@tbhbulls As for trapping yourself, that is really will-power and good decision making (as in take top instructors, but don’t do thinks like overload yourself). You either are a student that wants to learn and then get into med school or one who only wants the end of medical and will take all the perceived short-cuts to get there (there are many who would admit this). You just have to be willing to work and think hard in the best prof’s. courses which will involve frequent study and usage of the necessary resources. Most pre-med core science courses have supplement problem solving sessions that are led by UG’s who were formerly successful in the course and are linked to an additional problem set on top of whatever book and online problems you were supposed to do. Usually these problem-sets are higher level problems that are more like difficult test problems. Some students, for some reason, think it is okay to be flaky on attendance or show up without attempting or even looking at problems first (they show up and copy answers and don’t participate in what is supposed to be team learning facilitated by the UG TA) and then expect the test to go well when they never really thought through problems on their own before. Also, unless you’re amazingly brilliant, usually the HS level cramming doesn’t work. Effective “cramming” for a challenging science course on the lower end of the difficulty spectrum is more like the 5 days- 1 week range.
For courses taught at the level of the top organic chemistry teachers, you probably need a learning cycle where you study daily or every other day if you can. You are falling behind if the supplemental problem set comes out and you have no clue how to do them and you are screwed if 3-4 days before the exam, you are incapable of doing any higher level problems (like those o the supplemental sets) on your own. Many students want the pre-med dream without this level of engagement and thus take the low-road and often pay the price. However, there is often the pattern of messing up and then not fixing it soon enough. So a person gets a C/C- or lower in general chemistry 2 and instead of relearning material or retaking the course in summer school or something, they just rather take the easy ochem instructor so that they can “stay on track” (I believe this is code for keeping up with everyone else) when pre-med is really their personal journey to become scientifically competent so they should fix a deficiency and then try to go in a better direction.
There is also the effect of the grade whore that likes ego strokes, so they will try the difficult instructor (maybe they are riding high after a 4.0 year or semester), get a B grade or their first A- and then decide that they are uncomfortable having to fight to do well or having to learn beyond memorization and algorithmic problem solving to do so. In that sort of case, it is a matter of just toughening up and valuing how much more you’re getting out of one level of instruction than the other. In the grand scheme of things, a couple of B’s from the highest level instructor in a pre-med core is not going to hurt most life science majors who will likely have a slew of A’s coming from upper-level and intermediate courses in their major. Really good teachers in certain subjects not only help you learn that subject well, but if you buy-in to their method, teach you how think in ways that make you more successful academically down the road (kind of like: “Oh, after this course, I found this course easy because X already taught me do to things at the same or a higher level”) and allows you to be more versatile in course selection. Like if you’re traditionally only good at more memorization, you may become more comfortable navigating courses that require more analysis than you would if you hadn’t gotten your B from Dr. Weinschenk (one of the top ochem instructors) for example. In addition, prepping for that part of the MCAT (and related subjects like biochem) become more or less a joke. In comparison, getting an A in some folks’ classes means almost nothing skill development wise (at least not with regard to handling higher level thinking tasks).