Why Isn't Anatomy and Physiology a Prerequisite?

[Lewist02]

IMO it's not about the argument of how difficult A&P is. A&P is one of those courses that has huge variability in level of difficulty. If your professor just makes you memorize, then tests you off of memorization, the class should be cake. My exams were purely clinical correlations and applied principles, with every question being "chose all that apply" style. If you did not choose one of the answers or chose one of the wrong answers, you didn't get any credit for the question. There was no partial credit. It was probably one of the most difficult classes I personally took purely based off of my professor.

I don't think it is a requirement solely based on the fact that you will learn it in depth in med school. At most schools you have other required classes before you can even take A&P. The majority of them are required for matriculation at med school. The bio, chem, and physics classes were usually "weeder" classes at my undergrad. A&P isn't always like this in undergrad. For example, you need A&P to become a gym teacher, but not organic chem or physics. I'm not saying that gym teachers aren't capable of upper level classes, but the Health and Physical Exercise degree at my institution wasn't very challenging aside from A&P. Also - if it was an added requirement, it might be difficult for non science majors to fit the two possibly four extra credits (depending on how the classes are split up) into their schedule. You would basically have all science majors in med school (IMO)

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[chman]

IMO it's not about the argument of how difficult A&P is. A&P is one of those courses that has huge variability in level of difficulty. If your professor just makes you memorize, then tests you off of memorization, the class should be cake. My exams were purely clinical correlations and applied principles, with every question being "chose all that apply" style. If you did not choose one of the answers or chose one of the wrong answers, you didn't get any credit for the question. There was no partial credit. It was probably one of the most difficult classes I personally took purely based off of my professor.

This is really true for any class. What may be a cake class can be turned in to a nightmare with the "right" instructor/prof.

Also - if it was an added requirement, it might be difficult for non science majors to fit the two possibly four extra credits (depending on how the classes are split up) into their schedule. You would basically have all science majors in med school (IMO)

I don't understand your logic behind this. I mean, non-science majors manage to fit in all the other pre-reqs and whatnot. Why would another four credits make a huge difference to the point they would no longer apply to med-school?

 

[ArkansasRanger]

There are a lot of proponents and blogs where you can read about the futility of the premed curriculum. I'm very much against it and loathe the fact that I have to take a series of classes I'm not in the least bit interested in. These would be the physical science component of premed-dom.

Biochemistry can be taught without a year of organic chemistry before it. Any exposure to A&P despite what others suggest could help unless you do in fact forget all of it which makes one wonder if you forget the undergrad version wouldn't you just forget the med school version? Unequivocally, yes, you would so that logic is stupid. Considering the biggest complaint most people have about doctors is their piss poor communication skills, if not total lack thereof, I'd suggest augmenting premed-dom with more liberal arts and communication to better understand, relate to, and speak with patients.

 

[Ponger]

There are a lot of proponents and blogs where you can read about the futility of the premed curriculum. I'm very much against it and loathe the fact that I have to take a series of classes I'm not in the least bit interested in. These would be the physical science component of premed-dom.

Biochemistry can be taught without a year of organic chemistry before it. Any exposure to A&P despite what others suggest could help unless you do in fact forget all of it which makes one wonder if you forget the undergrad version wouldn't you just forget the med school version? Unequivocally, yes, you would so that logic is stupid. Considering the biggest complaint most people have about doctors is their piss poor communication skills, if not total lack thereof, I'd suggest augmenting premed-dom with more liberal arts and communication to better understand, relate to, and speak with patients.

It's funny because I thought the premed curriculum was pretty ridiculous when I was going through it too but now I'm glad i was atleast exposed to those concepts.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

It's funny because I thought the premed curriculum was pretty ridiculous when I was going through it too but now I'm glad i was atleast exposed to those concepts.

I try to see it from an unbiased perspective. I've read a lot that suggests it's not really "needed," and I'm inclined to agree with it more than with those that suggest that the curriculum is necessary.

You could, for example, be a very informed geologist without ever taking mineralogy wich is in fact a core component to the field.

 

[Ponger]

I try to see it from an unbiased perspective. I've read a lot that suggests it's not really "needed," and I'm inclined to agree with it more than with those that suggest that the curriculum is necessary.

You could, for example, be a very informed geologist without ever taking mineralogy wich is in fact a core component to the field.

Quite a random metaphor you used. You could probably argue that with any field. Med school, though, is hard enough without trying to learn something like Cardiovascular Physiology without a physics background or Pharmacology without physics/chemistry background.

I agree there are certain elements that aren't necessary (e.g. 2nd semester organic is pretty much useless to medicine) but on the whole the pre-med curriculum is very good. Outside of specifically tailoring said courses to a medicine-bent, I don't see much to change. And even that would eliminate the concept of seeing if a pre-med could apply general concepts to specific material.

 

[ArkansasRanger]

Quite a random metaphor you used. You could probably argue that with any field. Med school, though, is hard enough without trying to learn something like Cardiovascular Physiology without a physics background or Pharmacology without physics/chemistry background.

I agree there are certain elements that aren't necessary (e.g. 2nd semester organic is pretty much useless to medicine) but on the whole the pre-med curriculum is very good. Outside of specifically tailoring said courses to a medicine-bent, I don't see much to change. And even that would eliminate the concept of seeing if a pre-med could apply general concepts to specific material.

I liked the metaphor. 😀

 

[Lewist02]

This is really true for any class. What may be a cake class can be turned in to a nightmare with the "right" instructor/prof.


I don't understand your logic behind this. I mean, non-science majors manage to fit in all the other pre-reqs and whatnot. Why would another four credits make a huge difference to the point they would no longer apply to med-school?

Sorry! I meant an extra four classes! At my school, each class was only 1 credit (labs did not count for credit), so I misspoke. I had a lot of premed friends who did not take A&P at my school solely because they couldn't fit the extra four classes (2 anatomy, 2 physiology) in before graduation. My school had fourteen classes alone (out of 32 required) that had to fulfill liberal arts requirements. My major, although it included A&P, was 18 classes, so I had no room to play. That was my reasoning. Obviously not every school functions this way.