Pre Med Courses– an overview

Pre med courses or the pre medical courses mainly refer to the courses undertaken by people in the Unites States before training oneself into a medical student. Pre-med courses aid in preparing the student to be well equipped for the actual medical course and involve clinical research work, voluntary health services etc. It is also useful for writing the Medical College Admission Test as the pre-med courses cover the fundamental topics of Chemistry and Biology. Even students with a non science background like humanities can also take up this course. For instance, the humanities and medicine program provides admission to the non-science majors.

During the first year in college, students take up the pre-med courses. After completion of one year, they take up the MCAT and then apply for various medical schools by AMCAS or non-AMCAS system. The application is reviewed and based on the coursework completed by the student or based on the MCAT scores, work experience and personal write up selection is done. The association of American medical colleges has worked out a general curriculum for the pre med courses. Some colleges also offer the pre med courses on an online basis, with test conducted online.
Each pre-medical student takes up a major branch like biology, physics or Chemistry and some even take up an ancillary course like anthropology or philosophy. Pre med courses include a year of General chemistry course with lab work or Organic chemistry with lab work or a year of general biology with lab work or a year of general physics with lab work or a year of maths . In Maths the main topics dealt include the calculus or the statistics. English can be taken additionally. Other higher levels of bio medical sciences must be taken by the pre-med students in order to be well prepared during their tenure as medical students.

These courses include the biochemistry, signal transduction, cell biology, molecular biology, genetics, gene therapy, physical chemistry etc. It is beneficial to take up courses like anatomy, biostatistics, immunology, physiology, nutrition and cell physiology. The course offered as undergraduate degree programs in Australia or UK for example the Biomedical science undergraduate program or health science undergraduate program has the same syllabus as the content of the pre med courses in United States. Thus pre med courses will provide the major knowledge required for MCAT. Pre med courses have more weightage while joining the medical courses and this can be experienced more vividly when some medical schools ask for the courses completed in the pre-medical level.

Pre med courses can be successfully passed if one clearly understands the fundamental concepts and theories and applies them while solving the problems. Most questions in the pre med exams are designed in such a way that it tests the problem solving skill of the individual. Thus the important points to be remembered are taking up the pre med course, joining a school which has the pre med advising programs, getting a high score in GPA, participating or volunteering for medical service, participating in research and getting a high score in MCAT.