Waiting a semester for Orgo II

[Jabberwocky12]

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Hey guys,

So 2 quick questions here about possibly pushing Orgo II over a semester.

One is that I have a full course load (17 hours) but a class I need to proceed further in bio just opened up. Orgo II isn't a pre-req for anything next fall but Animal Phys is for several classes I want/need to take. Would it look bad to wait a semester in between Orgo 1 and 2?

Next part is this: If I take the PCAT without completing Orgo II am I at a serious disadvantage or would I be okay assuming I did well in orgo I?

Thanks for the help, the drop/add period is coming up soon and I didn't know what to do.

Cheers!

 

[hillwilliam]

Well, in my opinion, you will only be making it harder on yourself taking Orgo I and Orgo II with a semester gap. I think it is best to take sequenced classes without a gap whenever possible. I don't think a one semester gap will look bad in the application process though. It sounds like you are taking a full course load and scheduling issues do arise. This is understood. Is there a way you could adjust one of your other classes to take the BIO class and Orgo II?

In my experience with the PCAT, Orgo II was very, very helpful. I took the PCAT four days after my Orgo II final and I was pleasantly surprised at how many questions were directly from Orgo II and I had just studied hard for the final and that studying helped me out tons on the PCAT. The specific questions you get on any PCAT vary from test to test so it is impossible to predict how big of an impact it will absolutely have.

 

[delano2000]

To answer your first question, I took OChem I in the fall and OChem II in the summer (would recommend that you don't take it in the summer though).

 

[MathDebate]

O Chem II is such a small part of the Chemistry section on the PCAT so you shouldn't worry so much about it. I felt like I bombed the few O Chem II questions I saw but still made close to a 90 on the Chemistry section of the PCAT.

 

[fullmetalphrm]

To answer your first question, I took OChem I in the fall and OChem II in the summer (would recommend that you don't take it in the summer though).

Just thinking about Ochem in a summer session gives me a stressful feeling. I took gen chem 1/2, anatomy, and an economics course over the course of two summers and each was a handful and required me to endlessly devote time in the 5 week window that each took place.

Although maybe Ochem could be a good one to do that with since you can just focus solely on it, which I found handy when taking anatomy since it was all memorization. I just needed so much time to digest/learn Ochem though, and I don't know how long your session was.

Anyway, to the OP I would personally suggest taking it either the following semester or the summer (if offered, and be careful) since you'll essentially be out of the loop for numerous months if not and it could put you at a disadvantage when starting from where you left off so long ago. I would argue ochem is THE weedout class, and you'll need everything you have to excel at it. But if you get your mechanisms down well ochem 2 isn't all that bad and you don't use a whole lot from earlier aside from nomenclature... so it's really up to you.

On a side note, why do people refer to ochem as orgo? They have the same amount of syllables and ochem has an extra letter, but orgo sounds like a villain in a fantasy movie or a brand of pasta.

 

[Passion4Sci]

because Orgo is a villain.

 

[fullmetalphrm]

because Orgo is a villain.

Hahaha, it's certainly difficult but the understanding of 'where the electrons like to go' is quite important in biochemistry and understanding how metabolic processes work. That being said, this central idea can be explained in a few seminars. Most of ochem really was a fair amount of memorization with a dash or two of applying mechanisms, at least for me.

It really is THE weedout class, huh.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Hahaha, it's certainly difficult but the understanding of 'where the electrons like to go' is quite important in biochemistry and understanding how metabolic processes work. That being said, this central idea can be explained in a few seminars. Most of ochem really was a fair amount of memorization with a dash or two of applying mechanisms, at least for me.

It really is THE weedout class, huh.

For most people, I think it is... although for me, the weeder was almost Physics. I hate Physics. I hate math.

OChem was just an intimidating amount of memorization.

 

[fullmetalphrm]

For most people, I think it is... although for me, the weeder was almost Physics. I hate Physics. I hate math.

OChem was just an intimidating amount of memorization.

Yeah I spent an uncanny amount of time on physics, fortunately I only needed to take one semester of it.

Other prereqs like biochemistry and microbiology were really a lot of fun and not extremely difficult, but physics/ochem certainly made me work at them.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Yeah I spent an uncanny amount of time on physics, fortunately I only needed to take one semester of it.

Other prereqs like biochemistry and microbiology were really a lot of fun and not extremely difficult, but physics/ochem certainly made me work at them.

Same.

I loved micro / immunology and biochem.

 

[fullmetalphrm]

Same.

I loved micro / immunology and biochem.

Dang I wanted to take an immunology class but it wasn't offered this semester. I'm taking a toxicology course though which is quite interesting and fun, although there is lots of primary paper reading in it. Biochem 2 is fairly interesting as well, I just want to get out of metabolism already though since later topics will be quite relevant to topics in pharmacology (another class I wish I could have taken).

I shouldn't try to get too 'prepared' for pharmacy school though since it sounds like the one I'm going to (as well as most other ones) build you up from biochem 1 anyway and do a fair amount of reviewing, and I'll get my pharmacology fix later heh.