What is the HARDEST class you've taken?

[TTSD]

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For me, it's a toss up between two neuro classes:

Developmental Neuro -

A relatively new class, it explored development of the brain from gross anatomy to synaptic plasticity and the various experiments performed to find them across different species. So we had to memorize hormones, messanging systems, pathways, different signaling pathways and who they bonded with, what they initiated and everything. It was insanity.. and you realize neuro researchers are nerds when they name important hormones/signaling pathways after popular Sega games. Actually, it wasn't that bad but since I could barely make it to class due to work I just had to memorize the text book and I took the final the day I left the ER at 3 am in the morning. I still got my B, so UP YOURS NEURO! =)

Action Potentials and Membranes -

It's exactly what it sounds like. They talk about action potentials and membranes. Think of it as the physics of neuroscience. The class was so ungodly difficult out of 50 some students I know of only one so far who got an A (maybe some of the grad students did.. don't know).. I ended up around with a 50% in the class and got a B. It was THAT difficult.

 

[Amy B]

5 credit Embryology with lab. A butt kicking class with a teacher who wanted everything to be known. The who, where, what, why and when of everything. Drove me crazy but I got my B.
The exams were 12 pages front and back and the final exam took over 5 hours, so I am so happy for that B.

 

[Megalofyia]

While I really enjoyed the class I'd have to say physical chemistry.

 

[Terje131]

Quantum Mechanics II... I came out of that class knowing less about quantum mechanics than I did when I started.

 

[sgilani]

advanced spanish grammar
i'm not a native speaker

 

[Street Philosopher]

electricity and magnetism (physics)

 

[gick]

I'm with megalofyia on Physical Chemistry. For me, it was a struggle for the B. I did enjoy it, though.

 

[peterockduke]

physical chemstry (lab really, not class)

advanced/grad level ORGO

 

[DAL]

transport processes I or II(ChemE class)

take your pick, I pulled a C in both of them

 

[Rippey]

P. chem, without a doubt 🙁

puts every other class i've taken to shame

 

[robotdancing]

tossup between...

1. evolutionary genetics -> population genetics on crack. i should have known better than to take a graduate level pop genetics course without having taken matrix algebra/diff eq

2. orgo iii (graduate level) -> turns out everything they teach you in organic i-ii is either a lie or a drastic oversimplification. tough, but awesome, class.

through nothing short of divine intervention, i managed to pull a's in both of the above. but man, they were tough.

 

[mosfet]

1) Microelectronic Circuits
2) Embedded Microcontroller Design

Definitely my hardest. They totally sucked!!

 

[Gleevec]

1. Developmental Biology/Genetics Lab
2. Freshman-only Organic Chemistry

 

[An Yong]

Theory of Automata, Languages, and Complexity (Computer Science/Math)

I've never been academically more challenged in my life. Coming up with creative math proofs in a 1.5 hour test is impossible for me =)

 

[soonerpillow]

I wouldn't say I've really had any hard classes...I go to OU. We have to make sure all our football players pass. 😉 But the hardest one I've had is Advanced Biochemistry.

 

[UCLAstudent]

General chem, definitely.

 

[Gbemi24]

Originally posted by An Yong
Theory of Automata, Languages, and Complexity (Computer Science/Math)

I've never been academically more challenged in my life. Coming up with creative math proofs in a 1.5 hour test is impossible for me =)

You are right this is a difficult class but I thought proving theorems in Real Analysis was a bit harder.

 

[CD]

Originally posted by peterockduke
physical chemstry (lab really, not class)

advanced/grad level ORGO

Yep, me too.....physical chemistry (the class! although I did get an A) and advanced Orgo (CH 631 and 632)...really nasty.

 

[pyau03]

Evolutionary Biology, Genetics with Drosophila lab, Animal Behavor (useless class! totally a waste of time & energy!) and Econometrics (I still don't know how to run the SAS statistic software!). I want a refund of my tuition!

 

[EarlyEditionDude]

Intro to Basketweaving 101

 

[kmnfive]

high enegry physics

 

[SleepPsych72]

My hardest class was a graduate level statistics. I say this because of the subject matter and the work load. It dealth with stuff like MANOVA's and statistical control ANCOVA's the problems took many pages to work just one. I ended up with a B because I wrote a 35-page research grant that scored an A. Overall it was a freaking nightmare.
I did hear that P-Chem is super hard though lots of calculus and trig. Supposedly it doesn't prepare for med school though

 

[heelshmeel]

definitely P-Chem (especially Quantum)

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

p chem
i was going through emotional exhaustion at the time to make things worse..people dont walk around all night in a strange city then take pchem at 8 am..it is not good for you!

 

[kilroth]

yup pchem. And Im a chem major 🙂

Pchem II and lab this semester! yay

 

[kito]

Quantum Mechanics II

 

[sc1g33k]

I took a grad/undergrad NMR course in my junior year. This wasn't a course in reading NMR. It was a course on the physics, chemistry, and mathematics of NMR.

I loved calculus and diff-eq but this course made me want to cry. 🙁

 

[....]

Bio 2

I had a crazy teacher who was teaching his last semester.
He loved to learn about the history of science so all we did forthe first half of the semester was learn dates/places/names of most major bio breaktroughs. I HATE HISTORY.
Of course it didnt help that i was a dumb freshman and had a shot or two each day before class to "take the edge off"
haha good times.....

 

[mattorama]

hardest = engineering acoustics/vibration control

It probably wouldn't have been a super hard class, except I took it a year or two before I should have. I had never done any complex variable type math or partial diff-eq before the class. There were a few juniors and a lot of senions, all who had done a lot of work with complex varibles and such (especially the senior EEs in the class).

Is p-chem really that bad? I am signed up to take a second semester biochem class starting tomorrow, but I think I will be bored to death in it. The chemistry version of p-chem meets at the same time and I am debating taking it instead. It is a tossup though as a lot of the material in biochem will be nice to know for med school (course description: Amino acid metabolism, photosynthesis, biosynthesis of membrane lipids and steroids, biosynthesis of nucleotides, structure and function of nucleic acids, protein synthesis, and control of gene expression.).

What do you think?

 

[Irene Adler]

Two Classes: Molecular Basis of Disease 498

taught by a 'gunning for tenure' research professor who wanted things done her way. I called her "the Dragon Lady". I was the only theatre major in the class. Five days into the class, my project partner dropped the class, so I had to give a 50 minute lecture on the molecular basis of cystic fibrosis by myself. The only way to get the source materials for the lecture was to go to the local medical school and look up the original research, then try to understand it. I'm very proud of that B, especially since this lady told me once that I would never get into medical school.

Directing

One of the few classes out there where your grade depends almost entirely on other people (your actors), and since the whole classes gets to watch and critique your work, the possibilities for public humiliation are endless.

The first time I took Orgo, the strain of trying to visualize molecules in 3 dimensions gave me motion-sickness.

 

[CD]

Originally posted by mattorama


Is p-chem really that bad? I am signed up to take a second semester biochem class starting tomorrow, but I think I will be bored to death in it. The chemistry version of p-chem meets at the same time and I am debating taking it instead. It is a tossup though as a lot of the material in biochem will be nice to know for med school (course description: Amino acid metabolism, photosynthesis, biosynthesis of membrane lipids and steroids, biosynthesis of nucleotides, structure and function of nucleic acids, protein synthesis, and control of gene expression.).

What do you think?

First term p-chem was the worst!!! Thermodynamics twisted into some evil monster! 1/4 of our class failed...as in F. I survived it simply by living in my professors office...2-3 hours A WEEK, on top of bone chilling homework, not to mention the tests...average on the first one was 38% and average on the second 59%. I'd avoid this class at all costs if I were you. Second term p-chem was "kinda" fun...quantum mechanics and particle in a box stuff. ...not too bad just time consuming. Given the choice I wouldn't take p-chem....I didn't have a choice since I'm working on a graduate degree in chemistry. BOY was I glad when it was OVER! Soooo my advice is to take biochem!!!!

 

[DrSal]

WOW, just reading the names of the classes you guys had to take made me forget what i was going to mention as "hard"

I think i better start working a little harder...i haven't had to face any of those quantum mechanics/pchem stuff...and i thought gen chem was hard 🙁

 

[leena]

Hay everyone,

The hardest class I had to do is Basic Immunology We had 5 classes once a week with lecture notes that were at least 20 pages longe for each one of them! We would also get MCQ at the end of the day and coursework assignment that were due each week at the end of those lectures. These assignment are not your average coursework, they were extremely difficult: mad: and unique to each student, So if you were stuck, you had to read every immunology book you could get your hand on just to figure out what the question is really asking you.

At the end of the semester I had about 700 pages of notes to learn! I dont know how I passed that course, but I managed to get an A

Did I mention it was also a final year class?

Leena

 

[ASDIC]

Endocrinology 450...without a doubt

 

[sacrament]

Without a doubt the toughest class I ever took was an advanced fluid mechanics class I took in grad school (in chemical engineering.) There was more rough-and-tough crazy, headache-inducing math in that class than there was in my graduate math class for chem Es.

A somewhat close second would be my grad course in semiconductor physics. A distant third would be the quantum portions of P-Chem. The quantum stuff was actually easier when I took it as a physics class.

 

[KirsteenB]

Hi there,

It had to be Clinical Biochemistry here. It was such an interesting course, but we had different professors every week to teach specific topics. Each professor tended to teach 70 powerpoint slides' worth of material per lecture. Over the course of an academic year, that adds up to a heck of a lot of material to memorize for a cumulative final exam--eeep!

Cheers,
Kirsteen

 

[TTSD]

Originally posted by KirsteenB
Hi there,

It had to be Clinical Biochemistry here. It was such an interesting course, but we had different professors every week to teach specific topics. Each professor tended to teach 70 powerpoint slides' worth of material per lecture. Over the course of an academic year, that adds up to a heck of a lot of material to memorize for a cumulative final exam--eeep!

Cheers,
Kirsteen

Yeah, don't you hate powerpoint slides?

I mean, on the one hand they're cool since you can access them directly from your computer.. but on the other hand they're such a PAIN to print out. You can only resize them to two a page otherwise the fine prints become unreadable.

Luckily the classes where I just had ungodly material to memorize, the teachers would NOT make each exam cumulative.. in a manner of speaking. You had to know the material you previously learned like the back of your hand to address the problems in the new tests and final so in a sense it was, but you'll never have a question that directly asks you old material.

 

[Machination]

What is the difference between Biophysical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry? I'm a biochem major and have the choice of taking either biophysical chem or physical chem.

 

[Cerberus]

Originally posted by Machination
What is the difference between Biophysical Chemistry and Physical Chemistry? I'm a biochem major and have the choice of taking either biophysical chem or physical chem.

biophysical is usually the easier of the to as it has more of an emphasis on the life sciences. They are mostly the same course as far as I can tell though.

 

[group_theory]

biophysical chemistry is phyical chemistry w/ an emphasis on biological aspect. Think of it as applied Pchem. Biophysics is physics of biological systems. (however, your school may loosely use the term biophysical chemistry and biophysics when describing courses)

You learn about the physics (and math) behind protein folding and stability, the quantum mechanics of the electron transport chain, the stereoselectivity of active sites in enzymes, etc

Yes, there are overlaps in materials with other courses (thermo, quantum, biochem, etc) but at this level, there will be a lot of overlap.

Side note

I actually found pchem interesting (while hard). The quantum portion explained a lot of stuff, like how atomic orbitals (s, p, d, f) are constructed, and how molecular orbitals are formed (remember HOMO LUMO from orgo?), etc. You learn how to apply group theory from math into chemistry as you figure out point-groups of various molecules (and you thought 3D modelling in orgo was hard - what's the symmetry of a tennis ball? How many planes does it have? Can it be inverted?) But once you know it, then IR spec makes sense, NMR makes sense (although you can go crazy w/ the math, and the constant jumping between a rotating reference frames and an inertial reference plane), Raman spec, etc.


But the hardest - in terms of amnt of work - is pchem lab.

Gotta love typing 50+ pages per lab report per week (and 30+ of those will be math equations and data analysis and statistical analysis). The rotational and vibrational spectra of HCl/DCl (diatomic) was fun - spent over 30 hrs alone on excel. But the labs were cool. You get to apply concepts learned in pchem - like particle in a box, x-ray powder diffraction, raman spec, etc.

OK, enough ranting - back to studying.

Group_theory
PCOM Class of 2007

 

[XxRocKxX]

Physical Chemistry without a doubt.

 

[kaos]

Weirdly, it was Genetics for me. 😕 Just couldn't keep track of those X's and Y's and big and small letters and all those Punett boxes...Then again, I'm just weird and screwed up.

 

[Giving My .02]

Lets say Multiple Multiple Choice Anatomy Tests.

Question #1 For Example

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.

1. A, D, E
2. A, D, E, F
3. B, E, F
4. A, G, E, F
5 C, D, E
6. A B, C, D, E
7. B, C, D, E
8. C, D, E, F
9. None of the Above
10. All of the Above

WTF!!!!

The teacher has it down where there are like always three or four answers that are it could be this or it could be that!

 

[Amy B]

Originally posted by Giving My .02
Lets say Multiple Multiple Choice Anatomy Tests.

Question #1 For Example

A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.

1. A, D, E
2. A, D, E, F
3. B, E, F
4. A, G, E, F
5 C, D, E
6. A B, C, D, E
7. B, C, D, E
8. C, D, E, F
9. None of the Above
10. All of the Above

WTF!!!!

The teacher has it down where there are like always three or four answers that are it could be this or it could be that!

I so know what you mean. My Embryology professor did that exact same testing method, however she added a twist to what you wrote. If you guessed incorrectly she would take off points. Kind of similar to SAT testing. You better be right, or say bye-bye to your points. 1/2 to 1/4 points off for any incorrect answers. Drove me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kendall]

histology most definitely. lecture exams all essay. all questions were taken from obscure physio or molecular texts asking to explain processes from a histo perspective. lab was a b*tch, too. but probably good preparation for med school.

 

[DieselPetrolGrl]

ok get this...
i agree that crazy multiple choice sounds whack
but my physics (elec & mag) professor would give us 1/2 multiple choice 1/2 essay exams.
in teh multiple choice *sometimes = usually* the correct answer wouldnt even be listed so u had to put it in the margins or get that question wrong. and he wouldnt even tell u which question number it was. so id spend most my time trying to match my answers to the wrong answers he listed because i was too scared to write an answer it. IT JUST SEEMS WRONG ON A MULTIPLE CHOICE - i expect the answer to be THERE! arg id drive myself mad and waste a lot of time!

 

[boomuntilnoon]

Structure Elucidation... spending upwards of 20 hours on a single problem in a 16-week class that is compacted into 4-weeks. Not so good times.

 

[noy]

Transport Phenomena in Chem Eng I - otherwise known as fluid mechancs. Gotta be the toughest course at my university...

Electromagnetic Fields was tough too.

Yey engineering! Conquering yet another thread...

 

[sgilani]

giving my .02: dude i had the same type of tests in anatomy. WTF

 

[latinfridley]

toss up so far between 2 classes, each related: Logic, sets and Functions, and the next step up : Analysis of Programs.
Pulled C's in both.