't know anything about bio, but I have heard the same (that A's are hard to come by). I've only taken one, bisc 230, and the prof said about 20% of the class gets A's. This is about the same as the harder courses in engineering, though I admit that's a very different situation since GPA is much more important to pre-med than eng... But it's also important to realize not everyone in o-chem or intro bio is pre-med.</p>
<p>There, I'm done babbling on about stuff I know nothing about :)</p>
<p>Bio 230 is NOT a pre-med class; it's a general education class, which is easier and that's why 20% of the class gets an A in it.</p>
<p>Possibly, but I'm not sure. I remember someone saying bisc 120 is about 15% A's, which is only a bit smaller when you factor in bisc 121 grades (assuming a higher %-age of A's in that class) and also if that doesn't include A- (which I included in my 20%, but I don't know if that is in the 15%) </p>
<p>But then again, I don't really know about all this. So I'll shut up now :)</p>
<p>nguyen1025: D is a neuroscience major; however, since she just finished her 1st year at USC, she hasn't had to take any of her neuroscience requirements. I would think the classes wouldn't be as brutal as some of the pre-med courses (i.e. o-chem, chemistry 220, etc); however, I think neurobiology, which is a required course, isn't going to be a walk in the park. Having said that, a lot of the courses that you get to choose from look interesting and a lot appear to be "psychology type" courses, which I wouldn't think would be too hard. I think the major in itself is doable; however, when you factor in the pre-med requirements (if that is the route you are taking), as with any major it becomes more difficult. Let's face it, the majority of people who set out to become doctors don't make it because either it is too hard for them, or they don't want to put in the tremendous amount of work it takes to get there. For what it's worth, and this is only my opinion, getting through many of these difficult classes takes A LOT of peserverance - which I realize is a lot easier said than done! :)</p>
<p>Sigh, I took both honors classes in chem and bio. I think chem honors is pretty easy to get an A in. The exams are easy at first, but towards the end of the semester, the midterms have ridiculous problems that no one can solve. But both professors are fairly forgiving, so it's definitely possible to pull an A in both classes. I must've studied about 2 hours a week for chem (didn't even do the homework. bad idea), and got an A both semesters. But I studied non-stop for chem the week before finals though and I barely pulled it off. If you studied 2 hours for every lecture hour, you'll be fine.</p>
<p>Bisc 121 and 221 are much more difficult. Every professor uses powerpoints, so it's a good idea to bring a laptop to class, download the powerpoints, and just jot down a few side notes. 121 was definitely more enjoyable than 221. The material in 121 is very dull (phylums, classes, etc), but good study skills will ensure at least a B+. I got a B+ first semester (even though I scored consistently higher than the class average. The grade cutoffs aren't released for confidentiality) with a fair (not overwhelming) amount of work. My only gripe about 121 is that the professors tell you that they'll only test on the general concepts, and then they ask very detailed questions.</p>
<p>Man, was I in deep **** for 221. The first professor went over 60-some slides every lecture, and since the lecture slides are online, less than half of the class showed up. He had a pretty thick accent (you tend to ignore it after a while), and his midterms asked very detailed questions. On some of his midterms, I think 1/4 of the questions were based on his research in neuroscience. Very few people understood what was going on, and we were expected to just spit out fact after fact. Same with the 2nd professor, except during lectures he'd only have 5 or so slides with figures, and he'd spend the entire lecture explaining them. I got a B in the class (I bombed the first midterm because I had the stomach flu and couldn't really study, and I bombed the final because every single question was either true or false or fill in the blank for useless facts.</p>
<p>Gradewise, if you try in every class, the lowest grade you'll probably get is a B. Chemistry is NOT curved; the professors say that if you earn an A, you'll get an A, and it's not that hard getting an A. In bio, nearly everyone is pre-health, and everyone is more or less at the same level. At the end of the semester, the grades are split almost 50-50 between As and Bs (or so they say. I only know one person who has gotten an A in bio. Everyone else got Bs, B+s. I haven't heard of an A-). The grades aren't THAT bad, as long as you put in some effort.</p>
<p>I got an A- in bio, and I worked SO HARD for it hahaha.</p>
<p>this might be a stupid question, but what does curving to a C mean?</p>
<p>Wow, does anyone know whether USC Bio is harder than say UCSD Bio?</p>