Chem & Micro

at my college, they require you to take chemistry before microbiology. i haven't taken either of them yet but i have finished all my other prerequisites. i am applying for nursing school in the spring so i really need these classes this fall. they are allowing me to take these two classes in the same semester but i am a little nervous about the microbiology course since i haven't taken chemistry beforehand. i hope it's not too extremely difficult. what do you think?

my micro class had very little or no chemistry to it, we pretty much skipped the chapter on microbial biochemistry because it was assumed that our core pre-nursing curriculum provides a good basic foundation in both elementary biochemistry as well as chemistry proper.

your mileage may vary, it totally depends on your school. you may want to shoot an email off to the micro instructor and see if you can get an advanced copy of the syllabus, or even just to explain to him or her that you are taking chemistry concurrently and would like to know how much chemistry he or she is planning to cover in the microbiology class.

good luck and don't be nervous, you'll do fine, micro is fascinating.

Get the texts early and study. At this level, the chemistry is foundational, and with some time and effort, you can self-educate pretty easily. Cross-reference the end-of-chapter guides in your micro text with the concepts you'll need to be familiar with in your chemistry text, and design a study plan from there. Most of the chemistry knowledge utilized in intro-level micro courses is broad-concept level stuff, anyhow: I doubt you will be calculating pH levels or drawing, balancing, and identifying complex chemical reactions for your micro. course (the idea about getting a syllabus early is a great one).

Good luck!

Don't worry too much. Most intro-level biology classes have a brief chemistry chapter that covers everything you need to know.

-B