What was your hardest undergrad year?

[Birdy]

In your experience, what year was the hardest for you to earn a good GPA?

 

So far I hear lots of varied opinions from upper years I've spoken to, so I thought I'd seek the opinions of other premeds. If you'd like, post what you are studying and what year you are in.

[silverwhale9]

I picked third year but I think first and third year were basically tied.

 

First year was tough just to adjust socially, make friends, get used to university/lecture styles/professors/class time/rez.

 

Third year the material was more difficult, and just the amount of work we got (assignments, quizzes, labs, projects, etc.) was completely ridiculous in my opinion

[Head Squeeze]

Your blogs are pretty interesting....105% in bio lab quiz reminds me of 105% yield I got from one of the extractions in first year chem lab

[Birdy]

Your blogs are pretty interesting....105% in bio lab quiz reminds me of 105% yield I got from one of the extractions in first year chem lab

 

My blog is where I can brag if I want, and yell at myself for stupid mistakes too, haha. Every bio lab starts with a quiz and there are ways to get bonus marks, and I have always managed to get those. I'm just wondering how much harder it's going to get from here and when because the material so far has been really easy to keep on top of and I know it won't stay like that.

[Jochi1543]

First. Economics....ugh. Also, I came from a really rigorous high school and did very well on my tests (the only guy who beat me at SATs went to Harvard), so I was so used to doing well without much work....I had a rude awakening when I realized EVERYONE at my undergrad had been a top student in their HS class.

[AshPreMed]

Jochi, where do you study?

[schmitty]

Definitely first year...but only because I was in the Engineering Science program at U of T for first year. Switched into life sci after that horrible year once I realized I hated engineering.

[medhopeful.com]

Funny enough, 3rd year for me.

 

As you go up in the years, class sizes shrink, and work ethic and motivation matters more and more.

[captcapt]

first year was defiantly the toughest for me. I didn't really know how to study at the university level plus you have to take lots of courses which you may not be interested in. as you go up in years you specialize more and more into something which you really (hopefully) enjoy, which i did.

[RaVen777]

First year would have to be the hardest. I don't think the material was the toughest (that honour may have to go to 2nd year when I did Ochem and Physics), but first year was the adjustment period. I was also in a fairly loud and noisy dorm that did not care much for studying. I was one of 2 people in the dorm that actually took school really seriously. Everyone else just stayed up super late, partied and was loud.

 

2nd year on I was at home. Thank goodness.

 

In terms of workload I felt that 3rd was probably the busiest. The material was not quite as difficult as 2nd year. By 4th year I knew the system. (I didn't apply to med school in my 4th year.)

[benhc911]

fourth year chem eng, I didn't have the summer off before, I had 3 summer classes, an NSERC project and the MCAT, then an overloaded 4th year including my term project from hell... of course thats just my specific story... in general I think most people find 1st or 2nd year hardest. They either have trouble adapting to the social and academic pressures initially, or they don't but then it catches up to them in second year when classes aren't just review of highschool content.

 

For me that somewhat happened and led to a bit of a wakeup call moment in second year where i realized that I would have to work a lot harder to get where I wanted to be... But I noticed it before it became a big deal. It was in 3rd when I decided to do engineering and the medschool prereqs in 4 years, that I set myself up for my hardest year, extra classes, mcat and the unexpected NSERC made it harder.

[Cerena]

Third year.

*shivers*

[toastman]

First year for me, not a big fan of general sci. I really loved 2nd and 3rd year as my degree started to get more specialized.

[NutritionRunner]

Third year for my first degree, but that's mainly because I fell very ill, had surgery, and basically had one semester where I had to reduce my courseload to one course due to all the health issues.

 

In terms of difficult courses, I would say the second year courses were the most difficult in terms of memorization, application, and workload. Courses like biochemistry, physiology, and differential equations were all difficult for a variety of reasons. Then there was a horrible machine language programming course with a horrible prof where the entire class failed the midterm (and the course was not curved), and the incredibly boring engineering economics course, taught by a very boring prof.

[<abstract>]

Although my worst marks were in first year, I found that the second semester of second year was the hardest for me. By then, I was taking heavy chemical engineering courses and I was suffering from burnout and just wanted the semester to be over. Third year is a breeze so far.

 

ABS:)

[Birdy]

Now I'm getting scared for next year.

[Lactic Folly]

How many responding are currently *in* their second year, or just into their third?

[NutritionRunner]

How many responding are currently *in* their second year, or just into their third?

 

I have one degree already, and I have two semesters left in my second degree. For my first degree, as I said, third year was my toughest, but that was due to health issues. In terms of difficulty, the courses in second year were the toughest. Fourth year courses were, relatively speaking, easier, because the classes were smaller, the material was more interesting, and I had a fourth year design project (for engineering) which was a lot of work but also really interesting, coupled with the engineering ethics course, which was really easy, and my humanities elective, which was an easy first year course.

 

For my second degree, everything so far has been "relatively" easy. My toughest course was an elective course that I took because the subject matter really interested me, but it was taught by a prof known to be tough, and known to be a hard marker. I still managed a 90, but that was my lowest mark in my second degree so far.

[nosuperman]

Second year was hardest for me. First year is a pseudo-rehash of high school. In second year for me, we had courses that emphasized new topics (more detailed physics, organic and inorganic chem, molecular bio, more detailed genetics, microbiology) but you still usually had big impersonal classes with a decent enough breadth to keep you on your toes. It felt like this was a "weeding out" year.

 

In third and fourth year we had much smaller classes, much more focused classes (i.e. you're not learning a entirely new area of study every month, just building on the one or two areas the course is concerned with) and it seemed that the profs were much more interested in our development and success.

 

Plus by this time you've made it through first and second year so you've developed better study habits and you're less likely to feel overwhelmed by the same amount of work.

[apache]

2nd yr...