<p>I got a 27 on the 1st midterm. I'm an MCB major hoping to go to med-school or at least grad school and do something related to medicine, like RN or something. </p>
<p>Mean: 73 i think
SD: 17</p>
<p>Btw, how does SD help/what does it mean?</p>
<p>1st midterm: 15% of our grade.</p>
<p>Yeah, i can work harder, i know, but the tests are probably be just as hard..so idk how much my grade will improve laterr...</p>
<p>why dont you talk to your professor or gsi about this</p>
<p>Standard deviation gives you an idea of how the grades are spread out. If the scores follow a normal distribution, two-thirds of scores will occur between the average - 1 SD and the average +1 SD. With the average and standard deviation, you can kinda guess your percentile score. This is useful because many classes are graded on a curve (top 25% get A’s, next 40% get B’s, etc), so your percentile score lets you know where you are compared with your peers. The accuracy of your percentile score estimate depends on how closely the score distribution follows a normal distribution.</p>
<p>If I’m doing this right and your figures are right, you’re more than two SDs below the mean, which means you’re in the bottom 2.5% percent of the class (assuming a bell curve). I don’t want to make you feels worse, but that seems really bad. I’m guessing you’re just not a science/math person, and that’s totally ok. Maybe you should consider a different major.</p>
<p>you’re screwed.</p>
<p>you come on this forum talking about how you have no friends, no life, no prospects, and now…no good grades. Why don’t you try to mix things up? </p>
<p>There is no certainty that you’ll fail (it’s only one midterm), but you will not get an A in physics 8A. A 27 is bad when the average is a 73. What did you not understand that was on the exam?</p>
<p>I struggled with 8A a little at the start too (didn’t screw up any MT’s though) but I managed to get a decent grade by understanding the concepts, not just the equations. I’m not talking derivations…I’m talking application. Calculate how long a projectile will be in the air under several conditions (eg. thrown from the ground, dropped from a building…get creative), make up problems with simple numbers that have reasonable answers, then check them with some online calculator. Understand why you are using the equations that you are using so that you will know when to use them when you need to use them (i love this sentence :D)</p>
<p>Keep up with the concepts, things move twice as fast when you’re not paying attention and b i tching about your life on collegeconfidential. Go to discussion and OH. Do the problems in the book, find your high school book and do those questions. READ (and understand) the WORDS in the book not just the equations.</p>
<p>…mastering physics…you can do whatever (it’s a useless piece of crap).</p>
<p>life feels good when you’re not failing, that should be your goal…to have that feeling. </p>
<p>You failed your first exam, take this as a rite of passage to Berkeley, Learn from it and move on, what’s done is done. Let that 27 go and focus on the next exam.</p>
<p>nah. i did really bad my first Physics 8a MT1 when i took it with fajans because i had never taken physics before formally and didnt know how to study it. just make sure you actually understand the mastering physics and dont just copy them from a friend/the net and not understand the concepts behind the answers. if you do this and can get the mean or higher or each of the second MT and final, im sure can still get a C- at the very least because i dont think the physics dept actually fails that many students.</p>
<p>i think average was a 68 according to my gsi. standard deviation of… 23 or something…</p>
<p>A 27 is reaallly bad if the mean is 73 but it’s only worth 15%. It’s actually pretty hard to fail physics if your professor follows the guidelines they set on curving. Passing is definitely possible if you get at least the mean for tests and homework is probably part of your grade too, so don’t slack on that.</p>
<p>yeah actually, i’ve never taken physics either. it’s like a foreign language for me. </p>
<p>and 12345678…i HAVE friends now. and a lot of freshmen feel the same way, they just don’t say it. of course, people don’t have many friends in the beginning so you should help them figure out ways to meet people. and u said read the textbook but the textbook is MASTERING PHYSICS, which u said is crappy. anyway, i’ve been doing all that, going to lecture etc. some other girls failed in my discussion too, but there are those that got higher so i guess i should’ve done better. </p>
<p>and @waiting4college, is it okay to get a c- at the least? (obviously to those who are smart alecs, i wouldn’t aim for that but it’s nice knowing ur not screwed). and what’s ur major?</p>
<p>Holy ****.
If the mean is 73 and the SD is 17 and your score is 27, then you’re approximately in the bottom 1.5-2% and is certainly a F</p>
<p>Not to sound rude, but you’re probably ****ed if you’re premed.</p>
<p>However, there is a slight slimmer of hope. You need to ace (assuming your goal in the course is a B and not a C-) the next MT.</p>
<p>Find a tutor, and work … A LOT harder. Do practice problems. Physics is hard, but remember that your grade isn’t based on how hard the exam is but how you did relative to everyone else. You need to figure out what you’re doing wrong and fix it right away.<br>
If you ever feel like you don’t understand a concept or a problem, figure it out asap! whether it’s by asking for help or finding the answer online or doing it yourself.</p>
<p>honestly, aim for a lot higher if you are premed if you can pull it off. i actually got a C myself in physics and have since decided mcb isnt for me. its all good though because im still premed but Public Health and Psych. yeah, i realize im not what others consider hardcore, but I could give a ****. honestly id rather get better grades than i would have struggled with in mcb on a daily basis and this way i feel i have more of a shot getting into ANY medical school-let alone a good one. god, i hated physics so much. it really sucks for me especially because both my parents are PhD’s in engineering and love physics and think im strange for not getting it, lols.</p>
<p>your parents probably didn’t have fajans teaching them though. you should have invited them to his lectures. For a guy that works at CERN and trying to find out more about the awesomeness that is antihydrogen(or is it antimatter? they’re supposed to be a little different right?), i’d be scared to work with the guy if he makes as many mistakes in lab as he did in class.</p>
<p>You really should be asking your GSI or professor about this instead of random people on CC.</p>
<p>My advice: get off CC for a while, and go study.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s that easy (mentally) to ask your GSI or professor about whether you’re failing.</p>
<p>Just study. Find a tutor or a study group and work your ass off. Ask questions, because you look a helluva lot dumber getting an F on a MT than asking a “dumb” question in class.</p>
<p>@Liquidus: perhaps you are right. But regardless of that, the only thing we can provide her is anecdotal advice based on our passed experiences whereas it seems she needs a something more. So far the responses have either been </p>
<p>a: “You’re 'effed because you’re way down there on the curve.”
b: “Just study more.”</p>
<p>in some form or another. The GSI or professor will know her situation, and how to go about it better than any of us here could. Plus, if the GSI knows your name, you get [brownie] points.</p>
<p>another option…withdraw.</p>
<p>it’s your first semester, make up a story about how you’re depressed and miss mommy and daddy or how adjusting to independence has been distracting and amazing but you grew from it because you learned study habits, …adcoms will understand</p>
<p>Batman: yeah, he was something. he was doing some seriously interesting research at CERN but the guy cant teach for his life. and i tried multiple times unsuccessfully to convince them to sit in on one of his lectures, lol. i think theyd have been appalled</p>
<p>If you have enough units, you might still be able to drop the class. Last year I took E10 but after a while decided that engineering is not for me so I got the dean’s approval to drop that class. But I’m not sure about the L&S procedure for this.</p>