Hmm...I'm not really sure. My first reaction was to think that med school classes were light-years harder than undergraduate. On further thought, though, I'm not sure it's that clear. I had a somewhat unique experience as my medical school was on a purely pass/fail system, so there was a lot less pressure to feel like you had to know everything - you just had to know enough to pass (which of course was a lot still). If I felt like I had to get "A"'s in the classes, it would have been much more stressful.

Overall, I still think that med school classes are harder. In college, I spent around 15-20 hours per week in classes. In med-school, it was more like 30-40 hours in class. The volume of information was markedly higher for med school, which makes things more challenging.

Overall, though, I found the first two years to be much less stressful and demanding than the 3rd year (which is the clinical year). The 3rd year, however, was far more interesting and it was easier to remember the information because it is almost all learned in the context of patient care.

The only reason why undergrad classes could be viewed as harder than med school is that you have to get good grades in the undergrad classes. Of course, at some colleges, organic chemistry might be much more challenging than at another, so it's going to depend a lot on the college.

I guess I didn't really answer your question, but I don't think you can really give an answer to your question, only describe different people's personal experiences.

I don't think it is really a COURSE thing. There are certainly some very challenging classes in med school, but I also took some in pre-med. (Heck, one of the hardest classes I took in college, grad school, OR med school was a class in Middle High German -- German as it was spoken in the Middle Ages. Which has helped me immeasurably in medical school, as you might imagine...)

The big challenge in med school is that you are absolutely Fire-Hosed with information, and it seems impossible to learn everything. Heck, sometimes I would swear that it IS impossible!

Organization, healthy scheduled personal time, and dedication are paramount.

Good luck...

There is no doubt about it, medical school is a lot more difficult and time consuming than undergrad. On the other hand, if you are really interested in medicine, you probably won't even notice because the material is much more applicable to the rest of your life than orgo or college physics. You will remember the material because you need to know it.

wrote:
Which do you think is harder medical school or the classes which you take in college to be accepted into medical school? I've heard both.

[ Edited by Admin on 2004/4/3 16:23 ]