I’m a freshman majoring in biology hoping to go to med school or grad school. I just got an F on my second gen chem 1 exam, my first failed college exam. I got a C on the first one. My overall grade is a C because of the homework and there’s still 2 more exams left. I studied harder for this exam than the first and did way worse. I have all As up to this point, including biology, statistics, and math, and have As in all my other classes currently. Honestly, I feel terrible and I have no idea what to do, I feel like I studied as hard as I could. My GPA would still be pretty good even if I ended with a C, but do grad/med schools pay much attention to individual grades? Especially freshman classes? Should I withdraw or keep going? Study tips? Advice?
Have you identified what the problem is? Are you running out of time on the test, are the questions worded in a tricky way, does your mind go blank when you start, etc.
Forgot to mention that the withdrawal date is BEFORE the next 2 exams. So I can’t wait to see how I do on the next exam to decide if I want to drop…
- Figure out why you’re doing so poorly on exams.
You are probably not studying effectively. College requires different study skills & approaches than what you used in high school.
–The academic support center at your college offers study skills seminars and one-on-one tutoring. It may be worth your time to check that out.
–While you’re at the support center, sign up for tutoring in chem. It’s free.
–Be sure to pre-read all assigned materials & take notes before the class lecture. Identify any areas where you have difficulty with the concepts. During lecture take detailed notes on these areas then re-read the assigned materials, to see if you"got" the concept. If not, go to tutoring or office hours for help.
–If your algebra is rusty, take a refresher class or get tutoring.
–Consider joining a study group with some of your more successful classmates.
–ALWAYS go to recitation/review sessions for the class.
–Be sure to attend office hours for your TA or professor. Take any homework problems you’re having difficulty with. Ask about any concepts you’re not 100% clear on.
–You also should be doing extra problems sets for chem. ( Statement of Fact: knowledge comes from pain. Corollary: You need to suffer through lots & lots of homework sets before you get good at problem solving.)
–If you are using a solution manual or online sources to write answers for your homework–stop right now. First, it’s technically cheating (plagiarism) and a cheating charge of any kind will sink a med school application almost as fast as a felony conviction. Second, by not doing 100% of the work yourself, you’ve created crutch that’s preventing you from really understanding how to solve the problem. So you’re cheating yourself.
- To withdraw or not to withdraw.
One C will not ruin a med school application beyond the ding it inflicts on your GPA/sGPA. Adcomms tend to forgiving of freshman grades, particularly if you demonstrate excellence in subsequent, higher level coursework. If you feel confident that you really do understand the material and that your F on the last midterm was a fluke, hang in there.
OTOH, with C and F exam grades, you may have enough of a knowledge deficit that you are not going to be able to master the material in the rest of the course. In this case, I recommend a withdrawal–assuming that withdrawing from a class isn’t going to put your FA at risk by dropping you to less than full time status.
Also know that if you withdraw from chem, it’s going to change your timeline for applying to med school and may change your course sequencing so that you don’t graduate on-time (worst case scenario).
How the rest of the class did in the 2 exams? what is the average? I’d suggest go find a private tutor, preferably a grad student in your chem dept (ask your chem prof or dept head for recommendation). Since it looks like you put in lot of efforts but no good result, the free group tutor won’t help you much. You need a good 1-on-1 tutor.