Retaking courses?

[MediMama23]

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Hi, all. I was just wondering about general thoughts on retaking courses versus completing never-before-taken upper level courses. Is there an advantage to retaking? Don't most med schools (or AMCAS) combine the two grades anyway? I'm trying to figure out the best course of action, and some people have talked about how they retook courses and were accepted their second time around. I was under the impression that medical schools would just like to see you handle a full load, not necessarily retake courses you took.

Any thoughts?

 

[Law2Doc]

Hi, all. I was just wondering about general thoughts on retaking courses versus completing never-before-taken upper level courses. Is there an advantage to retaking? Don't most med schools (or AMCAS) combine the two grades anyway? I'm trying to figure out the best course of action, and some people have talked about how they retook courses and were accepted their second time around. I was under the impression that medical schools would just like to see you handle a full load, not necessarily retake courses you took.

Any thoughts?

It totally depends on your situation. If you did really poorly on the prereqs it might pay to retake some of them, to show that you can actually master them; for example, a D in orgo looks less horrible to schools and is of less concern, if they see you subsequently retook it for an A. And some schools require a C or better in the prereqs anyhow, so for such places you would absolutely need to retake. (Also if you are looking at DO schools, I think you can just use the latter better grade, but for MD you are right, they average them). If you took the prereqs very very long ago it also sometimes makes sense to retake them, as a couple of schools want to have seen those classes taken in relatively recent vintage (most don't have specific rules re this). For other people who did okay (but perhaps not great) on the prereqs, and they are of recent vintage, then doing well in upper level courses will often look better. Thus, there is not general rule - what is best totally depends on each candidates personal situation.