Biology/Chemistry

[annabanana1992]

I have a son who wants to be a doctor. In preparation, I was thinking about having him study "regular" high school biology in 8th, "regular" high school chemistry in 9th and then repeat those classes at the AP level in 10th and 11th. He would then take physics in 12th. Or should I shift those down a grade to get in an anatomy course? Has anybody done this before?. Is there a better way? I am open to (lots) of suggestions!

Thanks!

[Anne/Ankara]

I think you're on the right track with doubling up biology, chemistry and even physics, striving to hit mostly AP level science by the time he applies to university-- of course, in addition to calculus, English and the humanities! And adding volunteer work, extra-curriculars, and lots of general pre-med reading.... why not!

Here are some forums that hold regular discussions about pre-med education:

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/

http://www.yale.edu/visvi/students/gradprof/media/readinglist.pdf

I have found a wealth of information on these sites. Good luck!

[Hoggirl]

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[Nissi]

I have two dc. who are looking into being doctors. My oldest did Apologia Bio. in 7nth grade and is in the process of completing Apologia Human Body course. He plans on doing Chemistry in 8th grade and move onto AP courses in highschool. Anne in PA, thank you for the links.
Nissi

[HollyinNNV]

I have a son who wants to be a doctor. In preparation, I was thinking about having him study "regular" high school biology in 8th, "regular" high school chemistry in 9th and then repeat those classes at the AP level in 10th and 11th. He would then take physics in 12th. Or should I shift those down a grade to get in an anatomy course? Has anybody done this before?. Is there a better way? I am open to (lots) of suggestions!

Thanks!

Rather than shifting down a grade to study anatomy, I'd do it concurrently with 12th grade physics. The doc I know :001_smile: took 9th grade Biology, 10th grade Chemistry, 11th grade Physics and 12th grade Anatomy. None of the classes were AP or honors.

Holly

[Karin]

If you do this, you may wish to consider something like Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry II (for grades 7-9) followed by Sudocki's Conceptual Chemistry. We're doing that for our dd for Gr. 9. Along with the latter, you can get the Alive! CD-Roms with lectures for half the text. This way there's no concern about any math shortages. By the time it's time for AP Chem the math needed will be there. We're planning to follow that with Hewitt's Conceptual Physics, which doesn't require a lot of trig, since dd wants to go into biochemistry, not Physics. My brother teaches post-secondary Physics and when I asked him, he not only thought the Conceptual Physics would make a good high school Physics course, he sent me his sample copy since he doesn't teach Conceptual Physics.

I don't know that you need AP science to get to med school, but it wouldn't hurt. It certainly has become a lot more competitive over the years. When my sister was in university there was no official pre-med major; she did her undergraduate degree in biochemistry. Of course, that was in Canada back in the 1980s. Her dh spent his first 2 years doing aeronautical engineering, got tired of all the theory & switched to pursuing medicine (and he's a very good doctor, even though he didn't make the decision based on some lifelong passion for medicine.)

[EKS]

My recommendation would be to first make sure he has a very rigorous math background Then I would be sure that the science was solid (I don't think it necessarily needs to be AP to be solid). Also, I would focus a lot of attention on writing. It will help in college and in med school applications and in life. Finally, you don't want to forget about the humanities. Medical schools are interested in well rounded people and giving him a solid background there will only help him in his college courses.

Back when I was applying to med school, they said they didn't want students to take anatomy in college. They just figured it would need to be repeated so why bother. They said to focus on the basic sciences.