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General Biology Pre-Req
Started by PygmalionEffect
Biology was my favorite subject! I only struggled a bit during second semester (honors Bio), you just have to keep up with the material!
Struggling as in getting Cs and Ds?
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A&P was my favorite. You have to keep up with the material because it can be a lot of reading.
Yes. I thought it would be a walk in the park for me, but it looks like I'll only be able to get a C at this point. Long story, and I know I'm mostly responsible, but my professor is terribly inept at teaching.
Isn't this considered one of the easiest science pre-reqs? Regardless, I know this will look really bad on my record. Should I just drop the class?
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This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Please don't blame your professor, even partially, for your grades. Not trying to call you out or anything, but unless your professor is inept in the sense that he/she lost your exam or something of that nature, your grades are totally your responsibility.
But don't get too down on yourself. My general bio course was treated as a "weed out" course for bio majors so they really made sure it was tough. I've had 400 level bio courses that were easier than my 200 level gen bio courses. Now that you know what you're getting yourself into, you could drop and retake, but a single C isn't going to kill your chances at pharmacy school.
I found Bio1/Bio2 fairly easy compared to higher level biology such as cell bio, microbio, biochem, genetics.
I agree it's never the teachers fault, if you have problems understanding because of accents, or teaching style. Learn in different ways on your own.
Mastering the material in Bio1/2 is needed to succeed in further classes, as the materials is about the same topics, however in a lot more detail.
In bio1 for example you may learn that there is RNA polymerase that transcribes dna to rna. In further courses you learn the many subunits that make up polymerases and how each eukaryotes and prokaryotes have different components.
Since this is an intro course, I will assume you are new to college or returning. Test your study habits, sometimes studying in a particular way in one course fails in another. It's all trial and error and the first test in every course should tell you what needs to be done to improve.
I received a B on my first biochem test, then an A+ on my second by improving methods or studying longer.
Another thing that will help is reviewing old tests and learning the questions you missed. This helps A LOT in in the course, later courses, and of course!!! THE PCAT!
I'll be honest, I've got plenty of C's.. Almost everyone does that is applying. Just improve/retake/ace the PCAT and you will be just fine!
Hope this helps, and I didn't ramble too long. Good luck!
-amox
I agree it's never the teachers fault, if you have problems understanding because of accents, or teaching style. Learn in different ways on your own.
Mastering the material in Bio1/2 is needed to succeed in further classes, as the materials is about the same topics, however in a lot more detail.
In bio1 for example you may learn that there is RNA polymerase that transcribes dna to rna. In further courses you learn the many subunits that make up polymerases and how each eukaryotes and prokaryotes have different components.
Since this is an intro course, I will assume you are new to college or returning. Test your study habits, sometimes studying in a particular way in one course fails in another. It's all trial and error and the first test in every course should tell you what needs to be done to improve.
I received a B on my first biochem test, then an A+ on my second by improving methods or studying longer.
Another thing that will help is reviewing old tests and learning the questions you missed. This helps A LOT in in the course, later courses, and of course!!! THE PCAT!
I'll be honest, I've got plenty of C's.. Almost everyone does that is applying. Just improve/retake/ace the PCAT and you will be just fine!
Hope this helps, and I didn't ramble too long. Good luck!
-amox
Sorry, but many times it is the professor's fault.
Your doomed!
They are there to help you! Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it! Do you access office hours? Discuss with other students? Go to study groups? Go to review days? Even go to class or pay attention? Read the book? Go over the notes before/after class? Search the internet? Read related material at the library?
There are sooooo many sources these days to get information from!
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Now if you said Immunology, well, I would have to agree.
Gen Bio, the instructor asked me why I was taking the class. I said I had to get my ticket punched. If it was required, then I was taking it.
Do a little self evaluation, are you studying properly for the tests... Are you misunderstanding the questions asked?
Gen Bio, the instructor asked me why I was taking the class. I said I had to get my ticket punched. If it was required, then I was taking it.
Do a little self evaluation, are you studying properly for the tests... Are you misunderstanding the questions asked?
Has it been a while since you have taken a biology course?
When I took my first college Bio course, I hadn't taken Bio the year before that, so it was more difficult than I thought it would be. If you figure out how to study for it (from asking people who have had the course, asking Bio majors specific and/or general questions, asking your course instructor, or asking any Bio professor), it may help you.
If you understand the concepts well right now, you may find it helpful when you take upper level Bio courses.
The quality of the instructor does not change the fact that you are responsible for the information.
I had a first time instructor for A&P I, I will be generous and say she had some issues. Her basic issue is that she tried to cover too much information and ended up only marginally increasing understanding of the information. The class went from about 35 people down to 10 before the end of the semester. In the end it did not matter how well she taught the information, it was my responsibilty learn it.
Good luck with the rest of the semester.
False.
IMO, General Biology is a test of study skills. The material is not inherently interesting, and so unless you have a fantastic professor it can be terrible.
Just buckle down & study! It shouldn't be conceptually difficult, but there's a lot of boring things going on. It can be hard to get a good grade.
Just buckle down & study! It shouldn't be conceptually difficult, but there's a lot of boring things going on. It can be hard to get a good grade.
It really depends on your school. At my school, Bio 1 was considered the top weed out class. More difficult than it needed to be for a first time undergrad bio course. If you don't do so well, make sure you compensate for it by earning a great bio PCAT score and good grades in higher level bio classes
Completely 100% agree.
But only to an extent.
Completely 100% agree.
But only to an extent.
You are completely wrong. I really do not care how strongly you feel about it, or how many times you overcame the obstacle of a poor professor.
Students do not pay to take a class and learn only from a book. Students pay to take a class from a knowledgeable professor with clear communication skills. Also, some professors simply do not teach what they test you over, therefore setting an unpredictable standard.
A professor can break a student due to the fact that they do not take their job seriously.
A good analogy would be: A house is burning, the guy at the fire department is sleeping and does not respond to the burning house. The sleeping man was wearing a sign that says, "There is no excuse for your failure to extinguish the fire at your house". The homeowner is doing their best to put the fire out but is unsuccessful. The house burns down.
Anyone that does poorly at doing their job is going to affect those that are involved with them.
First semester Gen Bio should be something that you take personally if you want to be a Pharmacist. Gen Bio I can be tough conceptually, but it should not be too hard to get an A-B.
Second semester Gen Bio (Bio II) is a nightmare in my opinion. The entire course is based on boring taxonomy, and characteristics of the taxonomy. This semester is normal to struggle in, in my opinion.
As long as the material being tested over was provided in some form, such as being listed in the syllabus as assigned reading, you're responsible. I've taken plenty of courses (as have most of us at this point) where even the best professor doesn't cover every detail and it's ultimately up to the student to master the material. The professor is a guide, but that doesn't mean they have to pick you up and carry you along the path.
The problem with your analogy is that the homeowner doesn't have the tools to put the fire out. A student, armed with only their textbook, their brain, and whatever information the professor provided during lecture, has all of the tools they need to learn the material. A good professor should certainly go the extra mile to help their students understand, true. A bad/lazy professor makes learning the material and making a good grade more difficult, no doubt, but that doesn't change the fact that the student is ultimately responsible for their educational success or failure.
For the record, I've done poorly in classes where I've had very bad professors. I still didn't feel like it was anyone's fault but my own.
I'm also asking myself this question I did well on mostly every Prereq except for A&P in which I had two C's, but everything else was A's, any ideas on how the two C's might hold me back?
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2 Cs will not hold you back, everyone has that course that gets under their skin (mine was called O Chem I). Just try to retain an overall solid math and science GPA (>3.0).
However, you don't wanna start college making Cs. Sure Cs won't stop you from getting into pharm school (for the most part), but I will tell you this, once your GPA drops, it will be a bi*** to get it back up depending on how many hrs you've already completed. Better to start off strong than to start off weak. Can your GPA bounce back? Sure, but it won't be easy. 😉
My gpa is at a 3.55 at the moment, I only have two C's and am about to graduate. I just wanted to know if those 2 C's would hurt me or not. Trust me I know how hard it is to maintain a GPA those two C's hurt.
And it seems you would rather start college with C's considering that they look at your last 45 credits, which messes me up a bit since Junior year was a bit of a bad time.
And it seems you would rather start college with C's considering that they look at your last 45 credits, which messes me up a bit since Junior year was a bit of a bad time.
You should be fine. If there were extenuating circumstances that help to explain why your grades suffered a bit, make sure you explain that in either your personal statement or supplemental app.
Thank you I posted a bit more on the thread where people give you their opinion on your chance to get into pharmacy school.
lol, I wouldn't say its 100% one way or the other.
I would say grades are 85% student and 15% instructor.
No matter the teacher, the student will have to study and learn on their own to understand the material.
However, teachers can definitely make classes waaay harder than they need to be at times.
For instance, my chemistry 102 teacher was foreign and had an extremely heavy accent and during the entire class she would only work random problems. The class was mind numbingly boring to say the least. The only possible way to make a decent grade was to go over every single chapter and work all of the problems in the back of the book repeatedly. Class notes were of no help. This class was much MUCH more time consuming than it needed to be. I still managed to get a B though.
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To answer the Original poster:
Intro Cell biology can be pretty tough if you haven't taken Biology in recent years. However, if you read through and try to understand all of the chapters in the book (that were covered in class), you should be able to pull off a decent grade.
My guess is that you haven't been studying sufficiently
Sounds like a totally legitimate explanation to me. Just make it clear that you've overcome that distraction, which your most recent grades will hopefully reflect. I don't think they'll look at it like you're just making excuses or anything. Having a parent with cancer is a big deal.
I think I did better this year, got a 3.58 last semester and I should get a 3.3-3.5 this semester. Hopefully I can do wonders on the PCAT, but still looking around for whats the best way to study.
Fair points. I realize I'm probably a bit extreme on this, but I guess I look at college differently from a lot of people. Personal responsibility and such
Jesus, I feel old.
The only thing I did for the PCAT was lots of practice tests. Make sure you time yourself too. It's really important to work at the right pace. For me, I realized that I needed to work faster on the math section, for example (which actually seems to be pretty common). If you're noticing a particular type of problem that's giving you trouble, you can selectively go back and review also. I think it's silly to break out the textbooks and try to review everything, so just look back on the bits that you may have forgotten. It's more fun to review with a friend and you can help explain things to each other too.
There are probably lots of other threads devoted to this topic on here if you want some other perspectives.
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Yeah I'm going to look around and see what I found. I heard the pcat destroyer is good, but I'm not sure about spending 300 dollars on a study guide.
Yeah I'm glad I hung onto all my general, organic chem notes and all my biology notes haha.
Just for clarification, not all schools will focus on your last 45 credit hrs. Some schools will focus on your entire collegiate life.
To echo what the others are saying, 2 Cs should not hurt your chances too much. Make sure that you are a well-rounded applicant though. Have lots of ECs, volunteer and work experience to balance out a lower GPA. Also rock the PCAT!
I have some lab experience and am hoping to find a tech job, reno isn't the biggest place so I wasn't able to find anything. But I don't consider my GPA bad, not as good as before those two C's, but a 3.5 isn't terrible
I have some lab experience and am hoping to find a tech job, reno isn't the biggest place so I wasn't able to find anything. But I don't consider my GPA bad, not as good as before those two C's, but a 3.5 isn't terrible
A 3.5 GPA is higher than the average for some pharm schools. Volunteer and do lots of ECs if you are unable to gain work experience.
Yup and rock the pcat!
For me biology in college came easy. Due in part to the fact that senior year of high school, I made it a point to read and absorb the entire AP bio textbook cover to cover. In college I never even purchased a textbook for sophomore or freshman bio and got As.
I thought general biology was hard for me, but once you are in upper division level, it was much easier! Just keep going!! Don't give up 🙂
Good advice 👍
But I want to add that if you learn it well in general bio, the upper level courses can be easier. But if you don't take it seriously or slack off, the upper level courses are much more difficult.
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