What is the hardest class you ever took in college?

Chaucer. Thank goodness I had a good prof.

Trigonometry. Yeah, you heard me. Plain old trig.

Cellular and Molecular Biology I (the Molecular portion). Probably hard, moreso, because of the professor-- his tests were incomprehensible. Cell. and Molec. II, with a different professor, was much easier. Organic Chem I ('building blocks') was harder than Organic Chem II ('Application'), at least at my university.

Chicano Barrio Art! I kid you not.

either calc 2 or organic chemistry... yikes those were tough semesters

I am going to be a freshman next year and I'd like to thank all of you for making me crap my pants.

Yoga: This is not a joke; I took it in the summer and no matter how hard I tried I could not stop watching the other students and the prof actually made a comment to me about it.

To the guy who said Organic Chem was easy...you must be really smart.

E&M sucked, partly the profs fault.

TrackCoach wrote:

To the guy who said Organic Chem was easy...you must be really smart.

Well I don't mean to sound like someone coming on here to try and brag. I will certainly admit I was humbled by a class or two (Calc, and a Human Cognition class I took freshman year). I never even fancied myself much of a science person, but lo and behold, that's the direction in which my educational pursuits turned, and when it came time for Orgo, maybe I was just in the right mind set. By the same token, however, I won't sit here and say I'm not a smart individual. When I think about it, I really can conceive how it could be difficult for the majority of people who take it (particularly if that semester is loaded with other tough courses). Part of my original comment I think was rooted in the fact that I was pleasantly surprised to find while making my way through Orgo that it really wasn't the horrible thing everyone told me it would be. Sure, I've had plenty of easier classes, but I wouldn't say this was insanely hard. Actually, I struggled more in Physics II than in any Orgo semester. I can do a Friedel-Crafts Alkylation in my sleep, but I'll be damned if I can explain electric flux coherently to anyone.

I find that the hardest classes to get a good grade in are not always the most confusing or thought provoking. For example: Computer Programming II may have been the hardest class for me in college to get a good grade in, but in a way it was easier than some others. What I mean is, there was always a right answer. It was all based on logical processes that led to one answer that everyone agreed on. Very simplistic if you think about it. This does not require a higher order of thought. It requires simple calculations. I took many of these types of courses as an Engineering major, and although they were difficult, I did not feel deeply challenged.

Some of the most challenging classes for me were courses involving Philosophy, Psychology, Politics, etc. These courses involve a great depth of thought and are very confusing if you actually try to absorb and seriously comtemplate the material. These subjects are infinitely complex. You could talk about one topic for hours and never come to a conclusion. No one would necessarily be wrong, and no one would necessarily be right. Very frustrating, but also able to fill a person with a sense of wonder about the world - which I liked.

i thought calc was easy and i failed organic chem.

TrackCoach wrote:

To the guy who said Organic Chem was easy...you must be really smart.

Personally, I thought Organic Chem. was the 'Chem equivalent' to Physiology-- very logical and mechanistic. If you're used to thinking this way, it's no problem at all, at least for Organic Chem II. Organic Chem I is more rote memory, but once you 'figure it out' and see how to apply it, it's a cool class. The labs were fun too (~synthesizing aspirin, extracting caffeine from tea leaves)-- did anyone else synthesize anything interesting? I remember when we had to run all these tests to identify our unknown, I had a super smelly unknown.... it had sulfur. Gave me aweful headaches for 3 weeks!

I just graduated with a B.S. double majoring in biology and chemistry and am headed to medical school... I\'ve taken p-chem, orgo, advanced cell and molecular bio, physics, anatomy, physiology, calc, genetics and several \"deep thinking\" philosophy type courses... but by far the hardest class I\'ve had was biochemistry II... where we studied metabolism in complete detail (structures, intermediates, and mechanisms) and how the different pathways worked together. I heard quantum is pretty bad, too.

latin was the hardest for me. so many endings and the sentence order is hard to grasp. also, i think learning languages that are no longer spoken is very difficult as you rarely hear/ feel the application of your work. of course, after struggling through latin, other languages were a breeze and my writing and grammar improved greatly.

I had a communications class as a freshman. The instructor made us team up in 2's and i was put with this incredibly hot chick who looked and smelled like heaven. My ability to focus was nil and my mid term was poor--and I was an excellent student.

Then the hottie and I needed to get together outside of class to work on the year-end project. She told me how she and her high school sweetheart had just broken up over the weekend and she was very sad. I held her and consoled her and next thing you know we were in her bed and the rest is history. she is now my wife of 20 years.

Lack of focus makes any class hard.

jaguar1 wrote:

Personally, I thought Organic Chem. was the 'Chem equivalent' to Physiology-- very logical and mechanistic. If you're used to thinking this way, it's no problem at all, at least for Organic Chem II. Organic Chem I is more rote memory, but once you 'figure it out' and see how to apply it, it's a cool class. The labs were fun too (~synthesizing aspirin, extracting caffeine from tea leaves)-- did anyone else synthesize anything interesting? I remember when we had to run all these tests to identify our unknown, I had a super smelly unknown.... it had sulfur. Gave me aweful headaches for 3 weeks!

Agreed. In organic chem, I was one of those who just "got it". I thought it was a natural prgression from p-chem, the nomenclature and reactions all made sense. Everything about organic chem was logical to me. Being one who can visualize in 3D helped a lot.

Two of my unknowns where camphor and isovaleric acid. The latter had a stench (the scent of sheep) that permeated even rubber gloves - and it wouldn't wash off!

I was a chemistry major; math and science came easy to me. But I took a Literature Course called American Biography. Based on the description, I was expecting to read about Washington, Lincoln, Edison, et al. Unfortunately, the prof was a angry, fat lesbian and the reading list was about other angry, fat lesbians. I tried to be open minded and put some effort into the first paper and thought i did pretty well. She gave me a C- and I dropped the course as fast as I could. My academic advisor laughed up a storm as I explained to her why I had to drop the course.

I spilled my Organic chem substance to be purified on tothe lab table and had to scrape it up with a wood splint. I believe it was Benzoic acid or something and I git a 5 percent yield

a math major.. . wrote:

Funny that everyone says math or physics. I thought there'd be more for organic chemistry. .

I never took Orgo but it sure WOULD have been the hardest.

In high school I took AP Chem. I thought I was reasonably smart. Got good grades in it in a good high-school.

Then, my freshman year of college I took a look at my roommate's Orgo book. I could not understand a damn thing from page 2 onwards. Hell, from page 1 onwards.

So glad I didn't go that route.