Weighing Prerequisites

[bambielee]

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I was wondering if some prerequisites are weighed more heavily than others. My advisor told me that it is obviously preferable to get straight A's, but to really shoot for an A in o-chem because adcoms are very focused on that class. He could be wrong (I don't want to discourage anyone who got less than an A!! 😀) but I want to know what everyone else thinks.

 

[146233]

O-Chem has been the traditional "weed out" class, but I know some others on here have had more difficulty with Physics. I think you should worry more about doing well than which courses may or may not weigh more. That kind of thing is going to be school-dependent and not something we're privvy to.

 

[prmdbeach17]

Yeah I've heard they like to see an A in the ochems but also try to do well in the upper-division bio courses. I'm sure just a B in ochem won't keep you out of med school though.

 

[JRockdown]

Agreeing with above, O. Chem and upper levels tends to be what most people pick on. Beyond that pay attention to the intro's in the sciences, usually they are worth a lot of credits and therefor important to the GPA.

Moral of the story, you don't really get to take it easy in anything.

 

[medking]

I was wondering if some prerequisites are weighed more heavily than others. My advisor told me that it is obviously preferable to get straight A's, but to really shoot for an A in o-chem because adcoms are very focused on that class. He could be wrong (I don't want to discourage anyone who got less than an A!! 😀) but I want to know what everyone else thinks.

IF (<-----emphasis on the "if") this is the case, then that would be great for me, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

But yea, do your best (ie. well) in all your classes, lol.

 

[armybound]

I have a hard time believing one science course is weighted more than the others.

Though it would be great, since I got great scores in O-chem but did terrible in gen chem.

 

[bambielee]

I have a hard time believing one science course is weighted more than the others.

Though it would be great, since I got great scores in O-chem but did terrible in gen chem.

Me too! That's why I was worried. I got straight C's in gen chem and I was kinda discouraged. I heard that o-chem is pretty different than gen chem and that some people do better in one than the other. I hope thats true for my sake! 🙂

 

[armybound]

Me too! That's why I was worried. I got straight C's in gen chem and I was kinda discouraged. I heard that o-chem is pretty different than gen chem and that some people do better in one than the other. I hope thats true for my sake! 🙂

I also made Cs in gen chem, but an A in ochem 1 and a B+ in ochem 2 (no one in our class made an A in ochem 2. our professor was weird)

 

[The Madden Bus]

O-Chem has been the traditional "weed out" class, but I know some others on here have had more difficulty with Physics. I think you should worry more about doing well than which courses may or may not weigh more. That kind of thing is going to be school-dependent and not something we're privvy to.

Yea I'd be part of that contingent. Organic Chemistry is the most overrated class in college, in my opinion. Physics is the real "lawyer maker" in my opinion.

 

[bambielee]

Yea I'd be part of that contingent. Organic Chemistry is the most overrated class in college, in my opinion. Physics is the real "lawyer maker" in my opinion.

Really? For some reason physics comes really easy to me. I can actually say its my favorite class (I'm taking it right now). But, I can see the whole organic chem being a weed out class thing...it seems more "relevant" than the other prereq's (other than biology, of course), and I hear it's the toughest one.

 

[TheRealMD]

People who do decently in physics do ok in ochem (and vice versa). The two subjects are nice because they aren't your typical "memorize a bunch of ****" type bio classes. YOu have to put in real effort if your class is actually testing on what you learn.

 

[MChitty]

With physics I found that the quality of the teaching made a huge difference. I did average in physics in high school and physics 1 in college, but physics 2, I had an excellent professor and TA, so it was a lot easier.

I also think E&M was easier because I wasn't trying to use 'logic.' I felt that I was always trying to figure out the kinematics stuff using my own instincts rather than just using the equations. That didn't work out so well.

 

[bambielee]

Yeah I completely agree. And the professor definitely has a big impact on how you understand the material. My physics professor is the best professor I've had so far (and I'm going into my 5th year of college) so I find I grasp the material better. I mean I liked gen bio, but it is just a lot of memorization, and when we had to do the chapters with the reproduction cycles of plants I wanted to kill myself. I hope upper level bio gets better!

 

[Medikit]

It seems to me that the only prereqs that matter were the ones where you scored low. As a pre-med you're expected to get A's and B's in your classes. Anything lower than that and it might hurt you. You guys all probably knew this, that's why we're all so anal about grades. But I think the OP sees to presume that getting a B in O-chem and an A in G-chem is worse than getting a B in G-chem and an A in O-chem, well that's just plain silly. Neither one will hurt you.

When an adcom scans down your grades he is looking for something that pops out. an A in O-chem in a sea of A's and B's doesn't pop out. C's do pop out and D's will likely come up during an interview. Sometimes certain classes might pop out if they sound interesting or unusual.

 

[armybound]

It seems to me that the only prereqs that matter were the ones where you scored low. As a pre-med you're expected to get A's and B's in your classes. Anything lower than that and it might hurt you. You guys all probably knew this, that's why we're all so anal about grades. But I think the OP sees to presume that getting a B in O-chem and an A in G-chem is worse than getting a B in G-chem and an A in O-chem, well that's just plain silly. Neither one will hurt you.

When an adcom scans down your grades he is looking for something that pops out. an A in O-chem in a sea of A's and B's doesn't pop out. C's do pop out and D's will likely come up during an interview. Sometimes certain classes might pop out if they sound interesting or unusual.

Gotta agree with you there.