Hardest pre med req course?

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passionformed said:
What did you find as the hardest pre req for medical school? Or were they nothing compared to upper level bio/chem courses?
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i found bio 101 and 102 to be the hardest because its all memorization. orgo was fun/logical, chem/phys was analytical (though physics was a bit more challenging/abstract). biochem was also difficult, but logical (and VERY useful for the mcat)


intro bio is so gdamn useless...
 
I spent more time studying for Ochem than for almost any other class. The only class that I may have spent more time on was Anatomy (memorization), and I took biochem in a condensed 4 week summer session, so I would come home from 4 hours of class and spend another 4 hours studying. If it was a "normal" class, I probably would have spread the studying out a little more.

dsoz
 
Ugh, I had the toughest time with general chem. It was like pulling teeth getting that A. No trouble with Bio, org, or physics. The other would have to be calculus...hated it.
 
Orgo. Easily the hardest class for me in undergrad, and also the class responsible for the only two grades less than B I got in college (B- both semesters). Granted, however, that part of the difficulty for me came from the fact that I absolutely hated the subject matter and struggled to work up the motivation to study for it.

I found biochem a lot easier. It's much more intuitive, and a lot more interesting.
 
I feel like it depends on what your strengths are. I am not a very quantitative person, and as such, found physics and calculus to be more or less excruciating. But Bio, Orgo and (most of) Gen Chem weren't an issue for me.
 
Bio 2 lab for me, it was a lab/lecture called animal diversity.

Was basically zoology, just straight memorizing a bunch of phylums, noticing really minute details on slides/examples. Lab and Lecture final were cumulative, was a pain in the arse.

Not necessarily my worst class, as I really hated Physics and didn't put the work into it I should have. But probably the stupidest/hardest. Literally remember nothing from that class.
 
I think it's different at every school. Organic chem was the hardest for me but only because the class average was a D+/C-. Physics was more intellectually complicated but graded easier so that doesn't matter.

I think everyone will have a different answer.
 
Everything physics should be banned from this world. tru story.
 
To be honest, I am in physics and while it is tough, it is also the easiest to study for. I love problem solving, and E&M is just so awesome.
 
My worst class was general chemistry. Even now I just do not understand it. Orgo on the other hand, piece of cake and I enjoy it very much. Weird.
 
I think its different for every person. I'm not particularly strong at math related subjects so i found Gen Chem/Physics way more challenging than O-Chem/Bio classes (o-chem came to me pretty easily). I also have friends that aced Gen Chem and Physics but struggled heavily in O-Chem. Just try your best and don't get anything lower than a B- and you'll be fine.
 
None of the pre med requirements were very hard classes compared to upper level classes in my major, but if I had to pick a few:

1) Freshman level biology. It's not like a math class where you can learn the concepts and be ahead of the class. The material was new for everyone (unless you took a comprehensive bio class in high school, which I did not) and required plenty of memorization. Also, the exams were extremely ambiguous multiple choice questions, with one answer that was "correct, but not the most correct" according to our disinterested professor.

2) Orgo 1. Before you get the important concepts down (electrophilicity / nucleophilicity, resonance, electronegativity, sterics, etc.) mechanisms are literally impossible to figure out on your own. With the exception of a few reactions that have "heat" over the arrow, all organic chemistry reactions are just a downhill process seeking lower energy states. Until you understand what constitutes a lower energy state, orgo is tough. Also, throw in some spectroscopy and convoluted IUPAC naming problems, and orgo 1 can be really tough. By the second semester, you'll get the hang out of.

Again, neither of these are really difficult compared to some of my upper level classes. Think P-Chem I and II, Quantitative Analysis, Calc II and III, and Inorganic Chemistry.
 
Take note, every pre-req has been labeled at some point in this thread.
 
It really depends on the teacher. I have retaken a couple of courses and one was definitely harder than the other. I would say ochem can be the most difficult because if yuo don't stay on top of the material and have a strong foundation in the basic concepts, you will fall part.
 
The one that took the most time from me was ochem 2... however it was likely since the prof wasn't a great intro-level teacher, so a lot of self-teaching was required in addition to thousands of practice problems per exam.

I didn't find any of the pre-reqs "hard" (per se). Results were directly correlated with time spent on material. Not many "omg, what does this mean?" moments.
 
oddly enough, bio 1/2 were the most challenging. But not because of the material, rather the school I was at had the WORST bio exams and the bio labs were irrelevant and poorly structured and the TAs were inept. YMMV
 
Physics was the worst for me.... Everything else was pretty fun but physics was just too dry. I think that is what made it difficult for me.
 
I did the worst in Organic. I just had a hard teacher, though. I honestly felt that Physics was more challenging, but I did better in it because I had a more reasonable professor and I liked the information much more.

My subjective vote goes to Physics being the hardest.
 
I think o-chem and physics. Just because professors can test a concept in the most weird and unfamiliar way. This can be challenging especially if you get nervous during exams.
 
Intro biology for sure. I hated learning that stuff without the proper chemistry background. Felt like it was just useless memorization. Basically just crammed the weekend before the tests. Relearning it all in biochemistry was so much better.
 
English. Rather take upper div chem than a basic English class. They made me... read
 
MY Gen Chem class was a nightmare. There was 35 people in the class and only 8 passed with about a C or better. My professors test made the ACS look like baby tier chemistry...
 
OChem 2 for sure. I had a visiting lecturer that allowed a private "tutor" (who charged about $40 an hour per student) to answer questions DURING exams to students that he tutored. Also, this tutor's pre-exam "study material" was rumored to be VERY similar to the exams, and only his students got access to it.

Also the professor was legally blind, so about 20% of the students in the class just blatantly cheated on exams.

WORST CLASS EVER.

Not surprisingly, our class was eventually audited by the department chair and he was let go just before the end of the semester.
 
phunky said:
Intro biology for sure. I hated learning that stuff without the proper chemistry background. Felt like it was just useless memorization. Basically just crammed the weekend before the tests. Relearning it all in biochemistry was so much better.
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I didn't really "get" gen chem my first time around. I got a C in the first and a B in the second. I retook the first gen chem for a DO boost and found myself saying "OH!" at least once per week. I was a totally different student the second time around.
 
This thread is pointless, obviously everyone including myself will have a subjective opinion on whats "hardest" depending on what professor they had and what their innate strengths are.
 
walkthesun said:
OChem 2 for sure. I had a visiting lecturer that allowed a private "tutor" (who charged about $40 an hour per student) to answer questions DURING exams to students that he tutored. Also, this tutor's pre-exam "study material" was rumored to be VERY similar to the exams, and only his students got access to it.

Also the professor was legally blind, so about 20% of the students in the class just blatantly cheated on exams.

WORST CLASS EVER.

Not surprisingly, our class was eventually audited by the department chair and he was let go just before the end of the semester.
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Lol was this for real. It sounds horrible🙁
 
lobo12 said:
Lol was this for real. It sounds horrible🙁
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No joke. It was pretty mind blowing. Ended up with a C in that class after getting an A in organic 1.

Luckily, that has been my only experience anywhere close to that bad. For the most part, the rest of my classes/professors have been great.
 
Hemorrage said:
This thread is pointless, obviously everyone including myself will have a subjective opinion on whats "hardest" depending on what professor they had and what their innate strengths are.
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Agreed. For example, many people thought physics at my school was really hard, but I thought it was fairly easy. Conversely, I thought ochem was a b**** (and not solely because of my terrible orgo 2 lecturer).
 
Blais said:
The one that took the most time from me was ochem 2... however it was likely since the prof wasn't a great intro-level teacher, so a lot of self-teaching was required in addition to thousands of practice problems per exam.

I didn't find any of the pre-reqs "hard" (per se). Results were directly correlated with time spent on material. Not many "omg, what does this mean?" moments.
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I have to agree with all of this. Orgo 2 took the most time, but I probably could have done better in some others (orgo 1, for example) had I given it more time. For the most part, intro classes aren't that difficult and will yield to practice practice practice.

Hemorrage said:
This thread is pointless, obviously everyone including myself will have a subjective opinion on whats "hardest" depending on what professor they had and what their innate strengths are.
Click to expand...

Yet this question has probably been asked over a dozen times in the past year, and will probably be asked again soon.
 
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