taking biochem simultaneously with orgo...

[7985lesiawon]

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I took honors orgo 1 freshman year and got a B-, and I'm faced with two options at this point:

1)continue with orgo 2, or
2)retake orgo 1 with orgo 2 next year.

It would be nice to study the material again over the summer and get an A in orgo 1. However, second semester I will have biochem at the same time as orgo 2. Is it better to just take orgo 2 now and get it over with, or retake orgo altogether and take biochem at the same time? Retaking the class could also raise my science GPA...

 

[Economics]

First thing, it will only raise your science GPA at your university. If you are applying AMCAS, retaking will not raise your science GPA or overall GPA. I believe that is only with the DO application.

Go ahead and take organic 2 now, and just get it over with. You got a B- which is perfectly fine. Its not like you failed or anything.

I finished biochem 1 last semester and I really dont remember much organic 2 that was involved, so I would say go for it.

 

[7985lesiawon]

Yea the only issue I see with taking orgo again next year is taking biochem at the same time as orgo. That would be a LOT to handle, and it would be worse to get B's in those two classes after retaking orgo 1, then just keeping my B- from orgo 1 and heading into orgo 2.

 

[Jepstein30]

First thing, it will only raise your science GPA at your university. If you are applying AMCAS, retaking will not raise your science GPA or overall GPA. I believe that is only with the DO application.

Go ahead and take organic 2 now, and just get it over with. You got a B- which is perfectly fine. Its not like you failed or anything.

I finished biochem 1 last semester and I really dont remember much organic 2 that was involved, so I would say go for it.

That's not true.

It won't replace the B- but it will still count, so if you do well, it can raise your GPA.

Don't think one B- is going to kill you, but I'd be more worried about taking Orgo 2 a year after taking Orgo 1. There's a decent amount of crossover (the common reaction mechanisms you learn in Orgo 1 are pretty important in understanding the more complex reactions you'll learn in Orgo 2).

Does your university require orgo before taking biochem? I ask because the amount of orgo involved in a biochem course really varies. For my biochem class, we barely needed any background in orgo. For others, you may go more in depth in the reaction mechanisms so the orgo background is very helpful.

If you didn't do very well in Orgo 1, I'd caution against jumping straight into Orgo 2 without a solid study plan. Not sure it warrants re-taking Orgo 1 but it's definitely something to think about.

This may be a question you'll want to ask the Orgo 1/2 or Biochem professors at your University. Not the GPA part but how much Orgo 2 is necessary for Biochem and whether the workload of taking both is doable.

 

[premedgrad]

Deleted

 

[7985lesiawon]

That's not true.

It won't replace the B- but it will still count, so if you do well, it can raise your GPA.

Don't think one B- is going to kill you, but I'd be more worried about taking Orgo 2 a year after taking Orgo 1. There's a decent amount of crossover (the common reaction mechanisms you learn in Orgo 1 are pretty important in understanding the more complex reactions you'll learn in Orgo 2).

Does your university require orgo before taking biochem? I ask because the amount of orgo involved in a biochem course really varies. For my biochem class, we barely needed any background in orgo. For others, you may go more in depth in the reaction mechanisms so the orgo background is very helpful.

If you didn't do very well in Orgo 1, I'd caution against jumping straight into Orgo 2 without a solid study plan. Not sure it warrants re-taking Orgo 1 but it's definitely something to think about.

This may be a question you'll want to ask the Orgo 1/2 or Biochem professors at your University. Not the GPA part but how much Orgo 2 is necessary for Biochem and whether the workload of taking both is doable.

I would be taking orgo 1 and orgo 2 next year over, so it would not be a year before I took orgo 2.

At my university, you can take orgo 2 and biochem simultaneously. I was thinking of studying my orgo 1 material these next two weeks before the next semester starts if I were to take orgo 2.

The greater question at hand is whether taking biochem and orgo 2 simultaneously spring of next year will not result in a worse scenario than just keeping my B- now and going into orgo 2.

 

[7985lesiawon]

Lots of premeds take biochem and orgo 2 at the same time, but generally it is very difficult to get A's in both. Also, taking orgo 2 now would give me a better professor who is more accessible to questions.

 

[Jepstein30]

I would be taking orgo 1 and orgo 2 next year over, so it would not be a year before I took orgo 2.

At my university, you can take orgo 2 and biochem simultaneously. I was thinking of studying my orgo 1 material these next two weeks before the next semester starts if I were to take orgo 2.

The greater question at hand is whether taking biochem and orgo 2 simultaneously spring of next year will not result in a worse scenario than just keeping my B- now and going into orgo 2.

I meant it being a year before taking orgo 2 if you decided not to retake orgo 1. The OP made it seem like orgo 1 was taken last year at some point.

Little confused now though. You are a sophomore? Last year at some point you took orgo 1?

Can you lay out your options like this:

Option 1:
Soph. Spring
Summer
Junior Fall

Because you referenced "spring of next year" but also talked about taking orgo 2 this upcoming semester..

EDIT: I'm assuming you can't go off-track at your university? So you can't take orgo 1 this upcoming semester and wouldn't be able to take orgo 2 in the fall? In that case, you're deciding between pursuing orgo 2 this upcoming semester and biochem at some point next year OR doing orgo 1 in the summer/fall and orgo 2/biochem in the spring?

 

[7985lesiawon]

I meant it being a year before taking orgo 2 if you decided not to retake orgo 1. The OP made it seem like orgo 1 was taken last year at some point.

Little confused now though. You are a sophomore? Last year at some point you took orgo 1?

Can you lay out your options like this:

Option 1:
Soph. Spring
Summer
Junior Fall

Because you referenced "spring of next year" but also talked about taking orgo 2 this upcoming semester..

EDIT: I'm assuming you can't go off-track at your university? So you can't take orgo 1 this upcoming semester and wouldn't be able to take orgo 2 in the fall? In that case, you're deciding between pursuing orgo 2 this upcoming semester and biochem at some point next year OR doing orgo 1 in the summer/fall and orgo 2/biochem in the spring?

Right now, I am a freshman. My university doesn't allow taking orgo 1 in the spring. My two options are as follows:

OPTION 1:
Freshman spring: orgo 2, bio, spanish, history
sophomore fall: cell genetics, intro to microbio, __, __
sophomore spring: biochem, gen chem, __, ___

OPTION 2:
freshman spring: gen chem, bio ___, ___
sophomore fall: cell genetics, orgo 1, ___, ___
sophomore spring: biochem, orgo 2, ___, ___

 

[Jepstein30]

Right now, I am a freshman. My university doesn't allow taking orgo 1 in the spring. My two options are as follows:

OPTION 1:
Freshman spring: orgo 2, bio, spanish, history
sophomore fall: cell genetics, intro to microbio, __, __
sophomore spring: biochem, gen chem, __, ___

OPTION 2:
freshman spring: gen chem, bio ___, ___
sophomore fall: cell genetics, orgo 1, ___, ___
sophomore spring: biochem, orgo 2, ___, ___

Any reason you need to take biochem before junior year? Simple fix to option 2 may just be to push biochem until junior year...

I think you really need to figure out what went wrong in Orgo 1 this year and whether it is fixable before Orgo 2. If it was not working hard enough, that's one thing. But if the material was just too hard, you may want to give option 2 a try. Otherwise, you'll have to figure out if you can handle the workload and still do well in both classes. Talk to others who have taken both concurrently at your university.

Kudos for jumping into orgo 1 in your first semester though.

 

[7985lesiawon]

Any reason you need to take biochem before junior year? Simple fix to option 2 may just be to push biochem until junior year...

I think you really need to figure out what went wrong in Orgo 1 this year and whether it is fixable before Orgo 2. If it was not working hard enough, that's one thing. But if the material was just too hard, you may want to give option 2 a try. Otherwise, you'll have to figure out if you can handle the workload and still do well in both classes. Talk to others who have taken both concurrently at your university.

Kudos for jumping into orgo 1 in your first semester though.

The only problem with pushing biochem to junior year is that I would have to take physics and some microbio classes with biochem, which may be worse. Plus I'll have to study for the mcat spring of junior year. How time consuming is physics for premed compared to orgo, for example?

 

[Doctor Strange]

Huh. Orgo 2 was a prereq for my biochem...

 

[Economics]

That's not true.

It won't replace the B- but it will still count, so if you do well, it can raise your GPA.

Don't think one B- is going to kill you, but I'd be more worried about taking Orgo 2 a year after taking Orgo 1. There's a decent amount of crossover (the common reaction mechanisms you learn in Orgo 1 are pretty important in understanding the more complex reactions you'll learn in Orgo 2).

Does your university require orgo before taking biochem? I ask because the amount of orgo involved in a biochem course really varies. For my biochem class, we barely needed any background in orgo. For others, you may go more in depth in the reaction mechanisms so the orgo background is very helpful.

If you didn't do very well in Orgo 1, I'd caution against jumping straight into Orgo 2 without a solid study plan. Not sure it warrants re-taking Orgo 1 but it's definitely something to think about.

This may be a question you'll want to ask the Orgo 1/2 or Biochem professors at your University. Not the GPA part but how much Orgo 2 is necessary for Biochem and whether the workload of taking both is doable.

Yes you are correct. I knew something was wrong with what I was saying. There is no grade replacement with AMCAS but there is with DO. Sorry about the confusion OP.

Jepstein is correct though about being cautious in regards to your specific biochemistry class and how much organic it contains. Great advice.

 

[lobo.solo]

don't you need orgo 2? but maybe it's just at my uni. I think if they allow it at your school do it. I heard biochem is just memorizing a bunch of metabolic pathways.

 

[bonitaMD2017]

I wouldn't take orgo 2 and biochem at the same time if I could avoid it. I did that this past spring semester and it was a nightmare. The amount of time and energy you need to spend on each class, in my opinion, is too much to do at the same time. I ended up with B's in both. But this was after I got an A in orgo 1, so I had a pretty good grasp on that material. I don't know how comfortable you are with your orgo 1 knowledge so that may be something to consider as well. As for physics, as I remember, physics 1 was more difficult for me than physics 2 and required a lot of time. physics 2, not so much. BUT it is also very nice to have a really good orgo professor, that helps a lot. So there are a lot of factors to weigh, I just personally wouldn't take them both at the same time if I could do it over again.

 

[Frazier]

Doable, but not necessarily enjoyable.