Soo, I took orgo II and received a d- then took biochemistry and got an A and I got a 520 on my MCAT. I plan on applying this summer and I was wondering if I should I retake orgo II in the spring?
do I need to retake orgo II
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Yes.
Can I take it after I apply? Let's say the following year?
Yes usually its a matriculation requirement (by the time you get in, but it can be school specific). You would prob have to let them know in the "extra" box that you do plan to retake the course by matriculation, thereby drawing attention to it. Its prob best to get it done beforehand
I cant speak on that. You do have a 520 on the MCAT though which kind of offsets any doubt about your BCPM performance. Hopefully Goro/LizzyM/Moko will eventually chime in to answer with more expertise 🙂
At some schools it might - they will see a D (in a possible pre-req) and wonder why you haven't retaken it. many schools will give you a chance to explain / future coursework that could remedy the situation. With a high MCAT, it's unlikely to hold you back much, just make sure you check the requirements for course completion, most are before matriculation, but I believe some schools want requirements filled by the January of the matriculation year.
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Needs to be retaken, ideally before application time since it's a major prereq. However, in general, course requirements only need to be completed by the time of matriculation.
The other question I would have is what caused the D-? Is your transcript otherwise pristine? Isolated bad grades do make me wonder if something else was going on
The other question I would have is what caused the D-? Is your transcript otherwise pristine? Isolated bad grades do make me wonder if something else was going on
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I have a single C simply because I mixed up the date of the final exam.
The only other bad grade is a C+ in first semester of orgo.
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So you have a C+ in orgo 1 and a D- in orgo 2? Thats... not great. What was it about orgo that was so hard for you?
I really don't know, it just didn't click to me in class. It went totally fine on the mcat though and the orgo-ish parts of biochemistry went well for me.
I'm definitely retaking it, it's just the timing that I'm worried about.
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Ok so an important question to ask yourself is what is going to go differently when you retake it to bring your grade up to at least a B? I would try to identify what about organic chemistry you struggle with. Is it the concepts, the way problems are worded, the workload, test anxiety etc. If you go in without changing anything, especially without a strong foundation I worry about how you're going to improve enough to show that you've mastered the material. It's easy to come on SDN and say you're going to retake a class and do much better, but another thing to actually do it. How are you going to make sure that you succeed this time around?
I definitely figured out how to study for orgo and I'm planning on using my mcat books to help me out. Also, I'm gonna actually be utilizing my TA's
The deficiencies from Orgo 1 likely made Orgo 2 much harder. I would definitely read through (and understand) Orgo as a Second Language before retaking. My MCAT organic books did not go anywhere near the detail required of my OCHEM classes. Make sure you significantly improve. If you end up with a C-, you may not have time to retake it, and can have an acceptance rescinded
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Yes. Be sure that you get a good grade on it the next time you take it.
