<p>Hello, freshman year has been completely demoralizing for me. I got a GPA of 2.5, i am concerned in the fact that i can not bring it up as some of my friends tell me "with a GPA that bad you will be lucky to even go to college." I would just like to know is it completely hopeless for me or not. The college i wish to go to is Notre Dame, and with a GPA that poor i know i wont be accepted. I have done many extracurricular activities involving medical clubs( i wish to be something medical when i grow up). I am just a freshman so i do have to more years to get my act together but i am wondering if a GPA that low will slow me down completely. My sister says she got a GPA of around 3.5 freshmen year and she cant bring that up. Something like this makes me panic for my GPA is far worse then that. Please any words of advice will be appreciated. </p>
<p>Breath. There is still time to recover. Find out what is wrong with your study habits now. Go over your tests and see where you are misunderstanding things.</p>
<p>Nope, you’re not totally destroyed. Schools generally don’t weigh freshman year as much as the other three. Just try your hardest in the next three years and see where it takes you. And no single factor can utterly wreck your college application.</p>
<p>You are still fine. You still have 3 more years in school. I’ve seen enough cases with bad freshman GPA, who are now attending top schools including Princeton. Good luck!</p>
<p>What you have received is affectionately known as a “wakeup call”. Things are not hopeless unless you refuse to change. You need to step back and think about why your grades are not where you want them to be.
If your involvement is affecting your ability to study, well, you know what should have priority.[ul][<em>]There is a good book to read called “What Smart Students Know” that was written by a co-founder of the Princeton Review Prep schools. To do well you are going to have to spend time studying, more than you might think. [</em>]Good college students find they spend 6-10 hours per week on each class, especially probable if it is a math/science class. Maybe it will take less in HS, but most kids find they aren’t doing well because they are not spending enough time in a quiet place learning. [<em>]Spaced study is better for learning than trying to “cram”. You are much better off studying 30 minutes on each of 5 days then spending the same time on Sunday trying to catch up. [</em>]For many subjects there are workbooks such as the “Algebra Problem Solver”. These are incredible tools and I don’t know why schools don’t pass them out along with the textbook. The chapters have worked problems, hundreds of them. There is no rule that says you can only do the assigned problems from your text. Using these books should be a big part of what you do to study. When you can solve problems from these books without looking back to see how they got the answer, you’ll be able to do the same on a test. [<em>]There are free software tools such as Anki that implement spaced-repetition programs, proven to be the most efficient way to memorize things. [</em>]There are free course online (iTunesU, MOOC courses, Teaching Company DVDs from your library, etc that give you a different angle on what you’re studying, or maybe just present it better than your teachers do[/ul]There are tons of websites you can visit for advice, and your college is likely to have a learning center as well. Two links to get you started are [On</a> Becoming a Math Whiz: My Advice to a New MIT Student](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/3zh9frh]On”>On Becoming a Math Whiz: My Advice to a New MIT Student - Cal Newport) and [How</a> to Ace Calculus: The Art of Doing Well in Technical Courses](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■.com/aok5qn]How”>How to Ace Calculus: The Art of Doing Well in Technical Courses - Cal Newport) Read thru the story at [Teaching</a> linear algebra](<a href=“http://bentilly.blogspot.com/2009/09/teaching-linear-algebra.html]Teaching”>Random Observations: Teaching linear algebra) and see how that prof forced students to rehearse material with great results; the advice earlier focuses on doing that yourself. </p>
<p>The downfall of many students is confusing recognition with recall (won’t be a problem if you follow the advice above). When you do the homework you have the book right there and can thumb back to see how similar problems were solved. After a while the approaches become familiar, and then when you review the book before the test they may seem even more so, but as you’ve discovered once you face a test and can’t refer back you can’t recall what you need. Two academic links discussing this are</p>
<p>[Why</a> Students Think They Understand—When They Don’t](<a href=“http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/winter0304/willingham.cfm]Why”>Ask the Cognitive Scientist: Why Students Think They Understand—When They Don't) </p>
<p>[Practice</a> Makes Perfect—but Only If You Practice Beyond the Point of Perfection](<a href=“http://www.aft.org/newspubs/periodicals/ae/spring2004/willingham.cfm]Practice”>Ask the Cognitive Scientist: Practice Makes Perfect—But Only If You Practice beyond the Point of Perfection)</p>