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Genetics Prereq?
Started by RAMPHARMD
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I'm just finishing up a genetics course this semester and it's certainly more difficult that I had anticipated, there's so much detail involved. I'm going to be perfectly happy with the B that it looks like I'll be getting. But it really depends on the school and professor you have.
Some things were ridiculously easy, while others things were ridiculously hard. It's an interesting class though... no doubt you'll learn all about the fruit fly... you might even get to grow them and apply your own genetic testing, similar to what Mendall did with the peas. My class used a computer program that simulated the results, not quite as cool but still pretty interesting nonetheless. It was one of the more funer (is that a word?) classes for me. Enjoy!
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Honestly, there are so many different factors that come into play regarding courses: School, professor, own ability to learn, learning style, etc. With that said, we can't really say how hard or easy your genetics course will be because we will be comparing it to our own.
That said, my genetics course was essentially another biology course, all about memorization and paying attention to detail. If you can memorize and spit back answers, I think you should be fine. I can't really see that much conceptualizing and abstract thinking and whatnot from genetics as you would say... organic chemistry?
Good luck!
That said, my genetics course was essentially another biology course, all about memorization and paying attention to detail. If you can memorize and spit back answers, I think you should be fine. I can't really see that much conceptualizing and abstract thinking and whatnot from genetics as you would say... organic chemistry?
Good luck!
I took genetics at Texas A&M.
Do you know who is teaching it?
You can pm me if you have any specific questions, I may have had the same prof.
It's pretty interesting, although some aspects can take a little more time to understand.
Do you know who is teaching it?
You can pm me if you have any specific questions, I may have had the same prof.
It's pretty interesting, although some aspects can take a little more time to understand.
It was the hardest class I've taken up to that point - at the time I was taking it, I already finished a year of biochem with lab, all chem classes except pchem and cell bio. It was sooooooo hard, the class was a night class, I would work in the lab all day from 9-6 and then take genetics from 6-9:30 pm.
I studied my *** of and pulled in 99 and 95's on both exams and 9-10s on all the assigments. I think I had a 2nd highest score in the class out of like 130 something people. I've never been soo proud of any A I've got.
My teacher was from UC Berkley so for those who like to think UC education is superior to CSU, this is just to let you know that the class wasn't a joke.
There was one test that I took that was like 20 pages long and I think I answered 3 of the questions and got 2 wrong...ended up with a D on that test (must have been some curve) but I got an A for my final grade. It was a hard class--I studied like mad to recover from that blunder. Lol...there were actually people crying during that test!
depends....
I loved genetics, it came very easy to me. Some people struggled with it. I studied a lot for the tests and got A's and a B so it did take a fair amount of effort. I struggled a lot in O Chem though. I'd say if Bio and statistics are your thing you'll do fine.
I loved genetics, it came very easy to me. Some people struggled with it. I studied a lot for the tests and got A's and a B so it did take a fair amount of effort. I struggled a lot in O Chem though. I'd say if Bio and statistics are your thing you'll do fine.
I also found genetics to be easy. I enjoyed it very much. I had a really good professor and I really liked her method of teaching. She made it interesting and didn't bore us with prepared powerpoint slides. I guess it really depends on which school and who the professor is.
good luck with the course!
good luck with the course!
To me, it is easier than Biochem.. Biochem has much more details..
But the instructors can make it harder or easier... go to rateprofessor.com before taking the class...
But the instructors can make it harder or easier... go to rateprofessor.com before taking the class...
I took undergraduate genetics at my current university (large school) as an elective while getting my masters in statistics about two years ago. I had not taken any biology since getting a 4 on the AP Exam back in 1997, so it was my first biology class in 8 years.
I think my professor was about average in terms of difficulty (not too hard but not too easy). We had four tests and a final. On the first three tests I hovered right around the 90 mark (and the professor made 92 an A, 90-91 A-). But on the fourth test, which was about microbiology and molecular genetics, I pulled a 92.5 while the average was 67. For the other tests, the other averages were somewhere in the 70s. Since 67 is a D instead of a C (and his goal was to make the average score a B- after average in homework points), he curved by 8 points. And that gave me a 100.5, boosting my grade all the way into the middle range of the A's by one test! And the final was just rehashing the other four tests, with a little bit of new material thrown in.
I pulled a solid A in the end, and did best on the microbiology part of the class without ever haven taken micro, while many of my classmates were biology majors and took that.
Moral of the story: depends upon professor and also you. I did not take any biology in 8 years (since AP Biology in high school in my sophomore year), and I considered this class medium difficulty. But I still pulled a solid A.
I am sure biochem / organic (which I have never taken) is much harder.
And I took the lecture part of Chem II six years ago during a six-week summer session at a community college that I was attending then. I barely pulled an A and studied VERY hard, while Chem I was a total breeze for me at that time. But that might be because it was 6 week session and a whole semesters worth of material. It looked like 20 people were in the class at the CC and only 3 pulled A's, but one guy was always scoring much higher than me! So that was always frustrating, because he just seemed to "get it" better. If I ever needed to study general chem again, I would have to review everything since I do not use it in my current PhD field of study.
Again, as shown in this example, CC is not always easy, although it also could be very easy!
I think my professor was about average in terms of difficulty (not too hard but not too easy). We had four tests and a final. On the first three tests I hovered right around the 90 mark (and the professor made 92 an A, 90-91 A-). But on the fourth test, which was about microbiology and molecular genetics, I pulled a 92.5 while the average was 67. For the other tests, the other averages were somewhere in the 70s. Since 67 is a D instead of a C (and his goal was to make the average score a B- after average in homework points), he curved by 8 points. And that gave me a 100.5, boosting my grade all the way into the middle range of the A's by one test! And the final was just rehashing the other four tests, with a little bit of new material thrown in.
I pulled a solid A in the end, and did best on the microbiology part of the class without ever haven taken micro, while many of my classmates were biology majors and took that.
Moral of the story: depends upon professor and also you. I did not take any biology in 8 years (since AP Biology in high school in my sophomore year), and I considered this class medium difficulty. But I still pulled a solid A.
I am sure biochem / organic (which I have never taken) is much harder.
And I took the lecture part of Chem II six years ago during a six-week summer session at a community college that I was attending then. I barely pulled an A and studied VERY hard, while Chem I was a total breeze for me at that time. But that might be because it was 6 week session and a whole semesters worth of material. It looked like 20 people were in the class at the CC and only 3 pulled A's, but one guy was always scoring much higher than me! So that was always frustrating, because he just seemed to "get it" better. If I ever needed to study general chem again, I would have to review everything since I do not use it in my current PhD field of study.
Again, as shown in this example, CC is not always easy, although it also could be very easy!
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Genetics was a class I got an A+ in but I felt I didn't really learn much. most stuff were repeated from other science courses. you should be fine if you've taken a lot of other upper division scinece courses. Plus my general bio teacher taught me well and I retained a lot from her which helped a lot.
