BIO I ---> Weed Out Classs?

[Frazier]

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What makes organic chemistry the benchmark?

Benchmark in what sense?

It just follows the natural progression. I lot of people get weeded out at the start (bio1, genchem1, etc) then more people get weeded out via the respective course continuations.

...Then [for most students] they take on organic 1 and 2 and, consequently, more people get weeded out.
That is just the progression; that is how it works in most cases.

The student that says "but wait, why is ochem a weed-out class and not bio?" is missing the point on two fronts:

A) Bio is, in fact, also a weed-out course (any class that renders even a single student to say "eff this, I quit" is by definition weeding out).
B) I have never heard of a student successfully completing the entire genchem/ochem sequence (read: A or B) and then afterwards slam to a halt and fail Bio1 (read: F). If this happens, it is obviously an outlier.

 

[Maxwell7301]

good to see a fellow Buffalonian! I see you're currently on UB's waitlist, good luck getting in!

Thanks!

Best of luck to you as well!

I hope you get in somewhere, if you haven't already.

 

[StudyShy]

Benchmark in what sense?

It just follows the natural progression. I lot of people get weeded out at the start (bio1, genchem1, etc) then more people get weeded out via the respective course continuations.

...Then [for most students] they take on organic 1 and 2 and, consequently, more people get weeded out.
That is just the progression; that is how it works in most cases.

The student that says "but wait, why is ochem a weed-out class and not bio?" is missing the point on two fronts:

A) Bio is, in fact, also a weed-out course (any class that renders even a single student to say "eff this, I quit" is by definition weeding out).
B) I have never heard of a student successfully completing the entire genchem/ochem sequence (read: A or B) and then afterwards slam to a halt and fail Bio1 (read: F). If this happens, it is obviously an outlier.

👍

 

[wlee43]

whats considered getting weeded out?

I keep making B's in bio chem and organic so does that mean Im worthy enough to not get weeded out but not good enough for med school?

 

[krispy]

zoology was our freshman weed out class. my first taste of intense memorization (phylum genus species family of so, so many parasites). so yeah, school dependent.

 

[krispy]

whats considered getting weeded out?

I keep making B's in bio chem and organic so does that mean Im worthy enough to not get weeded out but not good enough for med school?

I think being weeded out is for those people that either fail the class or just give up entirely.

 

[Frazier]

whats considered getting weeded out?

I keep making B's in bio chem and organic so does that mean Im worthy enough to not get weeded out but not good enough for med school?

I think being weeded out is for those people that either fail the class or just give up entirely.

^THIS.

Getting anywhere from a "C-" and below is being directly weeded out (i.e. you can't apply with those grades - most, if not all, schools require at least a C in the standard pre-reqs). Another face to the weeding-coin is that some students give up and move on to other aspirations sans the sci pre-reqs.

B's aren't really desirable; however, they are not the actualization of you getting 'weeded out' either. They are just.... B's.

 

[RipCity167]

Depends what school you go to. Organic is usually considered the weed out class. However, in my school BIO I and II were definitely the weed out courses for pre-med, pre-vet etc... About 25% of the class dropped out. I managed to get a B+ and B in BIO I and II respectively. I went on to get A's in both Organic and Physics. So it totally depends where you go and the prof teaching the course.

 

[apumic]

100% school dependent.

Our "intro" bio class required organic chem as a pre-requisite and was heavy on biochemistry. Of the people that took it (after making it through the organic chem washout phase), the class was curved to 25% A-, 25% B, 25% C, 25% D. So yes that qualifies as a washout course, even for introductory biology.

Yes you can learn the material and pass by putting in the time. Unfortunately college is not med school and P != MD. You need to do well in science courses, which means not just learning the material, but learning it and testing better than 80% of your classmates.

Sorry, but there's no way an even split of A (incl A-)/B/C/D is a "weed-out." That's a straight line (w/ a lower limit at a D), not a bell w/ a positive skew (which would indicate a weeder).

A weeder's grade distribution should look like this:

--F--|---D---|-----C-----|-------B-------|-----A-----



A NORMAL class distribution should look like this:

---F----|----D----|----C----|----B----|----A----

 

[raltima07]

Any science at my school...

 

[zeppelinpage4]

Looking back now Bio I seemed like cakewalk. If you put effort into it and properly studied it was very reasonable to do well.

 

[Ursa]

Benchmark in what sense?

It just follows the natural progression. I lot of people get weeded out at the start (bio1, genchem1, etc) then more people get weeded out via the respective course continuations.

...Then [for most students] they take on organic 1 and 2 and, consequently, more people get weeded out.
That is just the progression; that is how it works in most cases.

The student that says "but wait, why is ochem a weed-out class and not bio?" is missing the point on two fronts:

A) Bio is, in fact, also a weed-out course (any class that renders even a single student to say "eff this, I quit" is by definition weeding out).
B) I have never heard of a student successfully completing the entire genchem/ochem sequence (read: A or B) and then afterwards slam to a halt and fail Bio1 (read: F). If this happens, it is obviously an outlier.

One might say that, when it comes to weed-out courses, Bio has a high sensitivity while the Ochems have high specificities. 🙂 gotta love Bayes

 

[SOcash]

A NORMAL class distribution should look like this:

---F----|----D----|----C----|----B----|----A----

Considering that at most schools a GPA below 2.0 (a C average) is the threshold for academic probation, I don't think half of the people in an ordinary class can be in that range.

 

[orthomyxo]

Considering that at most schools a GPA below 2.0 (a C average) is the threshold for academic probation, I don't think half of the people in an ordinary class can be in that range.

Well by definition, that's the "ideal," but I would hope that most classes don't look like that.

 

[Frazier]

One might say that, when it comes to weed-out courses, Bio has a high sensitivity while the Ochems have high specificities. 🙂 gotta love Bayes

i thunk i sea wut u did thur.
🙂

 

[mdfirst]

I just wondering (general publics opinion) is BIO 1 really a weed out class? I have heard people mentioning it in my school to be, but seriously its a lower level BIO course ( I am not a BIO major). Is there really something called as a weed out class ? If you put the effort in for every 1 hour in school you do 2 hours of studying isn't every class passible ? Weed out = another name for people not putting the effort.

I think u actually NEED BIO...its the basics! Organic and some Physics are definately weedout!

 

[cheesier]

A NORMAL class distribution should look like this:

---F----|----D----|----C----|----B----|----A----

No class would have a distribution that looked like that after a curve. Were 80% of the students in your classes getting Cs or lower?

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

No class would have a distribution that looked like that after a curve. Were 80% of the students in your classes getting Cs or lower?

That is called the normal curve or commonly known as the bell curve. It is a common statistical percentile distribution and many schools used to in fact curve their classes to this distribution like in the 50s. However this curve is really one based purely on performance, effort, and intelligence in a competitive view, where only the top of the class get A's ( I.e working your ass off beyond belief to get an A). However this curve isn't used anymore as many schools are grade inflated and because teachers realize that in order for their students to get into graduate programs they need better grades. So more or less this ideal distribution hasn't been used in most major classrooms since like the 70s? and if it were still in place, well effectively undergrad grading would be statistically institutionalized/standardized and become analogs to a 4 year mcat. So there are major benefits.. however again this curve filters out many of your own students from being doctors.. so major institutes said bye bye to this curving strategy.

 

[cheesier]

That is called the normal curve or commonly known as the bell curve. It is a common statistical percentile distribution and many schools used to in fact curve their classes to this distribution like in the 50s. However this curve is really one based purely on performance, effort, and intelligence in a competitive view, where only the top of the class get A's ( I.e working your ass off beyond belief to get an A). However this curve isn't used anymore as many schools are grade inflated and because teachers realize that in order for their students to get into graduate programs they need better grades. So more or less this ideal distribution hasn't been used in most major classrooms since like the 70s? and if it were still in place, well effectively undergrad grading would be statistically institutionalized/standardized and become analogs to a 4 year mcat. So there are major benefits.. however again this curve filters out many of your own students from being doctors.. so major institutes said bye bye to this curving strategy.

I know what a bell curve is. I've had classes graded on one in which ~10% of the class gets and A and 10% get an F, but in reality, no professor is going to say that 3 standard deviations from the mean is an A, 2 is a B, etc.

 

[MeowMeowCAT]

clearly 50 percent of the people are not aware that w on their transcript will look a lot better than a c- to an f.