Missionary Orthopod in the Making

Was I the first writer on Premeddiary.com? Its either me or Orlando. I was just wondering and couldn’t remember. Its amazing to see how this site has grown. So yeah, I told you all in my last post that this post was going to be very informative in regards to the premed journey. First I’m going to describe to you the track I’m taking, and why I’m taking that track. Then I’m going to take you through my freshman and sophomore year, describing my science classes, and just what I wish I had learned on a whole. The whole post will basically be along those lines. This is my track for my whole time here at Oakwood College

Freshman Year –Fall 2003(16 hours)
General Biology I w/ Lab (4 hours) : A
General Chemistry I w/ Lab : A
Freshman Composition I (3 hours): A
Survey of Calculus (3 hours): A
Orientation Seminar (1 hours): A
Physical Conditioning (1 hours): A

Freshman Year –Spring 2004 (18 hours)
General Biology 2 w/ Lab (4 hours): A
General Chemistry w/ Lab: A
Freshman Composition II (3 hours): A
Class Piano (1 hours): A
Psychology (3 hours): A
Fundamentals of SDA Beliefs (3 hours): A

Sophomore Year –Fall 2004 (18 hours)
General Microbiology w/ Lab (4 hours): A-
Organic Chemistry I (3 hours): A
Organic Chemistry Lab (1 hour): A
Fundamentals of Public Speaking (3 hours): A
Software Tools (3 hours): A
General Physics w/ Lab (4 hours): A

Current Sophomore Year –Spring 2005 (17 hours)
Genetics w/ Lab (3 hours)
Organic Chemistry (3 hours)
Organic Chemistry Lab (1 hour)
U.S. History II (3 hours)
Volleyball (1 hour)
Health Principles (2 hours)
General Physics w/ Lab (4 hours)

Junior Year –Fall 2005 (17 hours)
Art Appreciation (3 hours)
Introduction to Research (1 hour)
Plant Biology w/ Lab (3 hours)
Histology w/ Lab (3 hours)
Mammalian Anatomy I w/ Lab (4 hours)
The Gift of Prophecy (3 hours)

Junior Year –Spring 2006 (16 hours)
Undergraduate Research (1 hour)
Embryology (3 hours)
Mammalian Anatomy II w/ Lab (4 hours)
World Literature (3 hours)
Philosophy of Christian Education (2 hours)
Religion Course (3 hours)

Senior Year –Fall 2006 (11 hours)
Biology Seminar (1 hour)
Religion Course (3 hours)
Biochemistry w/o Lab (3 hours)
General Physiology (3 hours) w/ Lab
Physical Education Course (1 hour)

Senior Year –Spring 2007 (12 hours)
Philosophy of Science (2 hours)
Cell and Molecular Biology (3 hours)
Biology Seminar (1 hour)
Biochemistry w/o Lab (3 hours)
General Physiology (3 hours)
Total: 125 hours
That’s like 3 or 4 credits shy of what I need to graduate, but I think one of my AP classes will carry over, so I can apply it there. So yeah that’s what I’ve taken and will be taking while I’m in college. Besides the general required courses, I really do suggest that you take a track similar to mine. As you can see, the first two years of my track are packed with heavy courses. Biology and Chemistry my freshman year, and Microbiology, Genetics, Organic, and Physics my Sophomore year. Although this is a very challenging track, I recommend it because it allows you to take your MCAT twice before you graduate. With my track, by the time you finish your sophomore, you are qualified to take the MCAT, which is what I’m doing this summer. Lets say I don’t do well on this August MCAT, well, I can still take it during April of my Junior year or August of my Senior year…it just gives you more options, rather than doing a postbac due to bad MCAT scores. Also, I believe a track like this gets you serious about medical school. When you get to medical school, all of your classes will be science classes, so its good to learn how to balance a lot of science classes early. Although you technically don’t need Genetics and Microbiology to take the MCAT, these classes really do complement the MCAT, especially since this past year, the took away 3 Organic questions from the MCAT and added 3 questions on Genetics. Microbiology is literally another world with different names for things and different concepts, many of which are in scientific passages on the MCAT. I truly believe that both of these classes complement the MCAT well. Once again, I suggest this, but I’m not a trained advisor, so evaluate all of your options.

Now I’m going to go through the science course I’ve taken so far and give you advice on what I wish I had known, how to study for it, etc. I’m not going to talk about my general required courses, but as a small piece of advice, PLEASE GET A’s in these non-major classes. The science courses you will be taking are already going to whittle away at your GPA, making sure you do well in these non-major classes to pad your GPA. Plus it shows that you are well rounded if you have A’s in these non-major classes.

FRESHMAN YEAR

Survey of Calculus: This was the absolute best choice I made of all of my classes. The last math I took in high school was Algebra 2, so when I entered my freshman year, I enrolled in PreCalculus 1, so I could ease myself in. After sitting 3 days in that class, I knew I would fail, it was just too slow and repetitive. So I switched to Survey of Calculus, which is actually higher in course number than Calculus I, but it is much easier. It doesn’t go crazy deep into Calculus, but it gives you a general overview of everything. Most medical schools accept Survey of Calculus as equivalent with Calculus, and it is much less stress. Trust me folks, you will NEVER use calculus on the MCAT or in medical school. Don’t stress yourself out, the rest of your science courses will certainly do that. Check and see if you University or College has a class like Survey, which is more of general overview, than the deep stuff that Calculus gives you. It was still challenging, but it gave me what I needed to know, and nothing else. The teacher who teaches that class says that he has taught Survey of Calculus for 15 years, and he’s seen like 100 students get into medical school with that as their sole Calculus credit. Check it out.

General Biology:This class really depends on what kind of person you are. I can do math, but I don’t love it. I’m much more of a visual person, who likes dealing with molecules much more than equations. If you are that kind of person, General Biology should be fine for you. General Biology is a very visual course, where you will be confronted with a lot of a lot of things that require an imagination. Its not all memorization, because you have to understand the different cycles like glycolysis, Krebs, photosynthesis and much more. You aren’t going to feel like a doctor quite yet. The way you study for this class basically sets the tone for your college science career. I set the tone by READING READING READING. You can’t go off of what the teacher says in class, like you did in high school. Many times your test will be composed of stuff that he/she never said in class; this is an aspect of college that is very hard for people to transition to, but its vital to learn. You have to learn how to read a chapter, and deduce what is important, because everything certainly isn’t important. Highlighting the important sections wasn’t good enough for me. I learned much easier when it was asked to me in the form of a question. So what I did was I would convert everything I highlighted into a test like question (I would also type the answers). So when it came time to study for the test, I woudn’t even open my book back up, because everything I needed to know was in my questions. Usually I had from 60 to 100 questions and answers. This method might suck for people to hate to type, but it worked for me. You just have to find the method that works for you, because if you don’t, you will struggle for the rest of your time in college, especially as a science major. In most General Biology classes, maybe the second semester, you get to dissect cats. This is where you kind of feel doctor like, but it really is just the beginning. And just one more word of advice, that I wish I followed, please please read your chapters ahead of time. I really helps in the end, and will discourage you from procrastinating.

A word of advice for both General Biology and General Chemistry classes. DO WELL, AND TAKE YOUR LABS SERIOUSLY. Many times, these labs will be worth 20% of your grade. If you are not doing so hot in the main class, the lab can bring your grade up almost a whole letter!!! Don’t get into the habit of skipping labs, they will always be there, even in medical school!!!

General Chemistry: If you have a mathematical mind, you will LOVE GENERAL CHEMISTRY. This class is full of equations and theories about everything. You will learn about the electron, proton, neutron, etc. You will probably have to memorize part or all of the periodic table. You will learn how to balance equations, and how to find moles, limiting reagent, molecular orbitals, formal charges, etc. It’s a whole lot of calculations, which isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but it is cool at times. If you are absolutely not a math person, you will have a rough time with General Chemistry, so just make sure you hook up with someone that can help. LOL, every day my G.Chem teacher told us, if you can add and subtract, you can do chemistry. Its certainly more difficult than that, but it is relatively true. It’s pretty much a straightforward class, and actually, many people find General Biology more challenging because of the amount of stuff you have to understand and memorize. The second semester of G.Chem is usually more visual in the information taught, which was cool for me. So if you are struggling first semester because you aren’t really math orientated, take heart, because it does get better. I studied for this class by outlining my chapters. Meaning that I would go through my chapter, and highlight everything I thought was important. Then I would go back, and type up (I like to type, lol) a chapter summary, with only the things I highlighted. Some say that you can just study what you highlighted, but I found that when you study highlighted things in the book, you just get distracted from the rest of the crap in there. I rather have everything I need to know, isolated, so I can only focus on that. For some its chapter summaries, for others its flash cards, find your method.

As a freshman you will really be surprised about the number of people that start out as Chemistry or Biology majors, and change after your freshman year. Many can’t handle the sacrifice that being a science premed major requires. You can still party, hang out all the time, have an abundance of fun, and graduate, but your GPA will reflect it. If you are serious, there will be countless times when you can’t hang out because you are studying for a Organic test, or you have a really like Biology lab. It doesn’t get better, so if you aren’t will to make the sacrifice, you need to reevaluate your goals.

SOPHOMORE YEAR

General Microbiology: This is my first science class that I can honestly admit that I didn’t put my full effort into. Hence my A- in the class. Actually, the class was very interesting. The world of prokaryotes is a world in it of itself. Basically my teacher spent of good amount of time, telling us how important bacteria have been to the development of so many things we know. We learned what transcription, translation, replication, etc, was in like bacteria. In the lab, we learned different types of stains, how to correctly use a microscope, which I honestly didn’t know how to do, how to heat fix, serial dilutions, etc. All in all, it’s a very cool class, that requires a good amount of memorization, but it is worth it. And like I said before, many of the science passages on the MCAT and the GRE draw from concepts that are usually found in Microbiology. How did I study for this class?…I didn’t. And that is why I didn’t do to well. Many mornings, I would borrow my friend’s notes and study for test that was going to be given in a couple of hours. I really wasn’t serious, and that was probably because I wasn’t use to taking 3 science courses at the same time. It can get rough, but you must learn how to balance your time between all of them.

Organic Chemistry: My, my, my, this truly is a beast of a class. Organic is the kind of class where if you get it, you will always do well, if you don’t you will struggle. You start of with nomenclature, which is a HUMONGOUS part of Organic. By the end class, you will be able to look at the ingredients on the back of most products, and draw what most of the chemicals or substances look like. Next you’ll go into chirality, which I still don’t really understand, lol. Eventually you get to reactions, which is a BIG part of Organic. You can’t memorize the reactions, you must UNDERSTAND them. Really it is all part of understanding what the reagents do. You should be able to take most reagents, regardless of the starting material, and figure out what your reagent does to that material. Honestly, I felt like I was lost the whole first semester, but I started to understand when we started to learn the reactions in terms of synthesis and not just the reactions. For instance, you teacher should give you ethanol, and you should be able to show him (using the different reactions you know) how to get to a 6 carbon chain with a terminal alkyne. To do this, you have to apply all of the reactions you know, this truly helps you to study more. I studied for this class by doing chapter summaries, and by doing practice quizzes online. Most of these Organic books have online sites where they have practice quizzes. Do these, cause that is the only way you are going to get better.

Genetics: This class was truly fun to take. It was challenging, and it was a lot of work, but its not too hard. You honesty just go deeper into the stuff you learned during General Biology. There are A WHOLE LOT of enzymes, cyclins, CDKs, etc., that are at working in your cell cycle, and you will learn all of these. Its pretty much a straight forward biology class. I studied by taking very good notes. Since my teacher never used PowerPoint slides, everything she required you to know she told you in class. So I took really good notes, and it all worked out. If your teacher loves power points, make sure you do chapter summaries.

Physics: Honestly, Physics is a fun class. DO NOT TAKE PHYSICS WITH CALCULUS. Once again, I’m the kind of guy that doesn’t like to do unnecessary things. Unless you are a math whiz, Physics with Calculus is for engineering majors. Don’t stress yourself out, thinking that it will impress medical schools. An A will impress medical schools, not a C+ in Physics w/ Calculus. Know yourself, and make the right decision. Regular Physics is pretty much straight forward. If you teacher is caught up on conceptual stuff, that sucks for you. If not, Physics is cool. You learn an equation, and you apply that equation to different problems. It gets slightly hard when you have to derive an equation from 3 equations you already know. I these cases, Physics tutors help, since they already know these derivations. I studied by reviewing my quizzes, and doing practice problems. That’s all you really need to do too. Overall, it’s a plug and play class, and you will only have problems if math is a seriously weak point for you.

So yeah, that’s my advice for right now. I could really write more, but I’m still feeling fatigue from finals week. My next post will be with my grades for this past semester. Cross your fingers for all A’s!!!