Ryan Davis | Student Life

Coming into WashU last fall, I was devoutly opposed to being on the pre-medical school track. I was intimidated by it. I thought it would be too demanding, and I wanted to avoid worrying about each and every grade like I did in high school. However, halfway through the school year, I switched onto the pre-med track. 

As I worked through its freshman coursework, I picked up strategies to succeed, and when unsuccessful, how to rebound. Whether you are coming into WashU devoted to the pre-med track, are considering it as an option, or are firmly anti-STEM, I hope to provide you with useful information to get you on your feet.

“The fireworks never go off,” Dr. Gregory Polites, who taught MedPrep at WashU for 20 years, told me. 

Dr. Polites was discussing what it felt like to be a medical school student, resident, and attending physician. To me, the same applies to being a college student. When I got into WashU, it felt like I had achieved one of the highest honors in STEM. Niche said that WashU was the 10th-best school for biology in the country! Surely, I would be set for the time being, right? 

When you get to WashU and begin your classes, the realization of “Oh, we actually have to do work” may hit you a little harder than you expect. My first piece of advice is to realize that while getting here is a massive achievement, there is a lot of work hiding behind the veneer of getting a WashU STEM education, and it may not always feel like a celebratory moment. 

While that may come off as a little depressing, it doesn’t need to be. Even if the metaphorical fireworks only really go off the moment you get into WashU, it is possible to find things to celebrate as you move through your classes. The key to this, to me, and perhaps the most important piece of advice I have in this piece: find joy in what you learn. If you are able to find the details in each lesson that intrigue you, the whole class suddenly becomes much more interesting. 

One thing I try to do is to create a storyline out of course material. This was made easy in General Chemistry 111 (if you are interested in the pre-med track, 111 or its counterpart, Chem 105, will be the first chemistry class you take — they are the same subject, but with slight variations in some of the topics taught). In 111, professors described the class as the “story of the electron.” After each lesson, I was able to contextualize what was taught as a part of that overall story, and all of a sudden, learning chemistry became more like learning history, with a little more math involved.

Well, what if you didn’t understand what was taught in lecture? This, especially in classes like introductory chemistry and biology (the latter of which begins in the spring semester), is pretty much inevitable. STEM lectures are usually only 50 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. When you’re surrounded by 200+ people, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to get too many questions in, even if you’re bold enough to ask them. Each lecture has been planned out by your professors, and that train won’t stop for individuals. 

Not to panic! There are many resources outside of the 150 minutes of lecture per week that are there to help you. I often left chemistry, biology, or calculus lectures knowing I was missing some information necessary for completely understanding the lectures. Professors anticipate that, which is why the following resources exist:

Recitation

Recitation is a mandatory once-a-week class for chemistry and math courses where you simply answer problems related to the lectures taught that week. In General Chemistry (GenChem), you will take a weekly quiz in recitation. You do get a pass on some absences, but my advice is to take advantage of the time by attending all of them and by asking questions of TAs and of other students.

PLTL

PLTL, which stands for Peer-Led Team Learning, is a must for GenChem. Many students also find it useful for calculus and physics too. PLTL is a weekly two-hour session on Saturdays, Sundays, or Mondays where you answer difficult questions related to the course material from the previous week with a small group of other students and an older student to help guide you. Many exam questions are similar in difficulty to questions in PLTL packets, so working through them and trying to understand the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of the problems is really useful. 

Office Hours 

You’ve heard this one before. But seriously, go to them — especially when you have a charismatic professor. This is a great time to clear up misunderstandings. Good professors will make office hours feel like an extra lecture, where you ask a question about one homework problem and come away with both the answer and a review of the material surrounding the question.

Each other 

One thing that is great about WashU’s academic culture is that most students want to see each other succeed. So, take advantage of that! Learn from each other and work through problems together. Ask questions of each other when you don’t have a TA or professor immediately at your disposal. This is especially true come finals week, when there is much less structure to the day and you are left with a lot more time to go over material.

Technology 

Most lectures are recorded, so if you miss one or want to re-take notes on one, they can be found on Canvas (an online platform for course materials). Many STEM classes will also post study guides on Canvas for each week’s material. Use these study guides as an opportunity to do some active recall on what you remember from the week or on what you maybe have some confusion over.

So how can you put all of this into practice? To me, routine is a necessary component to keeping up with STEM classes. These classes are characterized by having a ton of information involved in each lecture. To ensure that you cover it all, sticking to a schedule can be useful. In high school, it may have been sufficient to just do your homework and study for tests in the days before the exam. 

For college STEM lectures, a consistent review of lecture material regardless of the timing of that course’s next exam is a more efficient way of learning. This could mean that you study for the weekly Thursday GenChem quiz by reviewing that week’s study guide on Sunday, going to PLTL on Monday, and doing practice problems on Tuesday and Wednesday. Or reverse that order! Whatever works for you will become apparent as time goes on. Give yourself some time to acclimate to a routine, and modify it if it’s not working for you. Be conscious of what that might mean — your success on quizzes can be a good gauge of that, for example. 

If this all sounds a bit overwhelming, that’s because at times, it can be. I have found, as mentioned, that routine can help stop that drowning feeling. Keeping myself on a schedule that I know has worked in the past gives me confidence for the future, and reminds me to trust that I will get through any task in the present. To fight off that overwhelmed feeling, it’s also critical to keep track of your mental health when taking on the pre-med track (and even physical health — sleep is more important than getting in an extra hour of studying for tomorrow’s exam).

Impostor syndrome

You are undoubtedly going to experience it. I did, and sometimes I still do. But, consider this: You got into WashU, and you deserve to be here. You do have what it takes to be successful on this path. Yes, some people got 5s on their AP Chem exam or have already conducted research, but everyone resets to equal footing when they get to lecture 1 (it might even be advantageous to have skipped on AP Chem for GenChem — pretty much everything that was taught about electrons is going to get turned on its head). Even if it feels like you’re falling behind, there are always others in your boat, and there is a plethora of resources there to pull you back up to speed. 

Keeping the above in mind is especially important when you experience failure. Failure is pretty much inevitable in some regard on the pre-med track. Take the following anecdote. The average score on the first GenChem exam last year was somewhere between a 50 and a 60 out of 100, and that will probably be the case again this year. This is expected. Many students who have taken this exam came in with high school-level expectations and got hit with WashU STEM-level reality, but the professors who made the exam knew that. It’s part of the reason why you get the opportunity to drop your lowest exam score! There are built-in fail-safes for WashU STEM classes that ensure that moments like this don’t come to define your entire semester. 

“Failures” like these get to be a learning moment for students (to be clear, you can be very successful on the first GenChem exam! My advice on it is to come out of the gate by taking advantage of PLTL sessions, recitations, office hours, problem sets, and especially the practice exam that will be provided — which is the exact same test that last year’s students took). When you don’t achieve something that you were hoping to, it provides an opportunity to ask, “What didn’t work?” and remedy that for next time.

Being able to pinpoint what you were missing in preparation for an exam, for example, will be instrumental in your success in the future. This is a helpful thought activity to go through when you succeed at something, as well, since you can make sure to continue doing what you know works for you.

Giving up pre-med

This is nothing to be ashamed of. Thousands of students around the country each year realize that this path is not the one they want to take in life, and for a variety of reasons! Maybe you will find a class in the humanities that enamors you. Maybe you begin to lean towards graduate school instead. Maybe you aren’t interested enough in the coursework to justify its demands. Whatever it may be, it might feel natural to carry some shame from dropping the pre-med track. However, you are making a decision in your own best interest, and an incredibly common one at that. 

There’s a fascinating world of science on your doorstep as you come into WashU. It is going to require hard work and devotion of energy and time to succeed. But it’s not everything. As a last piece of advice — don’t forget to have fun outside of academic work. College is, of course, so much more than just schoolwork, and engaging with its social aspects is just as important as keeping on top of academics. 

The pre-med track does not prohibit you from taking advantage of the non-academic side of college. It is completely a myth that you cannot have fun while succeeding in classes here, so remind yourself to take breaks from thinking about your next exam and enjoy everything else that WashU has to offer.