Preparation for university

[TimParadox]

Hello guys and gals,

I'm pretty new to these forums, and wanted to ask a question. Three years ago I graduated secondary school in electromechanics. Nowadays I'm working at a major chemical company, earning good money. So, all is well. Not really.

I'd prefer to live my own life, and not my father's. I'd love to get at least a bachelor's degree in biotechnology, or a related field, in my pursuit to contribute to research into anti-aging (even being someone's assistant would satisfy me). The problem is, during my time in secondary school, very little knowledge was offered to me about biology, physics, or chemistry, and my calculus is also rather rusty. I know that I have to get my skill in those fields to acceptable levels before even attempting attending university, or I know I'd fail badly. The university I had in mind states that a thorough understanding of what you were thought in secondary school would suffice to begin with.

 

So this is my quest: getting my skill up to the required level. The question is: how? What kind of book or courses or whatever would you recommend? Keep in mind that my current skill level is extremely limited at best - but I'm willing to work hard, and know what I want.

[-Demosthenes-]

Wow I didn't realize how different other places were when it comes to education. In the states you don't actually graduate secondary school (our high school right?) in anything, you just graduate high school I wouldn't hesitate to go into any bachelor degree program from high school, even taking no pertinent classes in my major, but I don't know if that's helpful to you where ever you're at.

 

Also, as far as I know, there isn't much calculus in Biology. There's some stats I guess, but as far as I know calculus is very physics math (someone correct me if I'm wrong -- I often am).

 

The lower level bio classes at my school that the bio major requires aren't much harder than high school classes. I've actually started three different majors before settling where I'm at (History, Computer Science, and finally Exercise Science) and did very well in the lower level classes of each without having much of a background in some, they're not hard till you get higher in the major anyways.

[TimParadox]

I live in Belgium, Europe.

And I was talking about Biotechnology, not just biology. Back in secondary school (yes, your high school) we never got any biology. Or chemistry, for that matter. Can anyone give me some tips on what books or whatever to use to build up the basic knowledge required for university?

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Anyone?

[CharonY]

I would just go for standard textbooks. If you did not have bio there are surely some highschool books around that are good (I have no idea what books are usually used in Belgium so I cannot recommend any) and then at the same time get a decent introductory bio book at the uni level (e.g. Campbell or comparable).

I would not concern myself too much with biotechnology right now as a good grasp of the basics of biology is more important as foundation. However, you may want to emphasize cell biology and molecular genetics. Actual techniques and methodology are usually taught in uni, so it is better that you focus on improving your foundation.

[ecoli]

Also, as far as I know, there isn't much calculus in Biology. There's some stats I guess, but as far as I know calculus is very physics math (someone correct me if I'm wrong -- I often am).

 

Yup.. you're wrong. Applied maths in biology is a big emerging field including (but not limited to) infectious disease epidemiology, neural nets, population genetics and cell and system modeling.

 

These use statistics, calculus and computer deterministic and stochastic modeling.

 

Also, there's biomedical engineering and biomed imaging.