chemistry major: most demanding/difficult class ??

[Canez81]

for you chem majors out there, which upper level class did you find most difficult or demanding? for spring semester im taking orgo 2 and analytical with labs, but i know theres tougher classes to come, fill me in

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[ShyRem]

Personally I thought biochem was an absolute killer. Being a chem/math dual major, I had no problems with pchem. Advanced lab took TONS of time (I actually thought about filling out a change of address form so I could get my mail at lab). But honestly, biochem would definitely win the #1 spot in my book.

Disclaimer: I know a girl who failed OChem 2 at our small school, but took biochem during the summer at a "prestigious large" state school. She said it was the easiest class she'd ever taken - all her exams were multiple choice. I honestly thought about hating her during my all-essay detail-driven biochem exams. You know you're in trouble when the first page has one sentence at the top and the rest of the page is blank - and you have to write on the back side of the paper too in order to finish answering the question.

 

[1Path]

Hands down, PChem.

 

[BaylorGuy]

Started out at Chem major, the switched. All my chem friends said it was Physical Chemistry.

 

[jebus]

I agree with ShyRem, I didn't think PChem was that bad. I hated Orgo III, and the
advanced labs sucked.
Biochem wasn't bad, but it was a lot of memorization. It was tedious, if nothing else.
I say the advanced labs, you'll definitely begin to identify with that lab building. You'll be spending a lot of time in there.

 

[Rendar5]

It honestly depends. It will either be one of the orgo classes or one of the pchem classes. Most chem people are good at one and not good at the other. you'll figure this one out for yourself.

Pchem lab is the most work of nearly any class I've ever heard of (only thing i've heard worse is nuclear physics lab, but i think my friend at UPenn exaggerated that one). But it is not the most difficult if u're a math person.

advanced orgo lab was my ahrdest one. I'd have said advanced organic chemistry (graduate level class), but the teacher in the first half was so good and focused on concepts (why reactions work and why the stereochemistry aligns in certain ways. a lot of MO theory. it's the reality of what they kinda teach in orgo). 2nd half of that class was the worst one for me cause it was a different teacher and reaction memorization essentially.

 

[ms1finally]

pchem blew. I didn't take biochem - should have, though!

 

[WhatUpDoc!]

Gotta say Biochem no contest... my professor stresses concepts rather than rote memorization (i.e. who cares if you know the whole urea cycle, what happens if you switched an aspartate with a glutamate in the shuttle back to the TCA cycle?!?!?) therefore I use a freakishly large amount of study time on this class. I have a lot of P-Chem takers in my Biochem class, and while they agree P-Chem is no walk in the park, every last one of them said Biochem takes the cake on difficulty.

 

[Jon Davis]

Gotta say Biochem no contest... my professor stresses concepts rather than rote memorization (i.e. who cares if you know the whole urea cycle, what happens if you switched an aspartate with a glutamate in the shuttle back to the TCA cycle?!?!?) therefore I use a freakishly large amount of study time on this class. I have a lot of P-Chem takers in my Biochem class, and while they agree P-Chem is no walk in the park, every last one of them said Biochem takes the cake on difficulty.

Word. Not to mention the Biochem lab reports. My lab reports were atleast 10-15 pages long. Every lab report had to be written up like a paper, crazy I tell you.

Do any adcoms actually understand the torture undergrad chemistry is? From my personal experience in the application process: HELL NO. Maybe I shold have done a easy biology degree and graduated with a 4.0.

BTW, WhatUpDoc!, your avatar is kick ass.

 

[Will Ferrell]

P.Chem Lab.... consumes more time than all of my other courses combined.

 

[1Path]

I have a lot of P-Chem takers in my Biochem class, and while they agree P-Chem is no walk in the park, every last one of them said Biochem takes the cake on difficulty.

I took PChem and Biochem with ChemE majors and they all said Biochem was much more difficult than Pchem. But I took PChem (like a fool) without the required Diffeq, so my life that semester was a complete nightmare!

 

[novawildcat]

Upper level inorganic chem sucks. Pchem isn't bad, its just that most chem majors never have taken any math past calc II. I'd say advanced inorganic or biochem is the hardest (and biochem is only hard because of the ton of mindless memorization that you have to do). Pchem labs are the WORST though. It all depends on how your school does it. I remember one lab we had to do-the report ended up being 62 pages long. doing error analysis for every single calculation in your pchem labs SUCKS HARD.

 

[Arsenic]

I remember one lab we had to do-the report ended up being 62 pages long. doing error analysis for every single calculation in your pchem labs SUCKS HARD.

Agreed, PChem lab sucked! Hardest/most time consuming lab hands down. Hardest course for me was either PChem of Advanced Organic.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Analytical chemistry.