please help

[mwinnie11]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

i need some advice. i took orgo 1 three years ago and i got a c in it. that grade discouraged me from med school so i went to nursing school instead for the np route. I have been working as a nurse for a couple years. now i realized that i want to go med school for sure. im not sure if i should continue with orgo 2 this january or wait until the summer to repeat orgo 1 again and take orgo 2. i really would like to maybe take the mcat this august or september. what do you guys think?

 

[FutureDrB]

Retake Orgo 1. Partly to replace the C, but more-so as a refresher since it's been 3 years since you took it last.

 

[Dr. USMLE]

i need some advice. i took orgo 1 three years ago and i got a c in it. that grade discouraged me from med school so i went to nursing school instead for the np route. I have been working as a nurse for a couple years. now i realized that i want to go med school for sure. im not sure if i should continue with orgo 2 this january or wait until the summer to repeat orgo 1 again and take orgo 2. i really would like to maybe take the mcat this august or september. what do you guys think?

I think you should go for your dream. Orgo has absolutely nothing to do with med school. That said, it is one of the grades from undergrad that admissions tends to focus on for whatever reason. There is also a fair amt of orgo on the bio mcat when I took it years ago. If when everything is said and done you still have doubts, you could consider the nurse anesthetist option. They are basically functioning as anesthesiologists now, with pretty hefty compensation and far less training time.

You should probly consult a premed advisor, but if the orgo grade was the only major reason not to pursue medicine, that in and of itself does not matter much. This assumes that your overall GPA, science GPA, and MCAT scores are competitive. Even if not, you can still go to the Carib as a last ditch effort and will probably rock the USMLE with that much nursing experience. Best of luck!!!!

 

[mauberley]

Retake Orgo 1. Partly to replace the C, but more-so as a refresher since it's been 3 years since you took it last.

I agree with this.

 

[MedPR]

Retake Orgo 1. Partly to replace the C, but more-so as a refresher since it's been 3 years since you took it last.

I agree, but it will only get replaced if you are applying to DO school.

You won't have a shot at Orgo 2, both because your Orgo 1 was taken so long ago and because you got a C. I'm not saying you're not smart or anything like that; I'm saying that a C in a class, for whatever reason, probably means that you didn't learn it very well, if at all. You definitely need a good understanding of organic 1 to do well in organic 2.

 

[Hamiltonian]

You don't necessarily have to retake it. I was similar to you. I took it one semester (Fall 2008), learned next to nothing (and somehow escaped with a C). It scared me away, and I didn't look at it for a year. All of 2009 I was taking business classes. I took Orgo 2 in the Spring of 2010 and crushed it.

Making a good grade in part 2 of the class was a huge confidence boost, because it feels like a 4th Quarter comeback. Being able to do that would help to make up for the C in part 1. I'm reading into your story, but you took it when you were younger. Maybe you were afraid to commit to applying to med school etc. Anyways, now you take it and hopefully make an A. That would show that you are a baller in classes.

It would be a bit of a gamble, but it would put you a semester ahead as opposed to retaking part 1. It would also save you some money, which may or may not be an issue.

FWIW, my Orgo 2 class didn't rely heavily on Orgo 1. That helped, and it's probably not like this everywhere.

 

[scarshapedstar]

FWIW, my Orgo 2 class didn't rely heavily on Orgo 1. That helped, and it's probably not like this everywhere.

I think that's the exception. Mine was like, Orgo 1 was 12 elementary reactions that I had a hard enough time with. And then Orgo 2 was 120 reactions based off the original 12, so I was one screwed dude.

 

[LingoLaine]

I've never taken a class that builds on prior knowledge quite as much organic chemistry.

Almost every step of the way, to do well you need to understand EVERYTHING that came before. I wouldn't risk Ochem 2 without SOLID MASTERY of Ochem 1 content.

 

[deleted413795]

I had an interviewer tell me they look at Orgo because the type of thinking that Orgo requires is akin to the thinking required to be a good physician. This make sense to me, but I am one of the weird ones that actually really likes Organic Chem. If I could not be a doctor I would probably go back for a grad degree in Organic Chem or Physical Chem. 😱

 

[scarshapedstar]

It's sort of true, in that you have a mental toolbox of reactions you can use to synthesize things, and doctors have their own mental toolbox and flowchart.

However, the laws of chemistry are pretty arbitrary, so it's a bit of a stretch to say that someone who forgets the one crucial reaction to finish a 7-step synthesis will never be able to diagnose a heart problem. Luckily for those of us with C's in orgo II... 😳

 

[dmf2682]

I had an interviewer tell me they look at Orgo because the type of thinking that Orgo requires is akin to the thinking required to be a good physician. This make sense to me, but I am one of the weird ones that actually really likes Organic Chem. If I could not be a doctor I would probably go back for a grad degree in Organic Chem or Physical Chem. 😱

You mean like spatial orientation and that sort of thing? That was one of the things that really clicked for me and made orgo fun. No model kit or anything needed, i could just fly around 3d molecular models in my head. Will that do anything for me in med school?

 

[scarshapedstar]

You mean like spatial orientation and that sort of thing? That was one of the things that really clicked for me and made orgo fun. No model kit or anything needed, i could just fly around 3d molecular models in my head. Will that do anything for me in med school?

Yeah, it certainly could, particularly for radiology or surgery! 😀