<p>How do pre-meds finish the chem series(14), six classes, in time for the mcat (end of sophomore year) if they do not take chem consecutively for 2 years?</p>
<p>There is always summer classes.</p>
<p>It is even okay to delay it in to your junior year, and take mcat that spring and apply in the summer.</p>
<p>Also physics is on the MCAT. Usually people don’t take it until their junior year so even if you finish o-chem your sophomore year, you won’t take the MCAT until you finished your physics. </p>
<p>My recommendation would be to do your physics the summer of your freshman year. Finish all the pre-reqs by spring of sophomore year then spend the entire summer of sophomore year studying for the MCAT. Take before fall and do well. Then spend your junior year relaxed and only concentrating on only ECs.</p>
<p>I took the chem 20/30 series and I still finished my chem, bio, and physics in time without summer classes. You don’t really need lab classes on the MCAT. Some passages may ask you about laboratory techniques, but nothing your lecture classes or some catch up can’t fix.</p>
<p>Even if you do want to take your labs before the test, you can take lab classes concurrently with the lecture classes.</p>
<p>Hey gotlactose, what did you score on the mcat? Please pm me. How many months did you study approximately?</p>
<p>Are we required to take the chemistry series in consecutive quarters,14A-D?</p>
<p>No, but you must take A before B, B before C, and C before D. Does not have to be in consecutive order.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t that result in a student being less prepared for the course?</p>
<p>Sometimes the student has no choice: either bad enrollment times or summer vacation stands between spring and fall quarters. Most instructors will do a brief review on the first day of lecture, but it won’t hurt to do your own review.</p>
<p>If you learned the material well, then it will quickly come back to you. Fortunately, I had an awesome ochem professor and review ochem for the MCAT was a breeze for me. If you ever see Dr. Merlic’s name, YOU TAKE HIS CLASS. It will be difficult and his lectures are super fast, but he is one of the best professors I have ever had because he makes you think and includes interesting tidbits into his lectures. As far as I know, Dr. Merlic only teaches the 30ABC series. Sucks to be a life science major because Hardinger is hard.</p>
<p>From what I’ve seen, most people take 14A and B (gen chem) during freshman year, and then 14C and D (orgo) sophomore year. Its the best way to break it up (and thats how people at other schools do it too). I found that 14C doesn’t really build off 14B too much.</p>
<p>As far as labs, people usually do one of the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>Take it concurrently with the regular chem lectures (you’re allowed to take 14BL with 14B and 14CL with 14C).</li>
<li>Take 2 chem lectures and 1 lab per year (14A in the fall, 14B in the winter, and 14 BL in the spring; 14C in the fall, 14D in the winter, and 14CL in the spring).</li>
<li>Take labs during the summer since they take up a lot of time.</li>
<li>Take labs during senior year since a) they aren’t really that helpful for the MCAT and b) its hard to get a good grade in them for most people (so they take it senior year after they’ve applied to medical schools)</li>
</ol>
<p>^ I disagree. </p>
<ol>
<li>Taking both lab and lecture in 1 quarter is fine, but don’t make it your goal when organizing your schedule. Try to spread out your time consuming classes so you don’t get overworked a quarter. Taking 2 chems in 1 quarter makes it exceedingly difficult to also take an LS/Physics at the same time. Its not impossible, but since it can be avoided, why not.</li>
</ol>
<p>You aren’t going to have much choice most of the time. The classes fill up so you will likely have to just take whatever is open during your second passes.</p>
<ol>
<li>The labs are helpful for the MCATs despite what others have said. A majority of the science passages are based off experiments, many which are similar to what you do in chem lab. Learning the procedures and why certain things are done is very important for the MCAT. Obviously you learn a lot of it in your regular classes too, but remembering the difference between fractional distillation and simple distillation is a lot easier once you’ve actually done both. There are a lot of things you learn in these classes that are applicable to the MCATs. MCAT physical science and biological science section both have chem lab stuff so make sure you know both. Chem 14bl stuff in PS, and ochem 14cl stuff in BL. </li>
</ol>
<p>Labs aren’t really “harder”. They are for sure more time consuming (stupid lab write ups), but they aren’t harder. They are pretty comparable in difficulty if not easier. I got an A in both cl and bl, while not getting in A in every chem lecture. But don’t just use my one sample as a good representation of the whole class. Look on bruinwalk and you can see that the grades for 14bl/cl teachers aren’t that bad. Specifically look at russell and henary, they had a very good distribution of grades last i remember.</p>
<p>Are students allowed to take LS1 later, for instance, sophomore year instead of freshman spring? Finally, are the Life Sciences useful for the MCAT?</p>
<p>LS 2 3 4 are way more applicable to the mcats than ls 1.</p>
<p>Ls 1 doesn’t need to be taken at any specific time. I took it in my 3rd year, and it was the last ls i took. </p>
<p>*but 2 3 and 4 should be taken in order,</p>
<p>How arduous is chem 14 c,cl,d coupled with LS 2,3,4 and Physics 6,A,B,C? This would be my sophomore year schedule fall through spring respectively.</p>
<p>“1. Taking both lab and lecture in 1 quarter is fine, but don’t make it your goal when organizing your schedule. Try to spread out your time consuming classes so you don’t get overworked a quarter. Taking 2 chems in 1 quarter makes it exceedingly difficult to also take an LS/Physics at the same time. Its not impossible, but since it can be avoided, why not.”</p>
<p>Taking chem lecture and lab at the same time isn’t that bad. There’s a lot of overlap between 14C and 14CL (all the spectroscopy stuff and intermolecular bonding). I’m actually glad that I took them both at the same time…only had to study half as much.</p>
<p>“4. The labs are helpful for the MCATs despite what others have said. A majority of the science passages are based off experiments, many which are similar to what you do in chem lab. Learning the procedures and why certain things are done is very important for the MCAT. Obviously you learn a lot of it in your regular classes too, but remembering the difference between fractional distillation and simple distillation is a lot easier once you’ve actually done both. There are a lot of things you learn in these classes that are applicable to the MCATs. MCAT physical science and biological science section both have chem lab stuff so make sure you know both. Chem 14bl stuff in PS, and ochem 14cl stuff in BL.”</p>
<p>I know people that didn’t take labs before the MCAT and they did just fine. Any lab-related thing on the MCAT is stuff that you’ll learn about during regular chem lectures (an overview of lab techniques). You’re not going to need to know how to do an extraction or sublimation or melting point analysis (stuff covered in chem labs). There might be stuff about titrations or spectroscopy, but you learn that during regular lectures as well. The chem labs don’t really have too much new material…it just expands on what you learn in lecture.</p>
<p>" Labs aren’t really “harder”. They are for sure more time consuming (stupid lab write ups), but they aren’t harder. They are pretty comparable in difficulty if not easier. I got an A in both cl and bl, while not getting in A in every chem lecture. But don’t just use my one sample as a good representation of the whole class. Look on bruinwalk and you can see that the grades for 14bl/cl teachers aren’t that bad. Specifically look at russell and henary, they had a very good distribution of grades last i remember. "</p>
<p>They weren’t harder for me, but they are for a lot of people. Also, don’t just look at Russell and Henary’s distributions. Look at Pang. There’s a really good chance that you’ll have to take him (at least for 14BL if not also CL), even though he isn’t that great (and his distribution isn’t that great either).</p>
<p>Regarding LS, they’re probably the most important classes for the MCAT (although chem and physics are also important). You can take LS 1 last if you want (and its probably best that way.</p>
<p>“How arduous is chem 14 c,cl,d coupled with LS 2,3,4 and Physics 6,A,B,C? This would be my sophomore year schedule fall through spring respectively.”</p>
<p>The fall and spring quarters wouldn’t be so bad. But if you’re taking 14CL, then you should probably only take 1 other science class since 14CL itself is 7 hours of classes per week (not exaggerating).</p>