Hardest MCAT prereq course?

[WhiteCoatSyndrome]

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I was just wondering, out of the MCAT prereq courses, which in your opinion is the most difficult. I know a lot of people tend to find physics a difficult course, but is this the general consensus? Or do you find another course, such as O Chem to be more difficult?

 

[chrisoc13]

Physics was cake compared to O chem I think.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

There is no general consensus. For me chemistry was hard, however for people who are chem majors they probably find chemistry very easy and so on. It all depends on the person taking the course. That being said its also dependent on the school your taking it. I know at my school general chemistry is harder then organic for the majority of students taking it ( using myedu statistics 26% get A's in organic, 21% get A's in general.)

 

[knightman13]

After having gone through them, it completely depends on your thinking style. I did quite well in OChem, but it was definitely on of the most difficult classes i have taken. Ochem content was difficult per say, as the difficulty presented itself in changing the way you think and attack problems. You can know a concept as well as possible, but see a molecule that is slightly different and not know what to do. I think the breadth of ochem makes it the most difficult.

 

[Dannyw]

Haven't taken orgo yet, but usually only 2-3 people out of a couple hundred get A's at my school....

 

[235009]

I was just wondering, out of the MCAT prereq courses, which in your opinion is the most difficult. I know a lot of people tend to find physics a difficult course, but is this the general consensus? Or do you find another course, such as O Chem to be more difficult?

what's an MCAT prereq course?

there are no prerequisites to take the MCAT. u can take it without having taken a single science course in college.

 

[chrisoc13]

what's an MCAT prereq course?

there are no prerequisites to take the MCAT. u can take it without having taken a single science course in college.

Sure but we all know what the OP was getting at. The classes which teach the material you need to know in order to take the MCAT and perform well.

 

[glasshalfMD]

what's an MCAT prereq course?

there are no prerequisites to take the MCAT. u can take it without having taken a single science course in college.

Probably meant med school prereq, smarty pants.

Ochem 2 was the hardest for me. And the only C on my transcript (what a joke). Physics was easy.

 

[NickNaylor]

Ochem.

 

[eablackwell]

I agree with ochem. I was soooo pissed when I got a B in ochem1. Worked my butt off in ochem2 for my A. NMRs ftw! 🙂

 

[WhizoMD]

Gen chem 2 was the hardest for me, but now that I'm actually studying for the mcat Gen chem is my strongest subject behind bio 😕

 

[MacVA]

Physics II

 

[babydragon]

General Biology lab

 

[samuraiR]

everythnhg was pretty easy for me except physics 2 (E&M). Ochem,bio,chem etc were pretty straightforward

 

[ohgodidonteven]

Gen Biology 1+2 - Was easy, memorized material, think critically, but a lot of people underestimated it.
Gen Chem 1+2 - AP stuff, no sweat, for labs if you wrote a good report, you got good grade
Gen Bio Lab 1+2 - We took a lot of tests and they graded us pretty harshly but it was alright, nothing hard.
Physics 1 - Easymode, didn't even pay attention to class
Physics 2- Harder, but I also didn't pay attention in class (b/c of first semester)
Calc 1 - Easymode
Calc 2- Harder, but because my TA was not very clear and the book was not very good for self teaching.
Orgo 1 - Good, had a good professor which helped, but he hated pre-meds (which I made sure not to mention I was one)
Orgo 2 - Bad for me, but because I was a little stressed during the time. Also I found that cramming was a bad way to try and memorize a boatlod of mechanisms.
Quantitative Chemistry - All my hate. General cluster****, etc., no one knew what the **** was going on, grades were unpredictable.
Biochemistry - A lot like biology, lots of memorization with just needing to employ a little bit of critical thinking to get an A.

 

[WhiteCoatSyndrome]

Yeah i have taken gen chem/bio and i have physics and o chem next year. I am very biology oriented in my thinking and found bio to be ridiculously easy. I am hoping that the fact that I excel with this kind of material will help me with O Chem since it is purely conceptual and without math. I would probably say that before taking either classes O chem will probably come easier to me than Physics.

 

[Food]

Pre-med prereqs are a joke. it's a little disturbing how little you have to know/study to get into medical school. The only reason any of these classes are even considered "hard" is because colleges turn them into weed out classes. Frankly I find this just about the stupidest thing in our system of higher education. A reasonable criteria for what makes a class hard shouldn't be how competitive they are - it should be the actual content. I think we can all agree that none of the content in any of the pre-med courses is actually hard.

 

[PennFranklin]

Haven't taken orgo yet, but usually only 2-3 people out of a couple hundred get A's at my school....

Seriously!? What the hell kind of curve are they putting you on? Ya the exams are really difficult and the averages are normally in the 60's but I thought that was the whole reason for having a curve in a class.

 

[ohgodidonteven]

Seriously!? What the hell kind of curve are they putting you on? Ya the exams are really difficult and the averages are normally in the 60's but I thought that was the whole reason for having a curve in a class.

No curve. No make-ups. Only 60's. FINAL DESTINATION.

 

[WhiteCoatSyndrome]

Pre-med prereqs are a joke. it's a little disturbing how little you have to know/study to get into medical school. The only reason any of these classes are even considered "hard" is because colleges turn them into weed out classes. Frankly I find this just about the stupidest thing in our system of higher education. A reasonable criteria for what makes a class hard shouldn't be how competitive they are - it should be the actual content. I think we can all agree that none of the content in any of the pre-med courses is actually hard.

I would probably have to agree with you. I know this first hand because even at my school, albeit a small liberal arts institution, most pre-meds have very high gpas 3.7 and above, however what keeps our applicants out is MCAT scores. I think this is becoming more and more the case. If you are a pre-med, it usually isn't your gpa that keeps you out but your MCAT. Therefore, if you can practice/study how to think like the MCAT and prepare effectively then that is what is going to determine med school acceptance, along with ECs/research

 

[echolalia16]

Seriously!? What the hell kind of curve are they putting you on? Ya the exams are really difficult and the averages are normally in the 60's but I thought that was the whole reason for having a curve in a class.

There were only two A's in my Orgo class and the cut-off for the A was 85%. We only had around 60 kids in the class though.

 

[Don Draper]

ochem or physics. depending on prof.

 

[Don Draper]

I would probably have to agree with you. I know this first hand because even at my school, albeit a small liberal arts institution, most pre-meds have very high gpas 3.7 and above, however what keeps our applicants out is MCAT scores. I think this is becoming more and more the case. If you are a pre-med, it usually isn't your gpa that keeps you out but your MCAT. Therefore, if you can practice/study how to think like the MCAT and prepare effectively then that is what is going to determine med school acceptance, along with ECs/research

Think like the MCAT?

Not sure what that means.

Learn the concepts very well.

Do lots of practice passages/problems and lots of FLs.

After knowing the sciences, the MCAT is testing skills and timing.

 

[Zona Pellucida]

Entirely school/professor dependent. For me (and my school), Gen Chem.

 

[Isoprop]

Pre-med prereqs are a joke. it's a little disturbing how little you have to know/study to get into medical school. The only reason any of these classes are even considered "hard" is because colleges turn them into weed out classes. Frankly I find this just about the stupidest thing in our system of higher education. A reasonable criteria for what makes a class hard shouldn't be how competitive they are - it should be the actual content. I think we can all agree that none of the content in any of the pre-med courses is actually hard.

I guess I'm not as smart as you because I thought they were fairly challenging.

 

[Don Draper]

Pre-med prereqs are a joke. it's a little disturbing how little you have to know/study to get into medical school. The only reason any of these classes are even considered "hard" is because colleges turn them into weed out classes. Frankly I find this just about the stupidest thing in our system of higher education. A reasonable criteria for what makes a class hard shouldn't be how competitive they are - it should be the actual content. I think we can all agree that none of the content in any of the pre-med courses is actually hard.

This doesn't add much to the discussion.

Are MCAT questions hard? I'd argue MCAT questions are much easier than the questions in the "easy" courses you are referencing.

Yet, the MCAT is hard because it is incredibly competitive and you must limit errors in a short time period. So that makes the MCAT a very challenging test, or a hard one.

 

[chrisoc13]

I would probably have to agree with you. I know this first hand because even at my school, albeit a small liberal arts institution, most pre-meds have very high gpas 3.7 and above, however what keeps our applicants out is MCAT scores. I think this is becoming more and more the case. If you are a pre-med, it usually isn't your gpa that keeps you out but your MCAT. Therefore, if you can practice/study how to think like the MCAT and prepare effectively then that is what is going to determine med school acceptance, along with ECs/research

That doesn't sound like the classes all around are a joke, but more that at your school the concepts are not being taught clearly enough. If most premeds in your school have high gpas and low MCAT that equals grade inflation and means they are too easy.

 

[WhiteCoatSyndrome]

That doesn't sound like the classes all around are a joke, but more that at your school the concepts are not being taught clearly enough. If most premeds in your school have high gpas and low MCAT that equals grade inflation and means they are too easy.

Perhaps I wasn't being clear enough. I wasn't stating that the students did not get into med schools or that they had MCAT scores, some did, but not most. I was just saying that if something was going to keep them out it would be the MCAT score. In fact, since 1980 83% of med school applicants from my school matriculate.

 

[UtahNano]

Personally I thought O Chem was straightforward especially if you put the work in. For me, Physics for Scientists and Engineers was by far the hardest (Bioen. major). In our class of 250 kids the average score on the final was a 25%. Got As in both but Physics for Sci and Eng was very difficult.

 

[Dannyw]

Seriously!? What the hell kind of curve are they putting you on? Ya the exams are really difficult and the averages are normally in the 60's but I thought that was the whole reason for having a curve in a class.

There's just no scale. What you get is what you get.

 

[chrisoc13]

Perhaps I wasn't being clear enough. I wasn't stating that the students did not get into med schools or that they had MCAT scores, some did, but not most. I was just saying that if something was going to keep them out it would be the MCAT score. In fact, since 1980 83% of med school applicants from my school matriculate.

Gotcha. I read it wrong.

 

[mtbtx]

Depends on the prof and where you took the course(s)

 

[cfx]

Seems like ochem is notorious for being the hardest, but I didn't think it was bad. Really enjoyed it, actually. For me, physics was probably the most challenging.

However, elements of the class might've skewed my view. Exams were 10 questions, each quite complicated, with no partial credit awarded. Make one mistake and it was -10%, so it was pretty stressful. I agree with the above posters who noted that perception of difficulty has a lot to do with your teacher, class format, etc.