Hey guys, so basically I’m a pre med student, and I haven’t taken a Biology course since 8th grade Bio Honors since my school doesn’t offer AP Bio. Although I did get straight A’s in Bio Honors, I really don’t trust my school’s standard of an A, and on top of that, it’ll effectively be about 5 years since my last exposure to anything biology-related. So for this first semester, I really wanna focus on easing myself into Cornell, so I was wondering if you guys would recommend Biomg 1350 or Biog 1440? I know neither of them is gonna be “easy,” but do you guys think one of them would be “easier” than the other? Thanks, any help is appreciated
First, 1350 is cell biology and 1440 is comparative physiology. Both at a freshman level.(just in case you weren’t sure somehow). One may excite you more than the other, and you should try to search for their syllabi to see more exactly what it is.
I can’t tell you about 1350(never took it), but 1440 differs a decent bit from fall vs. spring semester, which may factor into your decision. In the fall, it seems a bit easier and includes a lot of plant stuff as opposed to digging deep into animal physiology(from what I heard, I took 1440 in the spring). Spring semester is somewhat harder with Ronald Booker and Cole Gilbert, but gives you a lot of animal physiology- aerobic respiration and metabolism, thermoregulation, neurons, muscle contraction, circulatory system, sensory systems, hormones, salt water balance, oxygen transport, and kidney function and how it relates to congestive heart failure at the end. It probably is more valuable to take it in the spring semester in my humble opinion since it seems a bit better premed oriented.(I don’t know about fall semester, but after doing well in 1440, I have a rudimentary understanding of how the body works.)
So if that’s true, and 1350 is pretty much exactly the same in both semesters(I don’t know whether it is, maybe other CC people can fill that in), then 1350 in the fall may be better so you can do 1440 in the spring. Not because one is easier or harder than the other(my bio friends don’t seem to say one is worse than the other in difficulty), but to optimize your experience of both. You’re not supposed to shy from challenging courses as a premed anyway, so 1440 being harder in the spring (if true) is not a good reason to take it in fall instead (other reasons may well be, though)
Of course, you could find yourself forced to take one because the other was already filled (I originally wanted 1350 but lost it in pre-enroll, so chose 1440 as the backup for my intro bio requirement).
As for feeling under prepared for college level biology, it’s okay that you didn’t do AP biology. If you review what you did learn in 8th grade, and maybe have read even a basic layman human biology books for 1440(probably not so much for 1350 since layman human bio books don’t care much for cellular processes), you will have enough background to tackle it. Personally, I also didn’t do biology between 9th grade honors bio and 1440 and was able to do well in 1440. I assume that may be possible for 1350, too. Just try to not let biology leave your head if you’re seriously interested in medicine (I was a premed before choosing biomedical engineering as my major, so I was a bio nerd my whole life.)
@Nataliedragon Wow thanks so much for this info! Honestly biggest worry was having not taken biology in a while, so I am trying to get a little background knowledge. I will definitely check both classes out during add/drop to see which one I like better
Yes, I took 1440 in the spring and we learned a TON of material. In fact, I’m not even sure why the class is 3 credits; the amount of reading required daily was insane compared to that of other classes.
The class isn’t too difficult, but if you fall behind, you WILL fall behind hard. Both Booker and Gilbert are very passionate about their class and are very approachable.
^Yeah, I agree that you can’t fall behind in 1440. If you didn’t get diffusion in the beginning (a unit I didn’t even mention earlier), you won’t get neurons or salt water balance. And forget kidney function if you didn’t know salt water balance. Neurons will be important as well - they dedicated 4 lectures to it when most other units only got 2 lectures. But keep up and go to office hours when you’re not getting it, and you’ll be fine.
I personally really needed office hours for muscle functions and somewhat neurons, for example, so I didn’t have to sit with the book for hours just to still be confused. Which reminds me, the book was written at a college sophomore level, so it’s somewhat dense for intro material, but is still a good book overall.(I still stopped reading it after the first prelim, but only because I found I didn’t need it as much and it has a lot that you won’t be tested on)
At least they posted lecture slides, but they’re a poor substitute for the lecture itself since there’s a lot said in lecture not on slides. They’re more useful as a simpler way to review before a prelim.
A cursory review of prior biology is fine, but it’s not worth ruining your remaining summer over. It’s such a higher level anyway that high school biology won’t do all that much as long as you know the fundamentals. You’ll need to really sit down, understand, and mentally walk yourself through the process to really get physiology (that seems to apply to 1350 a bit since I think I remember hearing it has some cellular physiology). It’s not nearly as simple.
Good luck choosing the course and welcome to Cornell!
@jfx246 @Nataliedragon Thanks guys. This has really given me a lot to think about, but I honestly do feel a lot better. Add/drop is definitely gonna be a huge week for me I guess