Will these help at all?

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DiverDoc

KCUMB 2012
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I know undergrad is completely different than medical school. However, sometimes I think that I will be very glad that I picked the major that I did and have the courses under my belt that I do. DO you current medical students think since I have already taken by next Aug. Upper division Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Human A and Physiology, Biochemistry & Immunology that some of the stress will be lessened when compared to someone who say has just taken the bare bone courses to get in?

Thanks!
 
I know undergrad is completely different than medical school. However, sometimes I think that I will be very glad that I picked the major that I did and have the courses under my belt that I do. DO you current medical students think since I have already taken by next Aug. Upper division Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Human A and Physiology, Biochemistry & Immunology that some of the stress will be lessened when compared to someone who say has just taken the bare bone courses to get in?

Thanks!

It really depends on how your classes were focused, and how much you actually "learned" as opposed to "memorized" for the exam. If you really learned stuff, it will definitely help. It's always good when you've seen material before. For myself, I had an AWESOME biochem teacher for undergrad, and I really remembered a lot, which helps now, but I spent most of histo in undergrad memorizing, and i don't remember anything. However, don't underestimate the English or Poli Sci (or any other non-science) majors in your class. Everyone who is willing to work for it will do well.
 
I know undergrad is completely different than medical school. However, sometimes I think that I will be very glad that I picked the major that I did and have the courses under my belt that I do. DO you current medical students think since I have already taken by next Aug. Upper division Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Human A and Physiology, Biochemistry & Immunology that some of the stress will be lessened when compared to someone who say has just taken the bare bone courses to get in?

Thanks!

Having had those undergraduate courses prior to matriculation may help you a bit, especially for FOM. It's nice to have some sort of baseline knowledge so you can more easily, or readily, make sense of the massive amount of information being thrown at you at the beginning of medical school. As such, you could potentially have a bit of a jump at the gate and feel somewhat more at ease.

However, that said, I really wouldn't overestimate their value either. At first, I was sort of regretting that I didn't have any micro, etc., because the learning curve was a bit steeper for me relative to those who had taken some undergraduate micro, but now, I've basically caught up with everyone else. Additionally, my observation is that what little advantange that folks may have from having had taken these undergraduate classes prior may become leveled by the apparent clinical focus of the material covered, or the minutiae of the material tested (whether you have baseline knowledge or not, you still have to do significant work to go over the minutiae).

The bottomline is that everyone has to study hard and it is this that essentially defines how you do in medical school. Success in medical school is multifactorial, but a great deal of it relies on your study habits, in my opinion, and prior knowledge, such as your aforementioned classes, present a pretty minor factor. If you hadn't taken those aforementioned courses yet, I wouldn't rush to take them now. The relevant material you could cover in each undergraduate class would likely be covered in a single 1-hr lecture in medical school. Your time may be better spent on relaxing and enjoying yourself prior to matriculation, since non-study time is a bit scarce when school starts.
 
Having had those undergraduate courses prior to matriculation may help you a bit, especially for FOM. It's nice to have some sort of baseline knowledge so you can more easily, or readily, make sense of the massive amount of information being thrown at you at the beginning of medical school. As such, you could potentially have a bit of a jump at the gate and feel somewhat more at ease.

However, that said, I really wouldn't overestimate their value either. At first, I was sort of regretting that I didn't have any micro, etc., because the learning curve was a bit steeper for me relative to those who had taken some undergraduate micro, but now, I've basically caught up with everyone else. Additionally, my observation is that what little advantange that folks may have from having had taken these undergraduate classes prior may become leveled by the apparent clinical focus of the material covered, or the minutiae of the material tested (whether you have baseline knowledge or not, you still have to do significant work to go over the minutiae).

The bottomline is that everyone has to study hard and it is this that essentially defines how you do in medical school. Success in medical school is multifactorial, but a great deal of it relies on your study habits, in my opinion, and prior knowledge, such as your aforementioned classes, present a pretty minor factor. If you hadn't taken those aforementioned courses yet, I wouldn't rush to take them now. The relevant material you could cover in each undergraduate class would likely be covered in a single 1-hr lecture in medical school. Your time may be better spent on relaxing and enjoying yourself prior to matriculation, since non-study time is a bit scarce when school starts.


I agree. It also seems that the emphasis in med school is different, in that where you may have learned all about prokaryote Mitosis, and interesting research correlations, med profs don't care. Business majors may have to work a little harder, but it is not that big of a deal. I recommend having fun in undergrad if possible!
 
I know undergrad is completely different than medical school. However, sometimes I think that I will be very glad that I picked the major that I did and have the courses under my belt that I do. DO you current medical students think since I have already taken by next Aug. Upper division Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Human A and Physiology, Biochemistry & Immunology that some of the stress will be lessened when compared to someone who say has just taken the bare bone courses to get in?

Thanks!

Yep, you will definitely have an advantage. I have found Medical Biochemistry to be much easier than undergrad biochem and cell biology. Physiology and anatomy are both more difficult in med school, but having the background is nice. Micro and immuno are about the same as the undergrad classes in my opinion. Of course, I'm a learner, not a memorizer, so most of my previous course work stuck with me.
 
I took pretty much all of those courses and I can tell you that the only class I have an advantage in is Biochem as I have a 3 years of graduate work in biochem before medical school. Just remember that you are learning Micro for the sake of Micro in UG and you are learning Micro for future clinical work in Med School. Different focus, so don't try to take med school in UG, it won't be that big of an advantage. Thats just my 2 cents worth.
 
I would do pretty much anything right now to have been able to take BioChem last spring like I wanted to..

And a some Cell Bio sprinkled in wouldn't have hurt.



Apparently, I should have gotten an MPH/Biostats before coming to school as well. 🙂
 
I had an UG anatomy class the semester before I started (only the first of a 2 part course) and it helped me immensely in Anatomy, Embry and Histo. I think perhaps the prof I had was maybe just awesome, but it was very helpful. It was taught completely differently than the med school classes, but the basics and notes were definately helpful.

As far as the rest of the courses I had, hopefully they'll help as we are just getting into the physio, biochem, micro etc...
 
Eventhough I was a Pol. Sci major, I still was a Chem minor and took some extra bio. classes. I had an awsome biochem course and genetics course which helped me greatly. For those subjects I was able to study in half the time leaving me with more time to focous on subjects that I didn't have a strong background in like anatomy, microbio, pathology, etc...

Any course that you can take in Undergrad that is taught in medical school I would take as long as a couple of conditions are met. 1) you do well in it and get a good grade. 2) you put into long term memory or have a deep understanding of the material so when you see it med school it will mean something.
 
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