C's in General Bio?

[NRAI2001]

Hi,

My last semester was really bad, I got C's in both of my general bio classes. I have A's and B's in my physics, math, and chem classes. I am a bio major, so I have taken a few upper div bio classes and I did pretty well in them. I was wondering which would hold more weight when applying, the general bio classes or the upper div bio classes? Will Med schools look more critical at the pre-reqs or the other more advanced bio classes I ve taken?

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[TTSD]

If you make it up with upper-bio classes, don't fret too much.

General bio in all things considered is a joke and in some cases, designed specifically to fail as many people out as possible to discourage all but the toughest to pursue medicine. They know incoming freshmen are usually confused and don't know how to study for college courses yet (AP taught me jack and crap).

In my general bio courses we had a 40% rate of not passing the class and the general curve distribution is GEARED to give you a C. Just make it up with more advanced courses showing you're learning how to adapt and getting effective study habits.

 

[NRAI2001]

But I did pretty well my freshmen year, it was the spring semester of my sophmore year that i did bad in? Will they still consider an up ward trend?

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by NRAI2001
But I did pretty well my freshmen year, it was the spring semester of my sophmore year that i did bad in? Will they still consider an up ward trend?

Med schools I've been constantly told love an upward trend. They aren't specifically looking for natural born geniuses. They're looking for emphatic human beings that can strive under adversity and pressure.

So if you did "bleh" in easy classes but then shaped yourself up to a near God-like visage in a courseload that would break a horses' back.. I would say that looks gooood.

 

[SpiritiualDuck]

General biology at the time seemed challenging. I did well in it, but many people flunked and there were only 6 A's out of 120 or so students. Tons of C's and D's.

I agree with the above poster about the design of the course, meaning that they want to discourage students.

The other thing that bothered me was that there were plenty of back exams floating around. It wasn't until the third exam that I got my hands on one. 20 or 30 questions on my exam, out of like 50, were from the back exam. And the kids that had them were mainly Frat brothers. They wouldn't study too much, if at all, read back exams and get C's or B's.

I actually told the professor that I was bothered by the fact that he didn't change exams and that only students that were connected got them. I suggested that he make the exams available to all of us. Make it fair. He said, "If you look at my grade distribution, it fits a nice bell curve. So, I don't see the need to change anything." But commuter students got screwed. If you were about of Greek life, you didn't get hooked up. I smiled and agreed with him although I thought he was lazy for not changing exams, but I had to pretend to think he was right because he was on the premed committee.

So, my impression of General biology is that it just touches on everything a bit and it's designed to screw with you.

 

[TTSD]

In my opinion the only REAL classes are those that have biochem as a pre-req. Why? Because by then, the classes aren't really designed to fail you (except some.. like the anatomy/physiology series) but you're on a level playing field with the remaining best and brightest.

So, let's say you're taking the toughest classes your school has to offer where only the craziest and best that consititute the remainding 10% of your premed freshmen classes graded on a bell shape curve. You score an A in them. What does THAT then say about your abilities compared to some stupid C in general bio?

 

[Lux Aeterna]

Originally posted by NRAI2001
Hi,

My last semester was really bad, I got C's in both of my general bio classes. I have A's and B's in my physics, math, and chem classes. I am a bio major, so I have taken a few upper div bio classes and I did pretty well in them. I was wondering which would hold more weight when applying, the general bio classes or the upper div bio classes? Will Med schools look more critical at the pre-reqs or the other more advanced bio classes I ve taken?

Hey I had straight C's in bio, but did well in my upper level classes. You never really want a C on your transcript but an upward trend will help out alot. Good luck