Take a science class EVERY semester?

mcat2
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:13:19 +0000

Supplement your bio major with some English courses if you don’t want to get too rusty with reading comprehension.



I heard the same from DS. Unless you are naturally talented in reading comprehension, taking too many science courses at the expense of non-science courses may put you in a disadvantage position come MCAT time. The reason is that for a true, non-gut non-science courses, the amount and difficult level of the reading is much greater than those required by those required by a typical science course. On the other hand, if you take too many of these hardcore humanity classes, AND join a demanding research group, you may study less for the science classes compared to other neurotic premeds who put in seemingly infinite amount of time in order to secure that precious A. DS ended up spending more time on one non-science class than all of his science classes combined in a particular semester. (Was it like reading one book every one to two weeks?) I guess the balance is the key.

I heard that one student who is very lopsided toward sciences did not keep up with his humanity/reading side of education in college. After a year or two in college, he said his English skill actually got worse, and dared not to take any humanity classes any more at his home institute (as doing so will likely result in a not premed-worthy grade no matter how hard he tried.) For this kind of student, I think it is better for him to go to a tech school (rather than a LAC-ish school ) where he could more easily shine based on his strength on the science subjects alone. It appears that for any LAC-ish class, the test-taking skill (esp., that for the multiple-choice tests) are not valued at all because all or most grades depend on how well you argue in your papers.