What makes upper division science courses harder?

[cystapharm]

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Is it only because they hardly give multiple choice questions? What else makes them harder since people are saying if you've completed these then you'll have a better shot at pharmacy school.

 

[Omegadramon]

Classes are more indepth, requires more analytical thinking based on your previous experience rather than sheer memorization.

 

[lee0539]

Is it only because they hardly give multiple choice questions? What else makes them harder since people are saying if you've completed these then you'll have a better shot at pharmacy school.

upperdiv in sociology at my school is not very hard, but if your in science, buisness, poli sci, etc your competing with more dedicated students to that particular field rather then with those that are either just interested, part of a prereq (like econ for pharm), or GE. Once you hit upperdiv in something like a science field your up against students who are trying to get a good GPA for stuff like medicial, pharmacy, optomotry, dental, etc school. Lower divs usually will weed out students who aren't strong in that field of study to go any further. Depending on your school you might end up in a so called weeder class that purposively is much harder just to lower numbers entering into the upperdiv major (since classes get smaller in upperdivs they can't have 100 students trying to get into 15 student max classes.)

also as said above you are more and more required to use what you have learned previously since they can't reteach you all the material over again.

 

[omnione]

In the first "general <insert science here> class", you often got a survey of the major topics in that field that wasn't really in-depth. Those classes gave you the foundation for future classes that focused on certain topics in much more depth (ex: genetics, microbial physiology). By the time you get to the senior and graduate level courses, the courses are very specific toward one topic. For pharmacy school, its courses will be very specific toward a topic. Thus great performance in upperdivision courses can be a predictor of pharmacy school success.

 

[evilolive]

my school's upper division classes were almost exclusively essay based - almost never multiple choice. MC was left to the large lecture introduction courses.

 

[justyliz]

my school's upper division classes were almost exclusively essay based - almost never multiple choice. MC was left to the large lecture introduction courses.

I totally agree with evilolive that almost ALL of my school's upper division classes were essay/short answer-based. Also, keep in mind that most science classes are curve-based and upper division classes will have students who are more serious about their major (pre-meds, science majors), which makes the curve more steep. In lower tier classes, you get a lot of freshmen dropouts who are just taking the class to see if 'they can stick it out as a pre <insert some random health profession here>', which makes the curve much easier. I think the distinction between upper division and general survey classes (i.e. gen bio I) is how you are forced to apply concepts and articulate them through your writing. In some respects, that makes upper division easier because often times you get partial credit for answers you would have completely gotten incorrect on multiple choice (yay for TA graders!)

For example, a general biology class might gloss over the insulin signal transduction pathway and you could easily get by memorizing all the steps involved. In an upper division class, they often times ask you to predict secondary effects that would result in a mutation in particular parts of the pathway, which requires further thought and application of the material. Hope this helps!

 

[Hels2007]

First and second level classes are easy because all the information is general, and in addition chewed out into bite-size pieces by the professor. All you need to do, is listen in class, do homework - and you will do well. Not to different from high school.

Upper-level classes rely a lot on independent learning (as in, read these three chapters by the next class and we will discuss it, and it's not history, it's chemistry!), developed analytical skills. With labs it's even more obvious - freshman chemistry, you get the lab manual where every step is written out in detail, and the professor or TA is right there watching you, available for questions. In an upper-level chemistry lab YOU have to write your own procedure based on what results you want to get, and the professor is somewhere in the building, and if you ask a question he asks why you haven't researched it first and sends you looking. 😀

 

[lee0539]

I just wanted to make a note about something, because I think everyone is assuming upper div is always harder: Not all lower division classes are that easy. Sometimes a lower division class is a weeder class and will often be one of the hardest class you ever take in a school. Weeder class will often give A's to very very few people and more then half of students receive a C or lower. They sometimes do this to "weed out" those who are not serious about a particular subject so that those entering the major is a reasonable size. So although it is a lower div and should be very general, they either give you way too much information to learn or make the test more analytical then other lower divs.

 

[rxlynn]

Is it only because they hardly give multiple choice questions? What else makes them harder since people are saying if you've completed these then you'll have a better shot at pharmacy school.

For me, I felt like the upper div chemistry courses were more difficult (not all, but most) because they required you to apply concepts from several different classes. For example, when you take physical chemistry you need to be able to apply the calculus you learned a couple of years before, as well as the basic chemistry concepts from the first year course, and do this in much more specificity. I had a chemistry prof who used to say that the general chem classes only introduced the concepts, and then we would spend the next 3 years learning how those concepts really worked.

So, I think that many people feel that the upper level science courses are a good foreshadow for how you will do in pharmacy school, because pharmacy school requires you to do this same sort of integrating concepts from your pre-reqs. And, as a P2, I am finding that my classes this year are really building on everything we did last year.

 

[Rumplestiltazepam]

The number of people that drop the upper division courses after the first or second midterm is greater than lower level classes.

General chem- Not many people dropped
Organic Chem- Class almost got cut in half

Upper division classes usually require you go once and while, to keep up on what is going on.

 

[Hels2007]

The number of people that drop the upper division courses after the first or second midterm is greater than lower level classes.

General chem- Not many people dropped
Organic Chem- Class almost got cut in half

Upper division classes usually require you go once and while, to keep up on what is going on.

Hell yes. My analytical chemistry had 6 people by the end... counting two people who were repeating it from last year. 😀 And physical chemistry is not much larger, though there was always a ton of people taking biochem, because it was cross-listed for biology majors and chemistry majors...

 

[fenixtnlfan]

The number of people that drop the upper division courses after the first or second midterm is greater than lower level classes.

General chem- Not many people dropped
Organic Chem- Class almost got cut in half

Upper division classes usually require you go once and while, to keep up on what is going on.

I'm pretty sure o.chem is not an upper division class (at least I have never noticed it being listed as one). But it is definitely the weeder class of all weeder classes! I have heard of quite a few people dropping the class and then taking it the next semester. So maybe a lot of people end up taking it at some point, I don't know.

From my experience, upper divisions don't offer curves. Not that the curves were ever that extensive, but it is a little cushion.