Chemistry Problems

[Med2Be]

I am currently taking a Chemistry class (two more to go after this one) and am seriously struggling. I know that with loads of studying, I can pass this class along with the others, but I am not too confident that I will receive higher than a B. My question is, how significant will these grades weigh on my med school application? I have no problem with my other classes, but Chemistry is one that I constantly struggle with. Thank you for any answers!

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[FutureDrB]

I am currently taking a Chemistry class (two more to go after this one) and am seriously struggling. I know that with loads of studying, I can pass this class along with the others, but I am not too confident that I will receive higher than a B. My question is, how significant will these grades weigh on my med school application? I have no problem with my other classes, but Chemistry is one that I constantly struggle with. Thank you for any answers!

I'm in the same boat. I can handle the Biology and Physics, but I struggle with Chemistry. I'm looking at a C for this semester unless I can really ace the last exam. I have an A in the lab. (I'm much more hands-on.)

Anyway, to answer your question, I think it all depends. People get accepted with all A's and B's ... and people get accepted with a combination of A's, B's, C's. I've even seen a guy get accepted with all C's and only a few B's. Just depends on how strong the rest of your application is, MCAT, EC's, PS, etc.

I assure you that a B is not going to harm your chances of acceptance.

For the record, I'm going to take the C in this Chemistry class I'm in now and move on...not going to worry about one C.

 

[mikecougarmd]

The science GPA is very important and of course the chemistry courses are included in that GPA. If it's an isolated grade or two it's not a big deal.

I was just accepted with a C in biochem as well as a C+ in two other classes. Those were huge exceptions among my 140 credit hours, but they were still there. Two of the Cs came as naive freshman and I improved markedly after that. I was asked about my C in biochem in interviews and I told them I just got behind and then drowned. I did retake the class and get a B+ and the rest of my record was very strong so it didn't hurt me that much.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

As mentioned above, a B or even a handful of them over an undergrad education are not going to sink an app.

However, a number of med schools' admissions offices I'd spoken with confirmed how much weight the put on the OChem grade -- saying that this was one of the sole indicators of how an applicant would likely perform in a hardcore science class.

That alone may be a reason to work harder in chem.. a couple Bs in gen chem and a couple Bs or Cs in Ochem would be really bad.

What worked for me to earn As in Chem (OK, I got a B too within that series) was to do just a MASSIVE amount of problems; half my time was spent reading concepts, the other half was spent doing problems. If 10 problems were suggested, I'd do 40+; literally completing every problem for which I had the answer key (odd numbers) in every chapter. That's what it took for me to be one of the 2-4 As in a class of over 20 students; there was no other 'trick' to it other than a lot of hours' effort.

 

[seelee]

I agree with the post about doing practice problems. I would emphasis that reading the text straight through is the most inefficient way to study. You have to do practice problems.

However, when you do practice problems, practice thinking through the problem using the principles that you learn from reading/lecture. If you think that you can just do every type of problem there is and learn the methodology for solving them you will be disappointed come test time.

 

[Med2Be]

Thank you all for your suggestions! I agree with doing multiple problems. I recently had an exam and felt as though I was prepared, but was disappointed as one mentioned here. I have had some O Chem in my General Chemistry (not much, just grazed the surface) and actually did my best in that. Hopefully that is a sign of what is to come, but I am in no way becoming too confident yet. 🙂
Thank you again!