Beating the curve?

[MidwestLovin]

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How do you beat so many intelligent premeds in a class when only a certain number of As are given? Does it really come down to studying? My Biochemistry class is kicking my butt when it comes to the teacher's material.

 

[Oso]

By staying on top of your work and making sure you're fully prepared for exams. In my experience, biochem was mostly memorization. Yes, you had to understand the concepts, but it seems like the people who did best were those who put in the time. Understanding the material and connecting it all together were more a matter of effort than, say, intelligence. This contrasts slightly to a chemistry or physics class, where a larger part depends on problem solving skills/quantitative reasoning. If you start to fall behind, make use of office hours, study groups, etc. Good luck.

 

[armybound]

be smarter, work harder, or both.

 

[Served]

Surreptitiously sabotage your classmates whenever possible.

 

[PicardAndRoll]

You have to be competitive, man. If you're not going to take what you want, you're not going to get it. You always have to be "hungry".

 

[MidwestLovin]

be smarter, work harder, or both.

I am stupid at my school and not enough time to make up for it in the day. Guess I'm screwed.

 

[PicardAndRoll]

I am stupid at my school and not enough time to make up for it in the day. Guess I'm screwed.

Not pre-med material then. Not the stupidity part. The second part. Look up what they teach in a first year in medical school. You better make take brah. Either you're trolling, or you're a pessimistic bum.

 

[Dandine]

I'm in biochemistry right now--my impressions of it (as I'm studying for a final coming up very, very soon) is that much of the material overlaps, so it may be useful to make connections with material that you have been seeing throughout the course. That way, even with the large amount of material that you have to learn, you will find that things will make sense as you learn to integrate things together.

Also, do problems--as many as you can get your hands on. I can't remember who said this on SDN, but I remember reading in a forum post that exam questions tend to be converted from one form or another rather than created or destroyed (sorry to whomever said this--but thank you!). There will be things that you'll find are guaranteed to show up on an exam in some way, and doing problems/going over old exams will give you some idea of what might be tested.

To answer your question, OP--yes, it does come down to studying, as it takes a while to memorize, process things, and make connections. But it will help give you an edge, if anything.

 

[MidwestLovin]

I'm in biochemistry right now--my impressions of it (as I'm studying for a final coming up very, very soon) is that much of the material overlaps, so it may be useful to make connections with material that you have been seeing throughout the course. That way, even with the large amount of material that you have to learn, you will find that things will make sense as you learn to integrate things together.

Also, do problems--as many as you can get your hands on. I can't remember who said this on SDN, but I remember reading in a forum post that exam questions tend to be converted from one form or another rather than created or destroyed (sorry to whomever said this--but thank you!). There will be things that you'll find are guaranteed to show up on an exam in some way, and doing problems/going over old exams will give you some idea of what might be tested.

To answer your question, OP--yes, it does come down to studying, as it takes a while to memorize, process things, and make connections. But it will help give you an edge, if anything.

Thanks, but I know the book/chapters he assigns. It's the lecture material that he talks about for a second, I forget, and get tested on.

Not pre-med material then. Not the stupidity part. The second part. Look up what they teach in a first year in medical school. You better make take brah. Either you're trolling, or you're a pessimistic bum.

I just need to learn how to step away from my dreams and find something I want to do in life ASAP because no way in hell my B- average is improving.

 

[Boolean]

I am stupid at my school and not enough time to make up for it in the day. Guess I'm screwed.

This is such a cop out answer. If people can achieve A's at your school, so can you. Put in more work. Keep on putting in work. Put in work until you can't anymore. You can ALWAYS work harder.

 

[amazing tekkers]

Lend me your ears, I've the secret--In reality, to set your classes' curves without studying as much as most of the other students do, you should develop excellent integration of your knowledge base. That is, you need to develop the ability to synthesize new information. Learn to connect your areas of knowledge across domains. Be able to relate Physiology to Physics and Chemistry effortlessly. Also be able to effortlessly relate each of those subjects to Music, Psychology, History, and Anthropology. An integrated knowledge base allows you to answer questions for which you do not have the book answer. In essence, it greatly increases your chances of "guessing" correctly. Once you have mastered integration of your knowledge base, academically outperforming most people becomes incredibly easy--you can destroy curves all day.

Also, I'm a firm believer in a positive mindset. Approach courses and exams with an open and positive mindset, always be ready to put in work when necessary, even if the class sucks, at the very least, try to make yourself believe you enjoy the material.

 

[Pacna]

This is such a cop out answer. If people can achieve A's at your school, so can you. Put in more work. Keep on putting in work. Put in work until you can't anymore. You can ALWAYS work harder.

My thoughts exactly.

OP, you're just excusing yourself by saying "I'm stupid" or "I don't have enough time." It takes one thing to get into med school: stubborn determination. Don't let anything stop you, especially yourself.

 

[swolebrah]

Nothing compares to having the top 1% of scores in your OCHEM or Genetics/ Biochem class in terms of self satisfaction. Maybe bustin a nut gets pretty close, buts thats about it.

I remember when the ochem test avg for test 3 was a 54% and I scored a 248/250 on it. When to the gym and blasted out some heavy dead's and felt amazing. How can you not want that feeling all the time? It's like my coach once told me, why be nervous for a game? The game is where you show your efforts, if your nervous for the game it means you didn't put in the effort before hand.

I apply what my coach told me in terms of football to my premed classes and I kill them. I always have to learn quick on how to score in top % of each class, but I love the competitive feeling. Especially when no ones expects a "meathead" to be in the top % of classes.

 

[mrh125]

Nothing compares to having the top 1% of scores in your OCHEM or Genetics/ Biochem class in terms of self satisfaction. Maybe bustin a nut gets pretty close, buts thats about it.

I remember when the ochem test avg for test 3 was a 54% and I scored a 248/250 on it. When to the gym and blasted out some heavy dead's and felt amazing. How can you not want that feeling all the time? It's like my coach once told me, why be nervous for a game? The game is where you show your efforts, if your nervous for the game it means you didn't put in the effort before hand.

I apply what my coach told me in terms of football to my premed classes and I kill them. I always have to learn quick on how to score in top % of each class, but I love the competitive feeling. Especially when no ones expects a "meathead" to be in the top % of classes.

I agree 100%.

source: Rank 2/500 students in quarter 2 and 3 of o-chem and like 1/500 in the first quarter. Hell, at the time it probably felt better than sex because I obviously wasn't getting any the time lmao. I worked w/ like 8 other students and we were the top 8. I didn't compete with anyone, I just pushed myself the hardest I could to do better than I usually would.

 

[swolebrah]

I agree 100%.

source: Rank 2/500 students in quarter 2 and 3 of o-chem and like 1/500 in the first quarter. Hell, at the time it probably felt better than sex because I obviously wasn't getting any the time lmao. I worked w/ like 8 other students and we were the top 8. I didn't compete with anyone, I just pushed myself the hardest I could to do better than I usually would.

Hell yeah man, and I was doing this ontop of working 20-25hours a week. I would laugh inside when I heard premeds bitch and moan about how hard life was and chit. Whenever I felt like I was burning out, I'd just refer to this quote and it would set me straight:

 

[Lil Mick]

Studying all along (not just the night before) can help with the difficult classes. One of my high school teachers told us that if we put in 10 minutes of studying a day for a class, we'd be doing very well in it and wouldn't need to cram before exams. Ten minutes was a little short for some of the college classes (and med school classes!), so I tried to do 20-30 minutes a night per class in college (less for easy classes, a bit more for tough classes). I usually was near the top of my classes, and, what's even better, I remember the stuff I studied from those classes nearly a decade after taking them 🙂

 

[swolebrah]

Studying all along (not just the night before) can help with the difficult classes. One of my high school teachers told us that if we put in 10 minutes of studying a day for a class, we'd be doing very well in it and wouldn't need to cram before exams. Ten minutes was a little short for some of the college classes (and med school classes!), so I tried to do 20-30 minutes a night per class in college (less for easy classes, a bit more for tough classes). I usually was near the top of my classes, and, what's even better, I remember the stuff I studied from those classes nearly a decade after taking them 🙂

Yeah ANKI is great for that as well.

 

[ninjaman22]

Get off of here and go study

 

[MidwestLovin]

This is such a cop out answer. If people can achieve A's at your school, so can you. Put in more work. Keep on putting in work. Put in work until you can't anymore. You can ALWAYS work harder.

Maybe if I took one class a semester. 🙂

 

[MidwestLovin]

Studying all along (not just the night before) can help with the difficult classes. One of my high school teachers told us that if we put in 10 minutes of studying a day for a class, we'd be doing very well in it and wouldn't need to cram before exams. Ten minutes was a little short for some of the college classes (and med school classes!), so I tried to do 20-30 minutes a night per class in college (less for easy classes, a bit more for tough classes). I usually was near the top of my classes, and, what's even better, I remember the stuff I studied from those classes nearly a decade after taking them 🙂

I need to put 2 hours a night per class and I'm annoyed and angry at that. I think if I went to school somewhere else, my confidence would be higher and I'd preform better.

 

[Boolean]

Maybe if I took one class a semester. 🙂

If you take this attitude towards it, you aren't going to progress very far. Medical school will hit you like a sack of bricks.

 

[MidwestLovin]

If you take this attitude towards it, you aren't going to progress very far. Medical school will hit you like a sack of bricks.

I just got a 1/2 the average grade on my Biochem quiz. Do you seriously not think the intelligence of the pool of students matters? Don't get me wrong, I could probably work day and night and get average, but that's average, that's a B-.

 

[Boolean]

I just got a 1/2 the average grade on my Biochem quiz. Do you seriously not think the intelligence of the pool of students matters? Don't get me wrong, I could probably work day and night and get average, but that's average, that's a B-.

No, I do not. Everyone has the capacity to succeed at whatever it is they set their heart to. Chalking it up to the actions of others inhibiting you from success is rather pathetic.