Dear Reader 60

Oh my goodness I just realized that this post never got posted! I wrote this a while ago, but for some reason, it got saved as a draft! I am soo sorry s.k- I hope this still helps in some way :( 


Hi K!
First of all, I want to thank you for being so informative and helpful by making posts about like in berkeley!!:D
I just finished a 10th grade in high school, and I have decided to go to a community college next year. I want to major in MCB, hopefully in UCB for my junior and senior year.
While looking through your posts, I realized that taking MCB lower division prereqs in community college reflects badly when I apply to a Medical School. (I was planning on finishing all of my prereqs in community college, so that I can take upper division courses for my junior and senior year).
My question is: Is there anything I can do to show that I have learned as much as others (Berkeley students who have taken prereqs at BERKELEY) did? I was thinking about watching the webcast lectures and signing up for the bspace guest account while taking prereq courses at CC.IDK, I feel like having a good score on MCAT and doing well with upper division courses will show that I have learned well when I was at CC. (even though it will be hard for a premed CC student to do well).

Thanks for the infos! I love your blog:))
-S.K.

Dear S.K,

Thanks for stopping by and you're welcome! :D 
That's a hard question to answer haha 
Taking all of your lower division prereqs at a CC might raise a red flag to med schools, since usually, lower division classes are the "foundation" classes for upper divs. A lot of people consider lower div classes to be more important than upper div classes, even though both classes get counted toward your BCPM gpa. Although I'm not completely sure if it'll help, if you absolutely have to take all of your prereqs at a CC, than make sure you explain why in your app (and make sure it's an extremely good reason!). And yes, you might need a high MCAT score and do well in your upper divs to supplement the CC lower divs. Nonetheless, it's not unheard of for students to take lower divs at a CC (although I'm not sure about all of them haha) and get into great med schools, as long as everything else in your application is up to par :). Actually, I talked with someone yesterday who is kind of in the same boat you are. She's looking to transfer to berkeley or UCLA as a junior from a CC, and she said they still require you to take some lower div/intermediate classes at berkeley concurrently with upper divs.. (or at least, that's what I think she said- i couldn't hear that clearly though the phone haha). So make sure to look into that before deciding on your classes :) 

On Tehnical Difficulties

Hey Guys, sorry for not posting/updating for a long time- this summer I've been swamped with mcat studies and now, I'm having some technical difficulties with my computer- for some reason, I'm not able to log in to my account here so this is being written on my phone :P
But a quick update on this semester, I decided to drop music 128A becuase it was too intimidating :( so my classes for the fall are: IB 131 (anatomy), IB 117 (medical ethnobotony), astro C13, and soc180i .
Ill post  more thoroughly once I can log in with my computer, but for now, please excuse the abruptness and any spelling/grammatical errors you may see here  ;) 

Dear Reader 61

Anonymous said...

Love the blog and your advice. Do you have any recommendations on whether I should take Bio 1A/1AL or 1B in Fall 2013?

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you and thanks for stopping by! 

I believe I took both Bio 1A/L and 1B in the fall. At the time, i don't think there was any debate about which semester was easier for the two classes- those debates usually fell around chem1A/3A. The best thing to do would be to look up the professors on courserank and ratemyprof. If that doesn't help, then the general consensus seems to be that science courses are easier in the spring- so perhaps look at taking bio 1A/L (the harder of the two) in the spring. But please take my advice with a grain of salt- It really depends on the professors. If it helps, I don't think there was a big difference between spring/fall bio 1B since no one seemed too worried about that class haha.

All the best, 

K 

On an End-of-Semester Eval Spring '13

I've been wrapped up in mcat studying so I apologize for this incredibly late post!

This past semester I took IB 113L, IB 132, IB 132L, Soc 189, and IB 191

IB 113L- Paleobiological Perspectives on Ecology and Evolution taught by Professor Charles Marshall. This class was great, albeit very dense. The professor lectured through a packet of material each day (no need for books/readers) that he posted online the night before. Each packet contained around 50-60 slides and it was PACKED with material/charts/graphs/data/etc. I think this scared off a lot of students from taking this class because not only was there a lot of foreign/new material, but it was somewhat difficult to grasp as well. However, the professor did a great job of explaining the concepts and applying the concepts to real life examples. Like I mentioned in a previous post, Professor Marshall was one of the best professors I've had at Cal- he was extremely enthusiastic about teaching the material, and did a great job of bringing the concepts to the students' levels (a lot of the lectures were from his publications and his peers' publications, so you can imagine the level of detail and difficulty). But don't be scared if you want to take this class! His midterm + final tested the broad concepts, the overall idea of what the slides were talking about, and he was very approachable in OH so go to those right from the start! There's no need to memorize the small details, but make sure, if you take this class, that you understand the graphs/charts/data tables. This class also came with a 3hr lab - which was a rotation of stations and a packet of questions (worked in groups of 3-4), which, since no one knew how to answer anything, the GSI was in extremely high demand. I believe most people got close to 100% on the lab packets. On the other hand, I thought the lab practical was difficult (~15% of your grade I think...). If you've taken the bio 1AL lab practical before they changed it, that's what it was like- a rotation of stations and questions for each station that you had to answer in 1min 30sec... But other than that, I highly recommend taking this class!

IB 132- Physiology taught by Professors Lehman & Kaufer- typical physiology class with 2 midterms and 1 final. The professors didn't go too far from the lecture slides (compared to Marshall, who really explained his slides in detail instead of reading off them). I think the best way to study for these is to just read the book to get a better grasp on all the details, pathways, and how everything is connected. Also, there were some questions on the exams where knowing fine details was required so look through the lecture slides carefully. The exams were not too incredibly conceptual- I think they were more memorization/fact based- but these were for Lehman and Kaufer specifically.

IB 132L- Physiology Lab taught by various GSIs. I really enjoyed lab- my GSI was great and the experiments were interesting and fun to do. With that said however, be warned, this class is not that as easy as it seems to get an A in (or at least not to me and the other members in my group). We worked in groups of 4-5 and did questions separately to be turned in at the beginning of the next lab period. The work gets more and more lab report based as the semester goes on, whereas in the beginning, it's mostly answering a set of questions pertaining to the lab. In the end, we ended up writing 2 formal lab reports on 2 independent investigations + a presentation for each independent lab. All the work seemed to be graded pretty harshly, and not just for my GSI- I've talked with people from other labs and they agreed- the GSIs took off points for very small details/mistakes/wording error/etc. So that's the reason why I say it's hard to get an A in the class (it's not curved)- not because the lab itself is difficult, but because the GSIs are picky with their grading (especially for the lab reports!). Nonetheless, I'm a big fan of physiology, so I enjoyed the chance to see how it all applied outside the text. :)

Soc189- Global Elites taught by Professor Ivester- this was a great class- 2 midterms + 1 final. The professor gave us a set of questions beforehand (essay questions) where she picked one for the exam. This was the first time that Global Elites was taught at Cal, so I'm not sure if it'll be here again next year or not. But if you get a chance to take a class from Ivester, I highly recommend that you do- she's a fantastic teacher- very witty, funny, and laid back. There were a few times where she cancelled class because the weather was so great haha. There's iclickers for this class, but it's just based on attendance- more like opinion polls to foster discussion. The 3 exams were all weighted the same (20points each) and 40 points for attendance (iclickers), making up the 100 points for the class (no curve).

IB 191- Lab for a letter grade- for the final grade for 191, we had to do a "final project", which was anything you wanted to count for as a final project- I decided to do a powerpoint. Word of advice- don't procrastinate on this! I thought I had a lot of time to do a powerpoint so I put it off until about 3 weeks before it was due. I ran into a lot of problems, not only with trying to finish collecting data, but having my postdoc revise my powerpoint was a pain.. so start early!

I know I left out a lot of information still about these classes, but these were the most important points I thought to include! On a side note, I ended up getting all A's in these classes and got on the Dean's Honors List! (first time at Cal!- very proud! :)

If you have any questions about any of the classes or anything else in general, please don't hesitate to comment below!

Next blog post topics: mcat prep, 2015 mcat changes, plans for senior year~

Have a great summer!

-K 

Dear Reader 59

Anonymous said...

Hi! I'm currently a freshman intended IB major on the pre-med track and was wondering what you think about double majoring in IB and psych? I did some research on the classes and was surprised to see there were a few classes that overlapped between the two majors. However, I am still a bit wary about double majoring even though I think I have somewhat worked out a four year plan. I heard the psych upper divs are not too bad but I don't want to underestimate the workload I will have to face and I know IB on its own is tough enough. Let me know what you think!

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for stopping by! :) How are you doing in your classes so far? If you find that the prereqs are easy and you're not having any trouble with them, then i would say go for it, since i don't think psych would be too hard. However, if the lower div courses are a bit challenging, then I would hold off on the double major for now, since the classes are going to get harder for a few semesters before they get easier. Also, keep in mind that GPA is very important (as i'm sure you already know haha) so it might be well worth it to just focus on IB. However, with that being said, if you really love psychology and you really want to double major in it, try taking a class or two each semester. That way, by the time you're done with your IB lower divs, and you decide to pursue a double major in psych, you'll have the prereqs done and you can focus on upper divs along with IB upper divs (which aren't too many). Just make sure to get your scheduling down, and be wary of fluctuations (classes may overlap, not offered that semester, etc). Hope this helps and good luck! :D 

-K 

On Taking the Next Steps

It feels like it's been a while since I've written anything 'pre-med life' related, besides semester evaluations and answering questions :)

So now it's my spring semester of junior year at UC Berkeley and a few months ago, I suddenly realized that I should be prepping for my MCAT! Like more and more people are doing nowadays, I've decided to take a gap year after I graduate so I can take some time to relax and travel a bit, and do some of the things that I haven't had time to do during my years at berkeley (I'll write a post on that when the time comes haha). However, that means that I'll have to apply to med school at the end of my senior year.. which means this is the last summer I have to study and prep for the mcat (gives me a headache just thinking about it haha). I decided to stay in berkeley over the summer for a few reasons: 1) I need to continue doing research (I didn't think my postdoc would let me take 3-4 months off), 2) I need to enroll in a mcat prep course, 3) I didn't want to go through the hassle of finding a subletter for my apartment, and 4) my hometown (in central California) is unbearably hot during the summer with absolutely nothing to do :)

I had a tough time deciding which mcat prep course I wanted to take. There are 4 main prep courses at berkeley: The Berkeley Review (TBR), the Princeton Review, Kaplan Test Prep, and Examkrackers. From high school AP prep books, I knew that Kaplan didn't fit me very well, and I haven't heard much about Examkrackers (for the MCAT), so I was stuck debating between TBR and Princeton Review. I've heard people say that Princeton Review was really helpful for verbal, but TBR was more helpful in the other sections. Another friend told me not to take any prep course at all, but that's a different story haha. In the end, I went with TBR because they hold review sessions almost everyday (except Sundays), which I thought would help guide and structure my studying, and they were cheaper (by a few hundred dollars, but still expensive!). I also signed up to take the MCAT in August, which was more nerve-wrecking that I thought it would be. I realized right then that this would be the test that would make or break it for me (I know, overdramatic) and my anxiety nearly doubled haha.

I'll update again when I start and let you know how things are going and my opinions about the course. Also, during the summer, I plan to just focus on mcat and continue working in lab part-time :)

P.S. I really should do a separate post on this, but I'm not sure when I'll think about it again, so i'll mention it briefly here- For those of you who are considering studying abroad- Do it, and don't lose your window of opportunity!! Make sure to look at your schedule in advance and see if you can fit in a summer or even a semester abroad. One of the biggest regrets I have so far is taking physics 8B over the summer, when I could have studied abroad :(

Best,
K :) 

On a Mid-Semester Update (Spring 2013)

Anyone remember this movie? :)

This semester, I'm taking all upper div classes (thank goodness) which include: IB 132, IB 132L, IB 113L, and Soc 189 (as well as IB191- research for units). I decided to wait to put up this post until we got our midterm results back so I can tell you about the difficulty of the classes, midterm format, etc. with more personal experience haha :)

IB 132: This is an upper div physiology class, and it's taught by two professors: Professor Kaufer and Professor Lehman. There's reading assigned for every lecture (usually one chapter, sometimes two, sometimes a section of a chapter) and there's an i-clicker quiz at the beginning of each lecture from the assigned reading. The final class grade is made up of two midterms (~50 questions each), a final, i-clicker scores, and Mastering Physiology (online homework). Overall, the class isn't that bad as far as difficulty goes- they seem to test on main concepts so I think the best strategy for this class is to focus on their lectures and do the readings to supplement the lecture material (since questions on lecture and reading are fair game for the exams). With that being said, personally, I feel like it'll be a bit difficult to pull off an A in the course, unless you do extremely well on the midterms since there doesn't really seem to be a curve. The grading scale is slightly lowered so that an 87% is the cutoff for an A-, which isn't leaving too much room for error. I enjoy professor Lehman's lecture style more because he's more laid back, funny, and gives personal examples and demos whereas Kaufer more or less sticks to the powerpoint and doesn't digress much.

IB 132L: I was really fortunate to have gotten in this class as a 3rd year (at the same time, I feel slightly guilty since I'm taking up potential space for a senior...). So far, I enjoy it- far more than the other labs I've had to take at Cal so far. This lab meets once a week for three hours, and focuses largely on writing lab reports. They start you off slow, with writing just the intro or methods first, and then gradually you work up to writing a full on lab-report, which is not too bad i suppose. The labs themselves are interesting and fun -one lab was on dissecting a frog, another was on stimulating motor units by sending voltages through your arm, etc. There are also two independent investigations in this course, where you work with your group to create your own question and experiment using the techniques we learned in lab, followed by a presentation and lab report. Like most labs, grading in this course is strictly based on your GSI, and there doesn't seem to be a curve here either (it didn't say on the syllabus anyway haha).

IB 113L: There doesn't seem to be too much info about this class on either courserank and/or ratemyprof, so I was really glad to be able to give you a more in-depth look into this class. This is a paleobiology course taught by Professor Charles Marshall. As far as the class goes, it's very dense. The professor goes through a lot of slides, which are packed with information. And it wasn't the kind of information I was expecting (albeit, I had little prior knowledge about what a paleontology class entailed..). To put it broadly, this class focuses on the processes of evolution and fossilization, the concepts that go into compiling the fossil record, and what that fossil record can tell us about the past... basically, it's a lot of graphs, charts, and diagrams hahaha. However (and this is a big 'however'), the professor knows the student's don't have a paleontology background so he doesn't expect us to know the specific details of the lecture- just the main concepts. His midterm was roughly 25 questions, all short-response, and they asked about the concepts we learned in class (albeit, they weren't easy concepts and there were a lot of them..). The class also has a lab component to it, which meets once a week for three hours. It's set up so that there are stations around the room, and we're given a packet with questions for us to answer at each of the stations. There's no quiz at the beginning or homework at the end, and the GSI is constantly in high demand throughout the lab since no one really knows how to answer the questions hahaha. The overall class is made up of one midterm (25%), one final (35%), lab (25%) and a lab midterm (15%). One last thing, the professor is probably one of the best professors I've had at Cal. He's extremely passionate and enthusiastic about the subject and it seems to rub off on the students, including myself. He does a great job of relaying the concepts to the students and bringing in real-world examples when the concepts get too difficult. He's a terrific professor and I'm even planning on taking a class next semester just because he will be teaching it! (By the way, this class counts for both a 'Group' major requirement and a lab requirement!)

Soc 189: I believe the topic for this class varies with each semester and who's teaching it, but this semester, it's on The Global Elite, taught by Professor Szonja Ivester. This is my first time taking a soc class (for international breadth), and I really enjoy it. The class is 40% participation (i-clicker) and 60% exams. I'm not sure if each exam is worth 20% or if the final is worth more- it doesn't specify on the syllabus... Anyway, the professor is absolutely great- if you get a chance to take a class from her, take it! She's very funny (and swears a lot haha), laid back, and really gets you thinking about the material. The course focuses on what makes the elite, elite (does that phrasing make sense?), and it brought up points that I've never really considered before. We're not talking about how the rich and powerful get their money and how they spend it (well.. not all of it anyway haha..). It's more focused on distinguishing characteristics of leaders/followers, reproduction of elites, social closure, upbringing, culture, etc. Overall, it's a very fun and interesting class, and gives me a much-needed break from science classes :)

I'll give another update after final grades are out! Hope everyone is having a good semester so far and like always, leave comments or questions below and I'll try to respond as soon as possible!

Best,
K