Can you rank the following premed courses from hardest to easiest?

[grindtime1]

I'm looking for current premeds or medical students who have taken all (or most) of these classes to just rank them from most difficult to least difficult, 1 being most difficult and 11 being the least difficult.

The courses (I didn't rank them):

General Chemistry I
General Chemistry II
Biology
Physiology
Biochemistry
Cell Biology
Physics I
Physics II
Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Genetics
.
I often find biochemistry and organic chemistry at the top of the list and biology towards the bottom. Would you say this is true? Thanks for the help. .

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[scattun]

I haven't taken cell bio or biochemistry, but this is where I predict they would fall. I hope this helps for whatever it is that you are doing.

1. Cell Bio
2. Biochemistry
3. Organic Chemistry I
4. Organic Chemistry II
5. Genetics
6. Biology
7. Physiology
8. Physics II
9. General Chemistry I
10. General Chemistry II
11. Physics I

 

[MilkmanAl]

This list is going to change dramatically depending on where you go to school, the opinion of whoever's posting, and a ton of other factors, not that a ranking would give you any useful info anyway.

 

[NickNaylor]

Yeah... there's no way this is going to give you useful information. The courses will probably be dramatically different just because of what professor is teaching the course, much less any other variety of factors.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

THere is no way to rank any of these. They all teach different things, and on top of that its all personal preference. For example i would completely disagree with what scattun posted, because i find chemistry to be very difficult. I havent even taken orgo yet and i know it will probably be a level higher in difficulty. Its all personal preference and how you feel about the class. Someone who is mathematically declined might find physics (especially with calculus) to be impossible.

 

[Vicviper]

As everyone else has said, it changes on a bunch of factors. I LOVED Gchem, and I HATED Ochem, and that was primarily because I like numbers, and the elegance of formulas with units being able to confirm your answer every time in Gchem, but Ochem deals with essentially no numbers, and it's more of "trends" and there are always exceptions to the rules - and that just irritated me to no end. Also, my O chem professor didn't see any use in forcing us to know the electron pushing for every reaction, and that took a lot of hassle out of the class, and I know other people who have had professors that forced them to know all electron pushing, and it was much more frustrating for them.

But yeah, it differes from person to person, I love genetics and Evo, but I know many people who don't like them. But, overall, I considered Biochem my hardest pre-health class, and I think it was primarily because I had a really crappy teacher - I was never so glad to get a C, ha!

 

[Terpskins99]

My opinion...

1. Organic Chemistry II
2. Organic Chemistry I
3. Biochemistry
4. General Chemistry II
5. Physics II
6. General Chemistry I
7. Genetics
8. Physics I
9. Cell Biology
10. Physiology
11. Biology

 

[ksmi117]

None of them are particularly difficult, but...

Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Physics II
Genetics
General Chemistry II
Physics I
Biology
General Chemistry I

Didn't Take/Haven't Taken Yet

Physiology
Biochemistry
Cell Biology

 

[CoolWhipp]

...I havent even taken orgo yet...

O-chem!

To the OP, there is no real way to judge this. It depends on a lot of things. What kind of thinker are you for example. For me physics and organic chemistry were on the easier side, you can work through the problems.

But to answer:

Genetics
Biochemistry
Physiology
Cell Biology
Physics I
Physics II
General Chemistry I
General Chemistry II
Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Biology

 

[mmmcdowe]

I'm looking for current premeds or medical students who have taken all (or most) of these classes to just rank them from most difficult to least difficult, 1 being most difficult and 11 being the least difficult.

The courses (I didn’t rank them):

General Chemistry I
General Chemistry II
Biology
Physiology
Biochemistry
Cell Biology
Physics I
Physics II
Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Genetics

.I often find biochemistry and organic chemistry at the top of the list and biology towards the bottom. Would you say this is true? Thanks for the help. .

I agree that this won't be very useful, but why not?:
Hardest
Biochemistry
Physics II
Physics I
Organic I
Organic II
Cell bio
Genetics
Gen Chem II
Gen Chem I
Bio
Easiest

I didn't take Physio.

 

[greatnt249]

I'm looking for current premeds or medical students who have taken all (or most) of these classes to just rank them from most difficult to least difficult, 1 being most difficult and 11 being the least difficult.

The courses (I didn't rank them):

General Chemistry I
General Chemistry II
Biology
Physiology
Biochemistry
Cell Biology
Physics I
Physics II
Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Genetics
.
I often find biochemistry and organic chemistry at the top of the list and biology towards the bottom. Would you say this is true? Thanks for the help. .

This ranking system is fairly worthless, as there's no sense in getting worked up over the difficulty of a class before you've even taken it, nor does the difficulty of a class correlate how much you will like/hate it while taking it. Also, just because a class is "easy" does not mean it takes little to no effort to pass. But, if you must have an opinion, here's my ranking:

Hardest
Biochemistry
Genetics
Physics II
Physiology
Cell Biology
Organic Chemistry II
Physics I
General Chemistry II
Organic Chemistry I
General Chemistry I
Biology I
Biology II
Easiest

Keep in mind that the list does not mean that there is necessarily a wide "margin of difficulty" between the "easiest" and "hardest" classes.

PS Although it wasn't a choice, none of those classes even came close to how difficult Physical Chemistry I and II were.

 

[CyclistOK]

At OU the general consensus is:


Biochemistry
Physiology
Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Physics II
Genetics
Cell Biology
Physics I
Biology
General Chemistry II
General Chemistry I

Although during each of these classes, I heard from several people, "This is the hardest class I've ever taken!" I'm sure personal ability has alot to do with difficulty as does individual teachers, and university policies.

 

[i am the moon]

At UNC:

Genetics
Biochemistry
Organic Chemistry II
Organic Chemistry I
Biology I
Cell Biology
Physics II
Physiology
General Chemistry II
Physics I
General Chemistry I
Biology II


(In my opinion. It definitely varies with which prof you have. For example, bio 101 was really difficult with my prof, who is known to be the most difficult and strange bio prof in the school. With a certain other prof, it'd be down toward the easy end!)

 

[MilkmanAl]

Just to highlight a point, here's my list from UNC:

Biochem (Hogan's the man, but he certainly doesn't give points away.)
Genetics
Organic 1
Cell Bio
Organic 2
Gen Chem 2
A&P
Gen Chem 1
Physics 2
Bio 1
Physics 1

There wasn't a Bio 2 when I went through.

 

[45408]

Organic Chemistry II
Organic Chemistry I
Physics II
General Chemistry I
Physics I
General Chemistry II
Biochemistry (not that hard in undergrad, merciless in med school)
Cell Biology
Genetics
Biology
Physiology (didn't take as an undergrad)

I often find biochemistry and organic chemistry at the top of the list and biology towards the bottom. Would you say this is true? Thanks for the help.

So it all depends at what you're good at. It's easier for me to see a pattern or understand a formula than it is to memorize a laundry list of items.

 

[Bacchus]

Cell bio - the majority of this course was writing scientific papers
A&P - didn't take, based on others' opinions
Biochemistry - I took 3 separate Biochem classes, so this probably isn't a fair ranking
Genetics
Physics - Because of the professor
Orgo
Biology
Chemistry

 

[spence]

At Michigan State (just my opinion, from hardest --> easiest):

Biochemistry
Organic Chemistry I (because of the prof that semester)
Organic Chemistry II
Cell Biology
Genetics
Physics II
Physics I
General Chemistry II
General Chemistry I
Biology

I take physiology this fall, so I can't say where that would fit in. And yeah, it all just depends on what your strengths are and how you learn best. The prof makes a huge difference in how tough the course can be.

 

[Maygyver]

Honestly, I don't think it's even worth asking what is the toughest in general. So much of it depends on people. One of my friends HATED biochem but I think it has been the funnest class I have had.

 

[bunnity]

I didn't take all those classes, and I didn't think there was too much difference between the I and II of each class, but here's what I thought:

Hardest
OChem
GenChem
Physics
Bio

Also I should point out that the classes are split into I and II differently at different universities. There are a lot of ways to split up Bio and OChem especially because they are not that cumulative. Physics isn't completely cumulative either so it may vary somewhat as well.

 

[FuturaDocta]

I find there are specialty students. Some can kick butt in chemistry while others fail. And, there are students that just love biology and find these easiest (that would be me ). Then, there are the students that are just great and think all of it is easy (or at least they say so).

Here is my personal take on things (remember, I love bio):

Organic Chemistry I
Organic Chemistry II
Genetics
General Chemistry I
General Chemistry II
Physics II
Physics I
Cell Biology
Biology

 

[foreverLaur]

This is so variable. I thought physics and organic chemistry were the easiest!! I went to Ohio State.

 

[Future Doc1]

I thought O chem was hard?

 

[foreverLaur]

I thought O chem was hard?

Saying it was the easiest doesn't mean it was easy. People, I have found, tend to prefer gen chem or ochem. I personally hated general chemistry and struggled to get a B. I MUCH preferred organic chemistry and found it easier than gen chem (but not easy) and got an A with less work than I put into the gen chem B.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Part of what makes organic chem hard is how wildly useless it is. At least, that was the case for me. I have an unfortunate knack for picking out what's going to be important for me very quickly, so the rest of the material turns into drudgery. In the case of organic, that drudgery started during the 2nd or 3rd week.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Saying it was the easiest doesn't mean it was easy. People, I have found, tend to prefer gen chem or ochem. I personally hated general chemistry and struggled to get a B. I MUCH preferred organic chemistry and found it easier than gen chem (but not easy) and got an A with less work than I put into the gen chem B.

I concur O chem was less work, although more time....

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

I'm adding and subtracting a couple, but for me it was:
(most difficult/least fun first)
1. Calculus - so boring that I couldn't force myself to do h.w, professor spoke broken English and the Ethiopian TA didn't help much.
2. Intro Bio 1- weed-out class, hadn't taken AP, too many random plants and organisms
3. G. Chem 1- weed-out, hadn't taken AP, competitive with little room for error.
4. Physiology - mostly because of my professor, but curve made it ok.
5. G. Chem 2 - lots of practice problems required
6. Biochem - my 80 yr old professor was literally senile
7. Intro Bio 2 - first exposure to physiology, much more interesting
8. O. Chem 2 - much more random memorization than first semester, but still enjoyable
9. Physics 1 - did well in AP, kinetics formulas require some memorization
10. Physics 2 - E&M just clicked for me, and apparently for nobody else
11. Molecular Bio- plain old memorization, pretty interesting
12. O. Chem 1 - loved this class, G-chem now made sense

I'm pretty sure I had the highest grade in my class for #8-12. Other college favorites included neurobiology, neuroanatomy, and pretty much all my psych classes.

Having taken AP's helps a lot in intro classes because these can be competitive weed-outs...there is not a lot of room for error because it's relatively easy stuff, so the curve doesn't help. Classes like O-chem and Physio are much different and have a level playing field.

 

[foreverLaur]

Part of what makes organic chem hard is how wildly useless it is.

I really hope that was sarcasm...

 

[FuturaDocta]

I really hope that was sarcasm...

Relatively speaking, I would guess. He/she will probably never use it for the rest of their lives.

Otherwise, it is essential for almost every bases of research, inventions, drugs, etc.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Useless during med school and for people who want to practice clinical medicine, that is. Obviously organic chemistry isn't useless in general. I figured that, since we're talking about med school admissions, that would've been fairly clear.