Good Day to all!
Please offer me wisdom ~ I already have biology from a long time ago (1989 & 2001) and A&P 1 and 2 plus Micro (I’m an ER RN/BSN). That gives me the 8-12 hours necessary for med school app plus hands-on experience with pt care. Although my GPA isn’t strong there, I do have it (2.85-2.95 in biology alone). Not good but I did get a C in basic biology and B’s in both A&P 1 and 2 and micro. 
I am lacking the general chem and o-chem plus physics. I do have two other lighter chems (3.3 in one and a 3.0 in another) that I took for nursing school. One had a lab, the other did not but it was a requirement for the chemistry.
Q: Should I go ahead and take the biology 1 and 2 along with general chem this upcoming academic year or am I okay with what I already have and take general chem and physics while auditing the biology class for a refresher?
FYI: I’ll be going to a university, NOT a CC. My cGPA is okay, 3.3 perhaps and as of right now, my sGPA needs upward movement. I’d hate to waste $$ and time. I’ve already chatted with the med schools I’m considering and there isn’t a time issue with the biology.
Thanks!! 
My personal advice is always that if it has been more than 10 years since you had basic biology, to retake it because there have been enough substantial changes/additions that it is worthwhile. And I don’t think auditing a course will give you the motivation to reallly learn the material so as to be prepared for MCAT’s. I’d even do the labs. Got a number of questions from having done PCR, ELISA tests, recombinant DNA experiments etc recently.
That’s my personal advice!
Kate
You said no time issue but did you mean with them counting as prereqs or with material? If it’s material I think that has been talked about a lot here and basically biology is the one basic science that still changes a decent amount. We still have 46 chromosomes but I don’t know what might have changed in over 10 years. If you still remember stuff from a class you took that long ago then I’ll have what you’re having! (Seriously, PM me if you have some good stuff.)
If you are considering DO school, retaking bio 1 & 2 will give your sGPA the lift you want. They take the best grade and that’s it as far as GPA. If you are thinking MD, and only MD, then I would go into more self-analysis about it because they average all the grades you have for a certain course. However, most of them will tell you it’s about the trend in people with a lot of credits and that would help you as well if you went back and got A’s. Maybe an MCAT bio book and Khanacademy.org are all you need but that is something you want to be CERTAIN of.
Ultimately you are responsible for a good foundation in modern biology in order to go to medical school. The first two years (just the first year only if you go to Duke!) is jam packed with science. Any and everything you already know or looks familiar will save you precious time.
My last and final possible option/advice would be to consider taking Molecular biology 1 & 2 if your university accepts your bio as current enough to be used as a prereq for these classes. It might be called cell bio 1 & 2 or something similar at your school but it will usually be a junior or senior class. It might do just the trick of bridging the gap of what’s occurred in the last 10 years, not being the same stuff all over again, upping your science GPA, and helping you on the MCAT + MS1-2. Best of luck.
Wow, great advice from both my old-premed friends!! I suppose I’m going through some pre-biology shivers. And I’ve heard this particular professor is the “weed out” guy for those wanting med school.
I’m going to take the courses (Bio 1 & 2), barring any unforeseen circumstances that may occur between now and then. Any refresher class will help too 
This whole post has me thinking. I had Biology I in (gasp) 1978 and got a 4.0. I had Biology II in 1979 and got a 3.2. I was thinking that those grades are acceptable and I have all the credits I need. The schools I am considering, accept “old” credits. Certainly I knew I would have to do some MAJOR reviewing prior to MCAT, but had not considered retaking the courses cause I liked the grades I had (although I probably could bring up the 3.2). I also did not want to push off my timeline any farther by adding another course. However, I read this, and think, “Should I take Biology II again?” This would push off taking the MCAT to 2016, but I would be better prepared. Thoughts?? Comments? Would schools reviewing my app understand that it was really not a “retake” but a refresher after 30 years?? I’ve also just thought of leaving well enough alone, but adding Biochemistry instead. Even though it has been a very long time, I have always been a whiz in the biological sciences…got 100 on my high school regents in bio and obviously got a 4.0 when I took Bio I in college. My attendance in class is what hurt me in Bio II. I was working late at nights and it was an 8:00 class at a different campus.I was 18, and just didn’t make it there all the time, and rested on my “laurels” in Bio I. I don’t think I even cracked a book in that class and took the final cold. Well OPMer’s, how can I “fix” Bio so I am competitive? Or should I leave well enough alone?
I think it depends what Bio2 covers at your school and if the professors teach the human part of it longer or the other stuff. My professors taught the human part very quick as they were both researchers in “non-human” areas. What’s on the MCAT from bio2 is evolution and human physiology. Microbiology is on there too but I can’t remember if that was bio1 or bio2 (I took the upper division micro). When I took it we also learned about the biological history of the world, evolution, phylogeny, protists, fungi, and so much stuff about plants. By the time we got to the human stuff we really didn’t learn that much. But you did take those classes a long time ago so everything that has been said in posts above applies to that part of it.
The other alternative is to take some of the upper division electives that are just semester long courses on what you breezed over in gen bio. Genetics, Human Physiology, and Microbiology were the most helpful for the MCAT. It’s my opinion that none of those classes were harder than physics or orgo just to kind of give you an idea of what you’d be dealing with (professors can make that vary considerably though).
It has to be a really tough call for you. It seems like both decisions have the same amount of pros and cons.
Devil’s advocate: Your goal for admission is 2015 so your latest first MCAT attempt would be like mid-summer 2014? That gives you Fall-12, Spring-13, Summer-13, Fall-13, Spring-14, Fall-14, Spring-15. That’s seven semesters. If you put off admission one more year (summer 2015 MCAT, orientation 2016) you can get all the prereqs plus the three classes I named in before you take the MCAT. It strengthens your application and gives you a chance to show a GPA trend. Obviously you already know the cons of waiting an extra year so I won’t go into that.
It would actually be longer, as I cannot take summer courses with the job I have. I am limited to full semester classes in Fall and Spring. My medical director flexes my hours so I can take an 8:00 class three or four days a week. The longer classes they offer in the summer are out of the question. Unfortunately, at the University I am going to, none of the pre-reqs are offered in the evenings. I am also pay as you go. As a field instructor for the University, I get paid with tuition waivers. I get 3 credits for every semester I teach. I only teach Fall and Spring, so use my waivers - Fall and Spring. I’m hoping that the one course at time while working full time will definately help my GPA, but it does mean this will take a looooooong time. Thus my hesitancy to add another year of courses, given I am no spring chicken!! But you are right. Delay a year and add, say, Biochem and Genetics, and then those courses may also really help my prep for the MCAT since my Bio was so long ago. I actually took an A+P honors course in high school and we did fetal pigs and used Grey’s Anatomy as the text, and when I was an Equine student, we did Equine Anatomy and Physiology I and II, using fresh parts from the slaughterhouse, chilled and sprayed down with formaldehyde. We each had our own leg to do, and then together as a class did the internal organs. I got an A in that too. It’s not “human”, but I really do have a good grasp of basic human biology based on that. Also had a course ( it was the seventies) called Human Ecology that was based on ecosystem biology. Aced that one too. I just know all these “extra” sciences don’t fit in the BCPM on the AMCAS grid, but do they help my knowledge base for sciences? Absolutely!!! And it leaves me thinking that rather than redo Biology, add some more upper level biology based sciences. Chime in OPMer’s!!
(I think the original poster is right to retake the bio courses given time and GPA)
@ Vicki:
I’ll be better able to tell you after this application season if my decision NOT to retake bio but to take genetics (4 credits, no lab) to refresh my bio knowledge, and them simply take my o-chem (12 quarter credits, with lab), physics (12 quarter credits, with lab), and biochem (4 quarter credits, with lab)that I’d never had in undergrad. I graduated 15 years ago with a 3.81.
Two points that were made to me: 1) Your MCAT score will show schools how much of the “old” information you have retained, and 2)Biology is the science that (at the MCAT level) has changed the most in the last 10-20 years (from an old-premed doc at my work…went from school teacher to an amazing MD in her 40’s.)
My background is strong in biology. For my BS in nursing, I had to take bio I&II, Human A&P I&II, microbiology, pathophysiology, and a nursing-level pharmacology course. Add in 14 years working as a nurse, and some of it actually stuck.
Bio was the easiest MCAT topic to refresh in for me. The fresh genetics course definitely helped, as did the biochemistry - these are both required at my hoped-for state school. And I test well, though I had to work for the MCAT. Using the AAMC practice MCATs, paying attention to timing and pacing, and reviewing my own “gaps” more heavility than the topics I was more confident in were key for me.
Good luck!
Annette
The more I think about this, and the more I think about the timelines involved and what the MCAT will look for, the more I am thinking of moving my timeline out one more year so I can take genetics and biochemistry. This might not be a bad strategy. This means that instead of being one of the first ones to take the new MCAT, the first round of “new” will have come and gone, and I would be able to glean feedback about how to hone my studying for the new test. It would bring me “up to speed” in terms of modern concepts in biology, without repeating a course. And of course, it adds two more courses to raise my GPA with. Does Biochemistry count in the BCPM? Does Genetics? I know my Statistics course counts as Math, as does Calc I, but I also took an Accounting I course a long time ago…does that count as a Math course in the BCPM? Other sciences I took -the Equine A&P and the Human Ecology course…do they fit in the BCPM anywheres or are they just “other credits”? Do fill me in OPMer’s!!!
Vicki - not sure about accounting. If Equine A and P and Human Ecology had Biology course titles (Bio —) then they will count in the GPA.
Kate