Gen Chem II - Easy Prof/"Less" Learning vs. Harder Prof/"More" Learning

[Doctoscope]

I'm about to sign up for gen chem 2 for life scientists for Winter 2020, and I'm stuck between 2 choices. There's 2 sections, and one of the professors (Prof A) is the one I have Gen Chem I with currently. His exams are easy and straightforward, but he seems to skip over some things that other professors cover, effectively covering less content. The other professor (prof B) seems to be more difficult, but goes into more depth with the content, while covering more than prof A, making the class more fast-paced.

My biggest concern is how this will affect my MCAT studying. It looks like Prof A barely covered some things that do appear on the MCAT, so I'll need to learn those on my own. If I go with Prof A again for Gen Chem II, will that negatively affect my MCAT studying? Or is it all things that I can effectively learn on my own?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[sparkysparkyboomman]

This is kind of a per-person basis question. I found gen chem easy enough to relearn, so I would go for the easy A and therefore increase in cumulative and science GPA.

 

[Lawpy]

Take the easy class hands down. Your goal should be to get the highest GPA possible. Course difficulty is overrated and you will only risk lowering your GPA.

It's better to have a light class schedule with easiest courses possible to get a great GPA, so that you can spend the time having really strong clinical, volunteering, research and leadership experiences. You can study and excel on the MCAT by following some excellent study plans and utilizing several practice tests and actively reviewing your answers.

 

[DNAJB6]

Learning is what you make of it. Take the easy class, learn the rest on your time, and if you have the time and the harder professor agrees you could ask to sit in on his or her lectures in addition to your regular lectures.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Easy class by far. Gen chem is easy enough to teach yourself. Khan academy it up and keep your gpa high.

It’ll be good practice for med school, where most of us teach ourselves the majority of what we really need to know.

 

[Blueprint Med School]

Agreed- easy A all the way. It's one of the least relevant classes to medicine, to be honest, so you don't need to be an expert.

 

[deleted688779]

Easy A. There is no glory in making this process harder than it needs to be.

Source: had a lot of classmates who thought it would impress med schools by taking the harder professor or the harder sequence of courses. Nope.

 

[ChymeofPassion]

Ez A

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

Definitely the easy class.

If you're worried about the MCAT then listen to what someone on SDN once told me: The MCAT is like an ocean of knowledge but it's only an inch deep.
If you don't learn any topic, you can easily self-study it for the MCAT because you do not need to go in-depth on almost any content.

 

[chemphysicsinstructor]

You can sign up for whichever class you choose. But you can also attend lecture for both classes.

Years ago, I used to tutor the MCAT physical science and biological sciences sections and I observed that each school does not cover all of the topics you need to know. For example, UCLA does not cover colligative properties, but OSU does. And neither covers nuclear chemistry. So you will always find topics that are not covered which you will have to learn on your own.

 

[HopeP]

What if same scenario applied to Orgo? Does anyone differ from common consensus here for Gen Chem, go with easy A, for Orgo?

 

[chemphysicsinstructor]

What if same scenario applied to Orgo? Does anyone differ from common consensus here for Gen Chem, go with easy A, for Orgo?

For Orgo, it happens too. Topics can be left out or minimized from school to school. It is important to be aware of this.

One thing I will advise against is waiting a term or two in order to take the class with an "easy" prof. I have seen this happen when I taught at a big state school.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

I tutored orgo for classes and once I had taken the MCAT I definitely noticed some professors left things out that would have been on the MCAT. Just like @chemphysicsinstructor said.

 

[Cornfed101]

Law of diminishing returns here. You can get 80+% of the important Ochem and gen chem info with 20% of the time and effort. Taking the hard class is the last 20% (or less) for 80% more time and effort. Take the easy class. They offered an accelerated ochem at my post bacc that was ochem 1 and 2 in one semester. This was only possible because it was a little easier. I got 129 on C/P, no regrets