updated:
1/ 2011
Next update: 2011
Copyright 1999-2011
Alex Shteynshlyuger
Premed Requirements
Contents:
Medical schools require that you take certain pre-medical classes as undergraduate.
The "pre-med" classes required by virtually all schools in the US are as follows:
- A year of Freshman Chemistry along with the appropriate laboratory courses
- A year of Organic Chemistry along with laboratory courses
- A year of Biology along with laboratory courses
- A year of Physics along with laboratory courses
- A year of English
- A year of Calculus or other advanced math classes, including Statistics
In addition, many schools require a certain number of credits in non-science classes. Less common are the schools that have more specific requirements such as coursework in Behavioral Sciences (Psychology), Philosophy, etc. Consult particular medschools (or look at their web sites) to find out the specifics.
Pre-med requirements play a very important role in admissions for several reasons.
- Pre-med requirements make the bulk of the science classes you will take in college and determine your Science GPA, which one of the determinants of your chances of admission.
- You will need to get recommendations for medical schools from science faculty, and if you do not take other science classes, getting them from professors who taught pre-med classes will be your only option.
- Pre-med requirements cover most of the material you need to know for the MCAT. The better you know the stuff covered in these premed classes the better off you're when the time comes for taking MCAT.
- Schools ask you explicitly to list premed requirements along with your grades on their secondary applications, which means they bear a lot of weight.
Acing Premed Requirements
There is an obvious way to succeed in your premed classes: work hard, and this is obvious and true for all classes.
Yet science classes that make up the premed requirements are different from all others. For one, they are the lifeline to your medical career. They also require different approach than let's say History, Psychology or Anthropology.
In all your science premed classes: Freshman Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Calculus and to some extend in Biology, the difference between a good grade and a bad grade is not necessarily knowing stuff. You can read Chemistry all you want and know every tiny fact about it but the chance is that this alone will not ensure you a good grade.
The "secret" to doing well in these classes is:
- (1) Understanding the topics, theory, etc
AND
- (2) doing practice problems
Withoug doing MANY practice problems you will NEVER do well on the exams. Most exams I've seen are structured to test problem-solving ability and this is also true of MCAT. So, do spend the extra time practicing solving actual problems. Get a solution manual for your textbook and check yourself.
For Organic Chemistry and Physics, you should be aware that often there are more than one correct way to solve a problem. The solution manual for your textbooks will usually give only one approach. You would know if you solved it correctly in Physics because if you did you will get the same numbers. In organic chemistry, there is no way for you to know for sure if your "alternative" solution is correct because even though you may have gotten the right result, your methods may be erroneous. I would recommend that you take your solution to your professors or TAs and ask them to look at it. You will derive two benefits from doing so: (1) you will know if you solved problems correctly, and more important, (2) if you did not solve it correctly, you will understand why your approach is erroneous and does not work.
Organic Chemistry:
I had trouble with organic chemistry and I have found a "miracle" book that helped me both to understand organic chemistry and to ace the second semester of it. The book is "Guidebook to Mechanisms in Organic Chemistry" by Peter Sykes. I think the book is excellent. It is a hybrid of a review book and a "guidebook" that explains the foundations of organic reactivity by type of reaction. I feel it is a valuable book. I found it very useful for reviewing for MCAT, which I took two years after I took Organic Chemistry. The book is pricey--so you may want to check your library.
I do not have any "useful" book suggestions for any other premed classes, so please do not ask.
