Weed-Out Courses

You’ve heard of them. Maybe you fear them. For many students, these are the courses standing between them and the career they want.

A weed-out course is a course required for a major with a high DFW rate (D’s, F’s, and Withdrawals). What you may not realize is that weeding-out can begin with your very first college class…

For many pre-med students, Organic Chemistry is the Big Weed-Out, the one they dread. It’s a tough class, and it’s required for many professional degrees in medicine and allied health fields. If you get an A in Orgo, you’re one step closer to your goals. If not, well, you might need to look at other options.

The truth is, Organic Chemistry really is a weed-out course for many students, but some have already weeded themselves out before they ever get there.

Before you can take the courses that you need to complete a pre-med or other pre-health degree, you’ll need to get through a year of general chemistry and a year of introductory biology, usually with labs for both. And this is where most students quietly eliminate themselves. To be competitive for a professional program, it isn’t enough to get a degree by passing your core course. You need to excel! C’s may mean degrees, but they won’t get you into a medical or dental program that only accepts the top 2% of applicants. You need A’s, starting with your very first science class.

The PracticeQuest system offers learning pathways to help students to help you get through general chemistry, biology, and beyond, setting you up for success in the even tougher classes to come.

PracticeQuest was founded by college educators who believe that the most important thing a student can do to learn is to practice answering questions.

Musicians don’t get better just by listening to music. Athletes don’t get better by watching sports. And surgeons don’t get better by reading about the body. They practice what they’ll need to do to succeed. To succeed in college courses, you have to prove you can answer questions and solve problems. So why do most students spend hours reading, highlighting, writing notes, then re-reading the same notes over and over? If you want to get better at solving problems, you should….solve more problems. PracticeQuest was created to give students the practice they need to solve problems and answer test questions.