Failing a class despite trying hard and studying smart

Student Lounge College Life
1

So I’m failing a class, and I can’t withdraw.

I did really badly on the first midterm (beyond failing). After taking the second midterm, I don’t think I did as badly as I did in the first midterm, but I don’t think I did well.

For this second midterm, I studied a ton - and I didn’t just stare at books. I went to office hours, I had weekly study sessions with classmates where we went through the material, drew diagrams, discussions, everything. The professor said I was prepared for it, even.

Yet I choked. And after that midterm, I can’t think of anything I could have studied more - I am just stupid. I couldn’t work out problems on the exam. The types of questions we thought he would ask (based on what he told us in class, what was on the study guide) did not match what was on the midterm.

Now, I am not sure what to do. Everything I find online is “study harder, talk to your professor” - and I have. I’ve talked to my professor and asked him to go over problems. He isn’t a very helpful person (really, he is specifically not helpful and cannot think of things outside the way he naturally thinks), but I have worked to try to get what I can out of him. I’ve talked to him about my grades, and he has just shrugged. He’s said I am just not cut out for it. I’m really just an idiot.

Both midterms combined are worth 25% of the final grade. Homework-wise, let’s say I am somewhere between a 70-80%. Aside from that, I have a project and a final. Given this, I am not sure I can pass - especially since I feel like no matter what I do, I can’t just “try harder” to do well on the final.

What do you recommend? Have you ever had classes like this? Have you ever had instances where you were failing percentage-wise, and managed to get a C?

This is also a course in my major. If I don’t pass this class with a C, I will have a really horrible next-year, having to take so many major courses. Man I just don’t know what to do. Before this, I’ve never made below a B+.

2

Yes. I had a class where I got a D on the midterm exam, I think functionally an F on another exam, and I felt like I was drowning, and then ended up with an A- in the class. That was definitely a “wha?” moment, but apparently the teacher structured the class to be ridiculously difficult and then curved everybody at the end.

I can’t say that will be the case in your class - it’s hard to tell, and it’s better not to bank on that. The key in our class was that everyone was failing during the class itself. Her midterms often required regurgitating verbatim passages from the textbook and she would nitpick you on the smallest items. On the midterm, the highest grade was a C, and I don’t think anyone ever got an A on any of her assignments. So it became clear after the midterm that everyone was in the same boat. Some terrible professors do structure their grading system that way. But if everyone in the class is not performing poorly and you are one of a few, then it’s unlikely this is the case.

That said, if you know the percentages you can calculate your own grade (roughly) and estimate what your final grade would be based on a range of performance levels on the midterm.

Also, please recognize that not being cut out for something doesn’t mean you’re an idiot. But the professor could be wrong. Professors only know about your performance in their one class, and they tend to assume that poor performance is because of the student and not because of their own teaching conventions or assignment structure. Professors who are bad at thinking outside of the way they naturally think are especially inclined to this failing.

Since this is a major class, have you taken any other major classes? How have you performed in those? Do you have an advisor in the major you can talk to about your suitability for the major?

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So to do well, consider the following:

  1. GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!

  2. Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”

  3. If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.

  4. Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.

  5. Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.

  6. Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)

  7. If things still are not going well, get a tutor.

  8. Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.

  9. If you feel you need to withdraw from a class, talk to your advisor as to which one might be the best …you may do better when you have less classes to focus on. But some classes may be pre-reqs and will mess your sequence of classes up.

  10. For tests that you didn’t do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study…there may be a study skill center at your college.

  11. How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? It is generally expected that for each hour in class, you spend 2-3 outside doing homework. Treat this like a full time job.

  12. At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)

  13. If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the counseling center and talk to them. Talk to the dean of students about coordinating your classes…e.g. sometimes you can take a medical withdrawal. Or you could withdraw from a particular class to free up tim for the others. Sometimes you can take an incomplete if you are doing well and mostly finished the semester and suddenly get pneumonia/in a car accident (happened to me)…you can heal and take the final first thing the next semester. But talk to your adviser about that too.

  14. At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The professor may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.

  15. Make sure you understand how to use your online class system…Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the prof wants).

  16. If you get an assignment…make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.

  17. If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.

You might think that this is all completely obvious, but I have read many stories on this and other websites where people did not do the above and then are asking for help on academic appeal letters.

4

Thanks so much you both for your comments.

@juillet For my major, I have actually never gotten below an A-, and I’m a junior. I’ve never gotten below a B+ in a college class - and it’s not like I’ve been taking easy courses, either. I just…I don’t know what’s wrong with this semester. And thanks for your anecdote. Other people in my class are certainly in the same boat, but I don’t think it’s as clearcut as your situation - not literally everyone is failing. However, there are a large number of people who are struggling, some more or less than I am. Many people have the same complaints. We all come from different backgrounds (educationally) and are struggles sometimes vary, and also it’s impossible for me to know exactly what everyone is getting on each assignment/test/etc. I think that it is likely that things will be curved - I just can’t guarantee by any means where I’ll end up, and if I’ll end up getting a high enough score for the class to count for my major. I do have a major advisor, and they think that I am very qualified - after all, I have never gotten below an A- in any major course. However, I think that this semester is proving different. Perhaps I should talk to them again.

@bopper Thanks for your advice - I have done all of those things.

5

Oh, well then I think your professor is just wrong then! If you’ve never gotten below an A- in any other class in your major, and you have a major advisor who thinks you are very qualified, then doing poorly in this one class isn’t an indication that you’re not cut out for the major. It may mean that you are struggling with this one concept from the major, or it may mean that the class from this major is being poorly run, or a combination of both.

Here’s something else that may be helpful, OP. In my junior year of college, I failed social psychology. I was a psychology major, and I had never gotten any grade below B in the major. Social was my area of specialization. I was sick that semester, and although I wasn’t struggling with the material itself, I wasn’t doing well with the way the professor structured the class. (For one example, we had to write an article review of a scientific journal article. I wrote my review and turned it in, only to find out later that the professor had written detailed instructions for the structure of the review paper on the back of the sheet on which she gave us the overview of the assignment. Even though my paper was more detailed and longer than the one she requested, because it didn’t fit her format, I did poorly.)

Soooo I failed it. I had to retake it as a senior to get the credit for it in the major…and I did. I passed it on the second try. I unfortunately had the same professor again - I went to a small LAC, and professors often teach the same class for a long time - and I got a C in the class. It’s the only C I got in my major at all - I had a 3.67 GPA in my major including that class. But I still graduated! And I went onto get a PhD - in social psychology - from a top 15 program in that field, and I currently do research in social psychology for the private sector.

All of this to say - you may well fail this class, OP. But…that’s okay. Everybody fails something in their life, and that doesn’t mean the end of the world. You may have to retake it and do better next time so that you can graduate. Maybe you can retake it in the summer, or something.

Concentrate on trying to do the very best you can, and you may well pass with a C. But for now, try your best to learn the material with an eye towards using your knowledge on a class retake.

6

@juillet Thanks, and thanks for sharing. That’s so funny that you got a Phd in the subject that you failed. I also go to a small LAC, and we have very strict rules - we cannot retake courses, even if we failed them. And this one is an elective anyway, so I don’t need to retake it - though I will need to take another elective next year, which will be difficult since that is a lot of courses I’ll have to take.

I was also wondering on your take on this: As someone at a small LAC, at my school failing classes just doesn’t seem to be a thing. My good friend (not in my major, which is a STEM major) even says that you have to try to fail a course, and that people who fail courses simply didn’t study hard/try hard enough. But I am trying and I am studying.

7

Heh, I share the story partly because of that irony - to let people know that failing isn’t the end of the world, and failing a course in your major - even in your specialty area - doesn’t mean that you’re not cut out for it.

I think it’s silly that your LAC doesn’t let you retake courses - what if it IS a required course for your major, or if you’re pre-med and it’s organic chemistry? It presumes that everyone is perfect and never makes mistakes.

Hmm, I think the question here is whether that’s actually true or just perception among students at your LAC. It’s possible that the stigma against failing is decent-sized, so people who have failed simply don’t talk about it - creating the illusion that nobody fails. Or it could be that that’s kind of true, but there are the odd professors who stand out and make it their business to be “tough.” You said yourself that lots of people in your class are struggling, and you know that you are trying hard and studying hard. (Also, the statement itself makes little sense - nobody tries to fail a course.)

In general, my advice is if a friend (or anyone) says something to you that seems unkind, think about the source. What kind of information access would your friend have in order to accurately make that judgment? I’m guessing he doesn’t work in the registrar’s office and has looked at all the transcripts, right? So basically he’s forming his opinion based on hearsay - which is fine, but that means that you can discount it and go based on your own experiences.

8

One thing that you can try - find people who took this class before and scored good grade, offer to pay them tutoring fee so they can spend time helping you to figure out what else you need to do, with their experience in this class. A grad student can help too, not sure there is any in your LAC.

9

@juillet Thanks so much for all of your perspective. Just a small update - still don’t know exactly how that midterm went. Maybe I did well. Maybe I didn’t. Maybe I’ll pass, and maybe I won’t. But there also was a harassment component to this story that I did not originally include. I talked to the head of the department with some other students, and the department head will…I am not sure what, but will do something. They are aware and very much inclined to help us both on the academic and other front.

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Good luck with it, @PlasticNebula.

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Woot woot! Got B in the class!

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What subject was this.

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@moelma This was actually at a different college than mine. It was a course taken in the consortium.