Hey guys,

I'm planning on doing summer school this year and at the moment, I'm thinking of taking Organic Chemistry 1 and a Physics course. I want to specialize in Biochemistry in second year and I do plan to get apply to Dental School in the near future. Is this course combination good for summer school? Would you guys recommend some other course combination. I want to get Orgo 1 out of the way and I also need two physics courses for dental school. I would prefer an easy physics course since it isn't really my forte. What do you guys recommend?

Thanks

Did you take high school physics? Physics 1A03 is essentially a repeat of high school physics and the evaluation format is all multiple choice. If physics is not your forte, there is a chance that you may struggle with the content, though I hear that many people who have never taken physics before still find this course easy. Also there is a lab component.

Organic chemistry is a pretty heavy subject on its own and I really wouldn't recommend doing it with another course just because there's already a lot of content and squishing that into about less than two months can be overwhelming. Don't forget that there's also weekly labs for Organic chemistry!

However, looking at the requirements of Biochemistry, you need Physics 1A03 for admission to the program. So if you don't end up taking orgo and physics together in the summer then your only option would be to do physics during the summer and do orgo during the year (you can't do physics DURING level II because you will not meet the admission criteria). You're in a tough spot because a lot of required biochem courses require orgo as a co-req so you will not be able to take the orgo courses in the following summer. To be quite honest you should have taken Physics 1A03 this year but the add/drop deadline is tonight so I don't know if there's still sections to switch in.

Thanks for your reply. I'm sorry but I forgot to mention that I am taking Physics 1a03 this year, I have it this term.

oOOOOooooooooooo so then yeah you can definitely do Organic Chem I with Physics II then since Chem would fall into the Spring semester and Physics would fall into the Summer semester so you would be essentially doing one course at a time. So the answer to your original question would be yes you can do them together. Or you can do both Orgos during the summer and do Physics II during the year. Or do both orgos during the summer and physics in the following summer as some professional schools do not look at summer grades so your mark in those classes will not affect your admission GPA (depending on the school).

I would also recommend doing both orgos together instead of separating them because the material from the first one does carry on over to the second one. You may end up forgetting a lot and having to rememorize everything if you split them up.

Ok, also, I checked the pre-reqs for dental school and most of them also require two English courses which I absolutely hate. What would you recommend that I do? Should I take English courses during the year or during the summer? In fact, should I do the two English courses in the summer this year instead of doing orgo and physics?

To be quite honest I can't see English going worse than Orgo or physics no matter how much you hate it. I would rather take orgo during the summer and english during the year.

Thinking back on it, I actually took Physics 1BB3 during the summer (which is now called 1AA3) and I really did not enjoy it simply because it went so fast. A lot of the content felt very superficial and lacked depth almost as if we were rushing to finish covering the required topics. Also we had formal lab reports due every single week compared to if you took it during the year you had about two weeks to work on it. And you usually waste 1-2 days just translating the data onto the computer, making graphs, performing numerical analyses, and other things before you can actually even begin to write your report so in reality you have less than a week to generate a stellar report. Physics is much better done during the year. The prof, Dr. Massa, was also a piece of shit but that's a whole other rant.

You don't need to rush to finish your prereqs. It's better to take your prereqs during the time periods where you know you'll be able to perform well. You still have a few more years here so space them out accordingly.

Ok, thanks, so your final advice is to do both the orgos during the summer and do physics and English during the year right? Also, if you have taken any English courses how are they?

Originally Posted by Siddharth

Ok, thanks, so your final advice is to do both the orgos during the summer and do physics and English during the year right?

Yes.
Unfortunately, I haven't taken any English courses.