Can I Take Premed Classes Pass/Fail (P/F) & Still Get into Medical School?

Don't be fooled by the fact that many med schools are allowing students to take some classes Pass-fail because of Covid-19. You need to think long and hard about whether taking certain classes pass/fail makes sense because in some cases it will hurt your med school application.

In today's episode, I break down what you need to consider before taking a class pass/fail if you want to get into a top medical school.

Full Episode Transcript

Hey guys, what is up? Dr. Andre Pinesett, the Study Doc answering one of your questions today. And the question is, "Dr. Andre Pinesett, what do you think about pass-fail classes? How will medical schools look at that?" If you guys are wondering about your pass-fail classes and how med schools look nat that, this is the video. Check it out.

Stop making excuses. Stop whining. Stop right. Get at it. No excuses. Just dominate.

All right guys, Dr. Andre Pinesett, the Study Doc here. And I'm as always, I'm going to bring you positivity and productivity. It's helping you be a better student. Be a better premed, and to reach your goals, including getting into medical school. And today it's about the pass, fail, class, pass, fail classes. Is there anything better than taking a pass? Fail class? You just kick your heels back. Just get that pass. Oh my gosh. But how did medical schools look at it guys? And I think that when we talk about pass-fail classes, we have to ask ourselves, is this class a prerequisite for medical school? Or is this class just a class?

If it is a prerequisite, then you should not take that class pass-fail. Why? Because medical schools want to evaluate you and compare you across those prerequisites for grades. Therefore, most schools require that all of your prerequisites are taking for a grade. You take a prerequisite pass, fail. You put yourself at risk of not qualifying and not meeting the criteria and the requirement to get into that medical school.

So never take a prerequisite pass, fail if you can avoid it. And if you can't avoid it, right? So you're going to class, it's going terribly and you recognize you're not going to get a great grade in it. You may say to yourself, it's better to get pass, fail than to get this low grade. That is fine, but recognize that pass, fail must be retaken again. Do you have to weigh out, is the grade ward having to retake it again later? The best thing you can do is make sure you're prepared and all of your prerequisites you're excelling and making sure you're getting VAs or the near A's because medical school admissions are tough and you have to be excellent. And part of that excellent is getting Deller great.

And I think sometimes we can fall into the trap of telling ourselves, Oh, it's okay. I got to be, Oh, it's okay. I got to see no, you should be figuring out how you can get the eight and nine times out of 10 guys. The very simple equation to getting good grades is I asked you how much better would your grades be if you just studied when you're supposed to study.

And so if you're not getting the, A's the first thing I want you guys to change is studying when you're supposed to be studying. So that way you can make sure you're putting in the hours insistently throughout your quarter or your semester. So you can get those A's and that way you can elevate yourself. The other thing is, is learning how to study and learn how to study well at a high level,

I had an awesome course. I thought letting anybody rate that teaches you full system for stunning. You guys checked out the box below, but you must learn how to study to get those A's cause you need those in those prerequisites. That way you're not forced to, they can pass-fail. Does that make sense for the prerequisites? We want all those with the grades where the non prerequisite coursework, it is perfectly fine to take those pass-fail, but you must make sure that your university will give you credit towards graduation for that pass-fail because not all courses are eligible to be counted towards your degree as pass-fail. Most universities have limitations on how many courses be counted towards your overall unit requirement that is pass-fail. So you really want to pick wisely which classes you're taking pass-fail and which classes you're taking for a grade.

But overall, if you guys can take a class for a grade and get a stellar grade in it, that's going to bump your GPA. Pass, fail grade don't factor in the same way. So a P won't get you the 4.0, you need lots of A's and you don't want a ton of pass, fail grades on there that isn't going to help boost that GPA and make you more competitive.

The other thing I'll say about this is that when medicals are evaluating your overall transcript, they're looking at the workload, the concentration, the difficulty of your schedule to say, how strong is this A when that's the only class you were taking is not as strong as someone who's taking four classes and gets all A's. Do you guys see, additionally, if you have someone who's taking four classes for a grade, it's all A's compared to someone who's taking four classes and we exclude them for a grade? It gets two A's. Which one do you think looks better to medical schools? Obviously the one was four eight, because that means they were excellent across the board, not just getting the passage.

So you don't want to dilute your transcript with pass-fail grades. Does that make sense? Real simple, three steps, one prerequisite. Don't take the pass, fail, get the study skills on, get the discipline on to get the A's in those classes than for your non prerequisite mental prerequisites, figure out what the limit is at your school for taking classes pass, fail. But if you can take all those classes for grades, cause that's going to bump your GPA. And the third thing is, is be careful with pass, fail grades, not to do. I dilute the power of your transcript and of your grades and of your aides. All right. That's simple guys real quick at it.

I'm Dr. Pinesett, the Study doc. And if you guys want more information, make sure you guys go through this YouTube channel. This is your first time here. Take a second to subscribe, turn on notifications. If you're listening to this on the podcast, take a second and subscribe to the podcast. Guys have always brought you guys excellent straight to the point truth about medical schools and about being a great college student.

And if you really want the whole kit, you're sick of searching sick of pieces. You want the whole cake, get to my website, thestudydoc.com, and get into a course, a program, a webinar, something to get yourself over that hump, and to have advanced information about the process to be successful. You guys can check it. Yeah. In the box below,

I have a free webinar for you all about how to study, check that out, learn how to study. I want to be effective and get into medical school. I also am having a free webinar. That's all about med school admissions. And it's about what you do as a premed to be successful. We'll check that out too, in the box below. I thank you guys so, so much for joining me, how we always end our videos. No excuses just dominate. So you guys asked that.

Today is the day guys. No more excuses, no more complaining you are going to take your future in your own hands. You're going to dominate. You're going to be successful. Get to my website, thestudydoc.com. I challenge you. What are you going to do today to make your life better?