How many people get A's in Organic Chemistry?

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TheBiologist

TheBiologist

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Haven't taken it yet but I heard that it's easier than Gen Chem (from my classmates). Based on your experience, did you find this true?
 
Plenty of people get A's in orgo. Of course your stats will be important (and you won't know where you stand there until you take your MCAT) but your EC's are going to be very important if you want to aim for those kinds of schools. Keep up the good work on your grades, but don't neglect the rest of your app.
 
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scouting out the "competition", gunners gonna gun...

No one cares about A in a single class. Your current GPA is fine, keep up the good work. Keep in mind it's only one (of many) aspect of your application.
For reference: Harvard/Stanford/Columbia median cGPA/sGPA is 3.9/3.9
 
I'm sure lots of people get As in Orgo. I would imagine at least 20% of a class would get an A, probably much higher at top institutions. Most of my friends and I got As in Orgo, although lots failed and got poor grades. An A in Orgo will not stand out, unfortunately. Your Science GPA will matter though!
 
The difficulty of a class really depends on the professor more so than on the class itself. You can take a gen chem class with a hardass professor and struggle and then take something like biochem with a nice one and easily get an A. So yeah, there are countless people getting an A in every class.
 
GPA is pretty much irrelevant without an MCAT score to back it up.
 
MarioKart said:
Haven't taken it yet but I heard that it's easier than Gen Chem (from my classmates). Based on your experience, did you find this true?
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I think whether or not you find it easier than gen chem depends on your own personal strengths. In my experience, gen chem is a lot of memorization and math, while orgo is more about pattern recognition and understanding larger principles.
 
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1) depends a lot on the school
2) generally it's impressive to fellow premeds to hit back to back A grades in Orgo but you should focus more on cGPA/sGPA overall if you're gunning to impress adcoms. Getting a 3.9+ at a top university is quite a feat but doesn't make you enough of a special snowflake that you can expect top 10 MD accepts
 
The much bigger obstacle to people's chances at top med schools or even med school at all is the MCAT, not specific pre-reqs.

Only 35% of people with 3.8+cGPA's hit 33 on the MCAT. 37% of them apply with sub 30 showings on the MCAT

Even amongst people with rather competitive 3.6-3.8 GPAs, about half apply with sub 30 showings on the MCAT. 23% of these people don't even hit a 27 on the MCAT which is basically a non starter for MD schools.

So bottom line
a) focus on overall GPA not pre-req GPA or specific pre-req grades like ochem. Many schools allow people to sub in biochem instead of ochem 2 which should tell you about how they dont view ochem as some end all be all at alll. Hell, now days there are at least 15 US MD schools like Keck and Tulane that dont require ANY pre-reqs. Anybody with a BS and MCAT score is eligible to apply.

b) You can't get any gague of where you stand for top schools without an MCAT score, period. Good job, getting a 3.8+cGPA. Guess what? There is a much much bigger obstacle to being competitive for top schools you still havent cleared yet; getting the right MCAT score. Only 1/7 people with 3.8+GPA's hit the magic 36 mark on the MCAT. That's the level of obstacle we are talking about you still have to clear(note the 36 is a rough guide I'm using as 36-37 is often the median score for these top schools)
 
A in orgo is easy, and all of my friends--from the geniuses to the slightly less intelligent than average--all got As in Orgo 1 and 2. The people who don't gets As are typically very, very dim. This is from a wide range of colleges/universities all over the US, from Ivy to low-ranked public.
 
Styrene said:
A in orgo is easy, and all of my friends--from the geniuses to the slightly less intelligent than average--all got As in Orgo 1 and 2. The people who don't gets As are typically very, very dim. This is from a wide range of colleges/universities all over the US, from Ivy to low-ranked public.
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Where the hell did you go to school? At mine typically only 20% of kids get A's... I wouldn't call the average person not getting an A as being "typically very, very dim", especially in a class like orgo.
 
Styrene said:
A in orgo is easy, and all of my friends--from the geniuses to the slightly less intelligent than average--all got As in Orgo 1 and 2. The people who don't gets As are typically very, very dim. This is from a wide range of colleges/universities all over the US, from Ivy to low-ranked public.
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Lol 6/10
 
hailbate said:
Where the hell did you go to school? At mine typically only 20% of kids get A's... I wouldn't call the average person not getting an A as being "typically very, very dim", especially in a class like orgo.
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The distribution at my school is usually pretty skewed to the right with a good amount failing and maybe 10% getting A's
 
I managed to, but that was with a 35% curve for our final. This professor has a reputation for completely screwing his entire class of like 200 kids over on the final exam every year and being forced to curve an insane amount. I don't think I've ever written a harder test. Ironically enough, later organic chem courses I took (intermediate/advanced organic, spectroscopy) seemed a LOT easier than orgo I...
 
davisfenos said:
I managed to, but that was with a 35% curve for our final. This professor has a reputation for completely screwing his entire class of like 200 kids over on the final exam every year and being forced to curve an insane amount. I don't think I've ever written a harder test. Ironically enough, later organic chem courses I took (intermediate/advanced organic, spectroscopy) seemed a LOT easier than orgo I...
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In my experience, advanced courses (e.g., advanced organic) are generally easier in that there is far less memorization; however, the significantly fewer concepts/topics are considerably more difficult to understand. I got an A in advanced organic, but I remember staring at crazy 2D NMR's for a week at a time.
 
I did. The question is: Did you get the 90+, or get the curve? I thought it was kind of a joke that my class was curved so that a 78% was an A!
 
Styrene said:
A in orgo is easy, and all of my friends--from the geniuses to the slightly less intelligent than average--all got As in Orgo 1 and 2. The people who don't gets As are typically very, very dim. This is from a wide range of colleges/universities all over the US, from Ivy to low-ranked public.
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Thanks pal
 
rocklobstr said:
In my experience, advanced courses (e.g., advanced organic) are generally easier in that there is far less memorization; however, the significantly fewer concepts/topics are considerably more difficult to understand. I got an A in advanced organic, but I remember staring at crazy 2D NMR's for a week at a time.
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Yeah, I think that makes sense. Class sizes for those types of courses tend to be smaller too, so there's more one on one time with the instructor.
 
davisfenos said:
Yeah, I think that makes sense. Class sizes for those types of courses tend to be smaller too, so there's more one on one time with the instructor.
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Hahah, mine started out with 2 other people in the course and ended with just me. "Class" was a more like me asking a few questions from the reading/problems and then an hour long social meeting.
 
rocklobstr said:
Hahah, mine started out with 2 other people in the course and ended with just me. "Class" was a more like me asking a few questions from the reading/problems and then an hour long social meeting.
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Haha that sounds pretty sweet! Mine was actually taught by my then-PI, and we had 7 kids. Happy to say all of us made it to the end of the course 🙂
 
At my school, only roughly 20% of students get A's in orgo. However, most people who make it to applying to med school got A's in orgo, so that doesn't really make you stand out.
 
MD2025 said:
I'm sure lots of people get As in Orgo. I would imagine at least 20% of a class would get an A, probably much higher at top institutions. Most of my friends and I got As in Orgo, although lots failed and got poor grades. An A in Orgo will not stand out, unfortunately. Your Science GPA will matter though!
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lol, at my school it was typically 10% for the prereq classes. Point is, it will vary by institution and even professor. Also I found it easier than gen chem, but that is probably because gen chem was the first true university science class I took.
 
Quit caring what other people get, and just do your best in the classes you take. Having an A in orgo is not going to get you into medical school. Constantly comparing yourself to everyone around you constantly will be exhausting.
 
I heard that Chuck Norris got an A+ in both classes. He got into every medical school he applied to, and he wasn't even pre-med. Just meditate on that for a while.

Outside of the portion of the student body that either would never take Orgo (or O-Chem, if you prefer), or took it and found it difficult, A's in Orgo don't particularly impress anyone. My friends hyped up the difficulty of the class so much that I was actually really surprised when I got an A. Let's hope it's the same for Orgo II.

But, I mean, you should still be proud of yourself. A's are competitive grades; in fact, the more you get, the better your chances.
 
If you have to use an anonymous forum to brag about your grades and seek validation ...
 
We use a quarter system out our school. I took 3 quarters of Honors O-chem, and got A's in all of them. I also took 2 quarters of Honors O-chem lab, and got A's in both. So I'm not really sure who your competitors are in your lowly regular O-chem classes.
 
I think he was completing/adding on to your previous statement since you ended it with "..." Lolz
 
Oh yeah? Well at my school only one student in each class can get an A and the grade is determined by mortal combat in the Thunderdome. Killing all of my friends was easier the second time around in Orgo 2, but it was all worth it as I knew that getting an A in both courses was my ticket to TopMedSchool(TM). You see my profile picture? I had that painting commissioned IRL.
 
I think orgo is just one of those classes that weeds out the one's who don't give an 'F and don't even try. It's one of those courses that as long as you dedicate time, you should get an A.
 
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