# Do you have to take oragnic chem as a Bio major?



## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

If so, I may seriously re-consider my major. I am not even in college yet, but I just took two practice quizzes and did absolutely terrible on the organic/biochem chapters. In chemistry last year, we learned about oranic chem, but it was so freakin easy just because all we had to do was make carbon chains and everything. I hate learning about carbons and everything related, seriously. I am probably going to fail my test next week as well. I just cannot grasp anything involving it.


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## CopadoMexicano (Aug 21, 2004)

well, at the university I go to requires biology majors and chemistry minors to have at least organic one and two but could be different in other colleges/ so im not sure.


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## Perfectionist (Mar 19, 2004)

Yes. Every strain of biology requires Organic Chem I and II and at least one organic chem lab. I'm currently taking OC I and the lab for my bio major.

Seriously, don't reconsider your major just yet. College classes can be very different from high school ones so you could pick it up there instead. Lots of people struggle with organic chem and almost all of them still manage to get through the requirements of it.


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## mindy88 (Mar 30, 2007)

You do have to take it. But it's not that difficult. When I took it, the text we used was so bad at explaining everything, I had to buy other books as well. I highly recommend organic chemistry I as a second language. it's really great.


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## kikachuck (Nov 10, 2003)

Perfectionist said:


> Seriously, don't reconsider your major just yet. College classes can be very different from high school ones so you could pick it up there instead. Lots of people struggle with organic chem and almost all of them still manage to get through the requirements of it.


 :ditto That's what I was going to say, as well. The level of instruction in college is considerably higher than it is in high school, so odds are you will have a better teacher for it there. Plus, even if you do poorly in it in high school, that little taste will make it somewhat easier in college.


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## jane (Jan 30, 2006)

If you're considering not majoring in biology because you find organic chemistry difficult- well, as other people mentioned, *everybody* finds organic difficult (except that freak 1% of the population we all hate). It's notoriously hard.

You seem to have a lot of posts agonizing about picking biology as your major, even if your grades aren't the best. 
In high school, I got 90's in english, history, and economics, and 80's in math and science. It was not an indication of my aptitudes or talents- it was just because science classes were harder, and had lower overall class averages. Today, my science classes still have much higher failure rates.

The point isn't to pick the easiest program, where you can get the best GPA, the point is to pick what interests you and what can lead you to a career that will interest you.


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## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

jane said:


> If you're considering not majoring in biology because you find organic chemistry difficult- well, as other people mentioned, *everybody* finds organic difficult (except that freak 1% of the population we all hate). It's notoriously hard.
> 
> You seem to have a lot of posts agonizing about picking biology as your major, even if your grades aren't the best.
> In high school, I got 90's in english, history, and economics, and 80's in math and science. It was not an indication of my aptitudes or talents- it was just because science classes were harder, and had lower overall class averages. Today, my science classes still have much higher failure rates.
> ...


All of you keep me going, you're the best.


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## Eilicea (Jun 15, 2008)

What exactly don't you understand about it? I could try to help you if you want (I actually really like organic chemistry :duck )


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## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

Eilicea said:


> What exactly don't you understand about it? I could try to help you if you want (I actually really like organic chemistry :duck )


Just have trouble remembering a lot of the stuff, since there's so many details involved.


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## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

I was just thinking---is it bad that I dropped out of physics in high school? Did any of you biology majors not take physics during HS?


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## Perfectionist (Mar 19, 2004)

Faded Lines said:


> I was just thinking---is it bad that I dropped out of physics in high school? Did any of you biology majors not take physics during HS?


This happened to me. I took IB Bio and Chem, but no physics. I wasn't planning on going into sciences so I thought i was fine but I ended up transferring in last semester.

The very very first available physics course required physics 11 and I was majorly freaking out because I didn't have it. But I emailed the physics advisor and he let me in the course.

In short, you can work around it.


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## Faded Lines (Sep 22, 2006)

Yeah well I dropped it because the first thing the teacher said was, if you struggle with math, you'll sure as hell struggle with physics. So I was like, "Well **** this." Hopefully it won't serve as a problem. I don't think it should, because many schools in the US (or so my teacher says) don't offer physics as a high school course.


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