Placement Exams

[Unshuretain]

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[desiredmembername123]

Dont do it man. Med schools dont read that in depth on grades you get, and usually err on the side of caution. Just take your prereqs, get A's and you will still have plenty of time to take upper level classes.


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[studentdocftw]

^seconded. A solid GPA from MIT will leave less questions. You don't want to give adcoms the opportunity to question your GPA. A high GPA is a high GPA, end of story.

 

[aldol16]

I seriously doubt the placement exams will hold the weight of a course, even in AMCAS. For that to happen, the "C" would need to have assigned to it like x credit hours. Placement exams are usually assigned 0 credit hours at most universities. Check with MIT first.

 

[desiredmembername123]

There is not. Just take the classes.


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[Gorilla-san]

Have you considered taking the exams and doing well? (as in getting an A) LOL... I really understand where you are coming from though If i had the opportunity to skip those classes I would (they will take at least a year and a half of your time and are the prereqs for almost any upper level course) In my humble opinion I would take the exams for the courses I know I could get As in and if Im not sure Im going to ace the exam then I would bite the bullet and take the course.

 

[Gorilla-san]

I feel you man.. it really depends on what you are most confident in. If you feel like you might walk in and bomb an exam I wouldnt even risk it. Another possibility is to check to see if you can void an exam. As in take it and if you did bad you can make it disappear so it doesn't appear on your record. (kinda like the MCAT void) (BTW I'm straight guessing right now, i really don't know what the policies are at MIT)

 

[desiredmembername123]

Good idea; I'll check with them.



Interesting. Perhaps the handout they gave me during admitted students weekend (CPW) was for last year's application cycle. The policies may have changed by now.

Edit:
From their packet:
"Q: I took an ASE for one of more of the prerequisite courses. How will the medical schools view these grades?
A: ASE grades do appear on your official transcript, so you will enter them into the AMCAS application just like any other course (noting CLEP as the special course type), and they will be viewed just like your other course work. While ASE grades do not factor into the MIT GPA, ASE grades will factor into the AMCAS GPA"

MIT ASEs can be taken by non-freshmen (only MIT freshmen are allowed to take ASEs for Pass/Fail). Perhaps this is where the discrepancy is.

You need to contact a premed advisor at your school.

 

[TheInstitute]

Hi all! I'm a prefrosh headed off to MIT this Fall, and I have a few quick questions (especially for MIT premeds out there).

I'm a bit conflicted on whether or not to take MIT's placement exams, also known as the ASEs. I know the material in Intro. to Biology (7.01x), Principles of Chem. (5.11x), MV Calculus (18.02), Intro. to Programming (6.0001), and Organic Chemistry I (5.12) well because I've either taken the equivalent in high school and/or have been studying the material over the summer. If I take the ASEs and "pass" them (C equivalent or above), I get a P in my official transcript, i.e. no letter grade. However, I just realized that the "hidden" letter grade does factor into the AMCAS GPA. In other words, if I end up getting Cs in all of these ASEs, I'll get to take more advanced classes (which I really, really would love to) but will have 2.0s calculated into my AMCAS GPA...

Now, I absolutely love learning, and I want to jump into where I'd fit best academically. But wouldn't this be detrimental to my applications? Given that I do well in my classes throughout my 4 years of undergrad., would medical schools understand that these are placement exam grades rather than "actual" grades?

Thanks for helping!!!

Congrats on MIT. Truly such a great school. MIT is the frontrunner of innovation in this country. Anyway, I would take advantage of the P/F rule your first semester. Take some interesting courses like MV Calc, Programming, etc. At MIT, you will not find myriad pre meds; lots of people are into engineering and compsci.

 

[TheInstitute]

Wait is myriad an adjective or a noun? I was told by an educator that it is an adjective; however, many people subconsciously use it as a noun.