What was the hardest science class you took pre-med?

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hilikus

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And whats was your most favorite?
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Organic I. Organic II was fine, though.

My favorite was either Organic II (b/c it finally made sense) or Cell Bio (the whole class was reading journal articles).
 
2nd quarter of Biochem: Human metabolism for me.

I sure am glad I took it though, now that I'm taking practically the same class now. :)

My favorite had to be Bacterial Pathogenesis. I was a micro major, so of course I liked it!
 
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Premed course?

Hmmm... General Biology course was fun. It provided the foundation for how I would screw up my life.
 
hardest: organic lab because we were largely graded on our yields and my lab techniques just aren't that great when i'm newly learning.

most favorite: also orgo lab - made some cool stuff and i learned a ton of chemistry in a short amount of time.
 
hardest: organic lab. for same reasons mentioned above

most favorite: organic lectures. mechanisms and spectroscopy were cool
 
Hardest was definately genetics. Most fun so far...I guess I would go with biochemistry. I thought learning all about the wonderful world of proteins was just magical:laugh:

Tooth
 
hardest: Physics...only b/c the profs. and the TAs weren't very good. i spent the year teaching the material to myself since the lectures were painful to attend (thank goodness i had a decent teacher in high school). that was the only class i skipped regularly.

favorite: Biochem 1&2...took both over the summer. the prof. was pretty cool, and he made the class enjoyable
 
Quantative Analysis...with an absolute maniac for a teacher...it sucked so bad...did awesome on the first test...it was all down hill from there. +pity+
 
Worst: gotta be Organic I...worst prof ever, totally confusing material....thankfully a 52% was a 3.0 with the curve

Best: Human Physiology....the first pre-med course that seemed like it actually had something to do with medicine!!!!
 
I have high expectations for my immunology class. So far it looks like it will be difficult, but I find immunology interesting, so I hope it will be my favorite.

The hardest science class I took was comparative vertebrate anatomy because of the rote memorization involved in the lab portion.

My favorite was physics I and II because of the problem solving. It required practice, but once you understood the concepts, it became satisfying (in a way) to solve the problems step by step.
 
my favorites: ochem1 ochem2 and advanced ochem
 
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hardest: genetics. the prof was so very excruciatingly boring and his exams were unbelievably convoluted with poorly worded "application" questions and 'creative' grading methods. i found i actually got better grades when i stopped going to his lectures :oops:

favorite: either human phys or immunology. like drdr said, it actually felt like i was learning something applicable.
 
hardest: a TIE : Biochem and Microbio - the finals murdered me in both courses

favourites - Orgo I/II, Physics I/II, Genetics, Histology/Histopathology
 
Hardest: general chem I

Favorite: all organic classes, genetics, molecular biology
 
Developmental Biology & Embryology

Rampart
 
I had the most trouble with Cell Biology because it was my first college biology class and known to be a "weed-out" class.

Most enjoyable: A split between Zoology and Human Physiology. Physiology was very interesting as it related to medicine.. Zoology was really interesting. Learning about different animals and why they're "put together" a certain way was cool. It totally put a lot of things into perspective. Now it's so much fun to go to the Museum of Natural History here in NY and be able to recognize pre-historic animals. Also kind of cool to go to Red Lobster and know whether your lobster is a male or female.

Woops, I went on for a while. That's how much I enjoyed Zoology.
 
Hardest: Physics I

Favorite: Genetics, Microbiology lab, or Biochem
 
Hardest: Physics (I absolutely hate physics).

Favorite: Organic Chemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, and.... all the biochem classes so far (we'll see how this one I"m taking now goes)... :)
 
I'm new to pre-med so I was just trying to gauge. Seems like the organic chem is the most challenging but I'm looking forward to it.

On a side note: my lab partner in my bio class is "pre-med" in that she's taken some science classes. We were talking the other day and I asked her if she had taken calculus yet. "No, I don't do well in math." My response was that it's required. She said nothing. Then I asked her if she had taken any chem yet, "No, I don't like chemistry much. But I'm going for vet school so it doesn't matter."

Does anything seem wrong with her responses? She hasn't even bought the required lab manual yet and she came in this morning hung over and didn't participate in the lab. I'm not one to judge but it seems she's her biggest obstacle.

Whatever. Thanks for the responses.
 
i don't have a hardest course because the courses i have taken so far have been extremely easy (mol & cell bio, phys credit, math credit, chem credit, etc).

i'm taking orgo right now and it seems like its going to be a great course. orgo lab looks like a challenge, though.
 
Originally posted by hilikus
On a side note: my lab partner in my bio class is "pre-med" in that she's taken some science classes. We were talking the other day and I asked her if she had taken calculus yet. "No, I don't do well in math." My response was that it's required. She said nothing. Then I asked her if she had taken any chem yet, "No, I don't like chemistry much. But I'm going for vet school so it doesn't matter."
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She's in for a shock...a lot of vet schools are harder to get into than a lot of med schools. Sounds like she has some growing up to do.

Anyway.

Hardest course: Calc-based physics II, because I hadn't had calc II yet due to scheduling issues, but wanted to take it anyway as MCAT prep.

Favorite course(s): Organic Chem Lab, I & II. We lucked out because we were graded on our methodology and writeups (and not our yields), the subject was fun and my lab partner was a total blast to work with.
 
^^^

first, calc-based physics is not required. second, calc-based physics will actually hurt you for the MCAT because you will be thinking with a calc mindset instead of a straight trig mindset.

i'm taking calc 2 right now instead of stat to meet the 1 year math requirement.
 
Originally posted by g3pro
first, calc-based physics is not required. second, calc-based physics will actually hurt you for the MCAT because you will be thinking with a calc mindset instead of a straight trig mindset.
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True, but physics is, and I wanted to take calc-based over trig-based for personal reasons. It doesn't hurt your MCAT any; most of it's still trig-based anyway. You just gain a deeper understanding of the math.
 
looks like gen chem I so far is the hardest, maybe b/c we just started and it just seems to be confusing. hmmm not sure!!!
 
Originally posted by snapdad
True, but physics is, and I wanted to take calc-based over trig-based for personal reasons. It doesn't hurt your MCAT any; most of it's still trig-based anyway. You just gain a deeper understanding of the math.
Click to expand...

right, 1 year of physics is required.

i haven't taken calc-based physics, but i know others who have and who have taken the MCAT and they say it makes you think more than you should on certain problems. just a thought. :)
 
cell bio was definitelty the hardest class i ever took (that i actually got an A in)... if you know Dr Lyman then you know what im talking about. the sad thing is, it was probably filled with the most useful information, and the second i took an exam it ran right out of my brain.
for the hardest classes that i DIDNT do well in - physics, the worst teachers EVER

my favorites - animal development, genetics and developmental genetics lab, darwinian medicine, biology of social/sexual behavior :thumbup:
 
Hardest science class? Neuroanatomy
Class I did the best in during college? Neuroanatomy

Sometimes knowing the class is so hard and overwhelming, it makes you perform your best.
 
Hardest and most favored: Organic Chemistry for the life sciences

CHEM 357 + 358: THe tag team are back again: professor ganem and meinwald.
 
Most Difficult course taken to prepare for med school: Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy

Most Fun course taken to prepare for med school: Biochemistry (currently taking biochem 2--rational drug design--which is also a lot of fun)

Most Fun of all time but has little to do with pre-med: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry and "ehtics, philosophy and science" (a 1 hour seminar/discussion I took for fun)
 
Originally posted by gschl1234
Most Fun course taken to prepare for med school: Biochemistry (currently taking biochem 2--rational drug design--which is also a lot of fun)

Most Fun of all time but has little to do with pre-med: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry and "ehtics, philosophy and science" (a 1 hour seminar/discussion I took for fun)
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These both sound like very cool courses. I wish they would have offered something like this at my university...I would have been all over it.
 
Originally posted by chriseli
Quantative Analysis...with an absolute maniac for a teacher...it sucked so bad...did awesome on the first test...it was all down hill from there. +pity+
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If I didn't know better, I'd say we took the same class. That course is nothing more then pure concentrated evil.
 
Biomaterial Selection

Basically biomechanics with a healthy dose of organic and biochem thrown in for good measure.
 
Hardest: Virology (the final involved "designing" replication strategies for two made-up viruses) or Organic Chem II.

Favourite: Medical Bacteriology
 
Hardest: a toss up between neuroanatomy and p-chem. P-chem was probably more challenging, and if I'd spent half the effort I spent in p-chem on neuroanatomy, I'd likely have done better in neuro than in p-chem. But neuroanatomy was so excruciatingly bland with all those pontine and medullary nuclei that I couldn't motivate myself to care.

Favorite: a BioE course, "Cell Biology for Engineers." Basically a lot of learning and applying lab techniques like RT-PCR, DNA electrophoresis, western blotting, tissue culturing, and immunofluorescent staining. Really cool. :thumbup:
 
Originally posted by SteveLight
Favorite and hardest course was histology.
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Hey SteveLight,
I would have thought that your favorite course was organic 2 lab, I mean what about your beautiful lab partner??

I sent you a pm...
 
Hardest: Parasitology and Calculus II

Favorite: A & P. I loved that class
 
Ok, I stand corrected... Orgo II Lab would have to be my favorite...Yay for beautiful lab partners like wholehealth :love: !!
 
Hardest - Gross Anatomy

Favorite - Neuroanatomy
 
Thanks SteveLight, hearts to you, too... I must say Orgo II lab was pretty fun...all those ether experiments(giggles)....woohoo!!

As far as difficulty goes, I'd have to say comparitive anatomy was the most challenging, but I also learned the most in that class...
 
Hardest: Calculus II, Biochemistry 1

Favorite: Organic 1 & 2
 
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