What was harder for you. In High school I had a 3.0. Is the classes required for Pre-Pharm harder than normal classes? How many hours a day did you study? Was freshmen year in college the hardest or was the second year was the hardest?
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College is a whole different beast from high school. Pre-Pharm class will be similar to all the other pre-health classes. General Chem, Organic Chem, Physics, Biochem, etc. Those classes will not be easy if you think high school was hard.
Freshman year is hard only due to the fact it is a new transition from high school. Usually it gradually gets harder the older you are but you are more used to the situation.
The hours you study depends on you. I am Pre-Med and got accepted to a DO school. I studied maybe 3 hours a week most!
i think freshman and sophmore years are the easiest. Mainly because you are just taking general courses with a few scattered specialized courses. And you learn a new study pattern during these years too so when you start getting really deep in your major, you already have your study pattern down and then those last years arent that hard either. if you just develop yourself early you wont suffer later.
I think it depends on your high school. I went to a very small, private school with very high academic standards. I took AP Chem I and II and PA Physics I and II as well as a few other Ap's and I think they helped me greatly during freshman year. All of Gen Chem was a review for me so it was easy A's. I think senior year is the hardest. Senior seminars, thesis, 4000 level classes, all in all much more time consuming and difficult than previous years, in my experience.
College is hands down more difficult than high school (as its meant to be), because of the academics and the transition to becoming an "adult" . I realized (IMO) that you never really learn your study habits til you get to college. My freshman year was the most difficult (not academic wise of course) but the transition from being away from home, learning to study how much to study and when to study, and balancing work vs. play. Study also depends on how you learn material - some study the night before and cram and do well while others study a week in advance. Whatever works best for you.
. I realized (IMO) that you never really learn your study habits til you get to college. My freshman year was the most difficult (not academic wise of course) but the transition from being away from home, learning to study how much to study and when to study, and balancing work vs. play. Study also depends on how you learn material - some study the night before and cram and do well while others study a week in advance. Whatever works best for you.It depends on the person, some need the structure of highschool, while others thrive in a more free atmosphere like college.
College is a lot more tougher, and PrePharm is generally harder for most people compared to other classes. But you can do bad in high school and still succeed in college, as long as you maintain the correct study habits that work for you. Even though it can get challenging, I love college classes over high school. You don't have to do as much useless work (though this can be bad, since a good chunk of the class grade rides on the exams).
First of all, what's your definition of "normal" classes? I'll take it as all the other classes in the university, such as humanities and art/music.
From experience, I would have to say pre-pharm classes are indeed somewhat harder than these kind of classes. But if you appreciate and like the material, it shouldn't be so much of a torture, but rather, a challenge, eh?
I personally do study a whole lot because material seems to leak out of me if I don't keep up with it.
All and all, it really depends on what kind of person you are (to reiterate what the others have said).
I don't believe in level of difficulties such as 'hard' or 'easy'. But I can tell you right now that you will need to use a lot more of your time and energy to study in college for the pre pharmacy courses than in high school.
I was kind of the same situation as you were except that I had a 2.8 cummulative in high school (but I had a 3.5 gpa while taking 7 regular classes and 2 online classes in my last semester of high school to graduate early, so I can go to Brazil for 4 months. Maybe I can handle the college courses better than some people because I took so many classes in one semester).
I just finished first semester like two weeks ago, and I had 2 regular b's in British and American Literature and Core Composition 1. I got a B+ in chemistry....so overall, my first semester gpa was a 3.1.
I think I studied chemistry on average 4-6 hours a day (plus I love chemistry so I was really trying hard to succeed) and the other classes were easy and took me like 2-3 hours each. The least I probably spent studying in my classes were about 32 hours a week with only 3 classes! I believe it is good to start college with 3 classes because then you can adapt to the enviroment better but I haven't tested my theory yet so we will see how well I do in the second semester with 3 classes on campus and 3 more online which is 6 courses altogether!
For your last question, I can't answer them yet because i only finished one semester...
Update: I forgot to tell you one more thing, the chemistry class I took is called Foundations for General Chemistry. This is also a good idea to take if you want to prepare for the General Chemistry 1 class....
Well said!
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Most people I know agree that high school is children's play compared to college. Not many college students are impressed when they meet a high school kid with a 4.0... I guess you could say a 3.0 in college is somewhat equivalent to a 4.0 in high school.
- Nov 2, 2008
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I think that's too true. However, the difficulty widely varies from college to college. I took OChem I&II at my university and did bad but when I took it at a CC it was a breeze.
Currently, I have three other siblings in college... and just for kicks we each compare our respect test from different colleges in general courses like BIO... and believe me there was quite a difference in the information that is required from course to course applicable on a test. So it is not unlikely that someone who came from a rigorous HS to find at least the first couple of semesters of college easy.
College is harder than high school, pre-pharm classes are harder than liberal arts classes, and pharmacy classes are more difficult than prepharm classes. Generally speaking, of course - my high school history class was more difficult than my P1 "Intro to Pharm Care" class. But overall, I barely studied AT ALL in high school and got great grades, and have to work my ass off as a P1.
Like some have already said, the degree of difficulty of the classes varies from person to person. Just know that your high school study habits probably won't help you maintain a 3.0+ in college like it did for you in high school.
High school wasn't necessarily harder for me but I did not try at all and got by. All the BS work just to keep you busy and stuff...I hated it. In college everything you do will either help you in your field or help you pass an exam so I find it much more easier to at least want to do the work instead of procrastinate...unless its an english paper lol.
Just the other day I was looking through some old highschool work and I realized how different college really is. One of the biggest differences for me was the lack of BS work.
I forgot how structured highschool was. In college you aren't required to take notes and you don't even have to show up to class. Those two things alone actually make a big difference.
If you're good at learning on your own then college won't be so bad. You have to start thinking for yourself in many new ways, for example what classes you're going to take, what teachers, do you need the book, etc.
I forgot how structured highschool was. In college you aren't required to take notes and you don't even have to show up to class. Those two things alone actually make a big difference.
If you're good at learning on your own then college won't be so bad. You have to start thinking for yourself in many new ways, for example what classes you're going to take, what teachers, do you need the book, etc.