Retake Gen Chem 1/2?

Hi all,


So I took Gen Chem 1/2 in '04 at a CC and received C’s in both lectures and A’s in both labs (the lecture/lab sections were offered/graded as separate courses at my old school. No excuse for the lecture grades…I slacked off.). I haven’t even thrown a sideways glance at a chem book since then.


I plan on taking O-chem in the fall, and was wondering what people’s thoughts were on whether it would be best to a) repeat the sequence this summer (4 weeks each class) or b) pick up my old textbook, grab some new study material, and do a review on my own between now and Sept.


The thing is, I don’t mind being in chem class/lab/recitation from 7:30a-2p everyday, but I’m hung up on the possibility of being able to take that time to work/earn money instead. I’m also concerned because I’d have to take out unsub loans to take the classes.


Has anyone had a similar situation? Advice?


Thank you!


Cheers,



I’d say it depends on the grades you got in physics, bio, etc. as far as science classes go…if your science GPA isn’t too bad, then there may not be much benefit from retaking gen chem. At the minimum, I would recommend reviewing the material, especially the properties of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen as well as molecular orbitals.


Honestly, inbetween unsub loans and not retaking them, it may be worthit to not take them if you’re not trying to make up for a history of poor grades in science classes.

Yeah, my history with science classes in college so far includes only the gen chem sequence; I still have all of the other science prereqs (as well as some upper division sci courses) to take over the next few years. I input my numbers into an AAMCS gpa calculator and ended up with a 2.5 sci gpa. Retaking them would bump me up to a 3.3.


I’ve managed to avoid unsub loans so far, I’d like to continue the trend if at all possible.


Cheers,

The real question is whether you have a solid enough foundation of g-chem for o-chem. My observation has been that people who get Cs are failing to absorb some critical concepts. My lab partner got Cs in g-chem and dropped o-chem within a month. O-chem is more demanding than g-chem and builds upon many of the concepts you may be weak in.


If you really understood the material and some other factor came into play with your grades, then you should be fine. If you had a hard time with the concepts, you will have to work doubly hard to learn both o-chem and whatever you missed from g-chem at the same time.


Based on your description, I think I’d retake g-chem and get an A in order to pave the way for getting an A in o-chem.

I agree with Bill W. Retake gen chem and get As!


2.5 vs 3.3 is a big deal! And it will affect your application process.


I’d rather invest some extra money in retaking gen chem and doing well, than not retaking it and potentially ‘waste’ a lot of money for application process and get rejected because of poor science GPA.


Kasia

I disagree with retaking gen chem if they’re your only science classes. You have plenty of science classes to take to bring your GPA up so that’s not an issue. Ultimately it comes down to how you want to re-learn the material: with a teacher or by yourself.


Either way, you need a solid grasp of gen chem to do well at ochem. Especially on the molecular orbital, VSEPR, etc. that has to deal with the shape of a chemical molecule as well as the properties of certain elements. Also need to be very good with lewis structures.

Thank you for all the advice. So I talked to a financial aid counselor and found out that I’m not even eligible for the unsub since I received GI Bill educational benefits this year. In light of that, I’ve decided to go down a kind of middle road.


A friend of mine works in a lab with a p-chem grad student. He (the grad guy) has offered to tutor me through gen chem 3 days/week (with problem sets etc. for homework) this summer to make sure I have a thorough understanding not only for the MCAT, but also for o chem prep.


As for gpa, I made just enough mistakes (c’s) early on so that even with getting straight A’s over the next couple of years, I’d still only end up with roughly a 3.3 cum after around 200 credits. I was advised to put my focus on doing really well on rocking out my science classes from here and nailing the MCAT when it comes time.


And madkasia, I love your “attitude” quote.

  • SleepingJune Said:
He (the grad guy) has offered to tutor me through gen chem 3 days/week (with problem sets etc. for homework) this summer to make sure I have a thorough understanding not only for the MCAT, but also for o chem prep.


As for gpa, I made just enough mistakes (c’s) early on so that even with getting straight A’s over the next couple of years, I’d still only end up with roughly a 3.3 cum after around 200 credits. I was advised to put my focus on doing really well on rocking out my science classes from here and nailing the MCAT when it comes time.



Good luck with that. I hope it works out for you and you don't regret not having simply taken a couple of extra semesters to get truly up to speed, overcome poor grades in gchem, and lengthen your med school entrance by a year. I guess I'm too nervous to leave my one shot at med school to chance and hope.

Hi June:


Have you asked if you can take the lectures and not the labs (I hate lab…)? I’ve taken Chem 1, 2 and Org 1 in the past year, taking Org 2 now, and one thing I’ve noticed that was helpful from the inorganic chems to the org chems is thermodynamics (rates of reactions, etc.). If you do basic review I think you should be okay. I understand the concern about the $$ and time, because both are precious. I think it depends on your comfort level with the material.

  • lpressley130 Said:
Have you asked if you can take the lectures and not the labs (I hate lab…)?



Good point, L. U of MN offers that method as well. Seems they keep the grades separated and then consolidate at end. You can actually repeat the class without repeating the lab, then they take the old "good" lab grade, average it with the new lecture grade, and wallah - improved grade on transcript.

WARNING: Slight t/j incoming:



Did you notice that labs ran ahead of your lectures? Our labs are about a chapter ahead of our lectures... I seem to be running out of time in my labs to get the work done correctly and precisely, and the lab manual questions answered in the allotted time. I LOVE the lab but I'm not sure if I'm overly analytical and want the precision so I'm slow? or if I'm just so far behind my peers (i.e. their chemistry is much newer than mine - I'm sure they've all had it since 1980).

Most med schools will prefer that you have your science pre-reqs from a four-year institution. This might color your decision.


Cheers,


Judy

  • jcolwell Said:
Most med schools will prefer that you have your science pre-reqs from a four-year institution. This might color your decision.

Cheers,

Judy



Doing reasearch into schools I found that UCD rquires a 4 pre-med from a four year, no on0line classes or CLEP tests accepted. But the joint UofA/ASU School of Medicine in Phoneix, will accept on-line courses and CLEP tests. Which I have been really considering on appllying to them. On the other hand I live right next to one of the best Med Schools in the country and I am familure with them, so it looks like I will be looking at applying to pre-med classes at UCD.