Wellseen
Organic chemistry
From a C in chemistry to straight A’s in organic chemistry
Too many premeds give up on medicine in their first two years, not because they can’t understand the science, but because nobody taught them how to study for it. I was almost one of them.
Gorang GuptaFounder, Wellseen · ex-UCSF research ops
Fall of sophomore year, then the three quarters after it.
The C that was supposed to predict everything
Fall quarter of my sophomore year, I got an actual C in general chemistry. My professor doubled down on what I was already afraid of: your grade in this class is very representative of how you will do in organic chemistry, and organic chemistry is ten times harder.
I was devastated. But after a lot of thinking, I accepted that something within my control had to change, and change radically.
The next quarter I got an A in organic chemistry. Then another. Then another. I was selected to be a learning assistant for my organic chemistry professor, and his letter of recommendation helped me land research positions at UCSF and publish with a Harvard Medical School physician.
The four mistakes I stopped making
Here is what was actually wrong. If you are struggling in chemistry, I would bet at least one of these is you.
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Cramming the day before the exam
For an 11am midterm, I would go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 3am to study. One night of panic, little sleep, and walking in exhausted. Organic chemistry builds on itself too fast for that to ever work.
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Only studying what the professor hands out
Lecture slides and the assigned problem sets are the minimum, not the plan. The students getting A’s are learning the material from more than one angle.
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Studying a lot instead of studying what matters
Hours are not the same as progress. Once I studied every day and put my time into what mattered most, with intentional practice instead of rereading, everything changed.
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Letting drama spend your focus
Your attention is limited, and the people around you will happily use it up. I made a decision and said it out loud:
“No, I don’t gossip. I hate drama. I hate toxic people. I will shut it down because my organic chemistry grade really matters to me.”
Knowing these is the easy part. Fixing them, every single day, is the hard part. To do that, I built a system from what I was learning in decision science and my research on game theory and decision making. It is the same high-intensity system we run inside the Wellseen Premed and MCAT programs, with a coach adapting it to you.
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Janki KuberWellseen research fellow · former Wellseen MCAT student
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