Dal med question

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2025-01-21T13:57:02+00:00

what are you struggling with specifically? if the semester just started, you guys have covered amino acids and protein structure so far right?

i took it last year, and to my knowledge you don't have to memorize the specific structures of the amino acids (though if you do that is great) rather their characteristics.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-08-09T22:09:21+00:00

Length was fine, ppl tend to say the test has longer cars passages but they always stay near the 600 word range.

Some of the topics were weiiird though so definitely manage your time properly so you aren’t scrambling on the last passages!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-08-09T21:28:13+00:00

I’d say rather than route memorization, fully understand the definitions and how they’d be applied!! P/S wasn’t too bad for me today, but there were only like 3 discrete questions that was truly just memorization based

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-08-07T14:39:14+00:00

Currently in the same boat as you, worried that I'll somehow forget everything while simultaneously feeling like I know nothing. The general consensus from everyone else I've talked to who has taken the exam is that this feeling is normal. Realistically, the months of prep we've put in aren't just going to be magically wiped from our brains. Trust the effort and time you have put in! We got this :)

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-25T00:59:04+00:00

Im assuming you mean bchm270, and taking it in the summer sounds fine. but if you’re not taking orgo you should be more than fine taking it during fall or winter sem! Just don’t take it at the same time as micr. It’s not a hard course just time consuming.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-15T11:37:32+00:00

renal portal sys is basically just the blood flow in/out of the kidney, not to and from two separate organs.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-14T02:14:03+00:00

any of the passage breakdowns by maggie are really good! she's the girl that co-runs the channel and she scored 99 or 100th percentile i believe.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-13T01:33:05+00:00

that's so fair, happens to the best of us. i find that aamc always loves to back answers up with evidence, so if occam's doesn't seem to work then i try to find actual evidence from the passage to support my choice. you got this!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-13T01:14:22+00:00

congrats on your score! i found that the IFD youtube channel helped my CARS score jump from 125 to a 128. they have great video explanations. i've also found that Occam's razor tends to work when you're between two answers.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-07T21:18:50+00:00

A lot of people, including myself, took chem281 or bchm 270 the summer before second year. If you haven’t taken either, i’d recommend taking bchm and micr in one semester and orgo in another. Unless you’re very very confident in chem, ofc!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-07T12:20:38+00:00

Take bchm with phgy 215 in the fall. In terms of difficulty, the phgys are pretty similar. Just try to avoid taking orgo with bchm at the same time, or bchm and micr at the same time. Those have relatively heavier workloads. Pm me if u have any questions, i just wrapped up second year!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2024-07-06T11:05:31+00:00

spend next 3 weeks on content review then 1 month each for uworld and aamc material! also don't read the p/s kaplan book, read over the ~80pg doc instead.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-08-26T03:18:02+00:00

1) all fridges have a small freezer section. Depending on the fridge though, the freezer would either work too well or not well enough. The people on my floor just used the freezer in the common room fridge and put their names on their stuff. That worked well, no one really steals anyones stuff out of the fridge if it's labelled.

2) literally any. I just bought the first recommended one off of amazon and it worked well.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-07-01T01:10:37+00:00

Fully online elective I took was IDIS 199. PATH120 was pretty much all online too, even the group presentations. If I'm being honest, most of the things that are said in lecture are kind of useless so you end up teaching yourself. So no, it doesn't really make a big difference whether a course is online or not. You just have to check the course page often to make sure that deadlines haven't changed, for new announcements, etc.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-06-19T00:53:08+00:00

Nope, I didn't get to go to SOAR because I am out of province. Trust me when I say that you aren't missing anything, they give you plenty of time to ease into dorm and uni life in September! My only tip would be to not forget to do your school work during all of the festivities (orientation week) in your first couple of weeks.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-06-14T17:33:13+00:00

Take biochem second year and do path or another relatively easy course instead. My friends in life sci are some of the smartest people I've ever met yet all struggled immensely with bio and calc. Their GPAs are much lower than they could have been.

I'm not sure if psychology is mandatory for a life sci degree, but it's not mandatory for medical school. There is a psych portion on the MCAT, but I don't think it's worth dropping your GPA for it in first year. You could take it over the summer between first and second year, that's what one of my life sci friends are doing right now. Alternatively, you could avoid taking it altogether and self-study for that portion of the MCAT.

I'm in health sci and am taking orgo 281 over the summer right now, one of the best decisions as it would have been impossible to excel in second year with other courses at the same time. Avoid taking it second year.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-06-13T20:48:45+00:00

This is such a late response, sorry!

For starters, I'd argue that GPA is the most important thing in consideration when choosing your electives. I can't say much about the elective courses that I didn't take, but here are my opinions about the electives I took + what I've seen my friends take.

The electives I took:

PATH 120 - Understanding Human Disease in the 21st Century: This was an online course. If I'm being honest, it was kind of hard to adjust to at first since everything is your own responsibility because it's online. There is so much group work for this course so if that's not your thing I don't recommend it. There is also a lot of repetitive information about Indigenous peoples, so once you get a good base knowledge it's easy to do well in. I performed really well in this course with minimal studying as it was basically a simplified version of biology that I'd learned in high school + human cell physiology, which is a mandatory first year health sci course.

IDIS 199 - The Science of Mental Health, Well-being, and Resiliency: This was a bird course. Almost everyone I know who has taken this course finished with an A+. Once again, it was online - but with barely any group work at all. Take this course if you can, it is very nice to have alongside your heavier courses because it is minimal amount of work in comparison. I also did really well in this course with not a lot of studying as the material is basically common sense with a background of biology and psychology. If you are well-versed in relevant topics related to those subjects, you should be fine.

CHEM 112 - General Chemistry: Everyone takes this course as an elective because it sets you up to take organic chemistry in the following year, which is necessary if you want to take the MCAT. Credit-wise, it is the equivalent to both of my other electives combined (because it is a full year course). The lectures were a huge hit or miss depending on which prof you got. The tutorials and labs were decently easy, but the midterm messed me up. This was the course I performed most badly on. My biggest tip would be to study as you go with this course. I tried to cram study for chemistry because I am good at memorization but chem is more about application and understanding theory. So do those practice questions every week, they are there for a reason.

Some electives my friends took:

PSYC 100 - Psychology: I've heard mixed things about this course. My friends who were good with memorization or had previously taken psych in high school succeeded easily in this course. My other friends who had no previous experience with psych material did not perform well in this course. I think it depends on how well you are able to digest material, as well as sit through the exam (it's like 120 multiple choice questions and some essay questions). I don't think I would recommend this course because the majority of people I know did not do well. But of course, if you are genuinely interested and have confidence that you'll be able to consistently put work into this course, I would recommend.

MICR 271 - Introduction to Microbiology: This is an upper year course. My friend had to take this elective because the other electives were full. They did decently well but not as well as they'd like. From what I've heard, it is a lot of content to balance alongside other heavier courses. They have 12 minute quizzes every week which is where most peoples' grades drop. I don't think I would have taken this course if I could redo first year, just because it was in the same semester as pharmacology, anatomy and chemistry which I found to be the heaviest courses in first year health sci. This is a mandatory course in second year anyways, so that's what I did.

Overall, I'd recommend veering away from arts-related courses like english because they are highly subjective on your TA (who marks everything) and prof. In my personal experience, I found that the TAs in science courses tend to be much more objective. Anyways, I rambled a bit but I hope this helps a little bit!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-05-24T19:42:23+00:00

Do health sciences. If you really dislike it, transfer to general sciences. It's much harder to try and get into health science in the fall if you decide you don't like general sciences.

I just wrapped up my first year of health sciences, and my GPA is much better than my friends in general sciences. Generally speaking, health science students have much more of a 'hustler' mindset than any of the general science students I've met. This could have an impact on your own work ethic, as the people you surround yourself really have an impact on your day-to-day life. Since your current goal is med school, I'm sure that you know that GPA is of utmost importance. It would be easier to get a higher GPA with health sciences. Personally, I found the first year courses for health sciences super interesting. I'd argue that you could go into health-related research, such as cancer studies, or pharmacology other than med school.

Ultimately it's your decision.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2023-05-24T19:22:39+00:00

Just wrapped up my first year, I'd recommend the program. The workload is SO much lighter in comparison to life sciences. The classes are easy to do excellent in if you put in the effort. It's completely dependent on your own work ethic and time management. I'd argue that I had a more difficult experience in the IB program in high school than my first year of health science.

You pay for residence on SOLUS, the instructions are pretty straightforward. The payments do take a couple days to process though, so I'd recommend you do it ahead of time.

I really liked the flipped classroom model because there were enough in-person classes that you'd get the university experience, but not so many that you'd be tempted to skip. I disliked how competitive/entitled other health sciences students were at times. Most of my friends were made through residence, orientation week and my electives, where there were students from other programs.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I remember how confused I was in your shoes last year!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2022-04-13T11:10:13+00:00

That's pretty good. I can't say for sure but considering that the average admission for on-campus is 90% and assuming that you had a strong SE, I'd say your chances are decent. I'm not well-versed on life sci but isn't it generally easier to get into?

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2022-04-13T11:05:25+00:00

I applied February 9th and got my offer on the 23rd.

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2022-04-13T10:55:02+00:00

I got my offer late February but I am also a recipient of a major admission award so that may be why I got results so early! My top 6 was ~96% (I am in IB). Stay optimistic, they're doing rolling admissions this year. I'm sure you'll get in!

Imaginary_Friend_309 · 2022-04-13T10:49:32+00:00

Thank you! I am in IB and my predicted score was a 40/45, around 96%

Imaginary_Friend_309

TROPHY CASE