First-year biology, chemistry and physics, compared

Most science, pre-health and pre-med students take the same three two-semester sequences in their first two years: general biology, general chemistry and introductory physics. The names change from school to school, but the content is much the same everywhere. Widely used textbooks like the free OpenStax series, transfer standards like California's C-ID descriptors, and the AP courses all describe close to the same syllabus.

Encodr has a free course for each semester. Five are live, with 6,013 study cards in total, and College Physics II is in progress. Here is what each one covers and how the six fit together.

General Biology I

The cell and molecular half: 16 units, 86 chapters, 1,390 cards, following OpenStax Biology 2e chapters 1-17.

It starts with the chemistry biology needs (bonds, water, pH, macromolecules), moves through cell structure, membranes and transport, enzymes and energy, then cellular respiration and photosynthesis. The second half covers cell signaling, mitosis and meiosis, Mendelian genetics and Punnett squares, chromosomes and linkage, DNA replication, gene expression and its regulation, and biotechnology (PCR, CRISPR, sequencing).

Math: pH, magnification, Punnett ratios and probability, chi-square and map distances.

General Biology I flashcards - what's in General Biology I - Punnett squares worked step by step

General Biology II

The organism and ecosystem half: 18 units, 70 chapters, 1,328 cards, following OpenStax Biology 2e chapters 18-47.

Evolution and population genetics (including Hardy-Weinberg), phylogenies, then a survey of life: viruses, prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants and animals. After that come plant form and physiology, the animal body systems at intro depth (digestion, nervous, endocrine, musculoskeletal, respiratory, circulatory, osmoregulation, immunity, reproduction), and ecology from populations to biomes and conservation.

Math: Hardy-Weinberg frequencies, population growth models, and energy transfer between trophic levels.

General Biology II flashcards - what's in General Biology II - how to read a phylogenetic tree

General Chemistry I

13 units, 61 chapters, 1,136 cards, following OpenStax Chemistry 2e chapters 1-10.

Measurement, significant figures and dimensional analysis; atoms and the periodic table; naming compounds; the mole, molar mass and concentration; chemical reactions and stoichiometry (limiting reactants, percent yield, titration); thermochemistry and Hess's law; light and the quantum atom; electron configurations and periodic trends; bonding, Lewis structures, VSEPR and hybridization; gases; and liquids and solids.

Math: significant figures, molar mass, percent composition, molarity and dilution, stoichiometry, calorimetry and the gas laws.

General Chemistry I flashcards - what's in General Chemistry I - stoichiometry step by step

General Chemistry II

12 units, 57 chapters, 1,146 cards, following OpenStax Chemistry 2e chapters 11-21.

Solutions and colligative properties; kinetics (rate laws, half-life, the Arrhenius equation); equilibrium and ICE tables; acids and bases; buffers and titrations; solubility equilibria; thermodynamics (entropy and Gibbs free energy); electrochemistry; a short unit on the main-group elements; transition metals and coordination chemistry; nuclear chemistry; and a short bridge to organic chemistry.

Math: pH, Henderson-Hasselbalch, K and Q, Ksp, the Nernst equation and half-life.

General Chemistry II flashcards - what's in General Chemistry II - ICE tables step by step

College Physics I

16 units, 79 chapters, 1,013 cards, following OpenStax College Physics 2e chapters 1-17. This is the algebra- and trig-based sequence most biology, chemistry and pre-health majors take, not the calculus-based one engineers take.

Units, vectors, and one- and two-dimensional kinematics including projectile motion; Newton's laws, friction and circular motion; work, energy and power; momentum and collisions; statics, torque and rotation; fluids, including Bernoulli's equation and blood flow; temperature, heat and thermodynamics; and oscillations, waves and sound.

Math: kinematics, forces, energy, momentum, fluids and heat, with every numeric answer recomputed by a script and g = 9.80 m/s^2 throughout. Every problem is written out in words, and every chapter opens with an equation sheet.

College Physics I flashcards - what's in College Physics I - the four kinematic equations

College Physics II (coming soon)

Following OpenStax College Physics 2e chapters 18-34: electric charge, fields and potential; capacitance; current, resistance and DC circuits; magnetism and electromagnetic induction; electromagnetic waves; geometric optics, vision and optical instruments; wave optics; special relativity; quantum, atomic and nuclear physics with medical applications; and a short look at particle physics.

It isn't live yet. Watch the Encodr course list for it. In the meantime, what's in College Physics II and series vs parallel circuits explained cover some of the material.

How the six fit together

• Chemistry I comes before Chemistry II. Solutions, equilibrium and electrochemistry all build on the mole, stoichiometry and bonding from the first semester.
• The biology semesters don't depend on each other. Most schools teach cell and molecular biology first, and General Biology I and II follow that order, but some teach organismal biology first. Either order works.
• Biology leans on chemistry. General Biology I opens with a chemistry unit, and respiration, photosynthesis and enzymes all use ideas (redox, free energy, pH) that chemistry covers in more depth. Taking the two at the same time helps both.
• Physics I comes before Physics II. Circuits and fields reuse forces, energy and vectors from the first semester.
• Pre-med and pre-health students need all six in some form, and the MCAT tests most of this material. Encodr's MCAT flashcards are a natural next step once the first-year sequences are done.

Studying any of them

The approach is the same in all three sciences: learn the vocabulary early, practice retrieval instead of rereading, and redo calculation problems from scratch until the setup is automatic. The subject guides go further:

• How to study for a general biology exam
• How to study for a general chemistry exam
• How to study for a physics exam

For a final that covers the whole semester, studying for a cumulative final vs a unit test explains how the timeline changes.

All five live courses are free on Encodr. Start with the one you're taking this term, or browse the full course list.