Hey guys sophomore in college here. I go to a somewhat small college in NJ and lately I’ve been feeling depressed. For this fall semester I am placed on academic probation meaning I can’t do more than 15 credits and I basically have to pass all my classes. Luckily I was able to convince the financial aid office and they still gave me financial aid. Thing is I’m in calculus 2 right now and its not going so good. I studied a good two weeks before the exam (second one) and still ended up doing bad. I might fail the course and I don’t know what to do. I can’t withdraw from any courses either because thats one of the requirements for academic probation. If I don’t pass the course I could be academically dismissed which is freaking me out. I just need help…
Thanks
Online resources: Paul’s Math Notes, Professor Leonard, possibly Khan Academy.
How did you study?
I would consider counseling at your college if it’s offered there. If not, you might have to find it in the community. I too suffer from depression and has hurted my academic performance.
Do you have a good or bad instructor and does your school offer tutoring?
The test was on 8 sections so for each section I did about 20-25 problems and then days leading up to the exam, I went over old exams.
And why did you fail? Silly mistakes? Not remembering procedures? Not recognizing a problem when it’s asked in a slightly different way? Test anxiety?
If you don’t understand your mistakes, take the test to office hours or the math help center.
I failed because I had trouble understanding this 1 section and because of it, I didn’t review it as much as I should have. When I looked at the old exams, they didn’t have that many questions associated with it. So I spent less time with it. When I got the test, 36 points came from those types of questions. I only got 2 right so that was 24 points gone right there. And the rest were dumb mistakes which cost a lot of points.
OK - So, lesson learned: Review the stuff you have trouble understanding.
Another lesson: There’s no such thing a silly mistake. You need to actually analyze each silly mistake. Often these are due to handwriting - the exponent that was hard to read, the column of work that didn’t line up the way it should. Analyze each “silly” mistake and identify exactly how and why it happened. Make a list. Once you find the pattern, fixing silly mistakes like “sloppy twos” is an easy way to increase your test score.
Go to tutoring every day or every time it’s offered, go to review sessions, go to office hours every week. Ask your professor where your mistakes come from and what you’re supposed to review to solve them.
I agree with AroundHere that each “silly” mistake must be analyzed.
The silly mistakes also played a factor in my test score so yeah I will improve on that a lot. Hopefully things do work out in the end. I just hope I’m not dismissed from the college. I thought about withdrawing from the class, but I think people who are on probation aren’t able to do that.
Check this for tips:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1920853-college-is-a-step-up-from-hs-16-tips-on-doing-well-in-college.html
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Closing thread. OP created a second account to ask the question, which violates Terms of Service. Regardless, some great advice has already been given