Taking chem and bio simultaneously?

[PsychStudent]

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It seems like most schools recommend taking chem before bio, but has anyone had any experience with taking them concurrently? Was it extremely confusing to take bio without knowing all of them chem concepts, or was it okay? Thanks!

 

[njbmd]

It seems like most schools recommend taking chem before bio, but has anyone had any experience with taking them concurrently? Was it extremely confusing to take bio without knowing all of them chem concepts, or was it okay? Thanks!

Hi there,
You should not have any problems taking General Chemistry and General Biology together as one is not a prereq for the other. Both are lab courses but very different. You do not need to have chemical concepts to for Biology. You DO need to have a pretty good working knowledge of Algebra for General Chemistry.

Most premed folks take Gen Bio and Gen Chem during their freshman year. They will then take Gen Physics and Organic Chemistry during sophomore year. Again, both of these are very doable together as long as you are not trying to do them together during a summer session.

Good luck!
njbmd 🙂

 

[Keau]

It seems like most schools recommend taking chem before bio, but has anyone had any experience with taking them concurrently? Was it extremely confusing to take bio without knowing all of them chem concepts, or was it okay? Thanks!

The typical track is fundamental bio (darwin,plant,eco,animal div) with gen chem 1 (stoich, sigs, lewis, enthalpy) for the 1st semester. 2nd semester chem 2 (thermo) and bio 2 (cell, intro molecular and biochem).

For second year second semester you need chem 1.

BIO 1 doesnt really go into too much chemical explanation as much as Bio 2. Play your strengths, Keau

 

[pingouin]

The typical track is fundamental bio (darwin,plant,eco,animal div) with gen chem 1 (stoich, sigs, lewis, enthalpy) for the 1st semester. 2nd semester chem 2 (thermo) and bio 2 (cell, intro molecular and biochem).

For second year second semester you need chem 1.

BIO 1 doesnt really go into too much chemical explanation as much as Bio 2. Play your strengths, Keau

the bios at my school were the opposite of what's listed above, so it probably varies by school.

at any rate, I took bio I alone (testing the waters to see if I really wanted to do this), then bio II with chem I and chem II with physics I all while working 2 jobs and was able to fit it all in without many problems.

good luck!

 

[Law2Doc]

the bios at my school were the opposite of what's listed above, so it probably varies by school.

Agree with this -- most schools actually seem to start smaller (cellular) and work up, with ecology and genetics at the end of the bio prereqs.

 

[QofQuimica]

I took bio and physics together as a freshman, then gen chem as a sophomore and organic as a junior. It was fine. As long as you take gen chem before you take organic, you can take the other pre-reqs in any order you want.

 

[relentless11]

I did it the traditional way. Freshman year I took bio and gchem. Soph year took ochem and physics. My bio started off with the cell, all that basic stuff. Second quarter bio was zoology, and third quarter was botany.

Anyway, I have friends who did chem and physics freshman year, and ochem in soph year, and did bio their jr. year. No problems either. Like QofQuimica said, the big thing is to take gchem before ochem. But as a biochem major, I was pressured to take these classes as early as possible so i can take my upper division courses (e.g., biochem, and pchem). my jr, and sr. years.