I’ve taken general chemistry lecture and lab, and I got a B in both and a B in statistics (recommended/required for some med schools). What’s frustrating is that I understand the concepts really well. I literally taught classmates material they missed. I “see” chem and stats in everything, so I know the material. But in chem, the exams got me because I had no idea how to study. I’d just practice basic examples and not actually attempt complex problems (I’d look at the solution or have a TA explain it). In lab, I got As on reports and quizzes, but did horribly on the exams. In stats, the graders require very specific wording of conclusions, which I could never memorize because of the sheer amount of them. All my grades are completely my fault and I was just too lazy to rise to higher standards. I take all responsibility in case it seems it like I’m just blaming the course or whatever.
I’m a freshman and I’m afraid I won’t get into medical school. To be fair, the average chem grade was a C+/C, and the average stats grade was a B-, so I did relatively well. Any recommendations for moving on and improving from this mediocre year?
Your goal shouldn’t be to do relatively well, but to be top 10% in your class. Once you’ve internalized tat goal, write down a list of what you need to do and post it above your desk to get you pumped up.
During each lecture jot down a question then go to office hours every week.
Get a tutor. You must get A’s and on your own you’re getting B’s. Plenty of people work with a tutor to get to an A-.
@artloversplus I said I take full responsibility for not getting As. I mentioned the averages of the classes just for perspective (I was sort of above average, but I recognize that I wasn’t medical school material yet). And of course I wouldn’t tell adcoms that, but this community doesn’t have many adcoms and I wanted to express my feelings and get tips from fellow/former pre meds and those knowledgeable in the area who were/are successful.
A young friend was in a similar situation at a weeder college, not getting even Bs in some critical courses. You’ve identified some of your mistakes and can work ardently to fix those. This young friend, for other reasons, transferred in jr year. The new college was a “we’ll get you there” environment. But she worked her *** off. Top med school.
You have to decide how to overcome. Maybe, instead of looking for Fri/Sat activities, then driving home just to hang, you head for the library.
Kids learn a lot in med school. But you need the study skills to manage and keep up. Rethink your approach.
Yes, I hear you about taking the responsibilities. But med school don’t care if you take responsibility or not, they want to see you have made changes to the trends of your grades and that is called take responsibilities. They want to see that you have risen to top 10% of the class, they want to see you getting As from now on, especially in the pre-req areas. They want to see 90-95% on the Mcat. They want to see you have clinical ECs, taking care of the elderlies or being part of Medical Emergency team.
You have to know, you are competing with those 4.0s that did not get in to any MD schools. And they are not crying that the whole class are getting Bs and Cs like you did.
So go back to the drawing board and work out a strategy to get As instead of comparing your B with other Bs or Cs.