blues Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Hello all, I am currently in 3rd year @ UBC doing honours Genetics... I got a C- in Chem 233 last winter that I almost wished I failed so that I can take it again... It looks quite ugly on my transcript... although i have always been weaker in chemistry, i did not anticipate doing this bad... I felt okay after the final but apparently it really wasn't okay... I am contemplating on two options right now: one is to take 203/204 next winter term (which might not be a very good idea b/c i've heard that they are even harder than 233, and I will have quite a heavy course load next year too), or take the organic chemsitry course @ SFU this summer.... I want an opinion as to which choice is better and also if you think taking other organic chem courses will do any good for my transcript (will the admission office even look at another organic chem course mark if chem 233 was done earlier?)... other than trying to do something about that horrible mark I think taking an organic chem course again might help for my MCAT as well, as I'm planning to take it again this summer.... I got 29O last summer... with a 9 on Biological sciences mainly due to organic chem :'( Any advice would be greatly appreciated! and to the ppl who applied this year good luck on the interviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avenir001 Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 I took chem 203 a few years ago and didn't like it...the fact that I was a bad student back then didn't help...but it is a tough course. I, too, have heard from several people that it's much tougher than 233. Surprisingly, I found 204 much better than 203, but our class was much smaller as many people had failed 203. UBC med school admissions office will only use the mark from the first course taken to satisfy a pre-requisite, so even if you take a higher-level course in organic chem and do much better, it won't help your pre-req avg. The admissions office does recommend that you take a higher-level course to show that you can do well in it. But this is kinda risky and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're very very confident that you can do well. Otherwise, it's safer to just accept your mark and move on...concentrate on your other pre-requisites. If you do well on the rest of them, one or two bad grades won't affect your pre-req avg much. Also, if you can do really well on the mcat BS section, this will also show that you know your stuff. And I honestly don't think an o-chem course is needed for the mcat...you can do it on your own like I did...Kaplan Comprehensive Review and a textbook/your notes is all you need. I re-taught myself organic chem for the 2006 mcat and got 13 (would've prolly got 15 had I not run out of time and guessed the last few questions). It can totally be done...but obviously use your own judgment at the end...this is just my opinion based on what's worked for me. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricCartman Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Hello all, I am currently in 3rd year @ UBC doing honours Genetics... I got a C- in Chem 233 last winter that I almost wished I failed so that I can take it again... It looks quite ugly on my transcript... although i have always been weaker in chemistry, i did not anticipate doing this bad... I felt okay after the final but apparently it really wasn't okay... I am contemplating on two options right now: one is to take 203/204 next winter term (which might not be a very good idea b/c i've heard that they are even harder than 233, and I will have quite a heavy course load next year too), or take the organic chemsitry course @ SFU this summer.... I want an opinion as to which choice is better and also if you think taking other organic chem courses will do any good for my transcript (will the admission office even look at another organic chem course mark if chem 233 was done earlier?)... other than trying to do something about that horrible mark I think taking an organic chem course again might help for my MCAT as well, as I'm planning to take it again this summer.... I got 29O last summer... with a 9 on Biological sciences mainly due to organic chem :'( Any advice would be greatly appreciated! and to the ppl who applied this year good luck on the interviews! Hi, i went to sfu and i took o-chem courses at sfu. i don't know if taking o-chem at sfu would make any difference or if it would be any easier. personally, i would figure out the reason for not doing so well in o-chem (maybe wrong strategy of attacking problems etc..). From my personal experience, I took Bio 102 at sfu (general biology) and i did horrible in that course even though my other friends got high grades in that class. and people say that bio 102 at sfu is not that hard:confused: . after i got my final grade, i talked to my prof to get some feedback and he told me that it seems i didn't memorize enough facts to answer the questions (wrong studying strategy i guess). anywayz, i worked on my studying strategy and most of my bio courses have been good since then:cool: . rather than retaking general biology at sfu or at a college or at ubc, i moved on to other higher level bio courses. and yeah, my pre-req gpa for ubc application did drop a lot:( . so, maybe if u figure out why u did bad, u can probably excel in future o-chem courses at UBC or other o-chem stuff (like mcat). good luck, Cartman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UBCGuy Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 This feel like deja vu (I think I answered the exact same question in another thread) but I have heard the 203 route isn't too bad. A friend of mine is taking it (admittedly she is a chem major) and while she says that it is difficult the pace seems to be more manageable and this term (she is now taking 204) she says that it is even easier than last semester. Just wanted to add that it is definately a viable route, and since you already have your foot in the organic door you may have an advantage in terms of getting off to a running start. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do! UBCGuy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dwayner Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 My advice, Do not worry about it. You can have a couple bad marks and it wont kill you... It also depends where you apply, UBC - I would not worry about it... UBC takes the first successful attempt and if you fail and redo it they take the average - either way if you got 59 ish and vs failing and redoing you will end up with the same mark. Plus you didnt fail so if you redo it you are wasting your time they only look at your C-... It is only one mark. Average that with 39 others or 11ish for prereqs - does not matter. Do not redo organic just focus on getting good grades from here on in... Build your CV!!! in your spare time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blues Posted March 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 thx for everyone's advices~ my plan is to not take 203/204 now but will if i do one more year of undergrad... from wut i gathered it does not matter too much for UBC as long as other grades are good but what about other schools like McMaster, UT etc. ? anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jade Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 thx for everyone's advices~ my plan is to not take 203/204 now but will if i do one more year of undergrad... from wut i gathered it does not matter too much for UBC as long as other grades are good but what about other schools like McMaster, UT etc. ? anyone know? Unfortunately for McMaster, they will take the average of all your courses, so the C- will count and can bring down your GPA. However, I'm assuming this is a half-credit, so it won't probably hurt you much when you average ALL your courses. For Toronto, if you took 5 courses/year every year, and you apply after 3rd year, you'll be able to drop the C- since they eliminate your worst 3 (full-year or equivalent) courses from your average...so it'll be like it never happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ibuprofen7 Posted August 1, 2007 Report Share Posted August 1, 2007 hey Jade. is this same for dentistry at UofT that they elimate 3 worst full course from the gpa calculation? what if you applied in your 4th year? thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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