Hardest College Class

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I'd like to place my vote for Physical Chemistry.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, but I've never known anyone who truly felt "Good" at P Chem. Its a perfect mix of abstract and difficult concepts with pattern recognition, memorization and all the best parts of calculus.
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1. Transport Phenomena 1 & 2(chemical engineering)
2. Thermodynamics in Chemical Engineering II
3. Reactor Control and Reaction Kinetics
 
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the smartest pre-meds that I've ever met say that the only class that they struggle with is physical and analytical chemistry. both classes require a lot of work and are both very very very challenging. One reason I do NOT want to be a chem major.
 
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1. Fluid Mechanics
2. Optimization (It's like every math you've EVER learned applied to processes)
3. Drafting - I have no spatial sense
 
for UCLA undergrad:
LS3 - Molecular Bio and Genetics by Dr. Pierce
OCHEM 30bl - Dr. Bacher
Dissection Anatomy - Upper div Physio elective:scared:
 
Mine was called Electromagnetic Fields. I'll give you the description: Electric and magnetic fields, dielectric and magnetic properties of materials, and electromagnetic phenomena. Field theory leading to the development of Maxwell's equations and the plane electromagnetic wave.

This class was intended for those interested in getting a PhD in Physics. This class was a part-time job as I easily spent over 20 hours on homework per week. All four of us in the class would stay up till 2 sometimes 3 in the morning on Friday just to get the assignments completed that same day, and when one assignment went in, another went out. You were constantly under pressure to complete these beasts.

I do remember one time in particular where I arrived at school at 6:30 in the evening with the group to finish 6 problems, two of which were on the computer, and I did not leave until 6 the next morning.

Hard class, but it was fun because there were only 4 of us that made it through and we had some good times.
 
My hardest classes in college were calculus and

Physical Chemistry, the quarter when we learned quantum mechanics....

ugh, interesting but tough to absorb. Probably studied the most for Pchem than any other class at my school.

For some reason analytical chemistry wasn't too bad, once we got to instruments it got much much better because I already learned a lot of the principles behind UV-VIS, GCMS, AAS, etc.
 
General consensus seems to be different forms of PChem.
 
Comparative animal psychology.

Horribly boring class, and there wasnt really a textbook for it.
 
1) Real Analysis I
2) Real Analysis II
3) Numerical Linear Algebra
4) Quantum Mechanics I

Real analysis is a beast at pretty much any university. Probably the hardest undergrad course conceptually speaking.

Numerical lin alg and quantum were just difficult because of the professors I had.
 
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Analytical chemistry only sucks because it is THE most boring class I have ever taken in my life. I guess never going to class/sleeping in class and then scrambling to study 12 hours before the test makes it hard. Conceptually it's not bad, though. O-chem has a pretty large learning curve. Biochemistry requires tons of studying but I agree that it was important/relevant and really interesting. I was chemistry major, btw.

Also, if anatomy was your hardest class in undergrad, it's TONS easier in medical school, so hopefully that will make you feel better.
 
Physical Chemistry.

I love thermodynamics, calculus, physics, and chemistry separately. But holy crap, combine the hardest aspects together and have that information conveyed by the most incomprehensible and illegible professor ever. Hardest A I have ever earned in my undergrad. Must have done a thousand computational and conceptual practice problems!

Analytical Chemistry wasn't so much hard as coma-inducing. Tedious and picky. There is nothing conceptually challenging or inspiring (which is very problematic).

I loved Organic Chemistry. Arrow pushing, reaction mechanisms, retrosynthesis ... :love: Had a cute prof too.

Biology/Biochemistry/Microbiology/Anatomy concepts are not very difficult to grasp. However, they require a lot of memorization (sometimes an unreasonable amount). I'm more of a conceptual person, so I preferred math, physics, and chemistry courses.

As far as electives go, Modern European History probably had the biggest courseload (readings, essays, conferences), but at least I found the subject interesting.
 
organic chemistry :(

by the third series of the course i didn't know what was going on! all the reaction mechanisms and the steps involved in forming a product was beyond my comprehension!

getting a tutor helped me though :)
 
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Hardest for me was Biochemistry. After Biochem I'd have to go Physics 1 & 2 then OChem. The natural sciences weren't all that difficult, but the hardest was Cell biology.
 
Dr Van Helsing said:
necro bump
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So far the hardest courses I've taken have been:

Medical microbiology - memorize 20 research articles in 10 weeks, masters students enrolled too so competition was intense, had to do 4 paper analysis write ups.

Immunology - badass immunologist from Dartmouth who makes this class way too intense for UG. (My one and only W that I will be redeeming myself from this coming term).

Pharmacology - memorizing was intense, but not research heavy so not too bad.

Endocrinology - professor is a retired Ob/Gyn MD PhD, used to teach at the med school and taught basically the same way for the UG course.
 
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AlteredScale said:
So far the hardest courses I've taken have been:

Medical microbiology - memorize 20 research articles in 10 weeks, masters students enrolled too so competition was intense, had to do 4 paper analysis write ups.

Immunology - badass immunologist from Dartmouth who makes this class way too intense for UG. (My one and only W that I will be redeeming myself from this coming term).

Pharmacology - memorizing was intense, but not research heavy so not too bad.

Endocrinology - professor is a retired Ob/Gyn MD PhD, used to teach at the med school and taught basically the same way for the UG course.
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Where do you got to school? Do you know why the Ob isn't teaching medicine anymore?
 
AlteredScale said:
UCSD. I'm not sure why actually!! Hes a good teacher though.
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Sometimes I wish I went to school there, but I live in Nevada where it is really not that competitive.
You got straight honey dips (beautiful women) on that campus.
 
Dr Van Helsing said:
Sometimes I wish I went to school there, but I live in Nevada where Tis really not that competitive.
You got straight honey dips (beautiful women) on that campus.
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Tis very competitive here....sometimes tis annoying how neurotic the students are here actually haha.

Ah yes. I believe 'twas San Diego that was voted to having the prettiest people (make and female) on college campuses. Luckily I found my lady a few years back in community college!
 
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Differential geometry and differential topology.
Very interesting topic and I don't think they are hard, but the professor was just not understandable at all and these classes take a fair amount of imagination and visualization... I dropped the class, but wish to take it again some day!
 
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While some subjects are inherently "harder" conceptually on the surface, the depth at which you cover the subject has a HUGE effect on how difficult the class actually is.

Also, test design and your peer group's intelligence also have HUGE effects.

Let's take a basic linear algebra course. Some classes just have people calculate eigenvectors and stuff but really not understand it conceptually. Being able to find eigenvalues/eigenvectors vs. understanding the theory and application behind them are entirely different in terms of difficulty.

And if you are taking a class with tons of people who are really smart and/or just really good at math, you might "understand" linear algebra but still do relatively poorly relative to your peer group.

This is why I think GPA comparisons are so useless.
 
Biochem, Orgo, Calc, Any engineering level math, Any high level actuarial level math, high level math in general
 
Mad Jack said:
Physics because I suck at math.
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I loathed physics. I mean I sincerely hated physics with an undying passion. But, here's the twist, I absolutely love math and I'm freakin' awesome at it. Wtf-- :confused:?
 
Organic Chemistry was the only class that I really really fought with. I think that may have been partly because I was taking Organic along side of Molecular Genetics and Physics, but still I thought the class was a brute. A lot of people thought Biochemistry was very difficult, it certainly was a challenge but I did not feel like it was anything in the same league as Ochem.
 
  1. Physical Chemistry. If you hate math, physics, or chemistry (in multiple fields), then really reconsider a biochemistry degree.
  2. Calculus II (I have never been good in math...)
  3. Biochemistry I. Intro is all about soundproofing your previous chemistry knowledge before really getting into the study. 2/3 of the class was inorganic and organic chem, as well as thermodynamics and kinetics.
  4. Brain and Behavior. It introduced me into a huge passion of mine, which is neuroscience. However, the class was no joke. Only ~15% get an A or A-
  5. Physiology
Non-science classes:
  1. Philosophy of Logic. Many things to memorize and the professor only cared if you memorized and that's how he taught it: rote memorization
  2. Medical Ethics. This was a debate class between the medical people (leaned towards the health of the person) vs. the humanities (looked at the whole picture outside of medicine.)
  3. Psychology of Learning. There was just a lot to remember
 
If any of you are biology majors going to UCSD then I would say Pharmacology, Medical Microbiology, Immunology, and Computational Neurobiology will be the most difficult courses to take.
 
Calc 2 and organic 1+2. Biochem wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, though I think this was in no small part due to the fact we had a fantastic prof. Don't get me wrong, it was quite challenging, but I ended up really liking biochem (most days :) ).
 
Calculus!!! So boring and tedious. Hard to mentally get yourself to study and actually care. O-chem 2 was also a bit annoying.
 
Biochemistry! Specifically when they were going over reaction kinetics.... Calculus was never my thing either, that's probably why.
 
JimL said:
What was your hardest classes in college? Maybe rank the top few.

It definitely varies from person to person, but do any particular classes have reputations of being notoriously hard and do you agree with their reputations? :D
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1. Physical Chemistry
2. Differential Equations
3. Biophysical Chemistry
4. Proteins
 
Biochem, literary theory (I don't think you could pay me to take that class again), and ochem

I also had this core class that was made ridiculously difficult but it was more of a poor teaching skills problem than the subject matter.
 
ha this is personal opinion, i didnt find physics hard. At my university we just had horrible teachers. I started doing well in physics after understanding it by watching youtube videos
 
I took a dual credit bio, and the last semester of the class we had Genetics, and quantum Genetics. I made a 97.4 overall average for that class. That's pretty low compared to my other college courses I've taken, but the class itself wasn't too hard. The teacher and the Amount of information is what made it so hard.
 
Having given it some thought, objectively, P-chem and thermo are probably the hardest courses out there on the undergrad level. It's everything that sucks about physics and everything that sucks about chem mashed together in one class.
 
Mad Jack said:
Having given it some thought, objectively, P-chem and thermo are probably the hardest courses out there on the undergrad level. It's everything that sucks about physics and everything that sucks about chem mashed together in one class.
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I want to take thermodynamics but Since I'm majoring in Biology, it's not in the course of work for the college I'm going too. Which kind of sucks.
 
SpeedySavior said:
I want to take thermodynamics but Since I'm majoring in Biology, it's not in the course of work for the college I'm going too. Which kind of sucks.
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It would kill your GPA anyway, more than likely. You're better off without it if you aren't pursuing graduate-level engineering, chem, or physics work. It's entirely useless in medical school.
 
Mad Jack said:
It would kill your GPA anyway, more than likely. You're better off without it if you aren't pursuing graduate-level engineering, chem, or physics work. It's entirely useless in medical school.
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That's literally exactly what the admissions counselor told me. I'm the type of person that always looks for the next challenge Though, so I was excited about it.
 
SpeedySavior said:
I'm the type of person that always looks for the next challenge Though
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Where are you matriculating for college? If deflating nasty competitive classes are your thing you'd loooove Hopkins from what I hear
 
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SpeedySavior said:
That's literally exactly what the admissions counselor told me. I'm the type of person that always looks for the next challenge Though, so I was excited about it.
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Audit it down the road when you're a physician if it interests you so much. There is zero reason to take it for credit during your undergraduate degree. Just because something is challenging doesn't necessarily mean it's worth doing, particularly when the thing in question can wreck your future should it go poorly. There are a billion potential challenges out there in life- wisely choosing which ones will become yours is what separates greatness from foolishness.
 
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