I am currently in my second year of undergrad and my courses are not so bad. I would say that I'm getting A/B's. However, I feel like I'm not retaining the information mainly because it is just not that interesting to me. I remember it for the test and then forget. (General Biology and Chemistry) I'm worried that it will come to bite me in the butt. When you are actually in medical school courses is the undergrad information relevant?! Do you need to know it solid or just have a general idea? Is the information you learn in medical school building off of the classes from undergrad or is it all new? I just want to start learning about causes, diagnosing, symptoms and treatments. I have such a drive for being a doctor but I just don't know if I can master the undergraduate information!! I need some advice on how your undergrad courses come into play with medical school. Thanks in advance!
Undergrad courses, do they matter?
- Thread starter breab
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I'm also a pre-med student in my second year so I won't be of much help, but are you sure you want to pursue a medical degree? If biology and chemistry aren't interesting, then I don't think you'll find medical school interesting (which is essentially biology and chemistry on steroids from what I hear). If you mean you don't give a crap about photosynthesis or how much energy in kJ is transferred from a 30 kg rock heated to 106C to the water bath it's in, then I understand.
It's not that I find Chem/Bio as a whole uninteresting just certain subjects. Right now I'm learning about the lifecycle of a mushroom and trying the prove a trig identity. All I'm trying to say is that I would rather be learning about why a disease occurs or what symptoms distinguish one illness from another.
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Rising M2 here. There were a few lectures in med school I could breeze through because I remembered stuff from undergrad. And by a few I mean like maybe 3 or 4 the entire year. So no, undergrad courses don't matter for med school.
There's a reason why people who are in their 50s come into med school and manage to be good students. It doesn't matter what your background is, the biggest factor in med school is your self discipline.
There's a reason why people who are in their 50s come into med school and manage to be good students. It doesn't matter what your background is, the biggest factor in med school is your self discipline.
I think you lost the meaning of the question. I wasn't asking if you need to retain information. Clearly medical school is an insane amount of information which needs to be applied to your job every singLe day. I was asking for some information about how undergrad courses play into medical school. If I don't do so hot in my undergrad will it be a disadvantage to my learning in medical school. I think the reason undergrad is so difficult is to push people so hard to see how they handle the situiation which leads to showing who is reliable, responsible and self determined.
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There are people who messed up in their prereqs and went on to destroy the MCAT and excel in medical school. There are people who were several years off their undergrad prereqs who proceeded to crush the MCAT and rock medical school. Having some undergrad foundation may help but it is by no means required. Medical school starts on a clean slate. Doing well in medical school depends on strong study habits (they can be learned in MS1) and a desire to be motivated and learn.
