skidda

I'm an incoming freshman and am planning on being pre-med. Since I'm premed, I signed up for Chem 1A, but I've had many people (graduate students, siblings, etc. who have been to berkeley and have done premed) tell me that it's better to take Bio 1B first, before chem, because it's somewhat easier and a better class to start with your first semester since Chem 1A is supposed to be really hard and stuff. But other people have also told me to just take Chem 1A because that's what everyone does and there are a lot of study groups and stuff. If anybody knows anyone who has done/is doing premed, I need some input!

Also, can anybody tell me how the labs work for chem? are they really hard? do you get to choose your lab partner?

skidda

Oh and I'm kinda reluctant to sign up for Bio 1B cuz I've heard nothing positive about the professor who teaches it...but is it true that classes are easier when you take them at the "non-traditional" times?

black hat

This is a little late, but I'll try and answer this one.

To be honest, though you might've decided otherise, it's probably better to take chem 1A your first semester. Yes, it's true that it's pretty hard. It's one of the first weeder classes you'll face at Cal, and I've heard (but don't really know) that it's easier if you take it in the spring or during the summer. But you're going to have to take it sooner or later, especially in order to take chem 3A. Also, to cover all your pre-req classes in your lower years, you'll be taking more than 1 science class in sophomore year, and since bio1b does have a rep as one of the easier classes, you might as well make one of those science classes bio.