<p>So I found out I got 2 Bs so far for my 1st semester of college ever. I am kind of mad because I did all I could do. I tried as much as possible for these classes. I read the suggested readings in the textbook when most of the class didnt. I attended all the lectures. I went to TA office hours whenever I could. I studied for hours everyday when other people in my class didnt.
But somehow after all of this, people were still scoring better than me.
I definitely know I put the maximum time in I could. I read everything I was supposed to and studied. Was I just studying wrong or something? Were they just naturally smarter and since these are intro classes Im taking (Biology and Chemistry) that might pertain to it?
I dont know. I read the related texts in the book while other people did not even touch the book. I went over the slides as well. But often times there were just questions that I was pretty sure wasnt mentioned in the book.</p>
<p>I have a feeling it may have to do with people comparing and answers and studying together when I studied alone. And maybe just not studying the right way and reviewing EVERYTHING or listening keen enough in lectures? Or maybe just not reading what I should have? If it's the group thing. I dunno. I do not have that many acquaintances that I can do that with and it will be hard and awkward to find them</p>
<p>I find in a class like chemistry, doing as many problems as possible is key. Read the text and your notes once to get a decent understanding of the material and then start doing problems. Even if you don’t completely understand the material, start doing problems and you will eventually sort it out. Use your text/solutions manual/classmates/prof/khan academy when you get stuck.</p>
<p>The thing about subjects like chem and math, the number of different problems your prof could possibly ask you on the exam is endless. You want to do as many problems as possible so the chances of you not knowing what to do when the prof throws a curve ball is going to be as small as possible. Also, since there are so many possible questions the prof could ask, you want to find out which type of questions the prof likes to ask, so you know where to concentrate the bulk of your studies. So pay attention to your notes/assigned work/exam review and go to office hours fishing for hints.</p>
<p>What did you get wrong on the tests and why? Was it a matter of not knowing the right answer? Accidentally putting a + instead of a - in front of a number?</p>
<p>Many schools have a study skills center and you should visit yours if you can. Also there is lots of info you can find online about effective studying. It isn’t just the hours you put in, but what you do with those hours. Google something like “how to study chemistry” and you’ll find posts by profs with advice for their students. And a book I recommend is called “What Smart Students Know”, written by a cofounder of the Princeton Review Prep Service. </p>
<p>As pointed out earlier, in classes like chem and math just reading the book isn’t enough. You need to be solving problems. There are workbooks you can get called something like “Chemistry Problem Solver” that has thousands of worked problems; I suggest you spend time with a book like this solving problems.</p>
<p>The only course I took involving any kind of math was the Chemistry Lecture. I got an A+ in that.
I got Bs in the Lab section of Chemistry 132 and Bio106 (which talks about ecology and stuff)
I read all the suggested readings in the book for Bio when all the other kids didnt</p>
<p>WHY did you only get a B? Did you mess up the exams? The homeworks? Labs? That’s the first thing you need to know in order to figure out what went wrong. If you got an A+ in lecture and B in lab that doesn’t add up to a B.</p>
<p>Reading alone doesn’t help. You should be <em>actively</em> reading, answering questions, and solving problems. I didn’t do any of the reading for any of my classes last semester. And I didn’t go to lecture either. All I did was practice problems. I got A’s.</p>
<p>Ok first off, maybe relaxing sometimes would help you out…</p>
<p>Secondly, just because you study for more time than other students does not mean you deserve better scores than they do. As you seem to realize, your current study methods aren’t working as well as you would like them to. So go to your advisor, your study skills center, whatever your school offers and ask them for help. </p>
<p>For my part, I find that keeping up on my studying so that I only need to look over material for a couple hours before each test is the best strategy. Do lots of practice problems, and if possible attend office hours if you need to.</p>
<p>Tell us more about what you did wrong or we can’t help you. Were your labs not thorough enough? Was it little things like leaving off units or not showing your work? We need more info to help you.</p>
<p>To answer your question, you need to put your B in context. If you go to somewhere with lots of grade inflation, a B is a real concern, whereas somewhere else, a B means that you did good (and everything correctly), just that the class wasn’t quite for you.</p>
<p>The other thing is the cause: is it from exams, homework, projects, subjective grades, etc?</p>
<p>Umm depends on the college and the classes. Honestly, if you’re going to an elite school, you’re just not going to get straight As, because with that many smart kids, you will not be in the top of your class in every subject. </p>
<p>Were these Bs in your major subjects of interest? If so, then there <em>may</em> be cause for concern. I say <em>may</em> because if you’re at a school like, say, Johns Hopkins, which has insane curves, it’s entirely possible to be a very good student and still get Bs. Some professors take the grading scale at face value – an A is “excellent” and a B is “good,” so a B, then, is nothing to be ashamed of.</p>
<p>How much effort did you put in? If you worked as hard as you could and got a B, you might want to try a tutor next term, or just accept that while you’re a good student, you may not be at the top of a class. If you weren’t working hard enough…work harder next semester, and you’ll do better.</p>
<p>If the Bs were not in your major subjects of interest, and you put in a reasonable amount of effort, just let it go. 20 years down the road you will not care about this anymore – you probably won’t even remember. Hell, I had a friend who’s in the UK on a Rhodes scholarship now who got a C+ in a freshman year science class. It happens, and you can move past it.</p>
<p>Often, college courses require you to take the lecture/text material and go the next step to see connections and correlations. Memorization and other techniques that worked well in HS may not be so effective in this context.</p>
<p>It sounds like a study group might be a good idea. You say you don’t have a lot of acquaintances, but if you approach people you know in class (from other classes, in your dorm, or even just people who sit near you in the lecture hall), you’ll probably find others who would like to either include you in their group or form a new study group with you.</p>
<p>I go to UMD.
For Chem Lab, I got a B mainly because of the midterm and labs. For the labs, I read the background info and used online but I could often not find the answer to questions so I ended up making something up.
Midterm, I was not informed there was a study guide online, and ended up doing badly even though I prepared as much as I could by reading the lab manual.
As for Bio Lecture, its introductory course. I think it may have been due to the fact that I read the textbook to study for lecture rather than reading the lecture slides like other people. I thought it would be better. Apparently not as even though I read all the chapters I was supposed to while the rest of the class did not, there were still numerous questions on there that I did not know while other people in the class did. My suspicion was it was in the lecture slides</p>
<p>From your description it definitely sounds like you need to invest time in finding a study group/partner. First of all, if you ended up making some stuff up on your labs, don’t! Talk to a friend nearby, or ask the TA/professor for hints. Second, if you were not informed that there was a midterm online, that is completely your fault! Make sure to check all online resources on a frequent basis…also, this is a problem remedied by finding a study group/partner who perhaps listens better or catches some information that you might have missed. Thirdly, depending on the class the book and lecture slides are used in different proportions on the tests. You MUST study both, with a lot more emphasis on the lecture slides in most classes (once again, ask your friends or acquaintances…they often know based off what they might hear from others if one resource is emphasized in exams more than the other). Finally, you DO NOT have to read the suggested material ever. That is almost always a waste of time unless you are really interested in the subject. Instead, make sure to master your required reading (and spend this time reviewing your lecture notes instead).</p>
<p>“making stuff up” is not a good way to excel in science. Yeah, if you’re having trouble doing it on your own, get connected with other class mates. Most of the time there are groups of people in the class who study together and are quite open to another one joining the group. Just find a group of people that suits you.</p>