CHEM or CALC

[tesfawMD]

I am going to take Calc. 3A and Chem. 1A at a community college, and I wanted to know in terms, of med school acceptance, which class is more important to get an "A" in because I know I can't get an "A" in both classes?

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[Diablo2fan]

Do NOT take calc 3, its unneeded. I took this class coupled with differential mathematics back when I was a Math major..... and over half the students failed mid-semester in both. Not one person recieved an A, but Chem 1a is needed and since it is an introductory class it shouldn't be too hard. If you do take calc 3- msg me when you need help

 

[tesfawMD]

Do NOT take calc 3, its unneeded. I took this class coupled with differential mathematics back when I was a Math major..... and over half the students failed mid-semester in both. Not one person recieved an A, but Chem 1a is needed and since it is an introductory class it shouldn't be too hard. If you do take calc 3- msg me when you need help

Calc. 3A is the first calc. class at the community college I'm taking it at.

 

[WellWornLad]

Why can't you get an A in both?

Anyway, it doesn't matter. People are only going to look at GPA, and both go into the BMCP. What the adcom had for lunch will have more of an impact on your application than whether you got a better grade in calculus than chem (or vice versa).

 

[silas2642]

I am going to take Calc. 3A and Chem. 1A at a community college, and I wanted to know in terms, of med school acceptance, which class is more important to get an "A" in because I know I can't get an "A" in both classes?

Why in God's name are you taking calc III? Okay, so unless you're taking it as part of your major, drop it fast because you'll never, ever need calculus in medicine. I barely remember how to do basic math. Take this extra time to fill in another pre-req, take a course that is actually interesting, use your money to buy something fun, or get laid.

If you do take both of them, ace both of them. If you're dumb enough to take both of them ASA (against sdn advice), and you can only ace one of them, ace Chem I because it is a pre-req, although you deserve to flunk both of them because we told you not to do it.

However, in the end, as someone has already mentioned, it probably doesn't really matter as long as your gpa is in the range of "acceptable" along with your mcat. No one really cares, and as long as you can act like a human being for 20 consecutive minutes, with the prior pre-requisites accomplished, you'll have done all you can to get into medical school. The rest is just random.

 

[Depakote]

This is more of a question for the hSDN forum.

moved.

 

[Maygyver]

Honestly, if you want to get into medical school, you need to be able to get an A in more than one class at a time. Especially if you are only taking 2 courses.

 

[DrReo]

Calc. 3A is the first calc. class at the community college I'm taking it at.

Calculus is nothing but moving algebra. Calculus one is easy, calc II is more challenging and calc III is easier than calc II (it's calc I, essestially in 3d).

Best of luck.

 

[TexanGirl]

Hmm, I actually don't think the OP's referring to Calc 3. Calculus 3A just sounds like an arbitrary course number, not the "third" semester of calculus. He may at a California community college, in which case a tertiary course numbering system (one that follows the quarter system) would make sense. I assume Calc 3A would be followed by something like Calc 3B, right, OP?

As for your original question, I would concentrate on getting A's on both classes, no matter the difficulty. Calculus is not an universal pre-req, but you may need to take it for your undergraduate degree and it will factor into your BCMP (Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics) GPA.

 

[obbobbo]

You should really try to do well in both, but I really struggled through my calc class, in fact I failed it and never re-took it, and I was still able to get accepted by 4 different med schools. It probably didn't hurt that I did well in all my chem classes. Overall, I would agree with many previous posters that I would avoid a high level calc class unless you really needed it.