Hey guys!! I am a freshman chemical engineering major in college. I just took my first Midterm today and I bombed it. It was Accelerated Calculus. The frustrating part is that the test itself was fairly easy, but I simply did not have time to finish it. I tripped on my way to class and it was raining, so I arrived a couple of minutes late. This coupled with the worst test anxiety I have ever felt lead me to forget almost everything I had previously learned. I studied for this test this entire week but now I feel like I wasted all that time for nothing. In high school , I was a decent student. I graduated as class Valedictorian, got an Associates Degree, and was a National AP Scholar. But I feel that I am the dumbest one in the room in my calculus class. Everyone else grasps concepts so quickly, while I struggle to understand the material at such a fast pace. I took AP Calculus as a junior in high school , and while it was never easy for me like it was for others, I still managed to get an A. I am extremely worried about my GPA. I have a $10000 scholarship at the school I am attending, and I will lose my scholarship if my GPA drops below 3.5. I don’t know what to do and I feel horrible. I have struggled with depression for some time now, and I feel like even more of a loser. I am also very afraid of my parents reaction when they find out. I live at home, and my parents are the types of people who don’t take any excuses from me. I am so afraid of disappointing them and making them think that I am stupid with no hope for a future. Do any of you guys have any similar experiences? If so, how did you deal with these setbacks? Should I consider withdrawing from the course and taking more credit hours next semester? Should I consider switching my major to finance or accounting in the future? I want to be an engineer , but I am so afraid of freezing during other higher level engineering courses. Thank you guy for taking the time to read this post and answer it. I truly need some Advice on what to do here!!!
Do you think you are in the right level of calculus?
Well I already have Calc 1 credit through AP so the university recommended me to take this course
@Shalak890, I was valedictorian of my high school class, also - 98.8 GPA, unweighted. I studied structural engineering in college. My very first exam was in honors physics. I got a 45!!! I’d never even gotten a B in a class, so I was devastated. Thought my life was over. But I got a tutor and survived the course with a C. I got a B second semester.
I recovered nicely and graduated with high honors. So hang in there. Get some help and keep going. 
@MaineLonghorn Thank you !! That is so inspiring to hear!!!
College can be a whole 'nother level, and even classes you’ve taken before can be presented faster, harder, and more confusingly. Go talk to the professor about what you can do to improve. Do extra problems, go to office hours, look for lessons online to help with concepts. Hang in there. You can do it!
Source: decided to retake Calc 1 at the honors college level, got C on first exam. Professor bumped grades one level based on improvement, ended up with an A- (bumped to an A) in the class and a 3.95 as a current ChemE junior. It gets harder but YOU get better.
Thank you @bodangles - I am lucky to have a kind professor. Unfortunately, I feel that I I have him down by scoring badly. Do you have any suggestions on how I should approach him after doing so embarrassingly terrible on this test?
@Shalak890, many students - especially ones who did particularly well in HS - find the leap to college level work daunting. First, know that there are almost certainly others in your class who are also struggling.
Second (and much more importantly): Go see the prof ASAP. Investigate what resources are available to you: professor / TA hours, study center, peer tutoring, study groups with your pals- get to know all your options. Don’t let pride get in the way of getting help early and often- one of the things that many students don’t get is how fast small problems can become big problems with the faster pace of college. They also don’t always get how much (most) profs want to help motivated students who are trying- we like feeling as if we have been able to help a student to succeed in learning about our subject!
@Shalak890 “Hello, Professor, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped on that last exam. What do your most successful students do to learn the material? Do you have any other tips for improving in this class?” Or some variant of such. It’s not shameful to ask for help – or even to stumble when you’re starting a new, harder level of education. Lots of people do. And lots of THOSE people go on to graduate and become engineers.
If you are struggling in all your engineering classes, you may need to change majors. However, if it’s just calculus, you should try to switch to a math class you can keep up with. If you didn’t do any calculus senior year, you probably got rusty.
@AroundHere Less than six weeks or so into freshman year is a little early to throw in the towel, no? At least fight through to the end of first semester before thinking about alternate majors… Or even alternate classes – my school’s late drop deadline isn’t until November, so if OP were at my school I would advise sticking the class out at least until then anyway.
It’s hard to tell how much is reality and how much is OP catastrophizing (one bad test does not make you a loser!), but if they can still switch to another math class I recommended looking into it based on the facts as I see them:
Calc wasn’t easy in high school. They took it as a junior and are maybe rusty. They have been struggling with the pace in the accelerated class. They need a high GPA to keep a scholarship.
@Shalak890 Do not for a moment feel like you let anyone down. This is just a bump in the road and you can get over it.
My son had a very similar experience in his freshman year as an engineering student. He was a very good student in high school, so he accelerated in a couple of areas, and then he found it quite rough to really master the material, I think it it quite, quite common. Check out the forum for engineering majors on CC and you will see.
I think a lot of students with AP Calculus just go ahead and take Calc I in freshman year for this very reason. I’m guessing its too late for you to drop down a level, but if you can still withdraw from the class, without it going on your transcript, don’t discount that idea. But before you get to that point, go to tutoring or supplemental instruction or whatever they call it at your school, go see the professor, and so forth.
My son eventually did withdraw from Calc III, and he retook it his second semester. It went better second time around, though far from stellar. But sophomore year is going a lot better so far. We also had lots of talks about various aspects of studying, time management, and so forth. You can get some good versions of that on the engineering forum. Good luck and hang in there.
D2013 is a Chem E at Purdue. She started out in Calc 3 after getting a 5 in B/C Calc. Her first test she got a 56 and it was graded up to a 69 with the curve. It was an eye opener. In HS things came easily and studying usually meant reviewing her notes taken in class just before a test. She changed the way she approached her classes. She reads the course work for the class ahead of time and takes notes, takes notes in class and them compiles them. Things she doesn’t understand or is not sure about she sees the TA or if that doesn’t work the professor.
She ended up with a B in the Calc class (one of 2 she has had in college the other being Thermodynamics) and is doing well. Good luck.
This is recoverable.
First troubleshoot—did this test go badly because of test anxiety or because you didn’t understand the material, or both? What needs to change for you to do better next time–leave earlier for class? Study more effectively? Take better notes?
Next, get help. You have a number of resources available to you–your professor, TA’s, a tutoring center, your classmates, etc. make use of all of them. Don’t waste your resources. They exist to help you be successful.
Finally, understand your options if you can’t recover this grade. You need to understand what options you have to protect your GPA and keep your scholarship. When is the drop deadline? What happens if you drop this class? How do you get back on track? Your school wants you to be successful, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Top students such as yourself learn to adapt to new situations, and to recover well from failure. You can do this, but get the help you need.
I nearly failed chemistry my first semester at college. It all worked out fine, but If I had gone and talked to the professor, I could have saved myself a lot of stress.
Here are my standard suggestions:
0) GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!
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Go to Professor’s office hours 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?”
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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.
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Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
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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.
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Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
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If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
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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.
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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.
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For your tests, 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.
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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.
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At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.
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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.
Read what your twin wrote:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1921511-did-terrible-in-my-first-midterm-at-berkeley.html#latest
Go to the tutoring center. My dd found out early from a pre-med student at her volunteer clinic job that the A students go to tutoring every night for every course. She went every available opportunity and graduated at the top of her class.