<p>Hey everyone, so I'm in Dr. Spell's Bio141 class and I just received my midterm grade. Got a 50%. :( I actually thought the test was easy and that I did pretty well, but I guess I overestimated myself. </p>
<p>I already know what I need to do, which is to take advantage of EPASS tutoring, biomentoring sessions, and office hours, in addition to studying harder than before. </p>
<p>I'm just wondering...do you think it's too late to shoot for an A? I'm trying to calculate my grade and I'm guessing it's nearly impossible (I'd probably have to get a perfect score in everything).
I just feel so worthless right now...I haven't been partying or anything, I attended most of the bio-mentoring sessions. I don't think I've been lazy either, it's not that I'm not trying. :( I guess I'm just not a very good test taker, and I know I have to try even harder to get a better grade. I know the only person who can fix this is me, but I guess I'm feeling a little lost right now and in need of some motivation. Please help guys? Am I screwed? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Maybe you are indeed screwed for an A, but that does not mean you cannot get a good grade in the course (an A need not be your end all as the meaning of success, and just because I said this does not mean you should drop the class. If you do better on future tests, accept a B/B+ and learn from your mistakes. Keep the momentum going in 142 and show that upward trend when you make an A). I’ve seen come back stories in biology (and even chemistry), so it’s possible. As for feeling like an idiot, there isn’t much time for that. Go over the test and see if it’s flat out you misunderstanding information (this may be the case if you missed a lot of what are considered simpler problems on the test), being careless (simple problems but actually knew answer), or freaking out on the test (normally happens to lots of people when they see an applied problem that puts simple material into a completely new scenario or context. Were there plenty of these on the test. It doesn’t matter if they are simple or hard applied situations as some people freaky difficult if a problem is an even slightly unrecognizable context). If you overestimated yourself, you may misunderstand information and not know it as well as you thought. This is where studying with someone else comes in handy, because you can convey your idea of certain material with them and they, if competent can give feedback. In addition, do you merely attend biomentors or do you participate? Also, do you try to get together and complete problems before you go, or do you just go and let your biomentor give you answers and you simply accept their answers? In addition, did your quiz grades suggest this outcome (are you bad at taking the quizzes).</p>
<p>Biology exam averages are far too high to warrant a curve. They normally control their grade distribution by simply altering exam difficulty (I’ve been hearing exam 1 averages were high again this year, so maybe exam 2 will be in the high to mid 70s). Usually, in gen. chem, some (not Mulford) professors may scale slightly if their test average is below say 73-75 by semester’s end.</p>
<p>Yeah, Mulford states it pretty clear in his syllabus that an A basically an incredible achievement that can not be earned simply by doing better than the majority of the class.</p>