Organic chem and physics?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
P

PreMedBball23

Full Member
7+ Year Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2015
Messages
37
Reaction score
0
Members don't see this ad.
I'm thinking on taking Organic Chemistry 2 along with fundamental physics 1 (Algebra based) with either ecology and another gen ed or taking 2 gen eds with ecology taken later? Any thoughts?
 
I used to tutor math based science classes, physics orgo and biochem. While they have different trains of thought, they're both problem solving classes and you use your brain in the same way. Example: memorize rule/ formula and apply it to 10 different possible questions. You should be fine.
 
I am halfway through taking Orgo 1/Physics 1 and Orgo 2/Physics 2 at the same time, during accelerated (6 week) summer sessions. You'll be fine, I would think, even with Eco and another gen. ed simultaneously. That being said, not sure what your situation is. If you are worried about not doing well in the courses, spread them out!
 
genericpremedstudent said:
Lol how many threads are you gonna make? You haven't even started college yet and you've made countless threads on here trying to meticulously plan out a future that you don't even know is certain. Relax.
Click to expand...
Your welcome to ignore them if it irks you so much
 
I am taking Orgo I and Phys I along with Bio II in the fall. It should be fine if you keep your head in the game. How bad can it be right as long as you study hard.
 
I don't know if I would take cell bio, orgo 2, and physics during the same semester. 3 labs is a huge time commitment and you get nothing for taking a heavy courseload with regards to admissions. Taking too light of a courseload is bad, but there's no benefit to you from taking lots of courses instead of the average premed courseload.
 
Doug Underhill said:
I don't know if I would take cell bio, orgo 2, and physics during the same semester. 3 labs is a huge time commitment and you get nothing for taking a heavy courseload with regards to admissions. Taking too light of a courseload is bad, but there's no benefit to you from taking lots of courses instead of the average premed courseload.
Click to expand...
I was going to push that to junior year
 
If this is your first semester of college why do you feel the need to rush so many classes at once. Like others have said you get nothing for trying to push too much on your plate. If this is your freshmen year is there a real reason why you don't want to take Bio 1 and Gen Chem 1.
 
GrapesofRath said:
If this is your first semester of college why do you feel the need to rush so many classes at once. Like others have said you get nothing for trying to push too much on your plate. If this is your freshmen year is there a real reason why you don't want to take Bio 1 and Gen Chem 1.
Click to expand...
Sorry I didn't make it clear this potentially for the spring of my sophomore year. Obviously anything can happen in between but these are the classes I want to take that semester.
 
PreMedBball23 said:
Sorry I didn't make it clear this potentially for the spring of my sophomore year. Obviously anything can happen in between but these are the classes I want to take that semester.
Click to expand...

Bruhhhhhhh

How about worrying about your first semester first. Hell how about worrying moving into your dorm first.
 
GrapesofRath said:
Bruhhhhhhh

How about worrying about your first semester first. Hell how about worrying moving into your dorm first.
Click to expand...
I was told by the premed club on campus to draw up a potential schedule for the next 4 years and they would take a look at it
 
PreMedBball23 said:
I was told by the premed club on campus to draw up a potential schedule for the next 4 years and they would take a look at it
Click to expand...
While it's fair to make a general plan so you can visualize how your classes might line up, try to avoid planning it meticulously. Classes fill up, interests change, etc. But to answer your question, those are fine to take together. Most premeds have overlap between those two classes, and usually an advanced bio class on top of them (based on my experience).
 
Pastamahn said:
While it's fair to make a general plan so you can visualize how your classes might line up, try to avoid planning it meticulously. Classes fill up, interests change, etc. But to answer your question, those are fine to take together. Most premeds have overlap between those two classes, and usually an advanced bio class on top of them (based on my experience).
Click to expand...
I was trying to avoid to but I undeunders what your saying. Just wanted to just get a general outline of courses to take around certain semesters
 
PreMedBball23 said:
I understand. Talk it over with the administrators and if they take them down I'm all for it.
Click to expand...

thats not the point. out of the respect of posters here, you should employ a little self-policing. all your questions could have been addressed in your initial thread. and then every time you make a new one, someone chimes in about how its unnecessary. yet you keep doing it. i dont want to be trying to kill time on SDN, see a new thread, and get my hopes up until i see your username attached to it and think "this kid seriously made a new thread about his schedule? he hasn't even started his freshman year yet."
 
genericpremedstudent said:
thats not the point. out of the respect of posters here, you should employ a little self-policing. all your questions could have been addressed in your initial thread. and then every time you make a new one, someone chimes in about how its unnecessary. yet you keep doing it. i dont want to be trying to kill time on SDN, see a new thread, and get my hopes up until i see your username attached to it and think "this kid seriously made a new thread about his schedule? he hasn't even started his freshman year yet."
Click to expand...
Gotcha
 
genericpremedstudent said:
thats not the point. out of the respect of posters here, you should employ a little self-policing. all your questions could have been addressed in your initial thread. and then every time you make a new one, someone chimes in about how its unnecessary. yet you keep doing it. i dont want to be trying to kill time on SDN, see a new thread, and get my hopes up until i see your username attached to it and think "this kid seriously made a new thread about his schedule? he hasn't even started his freshman year yet."
Click to expand...
I will refrain from making multiple posts.
 
PKA<0 said:
I used to tutor math based science classes, physics orgo and biochem. While they have different trains of thought, they're both problem solving classes and you use your brain in the same way. Example: memorize rule/ formula and apply it to 10 different possible questions. You should be fine.
Click to expand...

Orgo and biochem are math based?
 
ph, pka values, henderson hasselbalch equation, Nernst equation etc. there's math and being able to understand the math, such as quickly doing logarithms helps in the classes.
 
SmurfingReviews said:
Study smart.. not hard.
Click to expand...

This. SO much this. Premed classes are 85% memorization, 15% logic for the most part. Learn how you memorize things best and study that way. Don't study a day before an exam. Ease into studying at least 4 days before if its a somewhat challenging class. If you have overlapping exams start studying a week out. Quiz yourself in your head when you're not busy or doing mindless tasks. If you can't remember a part of the notes, you need to go back and study it. Do this until you feel that you can effectively teach someone all of the material without looking at your notes. When you get to this point you are ready to take the test.
 
Carmiche said:
This. SO much this. Premed classes are 85% memorization, 15% logic for the most part. Learn how you memorize things best and study that way. Don't study a day before an exam. Ease into studying at least 4 days before if its a somewhat challenging class. If you have overlapping exams start studying a week out. Quiz yourself in your head when you're not busy or doing mindless tasks. If you can't remember a part of the notes, you need to go back and study it. Do this until you feel that you can effectively teach someone all of the material without looking at your notes. When you get to this point you are ready to take the test.
Click to expand...
Should I utilize office hours as well as this?
 
Carmiche said:
This. SO much this. Premed classes are 85% memorization, 15% logic for the most part. Learn how you memorize things best and study that way. Don't study a day before an exam. Ease into studying at least 4 days before if its a somewhat challenging class. If you have overlapping exams start studying a week out. Quiz yourself in your head when you're not busy or doing mindless tasks. If you can't remember a part of the notes, you need to go back and study it. Do this until you feel that you can effectively teach someone all of the material without looking at your notes. When you get to this point you are ready to take the test.
Click to expand...

i 100% disagree with this. memorization will not get you far, its more about understanding the processes and being able to interpret questions and using your knowledge to apply it to what you've learned. if you bank on memorization for all your pre-reqs, you are going to have a bad time with the mcat. i get everyone learns differently, but i've never met anyone who was successful in their pre-reqs that just got by on memorization.
 
genericpremedstudent said:
i 100% disagree with this. memorization will not get you far, its more about understanding the processes and being able to interpret questions and using your knowledge to apply it to what you've learned. if you bank on memorization for all your pre-reqs, you are going to have a bad time with the mcat. i get everyone learns differently, but i've never met anyone who was successful in their pre-reqs that just got by on memorization.
Click to expand...
This is how I learn and it's worked for me. Might not work for everyone. When you get to the point where you can effectively teach it to people you've accomplished two things: understanding the concepts as well as memorizing the information.
 
I kind of agree with genericpremedstudent and Carmiche, there are elements of both memorization and application in these pre-req/intro courses. And honestly, you can get by and do well on courses by doing one way or the other, or both. It really depends what you want to get out of the class. I will say though, if you just memorize, it will just be a short-term thing and you would need to learn everything again so probably best if you understand the concepts and put a bit of time upfront. For me this worked and it really cut time for me to study for MCAT for any orgo materials.

Honestly, Orgo 1/2 was memorizing overall pictures and thinking about the mechanisms for variations of those. Of course there are exceptions where you would need to figure out a trick to remember. I didn't have to memorize that much since for me Orgo 1/2 just clicked for me (or maybe the professor explained in class very well so everything made sense in my head). I know everyone studies differently but drawing out and doing the practice problems that are assigned/in the book really kind of made it seem like the exams are cake since some questions are very similar to what the professor assigned (no surprises there). Also our school had pretty good resources for orgo practice banks which made it easier to see more problems.

If your professor is good he/she would explain you the rationale and why certain mechanisms make sense, but if he/she doesn't that should be covered in the book or your web is your resource (but use discretion as to where to read things). What I didn't do was cram for exams at the last minute, and I also didn't study everyday. What I typically did was go over the general sense of what the lecture covered every week and do some practice problems as weeks go by so by the exam week comes, it just became a review. Finals were cumulative at my institution, but honestly, I didn't really have to study for my finals since I put the effort in putting in the work at the front which opened up for my other courses.

At the end of the day, you have to find what works for you and figure out what you want to get out of the class. I know it's hard to get out of the mentality of "I need to get an A in this class" but I think I did better when I just shift that mentality to "how is this class going to benefit me?" and "what do I want to get out of the class?" Doing so kind of made me find subjects like orgo, and physics (which many people despise) enjoyable. But I could be an anomaly, Ripperonis.
 
What are some tips and things to do other than study alot to do well in undergrad for med school both academically and in terms of out of the class things, EC'S, ETC
 
Orgo tip: Start memorizing and getting to know functional groups and other structures. They're your friends from here on out.

I found Compound Interest's infographics v. helpful: www.compoundchem.com.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

angryeggtart
B+ in "organic chemistry" for Top 10/20
Replies
4
Views
1K
AsclepiusAdvisingLLC
AsclepiusAdvisingLLC
Anthodite
Taking organic chem in the summer, red flag or no?
Replies
13
Views
2K
Agape_ornis
Agape_ornis
L
Should I take Organic Chem 2 for MCAT?
Replies
13
Views
3K
anon2
A
F
Online Organic Chem II?
Replies
12
Views
6K
ahnonemoose
A
H
How should I approach retaking the second sequence classes of the Biology and Organic Chemistry requirements?
Replies
6
Views
716
AJS59
AJS59
Top