If you take the advanced standing exam during orientation, you will get a P if you pass -- pass/no record applies to ASEs as well as to classes first term freshman year.
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If you're the average person (not freakishly intelligent), would trying to get a perfect/ near perfect GPA cost you all your social life? I'm just trying to see how hard it is so I can make mental preparations for getting B's and C's (I come from a school with pretty high GPA inflation).
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This question is basically impossible to answer.
(I'm speaking for course 7/9-type classes here, since this is a thread about premeds.) Most of your grades come from tests, although some classes have a minor problem set component, so it really matters how good you are at the types of tests the biology and BCS departments administer. Generally, these are problem-solving-based tests rather than fact-based tests, and are often open-book and sometimes open-notes -- to some degree, spending several extra hours studying for these tests is less useful than having good problem-solving skills in the first place.
In terms of numbers, the general grade distribution in a bio/BCS/chem class is something like 30% As, 50% Bs, and 20% Cs and below. So it's not impossible to get a high GPA, and getting a high GPA doesn't really involve giving up a social life -- it involves training yourself to be very good at problem-solving.