How important is Orgo Knowledge for med school

[EL CAPeeeTAN]

For all of you already in med school, How important is your knowledge that you can recall from your organic chemistry undergrad courses. I have heard that most med students do not remember much of the organic stuff anyways. I know it is important to do well in the class to do well on MCAT and get into med school. Is the info learned all that realitive once in medical school. I know that you take biochem in medical school and there is overlap but I would imagine the biochem class in med school is on a whole different level. I am in organic chemistry now and doing well but I was just curious. Any thoughts?

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[Janders]

Orgo is useless in med school.

I was laughing today, while studying for my last test of second year, that it is the first time I've used orgo while studying. This was in learning about drug metabolism in the liver using the p450 system. Granted I didn't actually USE any orgo knowledge, but knowing what the words oxidation and conjugation meant was nice, I guess.

You'll never use mechanisms, synthesis, etc again. You might occasionally like knowing how to name a structure, some very basic acid-base stuff (for urinary excretion of weak acids in basic urine, etc). Not much else.

Honestly, you could finish the MCAT, and totally forget ALL orgo and be at NO disadvantage walking into Med School.

 

[fourthyearmed]

You don't need it at all. It's an evil joke on pre-meds!
Dr. fourthyearmed

 

[Idiopathic]

Physics is more useful.

Hell, sociology is WAY more useful.

 

[Arsenic]

You don't need it at all. It's an evil joke on pre-meds!
Dr. fourthyearmed

Seriously people, you dont need it. This coming from a chemistry major.

 

[Happy613]

You don't need it at all. It's an evil joke on pre-meds!
Dr. fourthyearmed

This is so true...... they made me feel like learning orgo was the only way I would ever be able to survive in med school.... I personally think the whole course was a giant scam to sell textbooks and model kits.

 

[kryptokal]

Just like the actual first two years of med school, it's not what you're learning that is important, but rather that you can learn it and learn it well. You're right, having to know about steric hinderance, double-bonds, and valences isn't vital to becoming a physician, but be being able to process that much scientific information in that kind of detail most assuredly is.

 

[velo]

For all of you already in med school, How important is your knowledge that you can recall from your organic chemistry undergrad courses. I have heard that most med students do not remember much of the organic stuff anyways. I know it is important to do well in the class to do well on MCAT and get into med school. Is the info learned all that realitive once in medical school. I know that you take biochem in medical school and there is overlap but I would imagine the biochem class in med school is on a whole different level. I am in organic chemistry now and doing well but I was just curious. Any thoughts?

Yeah I pray its one of those things that does help me in a way I don't have the perspective to appreciate (knowledge of orgo made other concepts easier to grasp). But as far as using actual o-chem knowledge directly? I'd say...zero times in 1 year thus far...

 

[chameleonknight]

I'd like to point back to physics. Man, I feel like so many concepts in physiology relate back to general chemistry and physics. And I would DEFINITELY say that gen chem is more important than orgo.

And learn your molecular biology because that will help you in many classes (histo, biochem, phys, etc)

 

[gary5]

You'll never need orgo again after MCATs. The basic concepts are helpful, however. e.g. polarity, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, etc.

 

[siempre595]

about the only thing orgo is good for, as far as med school goes, is learning how to study intensely and focused. other than, i really don't think it should be a pre med requirement personally.

 

[thackl]

Showed up a few times (very specifically IRT neonatal jaundice).... certianly didn't need it to answer any test Q's. Orgo is just one more hoop to jump thru to get in.

 

[gschl1234]

Hell, sociology is WAY more useful.

Here here. I now regret not having taken any sociology, anthropology or religious studies. I'll probably regret not knowing Spanish in a few years. By the way, anyone know of a good book to pick up a bit of medical Spanish?

 

[Lebesgue]

All of these people speak the truth...

 

[tygrwds]

Yeah, you'll probably have more use for gen chem than for orgo (not that much more). And the verbal section...well, I guess it helps to read well. This coming from another chem major.

 

[DebDynamite]

about the only thing orgo is good for, as far as med school goes, is learning how to study intensely and focused. other than, i really don't think it should be a pre med requirement personally.

I agree with this.

In anatomy, when you work with cross sections, CT's etc, you must be able you visually flip images around in your head. This gets you oriented regarding what you are actually looking at (forearm cross section looking from above, CT as viewed from the feet, etc...). I guess you do something similar in the big O when "imagining" molecules (is it a chair? is it a boat? is it an enantiomer? blah blah).

And in biochem, you spend the majority of your time examining enzymes that were just briefly implicated in all those darn recations you drew in O chem. We also had to draw the structure of aspartate on one of our first biochem tests, and I will admit that with another biochem test we had to know way too much about the pkA's of all the amino acids. So, perhaps some underlying knowledge of O chem helped, but really very little. Molecular bio, general chem, physics - all much more relevant.

Physics rocks.

 

[Sweet Tea]

You really don't need orgo in med school.

 

[hizarlow]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.