Pre-Med asking question about material in medical school

[MortellarPreMed]

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Hey everyone, I'm a pre-med so please excuse my ignorance but I was just hoping for an honest response.

In med school/medical field how much do you actually use chemistry and physics? I ask this because obviously I struggle with the two. I know chemistry must come into play at some point (biochem) but what type of chem is it? Is it like chemical equilibrium with really long calculations or more conceptual memorization type of stuff? I ask because I do well in the bio-type sciences but when you throw math at me with long equations and calculations i really start to suck.

Examples of how they are used would be much appreciated,

Thanks,
- Aspiring Doctor

 

[DopaDO]

Hey everyone, I'm a pre-med so please excuse my ignorance but I was just hoping for an honest response.

In med school/medical field how much do you actually use chemistry and physics? I ask this because obviously I struggle with the two. I know chemistry must come into play at some point (biochem) but what type of chem is it? Is it like chemical equilibrium with really long calculations or more conceptual memorization type of stuff? I ask because I do well in the bio-type sciences but when you throw math at me with long equations and calculations i really start to suck.

Examples of how they are used would be much appreciated,

Thanks,
- Aspiring Doctor

As a second year medical student, I can honestly say that i use physics and chemistry almost every day. It might be more superficial than what your learning now, but it's definitely important.

 

[NeurologyDO]

As a 4th year medical student....LOL never.

I guess it depends on if you're more clinical, or academic. I'm more clinical, so I'm not really as interested in how things work (like drugs or MRIs), just that they work.
Thus, when it came to the biochem and pharm and learning imaging techniques, I just memorized enough to pass the exam 🙂 I never really felt like I applied much chemistry knowledge, and certainly not physics!

Med school is in a class all on its own. The only pre-med class I took that I found helpful in med school was comparative anatomy 😀 Aside from that...meh

 

[acesup123]

As a second year, I would chemistry and physics comes into play a lot as well. Think about it, your vessels are a bunch of pipes with fluid in them that connect all over your body. That stuff you learn in physics with fluid flow apply here. In that fluid, there's a whole bunch of ions and therefore a whole bunch of chemistry going on. On one end you're exchanging gases which is more chemistry. On the other end your pissing things out and reabsorbing some stuff which is more chemistry. Then you take drugs, which even more chemistry. I think you catch my drift.

 

[oceanillusion42]

Hey everyone, I'm a pre-med so please excuse my ignorance but I was just hoping for an honest response.

In med school/medical field how much do you actually use chemistry and physics? I ask this because obviously I struggle with the two. I know chemistry must come into play at some point (biochem) but what type of chem is it? Is it like chemical equilibrium with really long calculations or more conceptual memorization type of stuff? I ask because I do well in the bio-type sciences but when you throw math at me with long equations and calculations i really start to suck.

Examples of how they are used would be much appreciated,

Thanks,
- Aspiring Doctor

"Physics" comes up in physiology a good deal. And "chemistry" comes up a good bit in physiology as well (think acid base balance/ henderson-Hasselback stuff). It is on a much more superficial level and actually "has a point to it" in that its related to the material at hand. I hated chem and physics in undergrad but med school requires a very superficial approach. And beyond pre-clinical years I'd say it becomes next to irrelevant.

 

[Cranial ALLDAY]

as a 2nd year med student i've never used chem or physics after the mcat

 

[COXblocker]

Hey everyone, I'm a pre-med so please excuse my ignorance but I was just hoping for an honest response.

In med school/medical field how much do you actually use chemistry and physics? I ask this because obviously I struggle with the two. I know chemistry must come into play at some point (biochem) but what type of chem is it? Is it like chemical equilibrium with really long calculations or more conceptual memorization type of stuff? I ask because I do well in the bio-type sciences but when you throw math at me with long equations and calculations i really start to suck.

Examples of how they are used would be much appreciated,

Thanks,
- Aspiring Doctor

As an MS2 who majored in physics, minored in biochem...They're functionally useless. The MCAT stuff is the highest level of physics you will use, and even that is very very far and few between. As for chemistry, it's really tough to understand what they're talking about if you don't have an understanding of general/organic chemistry, but again...you don't really use it. Let's face it, medicine is very little science with a lot of memorization.

I will say this: having a background in physics is a huge advantage over non-science and/or the traditional bio majors. Especially on board questions that rely on integration and understanding mechanisms. There are a few of us physics guys and we all are doing pretty well.

On the other hand, I was not used to the volume of medical school (says all med students). Physics was more about learning one difficult topic a week, where med school is about learning 100 easy topics a day.

It's definitely nice having the background when it comes to pathophysiology, and I did not feel like I was at a disadvantage with stuff like anatomy started since it was easy (despite the volume of information).

Learn time management and give up deep thinking. Get used to spaced repetition, integration questions, and multiple learning modalities. That seems to help the most.

 

[oceanillusion42]

as a 2nd year med student i've never used chem or physics after the mcat

I wish I could say the same, my cardio, resp, and renal had a solid amount of physics and chemistry involved. These are also boards relevant tie ins so I'm not sure how you couldve gotten away with not doing any of it.

 

[group_theory]

You have gotten some good responses so far both here and in the allopathic forum.

For future references, please do not cross post the same or similar topics across multiple forums, as it creates clutter, redundancy (especially if multiple people do it)

Since there are more posts in the allopathic forum, I will close this one. Here is the link for those of you who want to continue the discussion.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=997678



The premedical courses lay a solid foundation for understanding the basic science and physiology that will b e taught in medical school. Now you don't need to know the various organic chemistry synthesis reactions, or what SN1 vs SN2, etc. but understanding the concepts that you learn from biology, chemistry, physics will be helpful in physiology, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, pharmacology, etc.

From my perspective, it is a combination of both ... Memorization and application. A good clinician knows both. A lot of memorization will occur during the first two years, and application of what you learn/memorize will occur during the last 2 years. Do I need to know the exact formula to. Calculate resistance - no. But it is good to know that radius and resistance are inversely related, that length is related to resistance, etc. if you want to give lots of fluids, sometimes a peripheral 16g IV is better than a triple lumen central venous catheter, and why a cordis (single lumen introducer) is a good catheter for rapid volume resuscitation, etc. knowing some physics will help in interpreting EKGs or knowing how echos work.