be most effective. A good time to carry out such
a project may be the summer after you
complete your junior-year studies. By then you
should have completed all your premed-
ical science course requirements and
satisfactorily taken your MCAT. Your only remaining
commitment will be preparing your application(s)
to medical school. There is no objec-
tion, if time is available, to undertake
independent study during the regular academic year.
Graduate Courses
Occasionally, the option of taking a
graduate-level course is available to undergraduates.
You should not assume, unless specifically
told, that you will be graded differently from
the graduate students taking the course with
you. Thus the note of caution regarding the
impact of the grade applicable here. Graduate
courses can be demanding, and successful
completion of such a challenge can demonstrate
impressively your ability to respond
effectively to the academic challenge of
medical school. If you do successfully complete
graduate courses, make sure to bring it to the
attention of the medical school by noting it
on your essay or in your
interview.
Pass/fail Courses
These are courses that your school permits you
to take for credit without getting a grade. It
is not advisable to take any courses in biology
or chemistry on this basis since the implica-
tion would be that your level of performance
was not satisfactory. Thus while the absence
of a grade would preclude any negative impact
on your GPA and science average, your
image could suffer. On the other hand, taking a
medically unrelated science (such as geol-
ogy) or a nonscience course of special interest
on a pass/fail basis is quite legitimate. It
shows evidence of your desire to secure a broad
education, which certainly is desirable.
Summer Courses
There is no inherent objection to the
completion of courses during the summer. Moreover,
it may prove useful or even desirable to do so
in order to get some required nonscience
courses out of the way and thereby lighten your
course load during the regular academic
year. Thus some students take one or two
nonscience courses at the end of their sopho-
more year so they can lighten their course load
during their junior year when they have
to take organic chemistry or physics and also
study for the MCAT.
It may even prove advantageous to take one or
more science electives during the
summer, if they are not offered at your school
during the regular academic year, or if
you cannot fit them into your schedule. In
addition, summer electives can help improve
your science average. Thus if your BCPM
(biology, chemistry, physics, and math) aver-
age comes close to a critical level, taking
summer courses can bring these figures up. It
is worthwhile to consider attending summer
school to do so. Again, it is important to
realize that it can take an A or two A's to do
this, and that special care needs to be taken
before utilizing this double-edged
option.
SUCCEEDING IN COLLEGE
_________________________________________
Four factors are involved in doing well in
college: academic ability, determination, good
study skills, and proper time management. There
are, however, a good number of pit-
falls that should and can be avoided to enhance
your chances for success. The following
are ten tips that may prove
helpful:
TIP 1
Prepare for lectures
Being acquainted with the general subject
material in advance of a lecture will per-
mit you to understand it better as well as to
integrate the new information with the
knowledge you already have.
TIP 2
Guard your time
The social demands of college life can be very
time consuming. You need to deter-
mine your obligations and priorities. Study
time needs will inherently vary. Thus, you
should not feel pressured by classmates to give
up needed study time for social activities.
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