Difficulty of pre-med compared to high school?

[redence]

I was wondering how hard is premed courses compared to high school courses. I took some honors and AP's including AP Biology and AP Psychology (and some other history AP's) but not AP Chem or AP Physics. In high school, I got a 3.5 GPA but sadly a 26/36 on the ACT (tbh I didn't study for it). I know it's not the best, and even though I did usually study, I didn't give it my 100%. I would always procrastinate, not pay attention in class, and came home trying to self study for tests but ended up getting distracted (I think I might have ADHD), and went to bed late trying to cram everything.

Will I mature in college and get better studying habits/techniques in college? I'm not a good test taker such as in the SAT's/ACT. I know pre-med is hard.

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[Princeton Medical Student]

Depends entirely on you. I did mediocre in high school, took 5 AP in total, and compared to pre-med, high school was honestly a walk in the park.

 

[STcmOCSD]

Premed is more difficult than high school but also as you mature you’ll become more prepared to handle it. College is where I actually learned how to study and started taking things seriously.

 

[Kurk]

I had a similar gpa and ACT score. Pre-med is helluva more work but I won't say it's more difficult. I'm struggling through undergraduate Biology, not because it's hard, but because I find it to be incredibly boring and useless. What really kills it is the brute memorization. That's all it is. You don't apply anything. On the contrast, I'm excelling in Chemistry due to the incorporation of math and physics. You actually have to think. It's a strong flip-flop from high-school for me actually. Undergrad is difficult if you make it. What's your motivation? What do you like?

 

[singasongofjoy]

I was wondering how hard is premed courses compared to high school courses. I took some honors and AP's including AP Biology and AP Psychology (and some other history AP's) but not AP Chem or AP Physics. In high school, I got a 3.5 GPA but sadly a 26/36 on the ACT (tbh I didn't study for it). I know it's not the best, and even though I did usually study, I didn't give it my 100%. I would always procrastinate, not pay attention in class, and came home trying to self study for tests but ended up getting distracted (I think I might have ADHD), and went to bed late trying to cram everything.

Will I mature in college and get better studying habits/techniques in college? I'm not a good test taker such as in the SAT's/ACT. I know pre-med is hard.

many large schools have academic success centers (they go by different names, but basically places where they will teach you study skills). If your ugrad has one, check it out.

 

[Mister Significant]

I had a similar gpa and ACT score. Pre-med is helluva more work but I won't say it's more difficult. I'm struggling through undergraduate Biology, not because it's hard, but because I find it to be incredibly boring and useless. What really kills it is the brute memorization. That's all it is. You don't apply anything. On the contrast, I'm excelling in Chemistry due to the incorporation of math and physics. You actually have to think. It's a strong flip-flop from high-school for me actually. Undergrad is difficult if you make it. What's your motivation? What do you like?

Pal if you don't enjoy biology then becoming an expert on human biology (medical school ciriculum) is probably going to bore you even more.

 

[Standutd]

Pal if you don't enjoy biology then becoming an expert on human biology (medical school ciriculum) is probably going to bore you even more.

lol

It's scaled difficulty, if you can evolve with it then you'll be fine but most people lag a little in evolving their study habits and get filtered out by tough classes at the beginning. Especially if HS was easy for you it'll be a shock when you actually have to put time into anything in College.

 

[STcmOCSD]

Pal if you don't enjoy biology then becoming an expert on human biology (medical school ciriculum) is probably going to bore you even more.

Not necessarily. In high school, biology was far from my favorite subject but then I grew to love it in college. To me the ecological study of biology was boring, but when we reviewed human systems it was far more interesting.

 

[deleted480308]

Pal if you don't enjoy biology then becoming an expert on human biology (medical school ciriculum) is probably going to bore you even more.

I’m going to dissent, actual medicine does not really resemble high school biology

 

[moisne]

Pre med was easier than hs for me - but that's Bc I killed myself in hs. You should work on your time management skills and study habits. Also stop making excuses "I only got a 26 Bc I didn't study".

The act is largely a measurement of your skills at the time. Act and science classes correlate strongly with your Mcat...


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[redence]

Pre med was easier than hs for me - but that's Bc I killed myself in hs. You should work on your time management skills and study habits. Also stop making excuses "I only got a 26 Bc I didn't study".

The act is largely a measurement of your skills at the time. Act and science classes correlate strongly with your Mcat...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

How does anything you do in high school correlate strongly with the MCAT?

 

[moisne]

How does anything you do in high school correlate strongly with the MCAT?

i didn't take biology since i was 16. Didn't take general chemistry or physics in college either. Perfect score on the physical science section. but the ACT scores are correlated to the MCAT scores. The number of AP science classes strengthens your ability to do well for the MCAT.

 

[Gilakend]

Definitely harder than HS but I'm doing miles better in college than I ever did in HS (junior now). It's so different it's almost not fair to compare them I think. You will only get better study techniques if you try to and put in the effort it won't just happen.

 

[ProspectivePostPreDent]

The content is more in depth than any high school course, but I did much better in college, because the scheduling is so different. Doing 8-3 every day and having small assignments in every class is much more grating for me than doing 4 classes during the week and doing most of the work out of school.

 

[Opticalfuture]

I was wondering how hard is premed courses compared to high school courses. I took some honors and AP's including AP Biology and AP Psychology (and some other history AP's) but not AP Chem or AP Physics. In high school, I got a 3.5 GPA but sadly a 26/36 on the ACT (tbh I didn't study for it). I know it's not the best, and even though I did usually study, I didn't give it my 100%. I would always procrastinate, not pay attention in class, and came home trying to self study for tests but ended up getting distracted (I think I might have ADHD), and went to bed late trying to cram everything.

Will I mature in college and get better studying habits/techniques in college? I'm not a good test taker such as in the SAT's/ACT. I know pre-med is hard.

I am literally the same my attention span is short and k cant study for long periods of time without lots of breaks.