I completed my bachelor’s degree in 2006 and majored in bioethics, also completing the requirements for biology. My senior year, I decided that I did not want to pursue a premed track and decided that to complete the final biology requirement - one semester of organic chemistry - I would take it pass/fail.
Five years, later, I remember none of the organic chemistry material and am retaking it (and will later take 2nd semester organic chemistry). My question is - if I apply to an MD program, am I going to be docked for having taken organic chem 5 years ago pass/fail? I do not remember the material from that long ago, and I wasn’t even considering premed then. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Are you planning on retaking OChem I again before taking OChem II? I think if you retake them both the pass/fail is not going to matter since you will have a more recent grade in OChem I. I don’t know how med school admissions look at Pass/Fail grades. I will say if you are planning to take OChem II and don’t remember anything from OChem I, I would retake OChem I, b/c basically OCHem one is the first half of the textbook and OChem II is the second half of the textbook so there is quite a bit of knowledge base that is built up.
also depends on how you did in your other courses. Are there other P/F courses that you took? In my opinion, a letter grade is always better.
- history Said:
I completed my bachelor's degree in 2006 and majored in bioethics, also completing the requirements for biology. My senior year, I decided that I did not want to pursue a premed track and decided that to complete the final biology requirement - one semester of organic chemistry - I would take it pass/fail.
Five years, later, I remember none of the organic chemistry material and am retaking it (and will later take 2nd semester organic chemistry). My question is - if I apply to an MD program, am I going to be docked for having taken organic chem 5 years ago pass/fail? I do not remember the material from that long ago, and I wasn't even considering premed then. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Five years, later, I remember none of the organic chemistry material and am retaking it (and will later take 2nd semester organic chemistry). My question is - if I apply to an MD program, am I going to be docked for having taken organic chem 5 years ago pass/fail? I do not remember the material from that long ago, and I wasn't even considering premed then. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
You MUST, REPEAT, MUST take Organic I over for a a letter a grade, else you expose yourself for "technical" rejection of not having the required prerequisite courses completed in the prescribed manner. I will try to find a citation for this but I am quite certain I have seen this on more than one medical school's admission website. A medical school certainly cannot judge nor compare candidates who have pass fail instead of a letter grade. It can't be part of a GPA. You shouldn't take Organic II without having a solid grasp of Organic I. Lastly, the MCAT is mostly Organic I material. Need I say more?
No, ifs, ands, or butts, you absolutely, positively, must retake Organic I as well as any other required pre-req for a letter grade.
Next time I will try not to hold back and tell you how I really feel
I completed my bachelor’s degree in 2006 and majored in bioethics, also completing the requirements for biology. My senior year, I decided that I did not want to pursue a premed track and decided that to complete the final biology requirement - one semester of organic chemistry - I would take it pass/fail.
Five years, later, I remember none of the organic chemistry material and am retaking it (and will later take 2nd semester organic chemistry). My question is - if I apply to an MD program, am I going to be docked for having taken organic chem 5 years ago pass/fail? I do not remember the material from that long ago, and I wasn’t even considering premed then. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
I would say that it will look like a retake. Also from what I have read on here anything that you do over doesn’t hurt you as long as you don’t tank the do over.
5 years is enough of an interval that taking it over to refresh your knowledge is reasonable, even if it had been graded. In bio, it’s almost required due to rapid progress in the field but I don’t think it will hinder you in any way to redo organic chem, and you DO want to have that fresh in your mind and understood.
Kate
Good luck in the class if you retake it. It’s brutal. We just got our second exams back. This would be mechanisms mostly. I think the class average was a 53. I did a good bit better than that, but not the A I would have hoped for.
I’m learning that a lot of this depends on the professor. Mine likes to basically go over the book material, and then on the exam, hit you with stuff you’ve never seen before. I showed the first problem on the test (10 points) to one of the grad students today, and she couldn’t believe it. She didn’t even know where to start.
Yeah, school is fun. I keep reminding myself.
My class avg. for our second test was a 43…
Ha! When I took chem the first time (back in '98), my professor was from Ireland. His ‘brogue’ was so thick that this Southern girl only understood about half of what he said. HE was the kind of professor who loved to put his own lecture material (which had little to do with the book) on the exam… GOOD times, for sure!
Now, I have a brother in law from Ireland, and I find that over time I can understand him very, very well… I’d love to go back and retake a class from that guy NOW! 
With content that’s hard enough to understand as it is, Note.To.Self: Make sure you can understand the words coming out of your teacher’s mouth!!! LOL