Take Biochem and Genetics before completing orgo/bio...bad idea?

[theITcrowd]

Hi folks,

In looking ahead at the next academic year, I'm considering taking biochem and genetics while completing orgo and bio. My schedule would look something like this:

Fall 2019: Orgo 1, Bio 1, Biochem
Spring 2020: Orgo 2, Bio 2, Genetics

I see that most programs and schools recommend taking biochem and genetics after orgo and bio, either as a recommendation or through required prerequisites. I'm doing my post-bacc DIY so I have some flexibility with how I take my classes. My question, though, is whether taking biochem and genetics concurrently with orgo and bio is a bad idea? Would it be needlessly difficult, or is it possible? I will be working part-time (about 30 hours a week max), so I will have more time than I currently do to study.

Thanks everyone!

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[RocuROMANium]

Switch biochem and genetics. Taking at least one Orgo will help with biochem and genetics can be taken anytime after bio 1

 

[theITcrowd]

Switch biochem and genetics. Taking at least one Orgo will help with biochem and genetics can be taken anytime after bio 1

Oh interesting...I always thought genetics was something that needed a solid orgo/bio background before taking. So you would consider it feasible to take genetics at the same time as bio?

 

[Ad2b]

Oh interesting...I always thought genetics was something that needed a solid orgo/bio background

My genetics required bio 1, biochem (which required orgo 1).

Probably don't need orgo but biochem helped a lot as did understanding basic math/stats (probability).

Edited:

My genetics started with probability with different patterns of inheritance with plants, animals, humans; went into different types of patterning; eventually, by 2nd or 3rd exam, we were doing things that, I think, would have been hard for those without biochem - DNA, RNA, transcription/translation and related mutations with which amino acid caused which kind of defect in the exon or intron; etc. The 3rd exam was all disease states using probability and populations ... final was cumulative.

I didn't see anything inherently wrong with your schedule; one thing I would advise is to make sure you need orgo 2 for the schools you intend to apply to; many have dropped orgo 2 in favor of biochem; if you can, alleviating orgo 2 gives you space to take another upper division science class... but check your schools first

 

[RocuROMANium]

Oh interesting...I always thought genetics was something that needed a solid orgo/bio background before taking. So you would consider it feasible to take genetics at the same time as bio?

Ok, lets back up. How can you sign up for genetics or biochem without the prereqs? At the 2 state universities I have attended that would not be possible. Also, even if you find a way of signing up for those course it still is NOT a good idea. You don't have the foundation of general biology or organic chemistry. It is essential to have at least a general biology background for genetics and at the very least organic chemistry I for biochem. And as the poster above me mentioned, it would actually be ideal to have taken biochem before you take genetics because it lowers the learning curve that much more.

I think you should do:
Fall 2019 - OChem I and Bio I
Spring 2020 - OChem II and Bio II
Summer or Fall 2020 - Biochem and Genetics

If you have to fit it in by Spring 2020 then:
Fall 2019 - OChem I and Bio I
Spring 2020 - Biochem, Bio II, and Genetics

Once again as @Ad2b mentions, a lot of medical schools these days will take biochem over OChem II. Just double check with MSAR.

 

[theITcrowd]

Ok, lets back up. How can you sign up for genetics or biochem without the prereqs?

The school where I'll take biochem and genetics is open enrollment for non-students, so as long as there is space (and there usually is) the professors will generally allow you to take the course. Enrollment in those cases is paper-based so pre-reqs aren't tracked.

 

[Blanky]

Even if you can get an A, I doubt you would be able to “get” Biochem without at least Bio1 and Orgo1.
Move Biochem and Genetics into a third semester and get it done the right way.

 

[Citron]

Not sure about your Biochem professor, when I took my biochem, the exams had questions that asked me to draw out amino acids and products of Krebs cycle straight from memory. Unless you have eidetic memory, things will probably make not much sense to you without having known Orgo 1.

 

[Blanky]

Eidetic memory... Good luck with that.

 

[theITcrowd]

that reminds me...

 

[singernursepremed]

I kind of did it backwards- took biochemistry 1st, but I had done A&P 1/2 already, as well as microbiology. It made total sense to me. I did orgo, and now finishing chem 101/102. I think it depends on how you learn, and how much you w already looked at systems. If I wasn’t already familiar with the biology, there’s no way I would have understood it.

 

[cole10101]

Can't help with biochem, but I just took genetics after a semester of bio 1 and microbiology. I found genetics to be way easier than micro and that just having an understanding of bio 1 was helpful as well as statistics.