What Would u rather choose...

[Stversko]

Not saying orgo is an easy class but in my school there is a orgo proff who has reputation of easy exams, drops lowest one, and not cummulative final. essentially a very easy Orgo proff. But he can't teach material properly and once you get to OrgoII you may suffer.

Should i take that guy, or another professor that i will have to bust my a** for a decent grade and who will better prepare me for MCAT And orgoII.

which should i take, class registration is right around the corner.

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[Falco2525]

you can teach yourself Orgo from the book...just make sure to learn the mechanisms of the reactions and understand the flow of electrons...dont simply memorize the reations but understand why they work the way they do...dont risk the grade take the easy one but learn from the book on your own...

 

[OncDoc19]

It's one thing if he just gives easy tests, but if he can't teach that's not good. Part of this also depends on what your learning style is. If you learn best by listening to the prof and have to go in to ask lots of questions, then take the harder prof who is a better teacher. If you tend to learn on your own by reading and studying the notes then take the easy prof. A lot of learning organic depends on you putting the time into doing the practice problems. I had a terrible professor for orgo 1, but I don't learn anything from lecture anyway so everything was fine. Really think about your learning style and don't just take the easy way out. Learning orgo 1 is very important for doing well in orgo 2.

 

[bostonpmed]

take the easy class.

 

[JohnMadden]

the "easy" class...

 

[tdjn]

Take the harder class.

 

[bostonpmed]

the "easy" class...

sorry, I meant the easier professor.

 

[Stversko]

do you go to a Jr College?

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

 

[Stversko]

do you go to a Jr College?

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

 

[Roflcopter]

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

lol.. you know they only test you on the most basic, simplest orgo concepts on the MCAT. Also, they removed most of the orgo questions from the test anyway (i had like <20 orgo questions on my test). You should have taken the easy professor!

 

[BigRedPremed]

I'm pretty surprised that the grading and teaching of a core class like orgo isn't standardized. Do these two professors teach the exactly the same orgo class?

 

[DocBR]

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

I took a similar course. Org1; I took the hardest professor at the school, worked my ass off (10+ hours a week studying) and earned a B- in the end. He was the type of professor who would ask for a complete mechanism that was taught during week one, on week twelve.

Anyway, I worked my ass off - got into Org 2 with a moderatly difficult teacher, studied about 2 hours a week and aced the entire class, including the ACS cumulative final. In the end, it was the basics I learned in Org1 that made everything else so easy, and I never had to study Org for the MCAT. I also got a kick ass LOR from my org2 instructor who mentioned I was #2 out of 160 students in her course.

Go with the harder professor.

 

[ut2010]

If you think the easier professor can teach, then I would probably choose to register for his class.

I like to learn something from lecture and then reinforce it by reviewing the text.

If he can't teach, you will be wasting valuable time by going to lecture. In that case, take the harder class.

The bottom line is that you need to know O-chem for the MCAT, make sure you get a good foundation in it.

 

[baylormed]

The easier one!!!!

Don't be a hero for once and go for that A in orgo. Just because the class is easy doesn't mean you won't learn anything. The MCAT doesn't require you to know small organic chemistry minucia, it requires a general understanding of concepts and mechanism that you can teach yourself be it during the class or from MCAT review books.

I can't stress this enough.

 

[sotired]

wow, the easier one, hands down. i was shocked as to how little orgo there was on the MCAT in general. your understanding of organic chemistry need not be in depth for this - anything you need to know can be learned from a text/prep book.

 

[Vvandenn]

So is gen chem tested pretty heavily (and in detail) on the MCAT? I am just assuming it is since Organic isn't tested as extensively it seems. I just had a horrible professor through gen chem I and II; kinda worried...

 

[etf]

wow, the easier one, hands down. i was shocked as to how little orgo there was on the MCAT in general. your understanding of organic chemistry need not be in depth for this - anything you need to know can be learned from a text/prep book.

yeah on my mcat there wasn't much ochem at all...so take the easier class, and then take princeton review or something.

 

[Polypeptide]

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

I totally agree with the decision you made. If you know you will have to take Ochem 11 from the hard prof, then learn his ways now by taking 1st semester with him too. If you take the easy way out like many are suggesting, it is going to be a hard transition into 2nd semester material. Good luck! When you have 1st semester basics down, practically all 2nd semester is just fleshing out the basic mechanisms.

 

[youngnflyy]

I agree that if you have to take the hard professor for II, it's probably wise to go ahead and take I from him. I'm curious to know what makes the "hard" professors class so difficult? Is it that his exams are hard but he's a good teacher, or is it that he is a horrible teacher and gives hard exams. If it's the latter, then I'd suggest you take the easier professor if he is a better teacher. I guess what I'm saying is to take whichever professor does the best job of getting the material across.

 

[TPROrgoTutor2]

Take the easier one and learn the material yourself. There is very little orgo on the mcat and it is very basic.

 

[TheGreatHunt]

What's your GPA?

Honestly, I knew that my professor for Organic I and Organic II was the hardest professor at my school (Also a state school, I wonder if you're at my University? lol).

The average exam grade in my professor's class is a 50%. I would have also gotten an A in Ochem if I took it with a different professor, but this professor is by far the more amazing professor for learning the material. Advanced Organic(Organic III) will be a lot more interesting and a heck of a lot of fun, because I know that I have the background to succeed in it. If you think you can hack putting in an extra 3-4 hours a week(It's not even that much) then I would say go with the better lecturer.

It's a shame that some of us get to miss out on the better material because we are saving our asses ... Oh well, it will all get better in Med School right?

 

[lina123321]

lemme just remind you that on your transcript/AMCAS its not gonna say: Joe Schmoe took Orgo I w/Mr.Toughguy, (notorious for his unbelievable tests and induction of extreme fear and stress in students) and that's why he got a grade of ___..its just gonna say your name and grade.. make sure u study your a** off and don't let the fact that he's known for being a tough professor be an excuse for yourself in your performance

 

[Agent47]

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

EXACTLY!!

I had really hard teacher for gen chem II and i had to work my ass of to get a better grades. Trust me it pays off...when i go look at my MCAT prep book, i feel i know everything from Gen chem 2 classs...SO go with the one that teaches GOOD.

 

[gotmeds?]

You know, every year people try to out-guess the MCAT. Before I took it, I was told that o-chem wasn't heavily tested and that I should concentrate on mo bio instead. Well, there was a lot of mo bio on my test, but also a lot of o-chem.

The MCAT changes every year. When you prepare, you're basically studying for last year's MCAT (or the MCAT from 3-4 years ago). My o-chem class was a beast, especially the lab. But when I took the MCAT, I was glad I had it.

I would recommend you take the harder class, but make sure you're not taking a bunch of other hard classes at the same time.

 

[grapeflavorsoda]

No i go to a state school,

I've decided to go with the harder professor, i prefer to read textbook then reinforce my knowledge durring lecture. I believe i might be risking a good grade but if i put the time and effort into the class that orgo deserves i will do just fine. Besides The "harder" professor teaches orgoII so i might as well get used to his format.

Also im sure i will not have to review any material for the MCAT with the more difficult professor since i will most likely know material much better.

masochist

 

[da8s0859q]

Take the easy prof and pay attention to the course material. Hopefully, have cake + eat too.

 

[Flopotomist]

I think an important lesson that pre-meds can learn from this (that will help greatly in medical school) is to take some responsibility for your OWN learning. Change how you think about the role of the Professor. S/he is not there to make you learn - YOU are there to learn, and the professor is only one tool that can help you towards that goal.

My point is basically that the professor should not play a huge role in how much information you acquire from a class. Sure, they can make it easier to get the information - but you can read a book, study hard and get the information you need.

I would say take the easier prof - get a good grade, study hard on your own and you will be fine.

 

[PseudomonasPAO1]

I would say take the harder class *if* you know you can pull at least a B. That way you don't risk a C in a pre-req, which would probably be a guaranteed interview question. And there's always the chance you get the A, and a nice LOR with it!

I had this same situation in CalcI, it's not good when the prof is the self-proclaimed Calc b**ch (one of the most memorable college quotes ever)! I got a B but then slept through calc2 with someone else and got an A

 

[apnea]

lemme just remind you that on your transcript/AMCAS its not gonna say: Joe Schmoe took Orgo I w/Mr.Toughguy, (notorious for his unbelievable tests and induction of extreme fear and stress in students) and that's why he got a grade of ___..its just gonna say your name and grade. (...)

+100000

A is an A, they don't care where you get it. Med school won't spoonfeed you, you have to learn a good bit of the material on your own. Might as well start practicing.

 

[PepperMD]

Forget the damn MCAT. The bottom-line is once you get into med school you'll have to study more than you ever thought possible. You can either take the easy class and preserve some of the last slack time you'll have in a long time, or take the hard class and prepare yourself better for the amount of studying required later. Both options have advantages and disadvantages.

 

[Stversko]

I still have several days until registration.

Can't Make up my mind... everyone here seems to have different views. I see many good reasons to take the Easier* professor, but i also see an advantage in working hard and mastering the material with the tougher professor (better teacher, extremely difficult exams)

I think my decision comes down to the type of person that i am. I almost always learn the material for each exam in my sciences by studying the material in its entirety. I never usually make sense of what i learned in class until i study the material and scan over my notes.

For this reason i have decided to go with the easier professor, study the material on my own as i have been doing, and hopefully that will be sufficient enough to do well in the course, prepare myself for ORGO II and for the mcat as well.


Thank you All for your comments, they have really helped me make a final decision.

 

[badasshairday]

Good job in picking the tougher prof. My Ochem professor actually wrote the textbook we used. They use the book at most of the UC's and Stanford and a bunch of other colleges around the world. He is known at my school as being the hardest. I took him, kicked ass in orgo, got a LoR from him, and haven't had to study O-chem at all for the MCAT. I had him for both semesters. Totally worth it.

Also, what the hell does it matter if the professor is easy or hard. If the exams are easy, then everyone will do well and the curve will be tight. If its hard there will be a bigger distribution and lower average. So whatever.

 

[Jccripe]

Org I is not very hard if you have a visual mind. Take the easy then bust your ass for Org II