Do You Have to Be Good at Chemistry to Do Well in Med School?

[mssopranogirl]

It's not my best subject. Does med school consist mostly of biology? What about the USMLE? Chemistry is my weakness. I'm aware this may bite me in the butt on the MCAT.

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[Perrotfish]

Once you get past the MCAT there's basically no Chemistry ever again unless you go into research. There is a course called biochemistry, but it's basically a word association course: deficiencies in [random rate limiting enzyme] causes [equally random disease name]. Your pharmacology course will also involve no structures and no real knowledge of the subject.

 

[CaliGirl14]

Well, one thing is for certain, you have to do well in Chemistry to get into medical school. Focus on that first.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Pharm is all you need out of chemistry.....once you get in to med school.

 

[saveourpens]

What exactly makes chemistry not your best subject? Keep saying that and it will bite you on the MCAT.

 

[MegaSpectacular]

It's not my best subject. Does med school consist mostly of biology? What about the USMLE? Chemistry is my weakness. I'm aware this may bite me in the butt on the MCAT.

You must be good at learning. And fast.

 

[premed67783]

It's not my best subject. Does med school consist mostly of biology? What about the USMLE? Chemistry is my weakness. I'm aware this may bite me in the butt on the MCAT.

Don't be so sure of that. I always thought I was awful at ochem, but I did great on the bio/ochem section of the mcat. just study study study.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I think most people believe chemistry is a weak spot because its simply something we've not done a lot in our lives. Like outside general chem 1 its all brand new material. Where as for example, biology is relatively something we've had a lot of exposure to in life and media so ppl see it as a strong point.

 

[SusGob711]

I certainly think chemistry can be difficult for certain people because it's difficult for certain personality types to conceptualize all of the theories and rules pertaining to chemistry. I myself struggle with chemistry--I just accept it and know that I have to spend more time than the average person on my chem courses to do well.

On the other hand I'm generally the person helping friends understand concepts from my biology lecture. We all have unique strengths and weaknesses just don't make it an excuse to not study thinking you won't do well anyways. Study, ask questions, DO textbook questions, call your classmates, come to every single lecture, look for concepts explained in simplier terms on the internet, read, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS do ALL of the homework problems. You can't learn it until you do it... best of luck to you 😉

 

[anfleisch]

Most premeds aren't 'good' at chemistry after undergrad because we didn't learn that much if you really think about it. What we learn is how take a chemistry exam. You aren't really applying your chemistry knowledge unless you are a chem major or worked in a chem lab (okay we get some in labs but not much). The idea as some people above me said it to learn fast and apply what you just learned. In medicine, they say you learn it the first time, try it yourself the second time, and teach someone else the third time. You gotta catch onto stuff quickly. Thats all it is.

 

[STXGregor]

Basic chem as you know it is done after undergrad. Some basic concepts may come into play in your understanding of some concepts, but other than that, no more titrations, lol. Unless you do research of course. Now there is a great deal of chem type info in pharm, but again its clinically oriented, and not presented how it is in undergrad. Now your md biochem class will be nearly identical to your undergrad biochem course, so you will see that again. But as for gen chem and ochem, you're basically done.

 

[MegaSpectacular]

I wanted to add, somethings come easier to some people.

I, like most I'm sure, rarely do all the reading associated with classes. I only read if I have a glaring weakness, usually the lecture material is enough to get strong A's.

I know some people that will do ALL the reading, laboriously and spend tons of time working out of the book. Some of these people aren't very "intelligent", as they have to do tons of repetition and have a lot of exposure before they catch up to speed with the other A students.

Just realize that. When you say you are weak in chemistry someone may ask, do you have a great textbook? If you don't did you go buy a better textbook (older edition is cheaper)? Did you buy the problems book and do the problems?

I heard of this one MD/PhD who went to a tough school, she did EVERY problem out of the back of the book. EVERY one. I thought "wow, I usually only do the assigned stuff." Imagine if your professor assigns 25 problems or 30, and you did 70 problems. Would you be "not very good"?

But the thing is this, in the end if you reach your goal it doesn't matter how you got there.

Are you doing all the reading? Are you doing every problem from the back of the book? I find it hard to believe you would still be not very good if you did all this. Some people do. If you aren't very good and you still want to be good, sometimes you have to put in that sweat equity.