Medical School?

[cookderosa]

Many schools give 8 semester hours credit for good scores (i.e., possibly above the minimums) on either AP or CLEP biology and chemistry tests. The 8 semester hours number comes from the fact that at a brick and mortar school, those courses are taken over two semesters. Here is what is required by medical schools:

first semester inorganic chemistry (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory)
second semester inorganic chemistry (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory)
first semester organic chemistry (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory)
second semester organic chemistry (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory)
first semester intro biology (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory) *
second semester intro biology (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory) *
additional biology (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory) **
additional biology (3 hours lecture, may or may not have a 1 hour laboratory) **
first semester physics for science majors (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory)
second semester physics for science majors (3 hours lecture, 1 hour laboratory)
maybe biochemistry
other things possibly ***
Medical schools do not want to see credit for labs as 8 hours of CLEP credit may provide you. Medical schools want to see that you actually took the labs. Without the labs, you're not going. Period. That's reality. Some people win the powerball lottery. That's also reality. Which reality is more relevant to you?

A medical school will probably not get upset for an AP test placing you out of statistics or other math course. But don't expect success beyond that. Contact medical schools. See what they tell you.

I agree. Even if you are lucky enough to score highly on your AP premed prereq, they want to see something else (higher) in place of those credits. So, if you get an exemption from general chemistry 1 & 2, you can bet that they want to see the biochem AND orgo 2. Consider AP credit to "free you up" for harder courses, not eliminate the requirement the way we use CLEP here.

* this should say General Biology w/lab, just so no one gets confused.
**I've seen genetics, microbiology, anatomy (not A&P), physiology (not A&P), and cellular bio listed as required here and there- and only a handful of times; anything beyond the 8 sciences is usually just recommended- if you can get A's then go for it, if it's going to drop your GPA then avoid like the plague.
***English composition 6 credits is required >half the MD/DO schools, so I'd say not to CLEP this.

And to the OP, this info is pretty straight forward and easy to find, but when in doubt, contact the COM directly.