Basically, how much each of these courses took me out
Being on a pre-medical track as an undergraduate means certain things for how you spend your time during college. There are certain prerequisites to applying for medical school—although, if you’ve met a pre-med, they’ve certainly already told you; we can be quite talkative when it comes to our future. Certain courses prepare you for the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT, and also prepare you to head into medical school ready to learn about being the best physician you can be. Some of these courses are notorious in their reputation, and I would argue that they don’t deserve the bad reputation. However, some of these classes can infiltrate your mind and destroy you from the inside (educationally and enjoyably, of course). Every student faces their own unique challenges with certain courses and concepts, so it is completely normal to love certain courses and have adverse reactions to others.
1. Psychology
Students typically take a psychology course to prepare for the psychology concepts on the MCAT. As a psychology major myself, I find any psychology course I take to be fascinating and typically one of my favorites of that semester. That is, in part, one of the reasons I decided to add a psychology major in the first place. I couldn’t get enough after the first course I took and decided I wanted to delve deeper into the psychology field. The courses within this field also vary drastically; you can specialize in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology or even clinical psychology. Any class you take will be one that will be relevant, no matter what field you decide to go into or what major you have.
2. Organic Chemistry
Many people may be surprised at this placement, since this is one of the courses that has a very negative reputation. However, for me, organic chemistry is where a lot of puzzle pieces clicked into place. This topic is key for any type of anatomy, neuroscience or biochemistry course, and I found myself to be a much better critical thinker after I took my organic chemistry courses. I also found the content to be much more interesting than general chemistry because it all cohesively fit together, whereas general chemistry can be disorienting, going from one topic to another. Another reason that organic chemistry is so high on my list is that after mastering the organic chemistry principles, many reactions I learned felt intuitive because they could be predicted by the main principles, which were ingrained in my mind.
3. Biochemistry
To me, biochemistry is one of the most relevant courses for preparing for medical school. This combines two of my favorite topics—biology and chemistry—to learn about the human body. Biology is dependent on chemical principles, and chemistry is dependent on biological knowledge. Learning about them separately is interesting, but learning biology and chemistry in tandem makes the most sense to me. This course is also strongly needed for taking the MCAT, and spending a significant amount of time learning this course material will only enhance an individual’s preparedness for both the admissions exam and medical school material.
4. Sociology
Sociology is the kind of course that should be required of everyone, not just for certain majors or pathways. A sociology course can help you step outside your own opinions and understand others’ experiences and perspectives, which is a key skill needed to be empathetic. Empathy is needed no matter what one’s goals are in life and can only help in any situation. This course was one of my favorite classes I’ve taken, just because of the breadth of topics that sociology courses cover. I felt like I learned much more in this class than in other courses I was taking at the time, and I am someone who wants to learn everything I possibly can.
5. Biology
Biology is typically a fan-favorite subject for pre-meds. I personally have to agree because this is one of the classes I took in high school that cemented my passion for STEM. Of course, at the collegiate level, these courses were everything I hoped they would be: information-dense, fascinating, research-focused and relevant to the work I am interested in. These courses are also the basis for other extremely captivating topics, such as biochemistry and anatomy and physiology, which need a strong foundation in classic biology courses.
6. General Chemistry
Although general chemistry seems lower on my list, that is only due to my love for the courses above. I still very much enjoyed taking general chemistry; with each unit I learned about, I felt like I understood more about myself and the world around me. Part of the reason general chemistry is lower on my list is due not to the course material but the time at which I took these courses. Coming into my freshman year and learning to balance course material, extracurriculars and the college lifestyle was definitely a challenge. Learning how to study effectively for as much information as I was learning was also challenging, and therefore, general chemistry is slightly lower on my list, even though I love the course material.
7. Calculus
Calculus was one of my favorite courses I took in high school. While I haven’t taken calculus at my college, I really enjoy using calculus in some of my other courses. Math in general is something I love, mostly because of the satisfaction of getting a problem perfect. Also, it is something that applies to so many different areas, popping up in a variety of different courses I have taken. The reason calculus is ranked lower for me has to do with the fact that I haven’t been able to take a calculus class during my time at UW–Madison.
8. Statistics
Statistics is a course that is extremely interesting to me, not as much for the course material but for its use in research. I loved getting to learn about what certain statistical tests were that I had seen before, presented in research articles, but hadn’t fully understood. For me, this class made it much easier to interpret the results of research and understand what were significant findings and what weren’t. While the specific course material didn’t stick out to me, this class has helped immensely in my ability to perform and synthesize research.
9. Physics
Coming last on the list is physics. Physics absolutely wiped out my brainpower. This has been by far one of the trickiest subjects for me to understand. I did really enjoy certain topics because of their application to… everything. However, certain topics became very difficult for me to wrap my head around at the time, and they definitely had me clocking in serious amounts of study time. I appreciate how much these courses made me work to understand them; however, I wouldn’t retake these classes, just due to the sheer amount of tears shed while studying.
Overall, I do love all the prerequisite courses I have taken, as I feel that I have learned so much and really gotten challenged in my academics. Everyone views these courses differently, and so it is best to go in with an open mind, because not everything you hear about courses may be true for you. I certainly was terrified of organic chemistry due to horror stories I heard about it, but it ended up being one of my favorite subjects I have taken during my time as an undergraduate. Just being able to take these classes and pursue this route to medical school is a dream for me and is something that I do not take for granted. Although certain classes (physics) I might not want to take again, I still love the progression of how much I have grown as a learner throughout all the classes I have taken.