Toughest Pre-Req? Just wondering...

Started by Badger Girl
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Badger Girl

Badger Girl

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I'm just starting my pre-reqs (taking genetics this semester), so I am just curious about which ones were the hardest for everyone. This is just an opinion question since everyone has different experiences and skill levels. Personally, I'm a little nervous about more advanced general chem stuff and biochem. I'm just taking it one step at a time, so no need to freak out at this point. I'm just curious!🙂
 
I am most worried about english writing. 😳

Taking Ochem 1, Gen Bio 2, micro bio and genetics this semester and not worried about any of them, but English writing in the fall scares the crap out of me.
 
Physics. Hands down. All of the exams were multiple-choice, and the options were something like a. 1, b. -1, c. 1/2, d. -1/2. I ALWAYS chose the wrong sign 😡
 
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Ah, second semester physics beyond a doubt. my only C in college ... and my only F on a test (yes, including the curve). I looked at the exam, trying to find a question I could at least begin ... and got to the end before I found one i knew how to do. Surprise, surprise, apparently you don't need physics in vet school.

Second were biochem and orgo. ewww ... but i loved gen chem, genetics, an phys, etc. something about proteins just really .... ewwww. 🙂

edit: it wasn't the optics. that was the one thing i DID get -- it was the electricity and the magnitism and the 14 million right hand rules: cureent this way, flux that way field this other way ... ewww. I actually liked nuclear/quantum because it was like p-chem! 🙂
 
Glad you brought that up b/c here I am thinking only about the science pre-reqs, forgetting that there are required classes other than science classes! I only have the science classes to take, thus the reason for the "tunnel vision!" 🙂
 
I hated Physics II--all that magnetism and optics--yuck! But the optics does come back to haunt you in Physiology when you study vision. I also hated Genetics. My professor was boring as dirt, wait I think that's giving dirt a bad name. Anyway, it was a nightmare.
 
Physics and biochem. One term of physics I did pass/no pass, one I got a C, and the last one I finally got an A (w00t extra credit!). Biochem was a C. Physics was just inherently difficult for me, the only class that's ever been that way for me, and my biochem class was ginormous and I always zigged when the teacher zagged when it came to guessing what I needed to study for her tests. Blah.
 
I took most of my pre-reqs like 8 years ago...but I struggled with Gen. Chem 1 the most. I found both Orgo's to be easier than Gen Chem. Personally, I think it has something to do with your ability to do math...if you're good in math, gen chem is easy to you, if not, orgo is easier....my perspective.

Bottom line though...I think it all comes down to your teacher. It could be the hardest subject in the world, but a great teacher could make it seem like cake...know what I'm saying?
 
I wish somehow we could legitimately justify lower grades b/c of poor teaching. The quality of the teaching has SO much to do with the success of students, in my opinion. There just isn't a way to say "I had a bad teacher," b/c then everyone with a low grade would say that. Booo to all the bad teachers/profs!!
 
PJlovin said:
Personally, I think it has something to do with your ability to do math...if you're good in math, gen chem is easy to you, if not, orgo is easier....my perspective.
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After two seconds of thought, i realized I'm a prime candidate for this thinking/theory: I love math/patters/etc. Genetics? Patterns and math. An Phys? patterns and rates.

Somehow, that logic falls apart with physics. I think that class just DEFIES logic.

I'm sorry, this just kicked off my physics animosity again. Really, people just don't ask me about that semester anymore. Its like it never existed. We don't even refer to in in conversation, just say "april of soph year" instead of spring semester .... and the professor was crap. complete monotone. how can you NOT sleep through monotone discussions on MAGNETIC FLUX?!?!?! And VECTORS?!?!?

okay, i'm going to take some deep breaths here ... and re-forget that semester. sorry for my .... whatever that was. 🙂


Just because I'm curious: does anyone go back and work "old" material when they are stressed? My example is I do genetics lineage problems when I'm stressed and need a release -- like if you cross this to that, and get this, what will happen if you do that? Completely tangential, and most people who know I do this think I'm crazy ... but its kinda like sudoku. or those matrix problems when you get clues to figure out who has what toy, and which favorite color. okay, sorry (again)
 
Badger Girl said:
I wish somehow we could legitimately justify lower grades b/c of poor teaching. The quality of the teaching has SO much to do with the success of students, in my opinion. There just isn't a way to say "I had a bad teacher," b/c then everyone with a low grade would say that. Booo to all the bad teachers/profs!!
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In one of my interviews, I blamed bad grades & dropped courses on bad teachers. They seemed understanding about it.
 
I think orgo I and biochem II were the worst for me. It isn't at all that they were inherently hard, my problem is just that when I think a class will be easy, I don't study/try, and then end up doing really badly in the class. If I think a class is hard, regardless of its difficulty level, I tend to do well.
 
wi girl said:
After two seconds of thought, i realized I'm a prime candidate for this thinking/theory: I love math/patters/etc. Genetics? Patterns and math. An Phys? patterns and rates.

Somehow, that logic falls apart with physics. I think that class just DEFIES logic.

I'm sorry, this just kicked off my physics animosity again. Really, people just don't ask me about that semester anymore. Its like it never existed. We don't even refer to in in conversation, just say "april of soph year" instead of spring semester .... and the professor was crap. complete monotone. how can you NOT sleep through monotone discussions on MAGNETIC FLUX?!?!?! And VECTORS?!?!?

quote]


Goes back to good/bad teacher for me. Had a bad teacher...dropped phsy 1 because I was failing. Had a great teacher the next time around and aced it.


As a side note....just out of curiosity...do any of you have a test bank at your school?? At mine, if you were a member of any of the pre-health clubs, you had access to a test bank - it held all old exams and was alphabetized by teacher name. It came in handy for me many times!! 😀 They had this at the school I got my first degree at, but not the school I got my 2nd degree at. The students at the 2nd school were shocked that we had that. Just curious to see if it's common practice or not.
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Badger Girl said:
I wish somehow we could legitimately justify lower grades b/c of poor teaching. The quality of the teaching has SO much to do with the success of students, in my opinion. There just isn't a way to say "I had a bad teacher," b/c then everyone with a low grade would say that. Booo to all the bad teachers/profs!!
Click to expand...


Oh wow I totally agree with you about bad profs! (and TA's too for that matter!) I find profs have a huge impact on my motivation to study, how able I am to stay awake in lecture, how well I understand the material, how well I retain the material, how fast it takes me to learn the material and overall what my mark is like
 
athenaparthenos said:
Physics and biochem. One term of physics I did pass/no pass, one I got a C, and the last one I finally got an A (w00t extra credit!). Biochem was a C. Physics was just inherently difficult for me, the only class that's ever been that way for me, and my biochem class was ginormous and I always zigged when the teacher zagged when it came to guessing what I needed to study for her tests. Blah.
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Another vote for physics and biochem. Ugh. Two things that make/made my life miserable.
 
Organic Chemistry, hands down. Physics was difficult at times, but nothing inspires the hatred in me that organic chemistry did. Of course, I took organic and physics at the same time, which was really dumb.
 
PJlovin said:
As a side note....just out of curiosity...do any of you have a test bank at your school??
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We don't have a test bank. But its common practice for profs to post old prelims (exams) on blackboard (the course site) for us. Sometimes (esp. genetics) you could get the last four years' exams for extra practice. I would hedge my bets and say that for most of the bio classes (intro and upper) and intro chem classes its rare to not have some type of practice exam available.

Do other schools not do this?
 
im a bit of a weirdo... i loved physics (though I was an engineering major)... and i super loved organic chem (but i had the most fantastic professor in the world)...

my arch nemesis... genetics. i hated it back in high school with those damn fruit flies and hated it even more in college. I never got it and still do not really get it... once we got passed simple little punnet squares with the wrinkled and smooth peas, it was all over for me (and we covered that in like the first 20 min of class!!) 🙂
 
wi girl said:
We don't have a test bank. But its common practice for prof to post old prelims (exams) on blackboard for us. Sometimes (esp. genetics) you could get the last four years' exams for extra practice. I would hedge my bets and say that for most of the bio classes (intro and upper) and intro chem classes its rare to not have some type of practice exam available.

Do other schools not do this?
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Yeah... our teachers would post practice exams, but they would never repeat those questions. But some of the exams in the test bank would be almost duplicate to the tests you would take in class. Can you say "easy A??" haha
 
By far, physics. I was happy to get out with BC first semester and C second semester. Just never made any sense.
 
Calculus, both semesters. I'm not a theoretical, useless math kind of person, and those were definitely my worst classes.
 
Anatomy and Physiology I and II. While I *LOVE* the subject matter, the class is a total mind game thanks to the prof. It's been absolute hell. I did decently well in A&P I (A-), but the crap I had to go through for it was just sooo not worth it. This semester, senioritis has definitely kicked in and I don't have enough willpower or motivation to study enough and/or suck up enough to get a good grade. I did well on the first test, but I'm pretty sure my grade will plummet when I get back the test I took on Friday. Then, add into it the completely subjective curve (read: how much the prof likes/dislikes you), and I'm hoping for a C+/B- 🙄

Gradewise, my worst class in college was Physics II. But, the prof was awesome, though, just extremely difficult, so I look back on it fondly.
 
My worst grades were in Calculus I & II (C+ and B-, but the C+ doesn't affect my GPA--my school offers first semester freshmen covered grades) and Gen Chem I (B-). I was a freshman, still figuring out how to study, and hadn't had a good calc teacher in high school. Second worst grades (B+) were in Biochem and Gen Chem II. Did well (A-) in Organic I and II, got As in all my lab courses, and have gotten As in all the bio classes besides Biochem.
 
I'd have to agree with the general vote for (Calc based) Physics II. I'm taking it right now, and I really hate it. I love math, but I'm not great with vectors, and I usually solve it correctly if the problems asks for magnitude, but ALWAYS mess up direction.
 
Organic for me. It also turned me off PBL b/c that's how my first semester was taught - no lectures, just small groups going through a workbook. In retrospect, it might not have been a terrible way to learn the subject, but I was so overwhelmed by it at the time

Loved biochem though. It was like bare-bones organic with a point; knowing the application just makes it so much more interesting (plus I had an awesome prof)
 
I had the hardest time with (calc based) Physics I. And Biochemistry the first time, because I took it without having taken a general biology course since high school and didn't even remember what amino acids were to begin with, nevermind what they were supposed to be used for. 🙄
 
Probably my worst grade was physiology (though it was human physiology), but I took that in an insane semester - Orgo, physiological psychology, and an upper level spanish lit class. Like the hardest classes in each subject!

But I really believe professor has something to do with it - both in how well they teach and how you learn, as well as your motivation to try and do well. The first time I took orgo (the above semester) I ended up dropping it b/c the 34 on my first exam would necessitate so much work i was afraid my other classes would suffer. The professor taught by reading off his power points and told me as a neuroscience major I would never be able to do well and should just give up and move on. Well the second time i loved it - probably my favorite non-bio pre-req. - and got a B+/A- in Orgo I and II respectively. You have no idea how much I wanted to rub that in his face more than anything!:laugh:
 
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I had the most difficult time with orgo... both semesters... but physics was actually okay for me. Then again, it really does have to do with the quality of teaching. I had an amazing professor for Physics II and I actually enjoyed the class and studying for it. Orgo on the other hand... he was old and becoming senile, which is not good when you are attempting to learn organic chemistry. He talked in circles, he was monotonous, and he'd mix up important things in the middle of lecture. It was HORRIBLE... I'm glad that year is over 🙂
 
I actually enjoyed Organic Chemistry. A lot of people hated it but my teacher was awesome and, while hard, you really understood the material so I actually learned stuff instead of forgetting it after the test.

But my worst class was Genetics. It wasn't near as hard as Biochemistry, Microbiology, Ochem, etc. it was just so damned boring. The prof posted all the lectures on the net so I eventually stopped going.

Impossible to stay awake in that class. I think the other students had caffeine IVs or something.
 
Physics (all of it) and Calc. But especially physics. my calc professor was really nice. I'm liking biochem so far.
 
I liked organic chem waaaay better than gen chem for some reason, and I did better in those classes. Physics wasn't too hard, but I hated it; the labs were pointless, and I swear one of our teachers was high every class. He was not a very good lecturer, and all of us doubted that he really knew the material himself.
 
Hm...Personally I thought my first year bio classes were pretty hard. When you have 150 pre-med/pre-vet students in an introductory class they try and "weed" you out. (Now that I'm taking 300 and 400 biology classes, I think their much easier!) I also didn't like Gen Chem or O-Chem....or Calculus. :scared:

Haha, not that I've hated all my pre-reqs!! The ones I've really enjoyed are: Microbiology, Physiology, Biochem, Physics, and Statistics. 🙂
 
I am really enjoying Genetics so far, but I happen to have a wonderful professor. It's my only class this semester, but I actually think it's quite a bit of work. I'm so used to my social work classes where everything was really based on writing papers. I just have to re-train myself to doing homework and taking tests!!
 
Badger Girl said:
\ There just isn't a way to say "I had a bad teacher," b/c then everyone with a low grade would say that. Booo to all the bad teachers/profs!!
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I did. I failed stats (yes one of the "easiest" prereqs) because I was taught to round numbers at the end, while my professor did it from the beginning, and then he gave no partial credit (meaning my 5.9 answer to a 30 point question would get me 0 because his answer was 6.0😡)

Anyway I took the same class with different professor the next quarter and got an A. 😀

Wasn't hard to convince adcoms that there was something funny going on with a student with all A's and one F....:laugh:
 
I would take physics over Ochem anyday. Ochem kicked my butt, especially third quarter!
 
CanadianGolden said:
I loooooove Organic. I tutor it. I think it's amazingly fun.
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Go organic tutors! I tutor it too 🙂 It was a challenging class but definitely not too difficult for me, I had an amazing professor and the material was really interesting in my opinion.

Grade-wise Ecology was my hardest class, and the only class I've ever gotten a B in, but that was more of a situational thing with the professor.

As far as hard classes where the material was concerned, definitely Calculus and Biochemistry I. I'm absolutely terrible at math, and with biochem Michaelis-Menten gave me some trouble and almost got me a B in the class *EEK!* So far Biochemistry II has been much more managable 🙂
 
chris03333 said:
I did. I failed stats (yes one of the "easiest" prereqs) because I was taught to round numbers at the end, while my professor did it from the beginning, and then he gave no partial credit (meaning my 5.9 answer to a 30 point question would get me 0 because his answer was 6.0😡)

Arghhh!! I HATED Stats!! I had this loony lady for a professor who assigned us a bunch of homework for each class, then during class time she would make us go through the room in order and read our answers. I practically had a panic attack before each class b/c I would get so embarrassed when my answers were way off. Yuck.....bad memories!🙁
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Badger Girl said:
chris03333 said:
I did. I failed stats (yes one of the "easiest" prereqs) because I was taught to round numbers at the end, while my professor did it from the beginning, and then he gave no partial credit (meaning my 5.9 answer to a 30 point question would get me 0 because his answer was 6.0😡)

Arghhh!! I HATED Stats!! I had this loony lady for a professor who assigned us a bunch of homework for each class, then during class time she would make us go through the room in order and read our answers. I practically had a panic attack before each class b/c I would get so embarrassed when my answers were way off. Yuck.....bad memories!🙁
Click to expand...

I managed an A in stats but found it extremely boring! Now I wish I had committed myself more to understanding it than just memorizing to pass tests. I read about studies now and z and t values and r coefficients and I can't remember what it all means 🙄 . 'Course it's been several years since I had stats.
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critterfixer said:
Organic Chemistry, hands down. Physics was difficult at times, but nothing inspires the hatred in me that organic chemistry did. Of course, I took organic and physics at the same time, which was really dumb.
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I also took organic chemistry (the second semester of it) & physics at the same time, and it was horrible! It didn't help that I took them the semester after "studying" in Australia (all we really did was snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef, and take advantage that as 20 year olds we were of legal drinking age in Australia!). I think I could have done better in organic chemistry than I did; I had heard so many horror stories about it, so I had already made up my mind that it would be difficult before I even started the class...basically I had a preconceived notion of how I would perform in the course, and let's just say that I definitely lived down to my low expectations!
 
O chem was hard, but at least it made some form of sense (you know, everything follows these rules, except the 400 exceptions, which you have to memorize).
Physics is killing me. I understand math just fine, but the physics part. Haha. Not so much.
 
For me the hardest was Microbiology, I had a professor that was on some kind of ego trip, he told us the first day of class that this would be the hardest class we had ever had, and that he would assume everybody had already taken Biochem and Molecular Genetics, never mind that they were not pre-reqs. He was very proud of the fact that most of the times he taught the class there were no A's.

Coming in a close second was Gen Chem II, I really liked Chemistry until that point. Again it was a professor issue.
 
I absolutely LOVED organic chem, second was micro, and then the rest of my bio classes.

I absolutely HATED first semester of physics, although I liked the second semester, it made much more sense to me. I heard I am usually backwards compared to most people on this. I think it's because the class was structured HORRIBLY and graded weirdly. Lab was horrible and ridiculous. The semester after I took it, they changed the format, go figure.

Biochem was probably my hardest but I took it with graduate students through the med school and even though it was hard, it was interesting and I didn't have much else going on. Physics, I couldn't have cared less about.

Inorganic chem, not hard, but wayyyyyyy too boring for me.

HARDEST: Biochem
MOST HATED: Physics 1
 
Definitely hated Organic Chem. the most. My prof. was just off probation, I learned nothing, and I received a 56% (Which turned out to be a "B") 😕
 
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