Should pre-med students take BIOL 1107 over the summer at UGA?

It can be a smart move if it protects your fall schedule for MCAT-adjacent courses — but only when done deliberately. The grade counts in your science GPA, which medical schools scrutinize closely, so the compressed format requires real preparation, not casual entry.

Is BIOL 1107 or 1108 harder in summer at UGA?

Both courses are volume-heavy. The compressed timeline collapses the spaced repetition that normally helps you retain detailed material. Students with an active-recall system in place do well; students relying on re-reading the textbook tend to fall behind by exam two.

Does AP Biology credit help with summer BIOL 1107?

AP Biology can earn you UGA credit for BIOL 1107 with a 4 or 5, but most pre-health programs prefer (or require) the college-level course on your transcript. AP background helps with familiarity, but it does not replicate the depth UGA's course expects.

How many hours per week does summer BIOL 1107 take?

Plan for close to a full-time commitment in a Maymester or short session. The course's volume per week roughly doubles or triples the fall pace, and pre-health students should treat it as their primary commitment of that session.

BIOL 1107 & 1108 over the summer at UGA: the pre-health reality check

If you’re pre-health and considering BIOL 1107 (Principles of Biology I) or 1108 (Principles of Biology II) in a compressed UGA summer session, the decision is different for you than for anyone else, because this grade goes into your science GPA.

By Michael Rainwater, updated Summer 2026.

For how the sequence runs in a regular semester, see How to Pass BIOL 1107 and 1108 at UGA, and for the full prerequisite map, UGA Pre-Med Prerequisites.

Volume is the problem

Intro biology rarely fails students because an idea is too hard, the way chemistry can. It fails them on sheer volume. Cellular respiration, genetics, molecular biology and evolutionary mechanisms are each a lot of detailed material, and the compressed format hands it to you at roughly 2–4x the normal rate.

In a 15-week fall term your memory has time to consolidate. Spaced repetition happens almost on its own because the schedule spreads the material out. In a Maymester or short session the spacing collapses, and you have days to learn and hold what normally takes weeks. Willpower doesn’t fix that, because it’s a limit of how memory works, and it’s why bright students underestimate this course in summer.

What’s at stake for pre-health students

For a student taking it as an elective, a B in summer bio is fine. For a pre-health student, this course counts toward the science GPA, the number that medical, dental, PA and pharmacy programs look at hardest. That changes the risk:

A compressed term gives you less room to recover from a bad start, and the grade carries more weight than almost any other course you’ll take this year.
Retaking it later costs you a term and shows up on an application. Getting it right the first time is worth more to you than to most students.

None of this is meant to scare you off. Plenty of pre-health students take summer bio to keep their fall clear for MCAT-adjacent courses. It’s a smart move when it’s planned and supported, and a costly one when it’s done casually.

Pre-health and weighing summer bio? I work with pre-med and pre-PA students at UGA on this decision, and I’ll tell you plainly whether your timing makes sense. Ask about your timing →

Who does well in summer BIOL 1107/1108

Students who already have a memorization system that works (active recall, spaced repetition), not students planning to “read it a few times.”
Students who make it their main commitment for that session, not something to fit around a full internship.
Students who find their weak unit early instead of on the first exam, when a short session has almost no time left to recover.

What changes the outcome

Nearly every student who does well in compressed bio does one thing: before the volume hits, they stop reading and re-reading and start testing themselves.

That’s what a diagnostic is for. Instead of finding out in week two which unit you can’t hold on to, I find it at the start and build the compressed weeks around it, so the limited time goes to your weak points rather than an even re-read of everything. When the problem is volume, where your hours go decides the grade.

Pre-health and taking summer bio?

Given what this grade does to your science GPA, a conversation before the term is worth far more than help scrambled together after the first exam. Tell me the course, the session and your background, and I’ll give you a straight read on the risk and what support would look like.

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