What to do this Spring?

[Jdubbss21]

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I've seen a few questions asked like this before; however, I wanted to get some opinions on my particular situation.

I graduated last Spring and have been keeping busy during my gap year. This past Fall I took an EMT certification course which I completed the term with a 4.0, I'm currently waiting for paperwork to take the licensing exam. I am also volunteering at the local ER four hours/week and working part time roughly 25-30 hours/week.

I have a few interviews coming up after the New Year (both MD and DO), and want to show them that I am still working to better myself. My MCAT is lower than average so I want to show the schools that I am still working to improve my science background and make up the deficits of knowledge that my MCAT score would indicate to them.

I found a biochemistry course at a local college I could take pretty cheap, I was just wondering if that's a beneficial thing to do. I was a neuroscience major at a liberal arts college where biochem wasn't part of the pre-med curriculum when I started there. As such I have never taken it. The class itself is only 3 credits and meets 2 times a week so it is not that time consuming.

What I'm asking is for your opinion on whether or not adcoms will look on this favorably, whether or not it will be beneficial to have this knowledge going into med school (I already have two acceptances), or if it would just be a waste of time that would be better spent relaxing before I go to school. Any opinions or thoughts are welcome.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I think it's smart to touch on biochem, depending on the med school it's either really easy or a killer class. If you are already accepted not sure why you are still doing all this extra stuff? I would be working trying to bank my money.

 

[Jdubbss21]

I think it's smart to touch on biochem, depending on the med school it's either really easy or a killer class. If you are already accepted not sure why you are still doing all this extra stuff? I would be working trying to bank my money.

Well I have an acceptance and deposit down; however, I have interviews in February at schools I am very interested. As you can probably tell from the timing of my interview in the cycle, I am quite a reach there. I just wanted to do everything in my power to show I am still working and improving myself.

Upon further research I may have found a compromise. There is a teacher at Oregon State University with a free iPad biochem book complete with embedded YouTube videos of lectures, etc. Additionally all of his recent lectures and tests are available on iTunesU so I think I will give that a shot. Thanks for your reply!

 

[TreadLightly]

Well I have an acceptance and deposit down; however, I have interviews in February at schools I am very interested. As you can probably tell from the timing of my interview in the cycle, I am quite a reach there. I just wanted to do everything in my power to show I am still working and improving myself.

Upon further research I may have found a compromise. There is a teacher at Oregon State University with a free iPad biochem book complete with embedded YouTube videos of lectures, etc. Additionally all of his recent lectures and tests are available on iTunesU so I think I will give that a shot. Thanks for your reply!

Got a link to that book?

 

[chizledfrmstone]

Got a link to that book?

There's also Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/course/medicalneuro).

 

[Jdubbss21]

Got a link to that book?

I have no knowledge in biochem and just looked through the first few pages so I don't know how much of a "textbook" it is, but for the price (free!) I'm willing to give it a read and listen to his Youtube/iTunesU lectures to give myself some foundation in the subject.

http://biochem.science.oregonstate.edu/biochemistry-free-and-easy - the book I DL'd is the one on the top, I took the iPad version, from what I've looked through it works great with the iPad/iBooks.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/biochemistry-for-pre-meds/id556410409 - here is the link to all the lectures, partway through you can see a string labeled "lecture 1" all the way up to "lecture 43" along with exams and exam keys, I might give those a shot if I feel I've grasped the subject matter enough.

 

[cliquesh]

Biochem is a pretty small part of med school, a smaller part of boards, and an even smaller part of real medicine. Just to let you know..but, as cabinbuilder mentioned, it can be difficult at some schools.