I HATE biology - am I cut out for medical school?

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So far, I have taken general bio I and I'm taking biochemistry right now (I'm a chem major). I was looking forward to taking these classes, but I absolutely hate both of them.
People say that not everyone enjoys general bio because it is so broad, which I thoroughly agree with. But even biochemistry, despite it being a more specific course, is still a pain. While I normally enjoy reading research papers about chemistry, the scientific papers that we have to read about hemoglobin, DNA, and proteins just put me to sleep. Especially anything to do with Central Dogma, ugh.
While I always wanted to go to medical school and be actively involved in healing others, I don't know if this is a warning sign. (Grades are not an issue).
Any input?

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All of med school involves learning biology. That being said, I disliked my first bio class because it was all taxonomy, so depending on the content of your gen bio class, it may or may not be representative. I'd suggest taking a physiology course, since that's probably the most indicative of what you'll be studying in med school. That might give you more of an idea if you'd actually be interested in medicine.
 
Your first 1-2 semesters of med school would include a number of the topics you're talking about (in greater depth), but they are not terribly relevant to most of med school and life as a physician. You will need to know all of it for Step 1, which is usually taken somewhere around halfway through med school.

But this sort of stuff is not really what clinical medicine is about.
 
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General Bio I and II are the easier prereqs and med school actually builds on these courses and not so much the others save for biochem.

If you don't like gen bio, you won't like micro which means you won't like path, physio, or pharm which means you will fail STEP1.

Learn to like it or else you won't be very happy moving forward.
 
I generally tell people who aren't extremely enthusiastic about science, math, higher learning, lifelong learning, to find other ways to help and heal people. Physicians are applied scientists, and we basically specialize in human biology.

I disagree as well in that I find some degree of being facile in biochemistry serves one going forward in appraising the literature and new treatments and studies that are always coming out.

I agree with the above poster the most.
 
Gen bio is pretty broad. You will find something that you dont like in it ( I hated plants). I don't know if you need to love biology. I mean why were you interested in medicine?
 
About a decade ago I told my high school AP biology teacher “This stuff is stupid, why would anyone ever use this?” 4 years later I had medical school aspirations and another 2 years later Cell bio, Biochem and micro have been my favorite subjects! If you need to give it time go ahead, just be comfortable knowing yourself.
 
General Bio I and II are the easier prereqs and med school actually builds on these courses and not so much the others save for biochem.

If you don't like gen bio, you won't like micro which means you won't like path, physio, or pharm which means you will fail STEP1.

Learn to like it or else you won't be very happy moving forward.


Not sure I agree with this. I hated gen bio, but I loved micro, physio, pharm, and biochem (i hated gen chem and o chem 1 also) loved immunology, parasitology, and clinical chemistry.
 
Try an upper division cellular bio class to see if you like it or not. Gen bio was a drag for me. Too much time spent on plants and taxonomy/phylogenies relationships which is the only biology subtopic that has bored me out of my mind so far.
 
I generally tell people who aren't extremely enthusiastic about science, math, higher learning, lifelong learning, to find other ways to help and heal people. Physicians are applied scientists, and we basically specialize in human biology.

I disagree as well in that I find some degree of being facile in biochemistry serves one going forward in appraising the literature and new treatments and studies that are always coming out.

I agree with the above poster the most.

I’m going to disagree with this a bit. 80% of being a good physician is good communication skills. The history, interacting with staff, and other doctors. The rest is data recognition of which most comes from a a computer screen.

A strong basis in the sciences are extremely important, but not in the day to day work.
 
Not sure I agree with this. I hated gen bio, but I loved micro, physio, pharm, and biochem (i hated gen chem and o chem 1 also) loved immunology, parasitology, and clinical chemistry.

When I said "won't like" I was referring to the sequential nature of the coursework. If you do not like general biology, microbiology will be that much more harder and as a result, you probably won't like it.
 
I’m going to disagree with this a bit. 80% of being a good physician is good communication skills. The history, interacting with staff, and other doctors. The rest is data recognition of which most comes from a a computer screen.

A strong basis in the sciences are extremely important, but not in the day to day work.

Some patients don't care about bedside manner when they want the correct diagnosis.
 
Disliking biology is not a major indicator of disliking medical school.

If you hate A&P then I would have serious reservations.
 
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I don’t think there is any easy way to answer this. Given the sheer volume of material you will have to learn that is centered around biology, if you don’t like college biology you will get absolutely slaughtered in medical school. I can’t tell you if you’d enjoy being a physician though. It’s true I don’t use a whole lot of textbook biology on a day to day basis but in actuality I probably do because biology serves as the basis of everything I know and work with in medicine even when I don’t even know I’m doing it.

In summary: maybe?
 
This thread gets me thinking - What specialties can you go in to where you genuinely use textbook biology/biochemistry on a regular basis? Nuero? Endocrinology? immuno? Path...?
 
I wasn't a fan of intro bio either. Try taking an upper division genetics, molecular biology or a cancer biology class. Those classes get you to really think and understand the fundamentals rather than just memorizing the content for an exam.
 
explain that one

Far more of medical school is based around the concepts of what you would find in a typical A&P course: surface-level biology in relation to an organ system and an emphasis on spatial and physiologic relations.

Introductory biology just determines how much you’re going to hate your biology/biochemistry block. If you hate A&P, clinical microbiology, or anything of that nature...you should probably reconsider.
 
So far, I have taken general bio I and I'm taking biochemistry right now (I'm a chem major). I was looking forward to taking these classes, but I absolutely hate both of them.
People say that not everyone enjoys general bio because it is so broad, which I thoroughly agree with. But even biochemistry, despite it being a more specific course, is still a pain. While I normally enjoy reading research papers about chemistry, the scientific papers that we have to read about hemoglobin, DNA, and proteins just put me to sleep. Especially anything to do with Central Dogma, ugh.
While I always wanted to go to medical school and be actively involved in healing others, I don't know if this is a warning sign. (Grades are not an issue).
Any input?
Not a warning sign. Relax. Just because you hate general bio and biochem doesn't mean you're not cut out for med school. Will hating biochem make preclinical years a little more difficult? Sure, but after Step 1 you don't have to know it very indepth unless you plan on doing research or going into something like medical genetics (I'm not quite sure what they do, but I know it's a thing). So much of medicine encompasses mostly clinical years of med school and residency. A lot of what is taught in preclinical years is foundational and not necessarily information you have to spout off in great detail once it's over and done with. You don't have to love everything about med school and medicine to become a physician.
 
I hated bio and biochem. Loved med school, love medicine. So did many of my colleagues. Anyone who says you must like bio to be a good doctor is full of BS. It’s a basic field, and if you don’t have any clinical relevance to connect it to medicine, it is not interesting.

As someone else said, try taking physiology and see if you find it palatable.
 
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's more important that you enjoy your clinical experiences, the clinical setting, service, and interacting w/ pts.

I agree. I know tons of physicians that love their job, but hated anatomy and biology. They enjoyed other classes in med school and love interacting with patients, treating them, etc.
 
I hated bio and biochem. Loved med school, love medicine. So did many of my colleagues. Anyone who says you must like bio to be a good doctor is full of BS. It’s a basic field, and if you don’t have any clinical relevance to connect it to medicine, it is not interesting.

As someone else said, try taking physiology and see if you find it palatable.

Lol I love Biochem. Struggled in 1 but am doing REALLY well in 2 (got a 99 on the midterm). Yeah I agree you don’t need to like Biology. In fact look at the people whose major was not science related and still got into med school! They didn’t necessarily have to “enjoy” every last Bio class. They took it, but enjoy the Medicine aspect of it
 
General Bio I and II are the easier prereqs and med school actually builds on these courses and not so much the others save for biochem.

If you don't like gen bio, you won't like micro which means you won't like path, physio, or pharm which means you will fail STEP1.

Learn to like it or else you won't be very happy moving forward.

I can’t help but notice that you keep making very black and white arguments... “either this or that” etc.

Dude people don’t have to LOVE Biology to get through medicine.
 
Try an upper division cellular bio class to see if you like it or not. Gen bio was a drag for me. Too much time spent on plants and taxonomy/phylogenies relationships which is the only biology subtopic that has bored me out of my mind so far.

Oh God. Plants and taxonomy... that was HORRIBLE *shudders*
 
Oh God. Plants and taxonomy... that was HORRIBLE *shudders*
My intro bio series was taught by a botanist who had an utter disdain for the fact that 2/3s of the intro bio class was Pre-Health professions. So, instead of teaching what most of her audience would want to know, we spent 4 weeks on chloroplasts and 1 week on mitochondria, 5 weeks on how plants went from protists to flowering and only 2 weeks on animal development (mostly fish). We didn’t even cover the endocrine system, nervous system, digestive system or the Kidney........As other have echoed, wait for higher level and more narrowed stuff to get to the interesting/medically applicable information
 
But a great many do. Ask any practicing doc their opinion of Press-Ganey and get ready for an earful.

Yes, bedside manner is important and some are better at it than others which is unfortunate. I was implying that you cannot run a practice on bedside manner alone for too long. There is only so much a smiling doctor can do for a misdiagnosed patient.

Being a good clinician really wins in the end and that is something a Press Ganey is not always able to reflect. Patient says: "I don't recommend Dr. So and So because they were mean and they only spent five minutes with me and didn't answer all of my questions. Dr. So and So has no personality and was so condescending to me that I cannot recommend them."

The reality is Dr. So and So just diagnosed this patient with hemochromatosis and probably just saved their life while patient has been going to too many Dr. Smiley's and being told to exercise more and take their blood sugar pills.

Good doctors talk about other good doctors and smart patients get in on that conversation as well.
 
My intro bio series was taught by a botanist who had an utter disdain for the fact that 2/3s of the intro bio class was Pre-Health professions. So, instead of teaching what most of her audience would want to know, we spent 4 weeks on chloroplasts and 1 week on mitochondria, 5 weeks on how plants went from protists to flowering and only 2 weeks on animal development (mostly fish). We didn’t even cover the endocrine system, nervous system, digestive system or the Kidney........As other have echoed, wait for higher level and more narrowed stuff to get to the interesting/medically applicable information

I hated plant Bio so much. Loving the upper division bios that I’m taking right now. Plants is so boring. I memorized the whole phylogenetic tree it was horrible
 
I don't think this "doctor" read or even understood the very first post.
The OP was concerned that they would not like MEDICAL SCHOOL because they currently did not like their gen bio prereqs. I mean they even put "Medical School" in the title for you. This was not a discussion about gen bio and how it pertains to the practice of medicine which this "doctor" seemed to somehow deduce from that first post. If someone is saying "I am not interested in learning about the Central Dogma..." then I would be very hesitant telling this person to keep studying coursework that assumes a mastery of general biology concepts.

If you do not like like gen bio I or the first parts of gen bio II, you will see that same stuff again in cell and molecular biology, micro, medical biochem, immuno, path, physio, pharm, and even anatomy & histology at MUCH HIGHER LEVELS. How anybody could give someone advice that you shouldn't worry about not liking gen bio lest you be fine moving forward on the path to becoming a doctor is downright reckless.

AFTER medical school, yeah, I guess you won't be explaining glycolysis to your patients but that's after two years of the hardest classroom work you will probably do in your lifetime and then taking the most important test of your life...which interestingly doesn't test you on how good of a doctor you are.


That's not even my personal opinion, that's just common sense.

Perhaps most of these pre-med's have no idea what a medical school curriculum entails to which I would say, that's their biggest problem right now.

Are you ok?
 
I don't think this "doctor" read or even understood the very first post.
The OP was concerned that they would not like MEDICAL SCHOOL because they currently did not like their gen bio prereqs. I mean they even put "Medical School" in the title for you. This was not a discussion about gen bio and how it pertains to the practice of medicine which this "doctor" seemed to somehow deduce from that first post. If someone is saying "I am not interested in learning about the Central Dogma..." then I would be very hesitant telling this person to keep studying coursework that assumes a mastery of general biology concepts.

If you do not like like gen bio I or the first parts of gen bio II, you will see that same stuff again in cell and molecular biology, micro, medical biochem, immuno, path, physio, pharm, and even anatomy & histology at MUCH HIGHER LEVELS. How anybody could give someone advice that you shouldn't worry about not liking gen bio lest you be fine moving forward on the path to becoming a doctor is downright reckless.

AFTER medical school, yeah, I guess you won't be explaining glycolysis to your patients but that's after two years of the hardest classroom work you will probably do in your lifetime and then taking the most important test of your life...which interestingly doesn't test you on how good of a doctor you are.


That's not even my personal opinion, that's just common sense.

Perhaps most of these pre-med's have no idea what a medical school curriculum entails to which I would say, that's their biggest problem right now.
Wow, questioning the credibility of @OrthoTraumaMD, a highly valued and well respected SDN member, as even being a doctor? Right on.

To tie this back to OPs initial post, what @Mike Bagwell is alluding to here is that, yes, if you don't like gen bio or biochem then you probably will not enjoy the pre-clinical coursework. However, what @OrthoTraumaMD is alluding to is that, as a doctor, you really don't need much of that stuff. Whether you like it or not, if you want to be a doctor (the part that really matters and has virtually no connection to the pre-clinical information by the time you are out of residency) then you can still be successful in the coursework.

Fake-it-till-you-make-it. I absolutely hate psychology and sociology, but my lowest test grade has been a 107% (stupid high curve lol). Just because I don't like the material doesn't mean I don't learn it. I have to learn it for the MCAT. Same with medical school, you have to learn it to get through to your clinical years. You don't even have to do that well, 80% gets you that P and will probably get you up to a >220 Step1 for matching. If you absolutely love medicine, you don't need to love the information overload of the biological sciences. Once you get through the first two years, the back half of medical school followed by residency is MUCH more patient oriented and the science almost doesn't matter *as much
 
Wow, questioning the credibility of @OrthoTraumaMD, a highly valued and well respected SDN member, as even being a doctor? Right on.

To tie this back to OPs initial post, what @Mike Bagwell is alluding to here is that, yes, if you don't like gen bio or biochem then you probably will not enjoy the pre-clinical coursework. However, what @OrthoTraumaMD is alluding to is that, as a doctor, you really don't need much of that stuff. Whether you like it or not, if you want to be a doctor (the part that really matters and has virtually no connection to the pre-clinical information by the time you are out of residency) then you can still be successful in the coursework.

Fake-it-till-you-make-it. I absolutely hate psychology and sociology, but my lowest test grade has been a 107% (stupid high curve lol). Just because I don't like the material doesn't mean I don't learn it. I have to learn it for the MCAT. Same with medical school, you have to learn it to get through to your clinical years. You don't even have to do that well, 80% gets you that P and will probably get you up to a >220 Step1 for matching. If you absolutely love medicine, you don't need to love the information overload of the biological sciences. Once you get through the first two years, the back half of medical school followed by residency is MUCH more patient oriented and the science almost doesn't matter *as much

There is no "fake it till you make it" in medical school my friend. Unfortunately, based on the trajectory of a lot of your recent posting, I don't think you will even get around to experiencing that for yourself.

You worry about pre-med stats and the like, you let us worry about what medical school is or isn't.
 
Yes, bedside manner is important and some are better at it than others which is unfortunate. I was implying that you cannot run a practice on bedside manner alone for too long. There is only so much a smiling doctor can do for a misdiagnosed patient.

Being a good clinician really wins in the end and that is something a Press Ganey is not always able to reflect. Patient says: "I don't recommend Dr. So and So because they were mean and they only spent five minutes with me and didn't answer all of my questions. Dr. So and So has no personality and was so condescending to me that I cannot recommend them."

The reality is Dr. So and So just diagnosed this patient with hemochromatosis and probably just saved their life while patient has been going to too many Dr. Smiley's and being told to exercise more and take their blood sugar pills.

Good doctors talk about other good doctors and smart patients get in on that conversation as well.

And you know what? Patients can have a craptastic outcome and they'll still be happy if the provider treated them with kindness, compassion and respect. It drives some people nuts that patients will defend midwives despite really bad outcomes because the midwife treated them well and did their best. If patient satisfaction is the new coin of the realm -- and it can keep you from being sued -- then you had better get on board and not expect that your superior diagnositic acumen will make up for a poor bedside manner.
 
There is no "fake it till you make it" in medical school my friend. Unfortunately, based on the trajectory of a lot of your recent posting, I don't think you will even get around to experiencing that for yourself.

You worry about pre-med stats and the like, you let us worry about what medical school is or isn't.
I am sorry that you don't think a 3.66cGPA/3.98sGPA, MCAT Pending (FL1 510, FL2 519, FL3 516) former military, extensive clinical experience, extensive research experience, holds-himself-confidently, phenomenal interviewer, applicant has a chance at getting in to medical school. I am extraordinarily disappointed that I do not meet the criteria set forth by a random cocky, pedantic MS1 merely by the sheer fact that I believe in the power of holistic admissions and the passion of students. Woe is me, however shall I recover?

I do not know enough about what medical school is or isn't to speak on it's curriculum (as I have learned recently through my own ignorance) however, I believe that since I am directly echoing the opinions of many ADCOMs and physicians (See above) that my advice *as a premed so should be taken with a grain of salt* seems pretty reasonable and sound *Again, taken with a grain of salt, but reflective of the majority of opinions above*.

Tone down the insult, pedantry, and unprofessionalism.
 
And you know what? Patients can have a craptastic outcome and they'll still be happy if the provider treated them with kindness, compassion and respect. It drives some people nuts that patients will defend midwives despite really bad outcomes because the midwife treated them well and did their best. If patient satisfaction is the new coin of the realm -- and it can keep you from being sued -- then you had better get on board and not expect that your superior diagnositic acumen will make up for a poor bedside manner.

I don't disagree with that. Nobody wants to be sued but not all doctors are created equal.

A lot of our impressionable pre-meds still seem to think that becoming a doctor equates to "god-like" abilities but the truth is there are still doctors that can't diagnose broken bones accurately.

I think what you are describing has more to to with the politics of medicine which even I, as a medical student, admittedly still don't quite understand just yet. The pre-meds have a long way to go before they can start to understand the regulatory hurdles present in this profession and how that aspect really makes being a doctor much harder than it really should theoretically be.

If some student is saying "I don't like bio" then I would either tell them learn to like it or go do something else because practicing medicine today is not as straightforward.
 
Thanks everyone for the input and the entertaining discussion!
@Mike Bagwell I get what you are saying about coursework being sequential and how I may struggle in Medical School if I hate the foundational stuff. Mildly gross profile GIF, btw
Also, I understand what others are saying about the actual information that we learn in gen bio/biochem is not directly related to practicing medicine, and that I will just need to stuck it up for a few years.
I guess my situation has just been made more complex because the further I'm getting into my chemistry program, the more I absolutely adore it.
But for right now, plan of action is to do some more shadowing, as well as take upper level bio and A&P to get a better sense if this is what I want to dedicate my life to.
 
Thanks everyone for the input and the entertaining discussion!
@Mike Bagwell I get what you are saying about coursework being sequential and how I may struggle in Medical School if I hate the foundational stuff. Mildly gross profile GIF, btw
Also, I understand what others are saying about the actual information that we learn in gen bio/biochem is not directly related to practicing medicine, and that I will just need to stuck it up for a few years.
I guess my situation has just been made more complex because
the further I'm getting into my chemistry program, the more I absolutely adore it.
But for right now, plan of action is to do some more shadowing, as well as take upper level bio and A&P to get a better sense if this is what I want to dedicate my life to.

Take that feeling and run with it. I think you've already answered your own question.
 
Thanks everyone for the input and the entertaining discussion!
@Mike Bagwell I get what you are saying about coursework being sequential and how I may struggle in Medical School if I hate the foundational stuff. Mildly gross profile GIF, btw
Also, I understand what others are saying about the actual information that we learn in gen bio/biochem is not directly related to practicing medicine, and that I will just need to stuck it up for a few years.
I guess my situation has just been made more complex because the further I'm getting into my chemistry program, the more I absolutely adore it.
But for right now, plan of action is to do some more shadowing, as well as take upper level bio and A&P to get a better sense if this is what I want to dedicate my life to.
For A&P, make sure you learn about which professors teach it in which way. At my school, we have one who is just straight up memorize every little connection/structure with very little explanation of physiology and another who wants you to know the major structures and naming trends but puts much more emphasis on physiology. Medical school will be a combination of both of those styles and then some, but from an undergrad perspective, the I found the physiology route much more enjoyable/manageable.
 
I think it’s also important not to confuse disliking a subject with an inability to master it as some on here seem to be doing.

Disliking something might make it a bit harder to motivate yourself to focus on studying it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still ace it.
 
I think it’s also important not to confuse disliking a subject with an inability to master it as some on here seem to be doing.

Disliking something might make it a bit harder to motivate yourself to focus on studying it, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still ace it.
I still hate chemistry. It hasn't held me back.
 
This popped up in my Facebook feed just now. I retract my fake it till you make it remark and replace it with this:
 

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Some patients don't care about bedside manner when they want the correct diagnosis.

I used to think that way. The truth is that House is a TV show. 95% of patients interactions are very straightforward. Dealing with patients, staff, and consultants is really the vast majority patient care.
 
Harassing or calling out other members is not acceptable on this forum. The user has been subject to moderator action. Get back on topic.

Oh is it that troll that I blocked a while ago who thinks he knows everything as a diaper-wearing Ms1 and questions the validity of mental health in medicine? Lol I’m glad I can’t see those posts, although would be amusing.

FYI OP, as an actual attending physician who has been through the entirety of medical school, residency, fellowship, and years of practice.... I reiterate. you don’t need to like bio to 1) succeed in med school, 2) be a good physician. Just get through it as you got through other stuff. If you like it, sure, it will be easier. But you don’t need to.
 
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Oh is it that troll that I blocked a while ago who thinks he knows everything as a diaper-wearing Ms1 and questions the validity of mental health in medicine? Lol I’m glad I can’t see those posts, although would be amusing.

FYI OP, as an actual attending physician who has been through the entirety of medical school, residency, fellowship, and years of practice.... I reiterate. you don’t need to like bio to 1) succeed in med school, 2) be a good physician. Just get through it as you got through other stuff. If you like it, sure, it will be easier. But you don’t need to.

Yes, and I'd rather everyone just drop it, since this is an informative thread. But I agree. My general bio course that I took a long time ago was extremely boring, and I really didn't like it. Funny enough, I still really enjoyed genetics, A&P, immunology, etc.
 
Yes, and I'd rather everyone just drop it, since this is an informative thread. But I agree. My general bio course that I took a long time ago was extremely boring, and I really didn't like it. Funny enough, I still really enjoyed genetics, A&P, immunology, etc.

Oh no problem, I can’t even see it, I just see some of the “smh” responses from others, haha.

Yeah, I think the reason is that there is some clinical relevance in those courses—if you can connect it to a real patient it becomes much more interesting. That’s why in my lectures (I sometimes guest lecture in anatomy for example), I try to include clinical slides (for example carpal tunnel when talking about the median nerve), so that the students can think of that and hopefully remember it better during their dissection. I think it would have helped me way back in the day; but unfortunately we had an old school guy who’d be like “memorize everything by next week.”
 
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