<p>I noticed that many people don’t take a series together (such as taking chem 3A/AL spring freshman year and chem 3B/BL spring sophomore year). Also, when trying to spread out harder classes, it is sometimes not feasible to take classes one after the other without, say, taking chem 3A/AL, Bio 1B, and math 54 in the same semester (thus going against the initial goal of spreading out harder classes).</p>
<p>So my question is: Is it common for students to, for example, take math 1B one semester and then take the next course two semesters later?</p>
<p>I am a MCB major planning on pursuing premed. I am concerned that if I don’t take certain classes that logically follow each other (like the math example above) I will put myself at a disadvantage. On the other hand, I don’t want to not break up series at the expense of putting several harder classes together in the same semester.</p>
<p>You don’t necessarily have to take a series in a consecutive sequence. This is particularly true in your case, since Math 53 (the “next course”) hardly takes any advanced knowledge from Math 1B. Anything you’ll need for 53 should be stuck in your brain forever (how to do single integrals, etc.).</p>
<p>Even if you intend to take them in a sequence and contiguously, sometimes the telebears gods just don’t smile upon you, making registration in that class impossible this semester. It might mean a few nights glancing through books and notes to refresh yourself, but even a relatively tightly integrated series like Chem 3A and 3B, or taking 3BL lab semesters after the 3B lecture, isn’t that hard to manage.</p>
<p>Thanks! I’m apprehensive about taking a math class with 2 science classes in the same semester. But if I don’t, I would have to take math 53 a few semesters after math 1b.
Actually, would it be okay to take math 53 with, say, chem 3a/al and bio 1b?
Also, is it possible/a good idea to take bio 1b and bio 1a/al in the same semester?
I’m worried about course selection mainly because I need to keep up my gpa since I’m most likely going to be premed.</p>
<p>Haha, I’m not sure yet myself if I will do it. I just read in one med school’s course requirements that taking higher math classes above the prereqs is recommended, so I’m playing with the idea. Trying to see if I can squeeze it in or if it’ll overload my schedule =)</p>
<p>I took a semester break between Math 53 and 54 and that was fine.
I also took a break between Physics 7A and 7B and turned out to be okay.
I’m taking ME 134 this fall which is a sequel to ME 132 which I took nearly 1 year ago.
Discontinuties happen.</p>
<p>Bio 1b and bio1a/1al together would be ridiculous. I don’t know whether or not it’s prohibited, but you wouldn’t want to do that because of all that lab time involved. Chem 3a/3al and bio 1b is perfectly fine together (don’t know about math 53 since I’ve never taken it). Since your main goal is to keep your gpa high, I would caution against overloading on more than 2 pre-med lower divs per semester.</p>
<p>I’ve heard about not taking 2 upper division classes per semester or two science classes or two pre-med lower divs (thanks misterelephante!), but what about 2 pre-med lower divs and a math class like math 1b? Are math classes part of that “no more than 2” recommendation (in terms of upper divs, pre med, and science/math classes)?</p>