Frosh Bio = Weed Out ?????

[chypes]

Is the freshman biology at anyone elses school considered a "weed out" class. I thought orgo was usualy considered so, but not bio. Our profs (team taught) even call it a weed out class.....and they make the tests comensurately difficult.....we have to know the tinyest details......makes chemistry seem so simple.....

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[Philism]

I believe it depends on the professors. A few of the books I have warn of these guys as being raging arses (more or less)

 

[Amy B]

Any prof that uses frosh bio to weed people out do not belong teaching. Not everyone in those classes are med students.

In my school the weed out class was Bio 218 which was Cell Biology. The prof told me she was put on the planet to weed out at LEAST 1/3 of each class she taught. You had to take 218 to take any of the upper level biology classes.

Thumbs down to prof that weed people out

 

[njbmd]

Originally posted by chypes
Is the freshman biology at anyone elses school considered a "weed out" class. I thought orgo was usualy considered so, but not bio. Our profs (team taught) even call it a weed out class.....and they make the tests comensurately difficult.....we have to know the tinyest details......makes chemistry seem so simple.....

General Biology for Science Majors at GWU in DC is a nortorius weed-out class for pre-meds. You can add Organic Chemistry to that list also.

njbmd

 

[Philism]

I hope to one day become a professor so I can be the messiah of science and academa like the weed-outs.

For the good of mankind, atleast two-thirds must fail!

 

[abw]

I know this thread is about bio, but I want to vent about orgo. In my school, the same prof teaches orgo I and II, and loves to tell everyone how many "below freezing" grades he hands out (below 32/100). There is no curve, but if he likes you, you might improve a bit. I hated that class - i worked my butt off for b's and one girl got c's and worse on everything but wound up with A's on her transcript. . Even worse, (no, i shouldn't say that, i'm just jealous - it's awesome for her) she got accepted to georgetown already

 

[chypes]

It definately sucks for the non-premed folks.....at least I was expecting it to some degree....but most of them came in clueless.....

I'm glad its not just here......its amazing, our bio is called BMZ (botany microbiology and zoology) and if you mention that you are taking it ANYONE (like buisness majors etc.) knows exactly what your talking about.....and will say that theyve heard that it is insanely hard.....although im not sure its as bad as some of them imagine......

 

[agent]

Originally posted by Amy B

Thumbs down to prof that weed people out

yeah what is their deal?? do they get kickbacks for # of students they fail?

 

[CRAZYTERP]

I disagree that freshman bio is a weedout class. It is just hard, (well depending on what school you go to that is relative). I mean I entered colege having ap'd out of Bio and still took it and still had trouble elarning all the info. Not only are students no longer coddled as they were in High School, but for many it is a huge transition into adulthood. Thus, I beg to differ that it is as much of a weedout as it is just like any other college course. Orgo on the other hand blows!

 

[imperator]

At my school the general chem sequence is the freshman weeder. The tests are simply insane. The grades were curved so everyone who got 77+/100 on the test got an A - and it was still only 10%. Needless to say, I can't wait for orgo

 

[Cerberus]

Mine was definitely a weedout class! The prof graded a test (all short answer or essay) based on who had the most information for each question. Your answer could be 100% right but if it didn't include everything that the other students answer contained he would count of points! We basically had to memorize every detail from the chapters and then try and put as much of it as we could into the allotted answer space (and back of the paper). Suffice to say i studied more for that class than any other i've taken.

 

[An Yong]

Originally posted by imperator
At my school the general chem sequence is the freshman weeder. The tests are simply insane. The grades were curved so everyone who got 77+/100 on the test got an A - and it was still only 10%. Needless to say, I can't wait for orgo

I think thats the first time I ever heard anyone say "I can't wait for orgo"


p.s. 77+/100 being an A is actually pretty normal, or atleast at my school it was. Its usually not that the material on the test is hard, its that a lot of people tend to make careless calculation-related mistakes, hence the curve.

 

[FLY]

My Bio teacher was too stupid. He gave the same test from the previous years, similar questions at least and the people who didn't have the old tests were fighting an uphill battle while the people with the old tests were crusing by.