Too much for a semester?

[SweetTea25]

I will be a sopho. next year and wondering if my course load next year would be too difficult or way too time-consuming. I only took intro bio freshman so I think I am alil behind. I attend a small liberal arts college so they only offer a limited amount of courses.

Going to be a Bio major
Next year for first semester:
1. Cell Bio
2. Gen Chem
3. Physics
4. Spanish I guess.

I just wondering is it a wise move or am I just cramming too much to get pre-reqs done.

Appreciate the help.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[supertrooper66]

I will be a sopho. next year and wondering if my course load next year would be too difficult or way too time-consuming. I only took intro bio freshman so I think I am alil behind. I attend a small liberal arts college so they only offer a limited amount of courses.

Going to be a Bio major
Next year for first semester:
1. Cell Bio
2. Gen Chem
3. Physics
4. Spanish I guess.

I just wondering is it a wise move or am I just cramming too much to get pre-reqs done.

Appreciate the help.

nope, that's fine. Gen Chem is easy. Cell bio as in the intro bio, right? Then you should be okay. Physics will be hard, though. if I were you I'd take that junior year UNLESS you want to take the MCAT next summer. if i were you, i'd replace physics with some elective. you honestly could probably add another elective, too.

 

[MILK07]

I agree with above poster. I took Genetics with Lab, Cell Bio with L, Physics with L, and Gen Chem with Lab (16 hours) and it was ok. I just had to stay organized and prioritize. You should be fine, it can definitely be done!

 

[135892]

I will be a sopho. next year and wondering if my course load next year would be too difficult or way too time-consuming. I only took intro bio freshman so I think I am alil behind. I attend a small liberal arts college so they only offer a limited amount of courses.

Going to be a Bio major
Next year for first semester:
1. Cell Bio
2. Gen Chem
3. Physics
4. Spanish I guess.

I just wondering is it a wise move or am I just cramming too much to get pre-reqs done.

Appreciate the help.

Those courses are all pretty straightfoward and fairly easy, so it should be no problem at all. However, there is certainly no rush in finishing up all the pre-reqs. If you want to take some other courses, in whatever area, then by all means you should. Good luck.

 

[SweetTea25]

Thanks,

Cell Bio is the class "cell bio" not the intro-bio. Dunno if that changes the responses, but just to clarify. I heard cell bio and physics are very time-consuming, so that is why i am hesitate about this course load

If i were to take physics jr year, it might seem intimidating with orgo and filling with applications. Taking three sciences in sopho year seems alil extreme for me though, so just wanted to see what you guys think.

 

[135892]

Thanks,

Cell Bio is the class "cell bio" not the intro-bio. Dunno if that changes the responses, but just to clarify. I heard cell bio and physics are very time-consuming, so that is why i am hesitate about this course load

If i were to take physics jr year, it might seem intimidating with orgo and filling with applications. Taking three sciences in sopho year seems alil extreme for me though, so just wanted to see what you guys think.

Yeah, you just kind of have to figure out how much you can handle. For me, physics was pretty easy, but I know other people that just couldn't get it and had to put in a lot of time. Its hard to say if the course load really is too much, because every person has different strengths. But if I had to give you an answer, I would say just go with the courses you have now, and figure out early on how much effort you need to put into each class to succeed.

 

[[pj]]

Is the physics algebra-based or calc-based? It should be pretty simple if it's not the latter.

 

[al112987]

thats not too bad at all. I did p.chem, genetics, organic, statistics (lol) and research last semester and did just fine (save for a B+). I'm not particularly smart nor did I feel like I had to push myself to the limit (there was only one occasion where I felt sleep deprived and that was the night before my orgo final, where I was in bed by 2 am for my 8 am exam but for some reason, couldn't fall asleep so got back up and watched Scrubs online until morning instead).

But I did study very effectively, some people simply do not know how to study for classes, and it makes science heavy semesters very difficult and stressful. Doing little things like looking over a days notes after lecture for maybe 15-20 minutes helps a bunch, thats all I did, and made sure that I booked 2 nights to study for every exam, and 3-4 nights if I had two exams in one day.

Studying is a skill, and I honestly believe that those people crumpled up around their books until 4 am at the library 4 nights in a row are very bad at it. Sometimes you really just need to work smarter, not harder, and people have the tendency to overwork themselves unnecesarily.

Besides, by the time you hit junior and senior year, you will end up taking many advanced courses at once anyway.

 

[redlight]

nope, that's fine. Gen Chem is easy. Cell bio as in the intro bio, right? Then you should be okay. Physics will be hard, though. if I were you I'd take that junior year UNLESS you want to take the MCAT next summer. if i were you, i'd replace physics with some elective. you honestly could probably add another elective, too.

haha, let's stay away from sweeping statements
gen chem 1 was easy for me, but i had to work a lot harder for second semester

I will be a sopho. next year and wondering if my course load next year would be too difficult or way too time-consuming. I only took intro bio freshman so I think I am alil behind. I attend a small liberal arts college so they only offer a limited amount of courses.

Going to be a Bio major
Next year for first semester:
1. Cell Bio
2. Gen Chem
3. Physics
4. Spanish I guess.

I just wondering is it a wise move or am I just cramming too much to get pre-reqs done.

Appreciate the help.

well ive been told to never take more than 2 prereqs at a time..
i did that last year, and was fine, but idk if id do it again lol
btw, are you taking labs w/ lecture?
your schedule doesn't look bad at all, but it depends on a bunch of factors (how tough your professors are, your study habits in each class [i.e. your ability to adjust to each class and professor so you study effectively], your extracurric commitments, and labs if you have em)
you should be fine though

 

[Katatonic]

I think you should be fine, but it changes from person to person. I found Cell Bio a fairly challenging course, but it was also extremely interesting so putting in the extra reading time wasn't too bad.

 

[suwaifo]

Easy or not, it depends on how long your semester is. My school has 16 week semesters that drive me insane.

 

[Hurricane95]

That's a perfectly doable semester, don't worry. What does that come out to, like 12 credits? At my school that was the minimum to be considered a full-time student. Seriously lots of people get by fine taking 5 and 6 classes, so no biggie.

Number one word of advice (since these are prereq courses) is to not slack off and fall behind. I think that's the main reason people bomb physics....trying to learn it all a couple of nights before the exam doesn't cut it. It's not about memorizing, but applying so you need to learn it well.

 

[foster033]

if i were you, i'd replace physics with some elective. you honestly could probably add another elective, too.

If his school is like my liberal arts school then all classes are 4 credits, lab classes are 5 and you can't take more than 19 credit hours so he probably wouldn't be able to add anything else since this schedule would be at 19 hours.

OP I found organic to be very helpful in cell bio so it might help your grade to wait until you've had organic, but this depends on your prof and school. If you are a bio major there's probably a lot of other classes you could put in there besides cell and still stay on track to graduate in 4 years. Although, if you only took one science class your freshman year and your a science major you might want to consider summer classes or staying for an extra semester if you don't want to load up on science classes ever semester.

 

[BlitzSleep]

OP, that is a very easy schedule. Isn't that only 14 hours of 100 level courses (except micro which isn't hard)?

 

[redlight]

Easy or not, it depends on how long your semester is. My school has 16 week semesters that drive me insane.

does that include reading period and finals week?

 

[SweetTea25]

Seems that the general consensus is I take those three classes. Its going to be a hard sopho year, but I just have to deal with it.

Since i attend a small liberal arts school, all the bio courses are generally filled cuz of all the bio majors. I was even lucky to get a bio course next year, but it just happen to be cell bio, which is, according to the older students, very challenging. Phys is supposed to be hard too

To address the confusion bout my courses:
Cell bio is a 300 course which is 4 credits
Spanish is a 200 course which is 4 credits
Both Physics and Gen Chem (each is 3 credits) are 100 courses with each lab counting as 1 credit

So the total credit is 16 with a semester lasting from late August to early December. I am only taking two pre-reqs for med, but i am a bio major so thats why the extra bio course.

Appreciate the all advice again. Been great

 

[cdmccart]

None of those classes are conceptually that difficult, but you'll just have to make sure you're prioritizing and not spreading yourself too thin. Last Spring I took Gen Chem II, Physics, 2 Gen Ed Lit classes, and a lower level Development class (17 hours). Like I said, none were conceptually that diffcult but I struggled with the classes because I was spread too thin with work and extracurriculars. Both my physics and chem labs were Friday, so I always had 2 lab reports due on Fridays both of which were between 4 and 12 pages long. You can do it, just don't commit yourself to too many things before you know how much time you'll need to invest in the classes.