I’m currently completing a full year of ‘solid’ general chemistry (amongst other courses) at a local university.
Come this fall, I plan to continue onto OChem I & II. But I would like to be ‘optimally’ prepared for these two giants.
I was hoping to audit them during summer months, and thus hit them already ‘well armed’ in the fall.
What are typical universities’ policies on allowing students to ‘audit’ such courses - prior to actually taking them?
Any ideas, comments?
Ron
Hi Ron,
Most universities will NOT allow you to take a course for credit that you have previously audited. Now you can get around this by taking the course at another university or auditing at another university.
Find out what the policy is before you sign up for the audit. Another thing is that you can “unofficially” audit by sitting in on a few classes but check the policy.
Natalie 
You could just ask the professor if you could sit in from time to time to get an idea.
Depending on the size of the lecture, it could be very easy to sit in on the ochem lectures over the summer without officially auditing. Cheaper that way, too. 
Hide in the back and be inconspicuous.
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Depending on the size of the lecture, it could be very easy to sit in on the ochem lectures over the summer without officially auditing. Cheaper that way, too.
This plan gets my vote, too. The problem with taking the class at another university is that you will then have to submit that transcript to AMCAS when you go to apply. They want a transcript from every university you’ve ever attended. Another idea you might consider is to read the organic chapters that are at the end of a lot of gen chem texts. These tend to be written at too elementary of a level for pre-med studies, but they would be great for you to get your feet wet, learn the terminology, etc.
Ron,
in my college you can take the course you’ve audited before for credit. And I actually had few students in my summer class who were just getting ready for the Fall Orgo. (by the way - they were anoying as hell, becasue when people were panicing and getting anxious about their grades and tests, they were always the calm ones saying ‘hey- it’s only a grade! Don’t worry’. It wasn’t until after that when everyone discovered that they were actually auditing the class). I guess that sitting through the lectures before taking the class would be really helpful, especially when Chemistry is not your thing. but I would never spend so much money just for ‘getting ready’ to take a class. I’d rather just audit it unofficially, like other people suggested!
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Ron,
in my college you can take the course you’ve audited before for credit.
This is true for all the state schools I attended too.
I put a vote in for “auditing” the courses without officially registering!
If I were in your situation and wanted to get a little ahead (which is a good idea), I would buy the textbook early and teach myself the first few chapters. Practice problems on your own and you will really be able to concentrate on the nuances in the fall.
Even if your school will let you officially audit a class before taking it for credit, I wouldn’t do this, because anything you do officially will go on your transcript and med schools will see it. Then, they may wonder whether you’d have done as well if you hadn’t audited the class first. They do pay close attention to your science grades, especially if you’re a returning student.
Now going over the material in a textbook seems like a good idea. Also, listening to lectures can be kind of passive–I’m not sure how much you’d get just by auditing. If you try to learn some chapters and work through problems on your own, you might get the most out of it.
I like the idea of using the existing sections of your Gen Chem text. That’s something I’ve been doing, and I’ve found it pretty interesting without presupposing knowledge I don’t yet have. It’s also applicable to what we’ve been learning in class, so it helps me understand that better as well.
I’ve also been looking online somewhat, albeit not formally. There are a number of sites with good general information, as well as a few online organic chem textbooks. I don’t know how reliable they are, but they are out there ( such as http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Organic_chemistry and http://www.chem.uic.edu/web1/OCOL-II/WIN/HOME.HTM ).
Oops, this turned into a list of what I’ve been doing in a similar situation 
Hopefully some of the ideas here will be helpful for you.
… and now that I’m at my other computer, here were two links I had found earlier. Again, I haven’t checked them out extensively, so I don’t know how good they are:
http://www.cem.msu.edu/~reusch/VirtualText/intro1.htm#info
http://www.ochem4free.com/page.php?1