Prerequisite for medicine

[Cilver]

Hey guys

I know almost every uni requires you to do Chem to get into medicine and bio is most likely required as well

Now the course im thinking of doing doesnt actually require you to do bio. Im sure there are many other similar courses as well

So question is, is bio worth doing? If so, SL or HL? If not, should I just stick another group 3 into my IB course, since Im not really certain if I want to get into medicine or not?

Edited June 2, 2012 by Summer Glau
no text speak please!

[Danbo]

I'm not sure if I understand your question. Do you mean you want to get into pharmaceuticals ? I am certain that in order to get into medical school you must have done courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. Chemistry is an important one but I would think Biology is just as important.

What are the other subjects that you are planning to take?

[Cilver]

I'm not sure if I understand your question. Do you mean you want to get into pharmaceuticals ? I am certain that in order to get into medical school you must have done courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. Chemistry is an important one but I would think Biology is just as important.

What are the other subjects that you are planning to take?

As in, Chemistry is the only mandatory subject I have to take in order to get into that course.

And no, I dont mean pharmaceuticals. Just a very general undergraduate medicine course.

[Summer Glau]

...so what else are you thinking of going into?

Biology isn't required for medicine but it is certainly useful. I would argue that it is more useful than chemistry, however chemistry is what seems to be required by most UK universities for medicine.

I strongly recommend biology if you're even just considering medicine, it will help you a lot and if you don't take it, you will likely be behind your peers once you start medical school.

But if you're against taking bio then take physics, some places may require chemistry HL and anoher science/math at HL. It will satisfy the prerequisites if that's what concerns you most.

[Tony Stark]

Hey guys

I know almost every uni requires you to do Chem to get into medicine and bio is most likely required as well

Now the course im thinking of doing doesnt actually require you to do bio. Im sure there are many other similar courses as well

So question is, is bio worth doing? If so, SL or HL? If not, should I just stick another group 3 into my IB course, since Im not really certain if I want to get into medicine or not?

I see from the flag under your name you're Australian. From what I know, having a younger brother and many friends either applying for med or in med school, Biology is quite rarely required by Australian universities. This is largely due to the very low emphasis on prerequisites in Australian universities due to them all essentially doing fresher courses in the first few weeks. For medicine, Chemistry is universally a requirement, SL Maths is generally required (though they often don't list it) and biology is sometimes recommended (though you'd be equally aided, if not better off, by doing Physics or HL Maths to prove your scientific/analytical skills to a greater extent, as Australian universities often consider Bio an 'easy subject' relative to the other sciences). These are required to prove you have the analytical skills required, and some vague background in quantitative reasoning and molecular chemistry, and are not a knowledge requirement. It'd be impossible for them to make prerequisites based on knowledge requirements considering interstate uni admissions are common despite most states using completely different high school courses.

Overall, however, as long as you have Chem and Maths SL and a good/great UMAT, you'll get to the interview stage, so don't fuss overmuch on it, particularly considering the majority of Australian universities don't understand IB particularly well.

As for group 3s, don't bother if you're only considering them as potential prereqs for other courses. I have never head of any Humanities course asking for any pre-req other than English, and SL Maths is all that's necessary in addition for Comm etc.

Edited June 2, 2012 by Tony Stark

[Sandwich]

Biology is incredibly useful though, sooo to be honest I would take it even if it's not required. Technically it's not required in the UK either, but the way they teach you the 'biology' in the course is very fast-paced and in my opinion pretty hard even given previous knowledge. People without Biology work a lot harder.

The reasoning behind asking for Chemistry HL as the only definite pre-requisite is, insofar as I can tell, solely to try and make everybody do a 'hard' subject. Chemistry itself is not very relevant. Neither are Physics or Maths unless you want to pursue a particular career in Medical Physics or something - provided you understand pressures and have a vague idea of how pHs and dissociations etc. work, that's about all Physics and Chemistry appear to contribute if you're not interested in pursuing anything direct like imaging etc.!

Biology, on the other hand, is relevant to all of it. So definitely do Biology! Also really you should be interested in Biology of your own accord if you want to be interested in Medicine - I would hope!