What is the hardest Pre-Med class?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>That’s fascinating, since evolution/ecology is a topic that appears on the mcat…not to mention the world’s interest in environmentalism…</p>

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I don’t think that’s right, or at least it wasn’t back in my day. Have they added it in the last few years?</p>

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<p>according to the “sages” on sdn, it comes up from time to time and is listed on the mcat site as an included topic. See Evolution, p12.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/students/download/85566/data/bstopics.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/students/download/85566/data/bstopics.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Then what majors should a Pre-Med choose? I was planning on doing Biology, but now it seems like a bad idea. I have heard that people who do other majors get an advantage in Med. School admissions, but How will you be able to complete all the required coursework in time for the MCAT’s? You would have to load up on tough courses wouldn’t you?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/214387-what-should-premed-major.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Then what majors should a Pre-Med choose? I was planning on doing Biology, but now it seems like a bad idea.</p>

<p>BDM’s link is very good.</p>

<p>That said, the problem with majoring in Bio is that if for some reason you don’t go to med school, then a bio degree is kind of limiting career-wise. </p>

<p>What subjects do you like? If you weren’t going to be a doctor, what would you be? </p>

<p>It’s not too hard to fit in pre-med pre-reqs especially if you’re coming in with some AP credits that take care of History or other “non pre med” reqts.</p>

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<p>Quite frankly, a BA in Bio is no different than any other BA in liberal arts. English Lit? Philosophy? Classics? History? Math? Sociology? Astronomy? Foreign Language? </p>

<p>Masses of employers aren’t exactly out there recruiting for BA’s in such disciplines. With the exceptions of Engineering, Business and perhaps Econ, no liberal arts undergraduate degree is of much “value” career-wise.</p>

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<p>BB’s #27 is true for the vast majority of schools. Of course, once you’re at the upper Ivies then pretty much everything is directly employable. McKinsey and Goldman Sachs don’t care very much what you majored in. They just care where you went to school.</p>

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<p>All,</p>

<p>Thanks for the discussions. What would be a good indicator to see if a student would have trouble for upper level Chemistry courses? Would Org Chem be a good one? If a student manages, w/o too much trouble, to get a good grade (>90 percentile), would it be a good indicator for him/her to stay on the BS course?</p>

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<p>ace, I heard it is highly dependent on the professor who teaches it. At many schools, it is rumored that P-Chem (which is a required year-long upper-division course for a chemistry major) oftens demands more on student’s math preparation (more than just calculus I and II, at least calculus III) than anything related to organic chemistry.</p>

<p>I think this is the reason why many premeds who do not like to major in Chemistry – Unlike an engineering major, they need to learn too much “new” (post-1800) stuff in science which requires too much sophisticated math (if the professor teaches it in this way.) In my opinion, whoever into medicine really does not need that skill/math preparation – they needs the skill of memorizing a vast amount of data in a short time (and likely purge it soon after the test, or maybe after step 1.) and maybe the people skills and/or public speaking skills.</p>

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<p>great point mcat2- ochem is often a proxy for the ability to memorize a huge amount of info</p>

<p>@ ace500</p>

<p>It’s hard to say what classes, if any, are perfect indicators of 300/400 level chem courses. I’d ask upperclassmen in the chem departments of different schools to get specific feedback and advice about which classes are hardest, how happy they are with their major,etc.</p>

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<p>*Quite frankly, a BA in Bio is no different than any other BA in liberal arts. English Lit? Philosophy? Classics? History? Math? Sociology? Astronomy? Foreign Language? </p>

<p>*</p>

<p>I agree that many of the other majors have some employment issues without a grad degree. I wouldn’t put math in that category since defense contractors do hire applied math majors as engineers and insurance companies hire math actuary majors…there is also a math stats degree that is also employable. </p>

<p>I wasn’t suggesting that the student choose one of those liberal arts majors (unless he plans on grad school)…which is why I asked what kind of career does he see himself doing IF he doesn’t go to med school.</p>

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<p>Having taken all the courses involved, I suspect calculus based physics and calculus itself would be far better predictors of success in physical chemistry than organic chemistry.</p>

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<p>I have actually no idea what I would be if not a doctor. That’s why I can’t decide on a major either. Possibly a researcher or scientist of some sort. Something that involves History. </p>

<p>And what if you have no AP credits coming in to College?</p>

<p>And if Orgo Chem is just Memorization it won’t be that hard for me.</p>

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<p>Organic chemistry is most certainly not just memorization if you want to be any good at it (good enough to get an A).</p>

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<p>It is MOSTLY memorization, and I have never heard that Orgo is easy, including those who have exceptionally good memory and have had very easy time in Gen.Chem…and ended up getting great MCAT score later on.</p>

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<p>MiamiDAP - Of course organic chemistry is not easy. But saying it is mostly memorization is somewhat disingenuous.</p>

<p>Have you ever taken organic chemistry?</p>

<p>It’s not difficult to write exam questions that people who approach ochem as “mostly memorization” simply cannot answer even with all their notes in front of them. It’s possible to get through the course by mostly memorizing but not possible to do as well as most premeds hope to do without a very sound understanding of the underlying concepts and principles.</p>

<p>Missing either component (memorizing or understanding) can lead to very bad outcomes in ochem. Just having a good memory can get you As in a good number of biology classes without any problem. It takes more than that to do well in ochem.</p>

<p>That being said, organic chemistry does involve quite a bit more memorization than physical chemistry, which is about as conceptual as you can get within the realm of chemistry.</p>

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<p>^It was mostly memorization for my D. who has been SI for Gen. Chem prof for 3 years and did not have to review Gen Chem for MCAT at all. She felt that Orgo had very little to do with Gen.Chem. She ended up with the same scores in PS and BS on MCAT, but probably because Orgo was about 25% of BS. She had her "A"s in both just because she does not get B’s, hard or easy, interesting or boring, but Orgo was not her favorite and class average test scores on Orgo exams were much lower than in Gen. Chem class.</p>

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<p>If Pre-Med was just memorization, I doubt it would’ve attained such a nasty reputation.</p>