Will retaking Orgo I hurt?

[IndigoBoy0]

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I am a non-trad doing evening propgram while working full time. Already have an MPH and MA and working in global health. I had to retake Orgo I a second time as my grade was not good. I am currently taking it. I got a B in the lab but where I am the lab and lecture are seperate. Will med school look down upon my app because I took it twice? All my other grades are good with the exception of physics one . I had AP Physics credit but decided to take physics anyways - it was my first semester of college and I was in honors engineering physics with all the rocket scientists. It didn't go too well. My overll GPA from undergrad though was a 3.8 and same from grad school.

 

[fireflygirl]

I am a non-trad doing evening propgram while working full time. Already have an MPH and MA and working in global health. I had to retake Orgo I a second time as my grade was not good. I am currently taking it. I got a B in the lab but where I am the lab and lecture are seperate. Will med school look down upon my app because I took it twice? All my other grades are good with the exception of physics one . I had AP Physics credit but decided to take physics anyways - it was my first semester of college and I was in honors engineering physics with all the rocket scientists. It didn't go too well. My overll GPA from undergrad though was a 3.8 and same from grad school.

I don't think adcoms will not look poorly on it, especially if there is a major improvement. I did poorly in Physics 101 and retook it and got an entire grade higher so for osteopathic schools, the grade was replaced which helped for my BCPM GPA. I think if you just retake one class, the adcoms don't mind because everyone has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to certain classes. However, if they saw that you had done poorly throughout and were repeating a bunch of classes and then doing a whole lot better, they become suspicous of your ability to handle med school classes. But what you're doing is, I think, both wise and good for your application.

 

[unsung]

5+ years ago during undergrad, I got a C for 1st quarter of o-chem. 2nd quarter was a bit better (think it was a B or B+), and 3rd quarter was some kind of B too.

Fast forward to present, I'm retaking o-chem now that I'm actually a pre-med and planning on taking the MCAT... figured it'd be good review and also I need to get some current LORs from science profs. Last semester, I got an A for o-chem 1, and my grade on the final was the 2nd highest in a class of 200+ people. Now I feel like my grasp of o-chem is probably the strongest out of all the MCAT topics.

I think deciding to rethink was a good idea 😀 Anyway, if you think you can do substantially better, then I think retaking is a good idea.

 

[thoffen]

A lot of people struggle with orgo. If you do well the second time and demonstrate competency with a good MCAT BS score, then there's really nothing more to do. Don't bring it up unless someone asks about it in your interview.

 

[Non-TradTulsa]

Retaking Orgo is certainly not going to hurt you as much as a very low Orgo I grade will. There's a lot of rumors about the admissions process that aren't true at all, but a few rumors do have a shred of truth - one of which is, your Orgo grades tend to get a little more scrutiny. There's no such thing as organic chemistry in medical school, because 99% of reactions in the body are enzyme-driven - if you can understand hydrolysis, you're in good shape. However, Orgo is important to understanding biochemical processes at a physician level - you have to be able to pick up on concepts like proteins having a negative charge and things like that pretty quickly. So, re-taking is definitely better than doing poorly. Retaking shows that you're both serious and determined.

 

[IndigoBoy0]

Thanks all! I just got a high B+ on the first exam (I'm a little bummed not an A.. right on the cusp) which is great considering I got a C on the first exam last semester (my final grade was a D+ so if I can maintain this B+ I'll be thrilled).