<p>Hey, so I've royally screwed up. I just checked my Chem. 3A scores today and found out I got a "D". This is the third time I’ve taken the class, and the third consecutive “D”. Yeah you read that correctly, and yea I’m a freaking idiot. I'm just wondering what in the world am I supposed to do from here. I'm intending to declare MCB and go into research. This is what I've always wanted to do, so I'm not looking to switch majors or something of the sort. Please, only serious replies, I really really really need help.</p>
<p>You’re probably not studying, or studying the wrong way. You have to practice every day and do loads of practice problems. Regardless of what you say, I think it is a very serious and sensible response to suggest that you change majors. Even if you retake it and get an A, you still have 3 D’s on your transcript and all four grades will be factored into your GPA.</p>
<p>Is it even possible to retake Chem 3A?</p>
<p>It must be possible since you have already retaken it.</p>
<p>If you want to try again, try to get some additional help through the student learning center.</p>
<p>And as far as your 3 D’s go, as I remember, if you get a passing grade, those D’s will stay on your transcript but not count in your GPA.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there is someone else who was/is in the same boat as me? Oh, and who should I be talking to in terms of how the grades will be factored into my GPA, since I have to conflicting statements?</p>
<p>why don’t you try taking the class in another university - either CSU or community college? You just need to pass the class, and then you can continue and see if you can do better in upper div’s. If this is your dream, then don’t give up just yet, find ways to get help!</p>
<p>If you flunk ochem three times, I’ve got to say, you probably should reconsider being a biology major in general.</p>
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<p>That’s foolish.</p>
<p>You rarely use ochem, if at all, in upper div. MCB classes. If you can get past this hurdle now, then you won’t have to deal with it again. Take it at a community college if you really can’t do well in it at Berkeley.</p>
<p>Worse comes to worst, you can switch into IB, which doesn’t take much effort to do well in.</p>
<p>Chem3A is a pre-req for the IB degree as well.</p>
<p>How can you retake the class three times? I remember on the website that you can retake it once w/o approval but the second time, you do need counselor approval. So if you need to retake it again, you’ll need to talk to a counselor…But you can only retake 12 units too I thought. Hmm.</p>
<p>@One thing I forgot to mention. I have a friend (who I think just got kicked out of Berkeley as a result of this semester, intended MCB non-premed). He failed Chem 3A twice. Instead of taking Chem 3A a third time, he talked to Prof. Pedersen (who was teaching 3B this semester) and got instructor’s approval to take the class anyways. You could try that, but you better work your butt off. All majors have the right to reject any applicant with a less than 2.0 GPAs (this is includes a <2.0 major GPA)</p>
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IB would not let anyone in without Chem 3A. Second of all, (to my knowledge) the only IB courses you have taken and hence are basing your opinions are were the two easiest IB courses, 131 and 132 lectures, and are relating those to all of IB. Your sample is small, and you are misleading the public. Unlike the MCB department, which has a very low average GPA, IB’s is on par with the other biology departments</p>
<p>IB takes a lot less effort than MCB, but that alone doesn’t mean it doesn’t take any effort. Sure you can easy As in IB 131 and 132, but as an IB major, you will not find many more no-effort classes. I know that Area 3 tend to be somewhat easier, but those are also Area 3s (regardless how easy/difficult they may be) would be superfluous to the major, so, unless you take labs for other courses (i.e. 131L and 132L, which unlike their lecture counterparts do not give out easy A). Area 1 courses are definitely no cakewalk and generally involve effort and often involved various projects in addition to examinations (which tend to be conceptual, given that most of these classes have a fair amount of ecology in them).</p>
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<p>All bio majors require Chem 3A. The point isn’t that IB will waive the ochem requirement, but that failing Chem 3A doesn’t mean one will fail upper div bio classes. And that’s especially true in IB, which has classes that aren’t molecular based. Way to miss the point.</p>
<p>And as far as everyone knows, you haven’t taken a single MCB class. Your sample size is zero and you’re relating that to the entire department. Who’s being misleading now?</p>
<p>Your entire judgment of MCB as a competitive and difficult department is based on the grade distributions. While it is okay for you to use this grade distribution to make uninformed and misleading conclusions about the department, it’s not okay for others to call IB easy based on the same grade distributions. Right… hypocrisy much?</p>
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<p>IB requires 1 course from each of the 3 areas. One can easily just take a course from area 1 and not bother with those courses again. And since you can cherry pick from those courses, you can take something easy like ornithology (IB 174L) or morphology of vertebrate skeleton (IB 184/L).</p>
<p>And IB 132 isn’t an easy class. It’s a horribly-run class, just like Bio 1B. The professors that I took IB 132 with were horrible- they could not teach at all. I doubt things have changed since I’ve taken it. I wouldn’t be surprised if people agree with me about how much Brooks sucks at teaching.</p>
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Calling MCB hard based of grade distributions and calling IB easy based of grade distributions are completely different beasts. When you take the average departmental GPAs of biology majors and plot them on a line, MCB sticks out like a sore thumb. IB’s average GPA is right there on par with PMB, NST, and ES; that is why it is misleading. If IB is a specifically “easy” biology major is misleading because if a 3.3 average makes something intrinsically easy than so are GPB, NS, MolTox, etc. and then one could claim that pretty much all biology majors except MCB (and probably except MB also as it draws a lot out from MCB) are “easy”. To say IB is easier than MCB is factual and fair to say, but that is not what you are saying</p>
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<p>I was not talking about difficulty. I was talking about EFFORT. Area 1 courses do not fit the 2MT+Final mold, where you cram three times a semester and that is it. Go to the IB UG office and look at . You were the one who brought up IB taking little effort.</p>
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<p>How isn’t that what I’m saying? Did you forget to read again?</p>
<p>My point is that most upper div bio classes don’t require an extensive knowledge of ochem. And as such, failing ochem 3 times does not mean you can’t do well in a bio major. You were suggesting that the OP should forgo a bio major altogether. On the other hand, I’m saying that even MCB, which is molecular based, doesn’t require a lot of ochem material. In turn, IB, which isn’t molecular based, takes even less effort in terms of understanding ochem material.</p>
<p>This was all in terms of comparing MCB and IB with regards to ochem, not comparing IB to all majors out there.</p>
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<p>Oh, you weren’t talking about the difficulty? Then what is this about "Area 1 courses are definitely no cakewalk? Any class that gives out 50%+ A’s are definitely cakewalk classes.</p>
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<p>look through the Campusbuddy. There aren’t too many of those and the ones that are, are only offered every two years.</p>
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You’ve said it, or at least you’ve come goddamn close to saying it
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