Are upper year classes easier?

[numer0 un0]

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I've noticed that an "upward trend" is quite common among premeds. I understand that there may be selection bias or other factors (e.g. working harder and smarter), but are upper-year courses typically easier?

From personal experience, upper-year courses where I am are typically graded easier (more presentations and assignments, less exams taken by hundreds of people). What is your experience?

Just out of curiosity. My degree is already done so I'm not looking to change my GPA.

 

[mmchick]

I've noticed that an "upward trend" is quite common among premeds. I understand that there may be selection bias or other factors (e.g. working harder and smarter), but are upper-year courses typically easier?

From personal experience, upper-year courses where I am are typically graded easier (more presentations and assignments, less exams taken by hundreds of people). What is your experience?

Just out of curiosity. My degree is already done so I'm not looking to change my GPA.

No one can really attest to anything considering every school and course at those schools are completely different.

Generally speaking though, no, the upper-division courses are not “easier” that is why they’re upper-division. They require knowledge garnered from lower-division courses. Typically upward trends are seen as students gain more maturity + internal motivation, understand their studying style better, and become a better learner over time.

 

[AnonymousDoctorGuyPerson]

I've noticed that an "upward trend" is quite common among premeds. I understand that there may be selection bias or other factors (e.g. working harder and smarter), but are upper-year courses typically easier?

From personal experience, upper-year courses where I am are typically graded easier (more presentations and assignments, less exams taken by hundreds of people). What is your experience?

Just out of curiosity. My degree is already done so I'm not looking to change my GPA.

In my experience, a lot of premeds come in from high school with zero experience ever studying, which can hit you hard when you're taking freshman/sophomore classes. A lot of this time is learning what works for you, learning how to learn / how to study, etc.

Upper-division courses, in my experience, are also more engaging. I was a bio major, for example, and the first year or two you're learning the fundamentals of biology and science, learning how to think in this brand new way. Then you reach the upper-division courses, you're able to choose a course/niche that interests you specifically, you begin to utilize your basic understanding of biology and take it further. For me, it was mentally more rewarding, more enticing, and so I did better.

These are just my two cents.


Also the first 2 years were the "premed prereqs" which were purposely taught to weed out individuals, some of the courses being taught by the med school faculty themselves. They were far more strict and tough on the students than my UDV professors who just wanted to geek out about their research.

 

[yogglo]

I thought the upper division classes were way easier bc the teachers were more easy going... Freshman year bio lab was probably the hardest class I had in undergrad

 

[tessellations]

My two hardest classes in undergrad were upper level biochemistry courses. Advanced Cell and Molec and Physical Chemistry. That being said, as my class went up to upper level courses, the class averages went up because students who performed poorly in lower level sciences tended to get weeded out of the major. So you could say it looks like on paper that it’s easier, but some of my upper levels required a lot more studying and more difficult concepts.

 

[deleted936470]

not at my undergrad

 

[Cornfed101]

Don’t study engineering... I had a downward trend before doing my post bacc (screw you heat transfer!)