Ok so I’m a first-year pre-med student at UCLA and I just took my chem14A final. I now know that I’ll be getting a C in that class for sure. Im taking Chem 14A with Lavelle and had no background in Chem, and this class kicked my butt. This is the first I’ve struggled with school. I’m also talking LifeSci30A and The mind over matter Cluster, both of which I’m also not doing so well in (maybe Cs as well). I don’t know what to do. Will I even get in to med school because of my C? It’s a big class since it’s chemistry so I’m afraid that now I have no chance of getting into med school and I’ve thought of changing career paths but I don’t want to be anything else but a doctor. I’ve cried more in college than I have in my entire life so please will someone help me in giving me a bit of insight for my situation? What am I supposed to do? (I will also have lavelle for chem14B and was hoping if anyone can give me some tips on how to possibly Ace that class). No one, including my honors counselor, has been able to help me at UCLA so far and I’m going insane.
Big universities often have these freshman pre-med requirement classes set up to weed out students. Sorry… but it has been this way for a long time (happened to me in freshman chem at another prominent state university 30 years ago, although I was targeting a STEM major that wasn’t med school). But it had the same effect. There are a lot of people in those intro classes who took AP Chem in HS, and take the intro again to get a good grade. Another problem with a big university is that you may not have any friends in your classes, so you don’t have anyone to study with among your dorm mates. Sometimes the TAs (if you have one for a smaller section along with the lecture, or for lab) aren’t very good or experienced teachers; I personally had a chem TA whose English language skills weren’t good. So the deck is kind of stacked in a variety of ways, unfortunately.
Find out what the policy is for a retake, and if you can replace the grade. I don’t know what policy the UCs have. If you can, get a tutor and take another shot at it. For ANY class that is a med school requirement where you don’t feel extremely well prepared going in, get a tutor from the get go. Try to find study groups among your classmates, too. And plan to spend a TON of time studying. Work ahead on the next semester’s material over breaks, too.
UCLA premed is extremely extremely competitive (my own daughter is a UCLA premed in her second year). I alway advise others, who intend to go to medical school, to avoid UCLA and go to an easier school. Many brilliant students just fall to the same trap as you.
It is your first quarter and a time of transition. Freshmen chem is known for being a weeder class for pre-med students. I had Cs in freshmen chem, but did fine in O chem and Biochem. If you have a horrible TA for your section, attend a different section. Are there study groups you can attend? Is there a drop-in tutoring center available? If you find yourself struggling seek help immediately and do not wait. It is not the end of the world if you find yourself with a few C’s freshmen year. You will survive. I did.
The problem isn’t just Chem, its across the board from what you’ve posted. To answer your 1st question, your 1st quarter grades are not going to rule out med school.
That’s the good news. The bad news is things aren’t going to get better on their own. Many students who were at the top of their HS academically got by on their native smarts. That doesn’t work in college, all the kids around you are plenty smart too and the level of expectations is adjusted accordingly.
The 1st thing to ask is: how much time do you spend studying per week? Many students find that to do well in a math or science class they spend 5-10 hours per week outside of each class studying, doing the homework, practicing. That’s right, extra work!!! There is no law saying you can only do the assigned problems. There are wonderful books like the “Chemistry Problem Solver” that are like SAT prep books for many subjects; with thousands of worked problems you spend time working on topics that you aren’t getting right until you do.
The 2nd thing to do is to work on your study skills. As mentioned before, what worked in HS isn’t working anymore. Often things came easy to good HS students so they never learned the skills of effective learning. If you reread your notes and the book a few times before the test, maybe even cram, these are some of the least effective ways to study. And if the terms distributed practice and self-testing don’t ring a bell, they should. There is a book you should read over the break called “Making it Stick” that not only talks about the research on learning but explains the techniques for HS and college students.
You should also look into whether UCLA offers tutoring. They used to for many of the larger lower division classes.
My understanding of the clusters is that they are supposed to give a seminar-like feel, at least in the discussion section. Make an appt with your TA to discuss your grade and get honest feedback about what you need to improve. Is it mastery of facts? Participation in class? Writing skills? It’s hard to fix things if you don’t know what is broken.
Lastly, it is clear this is very stressful to you. Online advice is a start but probably isn’t enough. The UCLA student counseling center has seen plenty of stressed students and can help work with you on approaches to help you manage the situation.
I took 14A with no AP chemistry and a horrible chemistry teacher in high school and got an A-. The key for me was to read the textbook and take notes on it after Lavelle lectured. I also did homework problems for each section until I felt comfortable. I also took LS30A, which wasn’t very hard because it isn’t calculus at all, but I can see how it can be confusing. Good luck with your pre-med dreams, I’m no longer pursuing it.
First, don’t stress too much about your grades. If you want to be premed, you can recover for a bad first quarter as long as you figure out what you’re doing wrong and improve. Don’t give up on your dream yet!
I’m a second year premed at UCLA, and I did well in Lavelle’s classes when I took the,. What I found helpful was using all the resources available to me, especially doing lots of practice problems, and finding out who the good TAs are and going to their office hours. For me, going to TA office hours really helped because if I was confused on specific concepts I could get personalized help, and TAs have been pretty useful for me in all my classes. If I don’t like the TA whose section I’m in, I find one I like better and attend their office hours or section. For your cluster your TA should be able to tell you where you should improve, and you might want to talk to them, especially because you’ll have the same professor next quarter. I didn’t take LS30A, so I really don’t have much help on that, sorry!
Definitely do a lot of practice for chem, especially if you didn’t have a strong background in those subjects. Also for chem I found the Undergraduate Assistants to be really helpful because they know how you’ll be tested better than the TA. They can generally help with exam prep better than the TAs. Check out the UA office hours and exam review sessions.
General advice: if you’re struggling, use all the resources a class gives you, or even the ones you can get from the Internet (like Khan Academy) to help you. If one resource doesn’t help, find one that does. There’s a lot out there!
Good luck for next quarter! PM me if you want any more detailed answers.
In addition, start exploring other health professions : NP, PA, for instance.