Sophomore Taking Organic Chemistry, Multivariable Calc, Physics 2

[Mdhiggenz]

Hey guys, i am a sophomore (about to be a junior in 1 month), in college majoring in Biomedical engineering and i am planning to take Organic chemistry, multivariable calculus, physics 2 and the labs. Do you think this is too much, my only concern is with organic chemistry. I originally took it fall of 2011, however I failed due to death of a family member, and a close friend 2 weeks later so my head was pretty messed up by that. So organic chemistry brings back bad memories, and i am a bit scared to take that course.

Thanks for your advice

Cheers

 

[smashbrohamme]

if you have any doubts that you are taking on too much, and you are retaking a class that you previously failed...yes you need to lighten your workload to gaurantee yourself you will pass and sustain a good GPA as well.

School isn't going anywhere..take one of those classes out of the equation and do well in the others.

 

[20Tauri]

I've heard that Orgo is pretty difficult. I don't know how to gauge the difficulty of the physics class and lab, but if you did all right in Calc I and II, I wouldn't expect multivariable calc to be unreasonably hard (unless you've forgotten stuff from before). If you're worried about it, maybe switch a class out for something easier. No need to cram too hard.

 

[QuarkCharmer]

Calculus 3 is cake (provided you know 1 and 2 very well). I had Organic 1, Calc 3, Differential Equations, Physics 2, and Matrix and Linear Algebra this semester, and Physics 2 required more time than the other courses. Organic 1 was in a close second. I was surprised at how long it took me to fully digest and learn all the topics in physics 2 and do the assignments and keep up with the lab work. Organic has some fun labs, but it also requires a strict schedule of study. A great deal of the course load comes from understanding the concepts, but much goes unproven and it falls back on rote memorization. It wasn't fun for me at all. If you don't remember absolutely everything from the previous chem courses you have taken, you are in for a long journey with that one.

I don't work, and I had to definitely put much more effort into this semester, and it's mostly due to Physics 2 and O-chem. But that's just my experience.

 

[mege]

One thing to keep in mind: labs take extra time out of your day, which can add to your stress level. So even though you have ~12-14 credits of classes - that is almost 20hours of dedicated time to being in a class or lab (since each lab is actually 3-4 hours). This can compound any time issues you may have since it averages out to an extra hour a day, and creates some days where you could easilly be in class/lab for 6-8 hours which can be taxing. I would look at your schedule more specifically - if the classes and labs are spaced out enough to not be an issue, then i'd say go with it. If you have a few very full days, then I'd think hard about the actual scheduling of your classes and how easy it will be to find time to do the necessary studing on your 'packed' days.