The hardest classes at UGA: what to expect and how to prepare

These are the courses UGA students name most often when they talk about hard classes, in no particular order. For each one I’ve set out what makes it difficult and what the students who do well in it do differently.

Organic Chemistry: CHEM 2211 and CHEM 2212

Organic chemistry asks for a different kind of thinking from general chemistry. Gen chem rewards memorization and applying formulas. Orgo rewards pattern recognition and reasoning through mechanisms, so students who earned A’s in CHEM 1211/1212 by memorizing often struggle once that stops working.

There are a lot of reaction mechanisms to learn, but the harder part is predicting reactions you haven’t seen before from how electrons behave and how functional groups react. If you’re trying to memorize every reaction one by one, you’re fighting a losing battle.

Practice mechanisms until the logic is automatic. Work problems before you read the solutions, and draw the electron-pushing arrows by hand. Study with people who will make you explain reactions out loud; if you can teach a mechanism, you understand it. Do some orgo every day instead of cramming, because pattern recognition builds a little at a time.

Pre-med students are required to take it, and so are chemistry and biochemistry majors, some biology majors, and anyone on a health professions track.

General Physics: PHYS 1111 and PHYS 1112

Pre-med students, pre-engineering students and many science majors take this sequence, and it is conceptually demanding even though it isn’t calculus-based. The math is usually algebra and trigonometry. The hard step is translation: turning a word problem or a physical situation into the right mathematical model. Students who are comfortable with formulas but have trouble picturing the situation often hit a wall.

PHYS 1112 (electricity, magnetism, optics and waves) is generally considered harder than PHYS 1111 (mechanics) because the ideas are less intuitive. You can watch a ball roll down a ramp. You can’t watch an electric field.

Learn the physical intuition behind each equation along with the equation. Before plugging in numbers, draw a diagram and decide which principles apply (conservation of energy? Newton’s second law? Kirchhoff’s rules?). Practice turning situations into free-body or circuit diagrams before you reach for a formula.

Principles of accounting I: ACCT 2101

ACCT 2101 is a gateway course for Terry College admission, so your grade in it bears directly on whether you get into your business major. That pressure makes the course harder by itself. The content is a new symbolic system (debits, credits, journal entries, T-accounts) with its own internal logic, and that logic doesn’t line up neatly with everyday intuition.

The pace is fast for a 2000-level course, and exams tend to test application over recall. Knowing the definition of an adjusting entry won’t help unless you can build one correctly with the clock running.

Stay current. Accounting is cumulative, and falling behind in weeks 2 to 3 makes weeks 6 to 8 nearly impossible. Practice journal entries and T-accounts until the debit/credit logic is reflexive, and work textbook problems beyond the assigned ones. If you’re in a large lecture section, add office hours or tutoring early, before the first exam rather than after a bad one.

Every intended Terry College business major takes it. Accounting, finance and real estate applicants should know that the Terry application looks at their ACCT 2101 grade specifically.

Applied Statistics and data analysis: BUSN 3000

BUSN 3000, formerly MSIT 3000, combines statistical concepts with business applications and software tools. The difficulty is breadth: probability, hypothesis testing, regression and data analysis methods all fit into one semester. Students who haven’t taken a math course in a few semesters often feel behind the pace.

Every Terry College BBA applicant takes it, and it has to be completed or in progress before you can apply to a Terry major, so it tends to land in a semester that’s already heavy.

Refresh your algebra and basic probability before the semester starts. Understand what each test or calculation does before you run it on a computer; the software won’t do the thinking for you. Practice reading output as well as producing it.

If one of these courses is going badly right now, I tutor UGA students 1-on-1 in orgo, accounting, stats, and more. Get in Touch →

General Chemistry: CHEM 1211 and CHEM 1212

For a lot of science-bound students, CHEM 1211 is the first real “filter” course. Pre-med, pre-health and science majors take it, along with some engineering students. It covers atomic structure, bonding, stoichiometry, thermodynamics and kinetics. No single topic is the problem; the trouble is conceptual reasoning and math together, with a great deal of content on every exam.

CHEM 1212 (equilibrium, acids and bases, thermodynamics, electrochemistry, and kinetics in more depth) tends to be harder because it needs more mathematical fluency and the ideas are more abstract.

Do every practice problem, including the ones that weren’t assigned. At this level you learn chemistry by solving problems, not by reading about it. Use the supplemental instruction sessions offered through UGA’s Division of Academic Enhancement. Don’t skip lab; the hands-on work reinforces what you heard in lecture.

Introductory Biology: BIOL 1107 and BIOL 1108

There is an enormous amount of content. BIOL 1107 covers cell biology, genetics, molecular biology and evolution in one semester, and BIOL 1108 covers ecology, physiology and organismal biology. The exams often test application and experimental design along with recall of facts.

Lectures are large (300+ students), so the pace is relentless and you get little individual attention from the professor.

Active recall beats passive rereading by a wide margin. Use flashcards, teach concepts to a study partner, and take practice exams under timed conditions. Read the textbook before lecture, so the lecture reinforces something you’ve already seen. Go to the supplemental instruction sessions.

Pre-med, pre-health, biology and ecology majors take the sequence, and so do most life science students.

Precalculus: MATH 1113

MATH 1113 isn’t inherently the hardest math course at UGA, but it affects more students than almost any other. It’s a prerequisite for Terry admission, a core curriculum requirement, and the foundation for calculus, statistics and physics, so intended Terry business majors, pre-med students, STEM majors and anyone meeting the quantitative reasoning core requirement at the precalculus level or higher all end up in it. For students who struggled with math in high school, it’s often the first college-level math course they face.

It covers functions, trigonometry, logarithms and other foundational topics at a pace that assumes solid algebra. If your algebra is rusty, you’ll spend the semester learning precalculus and relearning algebra at the same time.

If your math placement suggests you need review, take MATH 1101 first instead of jumping into MATH 1113 and struggling. The Math Learning Center at UGA offers free tutoring. Practice a little every day rather than cramming before exams; math skills build through repetition over time.

What these courses have in common

The courses UGA students find hardest share a few traits. They need active problem-solving, not passive reading. They’re cumulative, so falling behind early compounds all semester. And many students take them sophomore year, while they’re adjusting to harder coursework, competing for internal admission (Terry, pre-med) and keeping a scholarship GPA above its threshold.

The students who do well in them almost always do two things. They start strong, going to every class and doing every assignment from the first day. And they get help early (office hours, tutoring, study groups) instead of waiting for a bad first exam.