I need motivation to get through biology

[Kurk]

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My issue with bio is simply how boring it is. I hate how it's all brute memorization.

Kinase phosphorylation, metabolic pathways; I can't force myself to pay attention in lecture nor can I read the monstrosity that is Campbell biology.

I'm the type of person who needs to understand the big picture to care about the small details. The problem is that I can't even do that because there ISN'T ENOUGH TIME to thoroughly read all the chapters in book to understand the big picture.

Right now I have a B in my intro sequence class, but it's not easy by any means.


On the other hand, I'm loving chem and really enjoying it & performing well. Yes it's harder "cuz math", but I enjoy it. The math keeps me engaged; thermodynamics is fun. My professor tells us how they believe memorization is a waste of time and they avoid it as much as possible.

If I can't force myself to love bio, I'm going to end up switching majors here pretty soon.


Also, how am going to survive any sort of professional school that emphasizes ridiculous amounts of brute memorization. I'm great at recalling minute details—but only when I'm learning it meaningfully; like through experience and not just brute reading.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

You sound a lot like me. Have you tried Anki? I doubt it'd fix the issue of time since creating cards does take a bunch of time, but it was immensly helpful to have the monstrosity of Campbell Bio's chapters condensed into some decks. I can even send you some of mine as a sample, though with no guarantee of them being accurate, spelled correctly, etc. And honestly being a different major is not a bad thing at all, given how trash the job prospects are for those graduating with bachelors in just biology.

 

[Lawpy]

On the other hand, I'm loving chem and really enjoying it & performing well. Yes it's harder "cuz math", but I enjoy it. The math keeps me engaged; thermodynamics is fun. My professor tells us how they believe memorization is a waste of time and they avoid it as much as possible.

Good choice, especially considering chemistry is purer than biology and math is the purest subject of all.

In all seriousness, I recommend Anki to help memorize stuff in biology.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

Good choice, especially considering chemistry is purer than biology and math is the purest subject of all.

In all seriousness, I recommend Anki to help memorize stuff in biology.

I like this one more!

 

[mistafab]

In intro Bio I did really well by reading every boldface word + description in the chapter for the upcoming lecture. It was around 15 minutes of total reading I did before the class (boldface and end of chapter summary, skipped all else). Dont know if your assigned book gives you that option.

That way when I finished my pre-skim and walked in to do the lecture, I didnt take any mental time to learn the vocab or little points. I used the lecture to get the big picture. This really helped me do well in the course.

 

[Turkishking]

You sound like me as well. I enjoy chemistry/math more than brute memorization of unnecessary plants.. Any how, you have to push through it. You just have to. There isn't any way around it.

 

[de Ribas]

My issue with bio is simply how boring it is. I hate how it's all brute memorization.

Kinase phosphorylation, metabolic pathways; I can't force myself to pay attention in lecture nor can I read the monstrosity that is Campbell biology.

I'm the type of person who needs to understand the big picture to care about the small details. The problem is that I can't even do that because there ISN'T ENOUGH TIME to thoroughly read all the chapters in book to understand the big picture.

Right now I have a B in my intro sequence class, but it's not easy by any means.


On the other hand, I'm loving chem and really enjoying it & performing well. Yes it's harder "cuz math", but I enjoy it. The math keeps me engaged; thermodynamics is fun. My professor tells us how they believe memorization is a waste of time and they avoid it as much as possible.

If I can't force myself to love bio, I'm going to end up switching majors here pretty soon.


Also, how am going to survive any sort of professional school that emphasizes ridiculous amounts of brute memorization. I'm great at recalling minute details—but only when I'm learning it meaningfully; like through experience and not just brute reading.

when in high school and early in college I loved math and physics, went to state contests, earned first place awards and was best student in Mathematics in my town.

I didn't like biology or anatomy at all due to memorization. I was all about logic and computations.

Now, I don't like math or physics, but I am great at biochemistry, physiology, pathology, microbiology, cell bio and such. I guess over the years of taking many bio courses I began to love it and understand it. I started thinking about cell bio and biochemistry applications on a daily bases.


I guess once u take more bio courses you will see how you can find it's applications and how you can start critically think about it and it will become more interesting.

As of now, do your best. It will come to you. Give it some time.

 

[Forever Geebs]

A lot of rote learning is in your future, and intro. bio is just the tip of the iceberg. There is no getting around it. Embrace it and recognize that it may not be as intellectually stimulating or meaningful as other classes (e.g. chemistry), and so long as you do well, all is good.

 

[Suprachiasmatik]

For the love of god, please do not pursue a biology major...especially if the subject matter doesn't give you the tingles.

Biology/biochemistry degrees are practically worthless if the medical school route does not work out.

If I could do it all over again, I would definitely get a degree (like computer science) that yields a profitable skill while taking med school prerequisites on the side and preparing for the MCAT. Trust me, working as a lab tech for 25k/year with a biology or biochemistry degree really sucks. Been there done that. Massive waste of time/money. If you have some life sciences knowledge but are also a computer scientist, you have so many options, including medical school. The only thing to watch out for here is that CS/engineering majors can be tough on the old GPA, and that is important to consider if you're serious about medical school.

Now, if you are 100% dead set on going to medical school, you need the following: High GPA + High MCAT + some fluff ("volunteering"). It's a really simple formula. Medical schools take great pride in annual dick swinging contests involving GPA/MCAT statistics. With that in mind, choose an easy major that maxes out your GPA while taking med school prerequisites and preparing for the MCAT. Knock out your fluff and get some good letters of recommendation (this is the easy part).

 

[Lawpy]

For the love of god, please do not pursue a biology major...especially if the subject matter doesn't give you the tingles.

Biology/biochemistry degrees are practically worthless if the medical school route does not work out.

If I could do it all over again, I would definitely get a degree (like computer science) that yields a profitable skill while taking med school prerequisites on the side and preparing for the MCAT. Trust me, working as a lab tech for 25k/year with a biology or biochemistry degree really sucks. Been there done that. Massive waste of time/money. If you have some life sciences knowledge but are also a computer scientist, you have so many options, including medical school. The only thing to watch out for here is that CS/engineering majors can be tough on the old GPA, and that is important to consider if you're serious about medical school.

Now, if you are 100% dead set on going to medical school, you need the following: High GPA + High MCAT + some fluff ("volunteering"). It's a really simple formula. Medical schools take great pride in annual dick swinging contests involving GPA/MCAT statistics. With that in mind, choose an easy major that maxes out your GPA while taking med school prerequisites and preparing for the MCAT. Knock out your fluff and get some good letters of recommendation (this is the easy part).

I agree with this advice even though many on SDN would be outraged by it. Admissions is a numbers-driven process. High GPA and high MCAT are absolutely key to score lots of solid interviews and acceptances, especially at top tier schools. Of course, the super top schools (like Harvard, Stanford, Penn, UCSF, Hopkins etc.) require additional stuff like strong research and strong ECs, but generally, having strong numbers goes a long way.

I definitely don't recommend majoring in biology either. It's an overrated and bland major. Much of admissions is also based on having applicants being as unique as possible and pursuing unique and interesting activities. Chemistry may not be as unique but it's definitely better than biology to pursue, along with offering nice alternative career options should medicine/healthcare not work out.

 

[Suprachiasmatik]

I agree with this advice even though many on SDN would be outraged by it. Admissions is a numbers-driven process. High GPA and high MCAT are absolutely key to score lots of solid interviews and acceptances, especially at top tier schools. Of course, the super top schools (like Harvard, Stanford, Penn, UCSF, Hopkins etc.) require additional stuff like strong research and strong ECs, but generally, having strong numbers goes a long way.

I definitely don't recommend majoring in biology either. It's an overrated and bland major. Much of admissions is also based on having applicants being as unique as possible and pursuing unique and interesting activities. Chemistry may not be as unique but it's definitely better than biology to pursue, along with offering nice alternative career options should medicine/healthcare not work out.

I wouldn't even recommend a chemistry degree to any student in 2017.

I've been working in information technology for several years now, and I've run into MANY chemistry majors who had to bail due to lack of opportunity and are now working in COMPLETELY unrelated jobs.

Chemical engineering, on the other hand, might be a good choice.

 

[Piglet2020]

Agree with the above posts—Engineering and computer sci are the two most profitable majors if med school doesn’t work out. BUT these majors could be more difficult (I go to an undergrad with top engineering and comp sci programs though).

That being said, I’m biased towards bio/chem/biochem majors b/c these majors helped me and a lot of my friends learn material on the MCAT. I don’t think I would’ve been able to understand difficult bio or chem processes as throughly if I hadn’t majored in biology. On the other hand, I’ve seen other majors struggle with these topics more b/c they have only taken the required classes for matriculation, whereras myself and others have been exposed to these concepts a lot longer.

 

[Kurk]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've been using Quizlet which is similar to Ankins. I'm still considering switching to a pre-engineering course-load. Dental school has its perks, but tbh I have a very dry personality and question if I'd be able to compete against all the students you see in those med/dental school music videos on Youtube.

I'm really beginning to detest Biology more and more. It's just all rushed (and useless) memorization without time to really understand it. Dental school, from what I hear, is 10 times worse. On the other hand, I've been really loving chem. I've been acing my exams too which is a plus. In high-school I genuinely enjoyed pre-calc and physics. Sure they were challenging at times, but it wasn't like intro to bio now where I'm throwing my hands up saying, "why the hell am I doing this?" every lecture lol.

I went to a prestigious private high-school with the smartest and brightest. For that reason, I was never in AP Calc or honors math due to those classes being reserved for my superiors. Me not being able to take those classes really discouraged me and suggested that I couldn't handle higher-level math or physics in college. There's no chance of me succeeding in engineering with all of these smart asians with MENSA IQs. I will always remember the NASA engineer who once told a small group I was in that it's okay if you don't think you're brilliant at math because if you really put the work in and have a genuine interest you'll succeed (that was their case).

While I believe I would excel at dentistry and some fields of medicine in actual practice, I don't know how I would force myself to get through all of the brute memorizing that a robot can do (no offense).

 

[Suprachiasmatik]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've been using Quizlet which is similar to Ankins. I'm still considering switching to a pre-engineering course-load. Dental school has its perks, but tbh I have a very dry personality and question if I'd be able to compete against all the students you see in those med/dental school music videos on Youtube.

I'm really beginning to detest Biology more and more. It's just all rushed (and useless) memorization without time to really understand it. Dental school, from what I hear, is 10 times worse. On the other hand, I've been really loving chem. I've been acing my exams too which is a plus. In high-school I genuinely enjoyed pre-calc and physics. Sure they were challenging at times, but it wasn't like intro to bio now where I'm throwing my hands up saying, "why the hell am I doing this?" every lecture lol.

I went to a prestigious private high-school with the smartest and brightest. For that reason, I was never in AP Calc or honors math due to those classes being reserved for my superiors. Me not being able to take those classes really discouraged me and suggested that I couldn't handle higher-level math or physics in college. There's no chance of me succeeding in engineering with all of these smart asians with MENSA IQs. I will always remember the NASA engineer who once told a small group I was in that it's okay if you don't think you're brilliant at math because if you really put the work in and have a genuine interest you'll succeed (that was their case).

While I believe I would excel at dentistry and some fields of medicine in actual practice, I don't know how I would force myself to get through all of the brute memorizing that a robot can do (no offense).

You seem pretty self-aware, which is both good and bad. Probably more good than bad at your age.

I would caution you, however, on reaching any conclusions about your future career plans based on obnoxious, narcissistic medical and dental students posting their content on social media. For every one of these types, there are thousands of students quietly and humbly chugging along towards their end goal without screaming "HEY LOOK AT ME." This latter group will be the better doctors/dentists in my opinion, since they are focused on their studies, NOT their egos. I cannot stand those videos, they make me cringe, and you should be laughing at them instead of feeling self-conscious. Blame it on my age and senility or whatever. Do yourself a service and do not watch any more of those videos. I would advise you to take advice only from residents/docs who are age 30+ and are able to see things more objectively.

Regarding your other concerns, the truth is that EVERYTHING has become more competitive in almost all industries. For instance, there are plenty doctors practicing today who would not even get an interview at a single medical school in 2017. Maybe they'd be able to step up their game maybe not. I know that the MCAT score I got taking it cold after not studying for 7 years would have gotten me into a DO school in the 90s and perhaps before the 2008 recession. Today...not a chance in hell as a white male.

If you are not an engineering type, it would be good to recognize that early on. Attempting to ram a square peg into a round hole is not a good strategy for career success. Also, a self-described dry personality is not predictive of a lack of success in medical/dental school. In fact, it may serve you well. I do agree that the Asian master race is some pretty stiff competition. Some people's brains are just built for math.

What are your hobbies? Sometimes those can tell you a lot about where your strengths lie.

 

[chemdoctor]

You sound like me as well. I enjoy chemistry/math more than brute memorization of unnecessary plants.. Any how, you have to push through it. You just have to. There isn't any way around it.

I HATE PLANTS PERIOD.

 

[SandP]

The people who achieve in life are no different than those who don't- both sets of people sometimes hate the work. The difference is that the former set of people do it anyway. Don't let how you feel dictate your motivation- do it anyway.

 

[863168]

@Kurk You're doing it wrong.

Also, lol. Everyone and their mom wishes they did computer science and engineering until they actually take a full course load in computer science and engineering.

 

[Suprachiasmatik]

@Kurk You're doing it wrong.

Also, lol. Everyone and their mom wishes they did computer science and engineering until they actually take a full course load in computer science and engineering.

Nothing good ever came easy.

If you're capable of getting into medical school, then you're probably also capable of earning a CS/engineering degree.

 

[863168]

Nothing good ever came easy. If you're capable of getting into medical school, then you're probably also capable of earning a CS/engineering degree.

Is this what you've discerned from all the personal computer programming knowledge you've accumulated in your years of working within IT?

 

[deleted804295]

I don't know about you but my cell bio class is a billion times harder than my o chem class and I enjoy cell bio more. It all comes down to what you enjoy. I personally hate when I see pre meds who purposely become bio majors yet hate bio but to each their own.

Also I have to thoroughly disagree with everyone who says biology is brute memorization. I can literally say the same about chemistry. Upper level biology tests your ability to retrieve concept based items you learn from lower level biology and apply it in different circumstances to the cellular mechanism you're working with. Biology is completely application based and if you haven't seen that then your professors are doing you a great disservice.

Also how can the concepts you learn from biology not make you want to draw parallels and devise questions to the real world??? BIOLOGY IS EVERYTHING. BIOLOGY IS LIFE.

 

[rabbott1971]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've been using Quizlet which is similar to Ankins. I'm still considering switching to a pre-engineering course-load. Dental school has its perks, but tbh I have a very dry personality and question if I'd be able to compete against all the students you see in those med/dental school music videos on Youtube.

I'm really beginning to detest Biology more and more. It's just all rushed (and useless) memorization without time to really understand it. Dental school, from what I hear, is 10 times worse. On the other hand, I've been really loving chem. I've been acing my exams too which is a plus. In high-school I genuinely enjoyed pre-calc and physics. Sure they were challenging at times, but it wasn't like intro to bio now where I'm throwing my hands up saying, "why the hell am I doing this?" every lecture lol.

I went to a prestigious private high-school with the smartest and brightest. For that reason, I was never in AP Calc or honors math due to those classes being reserved for my superiors. Me not being able to take those classes really discouraged me and suggested that I couldn't handle higher-level math or physics in college. There's no chance of me succeeding in engineering with all of these smart asians with MENSA IQs. I will always remember the NASA engineer who once told a small group I was in that it's okay if you don't think you're brilliant at math because if you really put the work in and have a genuine interest you'll succeed (that was their case).

While I believe I would excel at dentistry and some fields of medicine in actual practice, I don't know how I would force myself to get through all of the brute memorizing that a robot can do (no offense).

If you're at all serious about pre-law, then get a B.S. degree somehow, preferably in engineering of some kind, then get your law degree and become a patent attorney. Seriously. There is high demand, good pay, and you miss out on many of the worst aspects of lawyering. Good luck.

 

[Suprachiasmatik]

Is this what you've discerned from all the personal computer programming knowledge you've accumulated in your years of working within IT?

Truthfully, making these comparisons depends a lot on where you are working.

There are top tier IT firms like Google and Facebook and then you have tons of non-sexy firms that need their systems developed and maintained. The top tier workers are probably more intelligent than your average medical student and possibly harder working. But this is only a small percentage of total software developers.

The rest of the industry is a mixed bag. Plenty of people slogging away doing systems development and maintenance at Initech who are likely not intelligent enough and/or not hardworking enough to hack it in medical school. Personally, I believe medicine is difficult due to volume of information rather than raw conceptual difficulty of the material.

Also, the difficulty of a CS degree is going to depend somewhat on the institution. Notice that I said earn a CS degree, not earn AND get a 4.0 GPA.