I've failed this first semester, what are my options?

<p>Well the title says it all. I completely didn't take my first semester seriously and enjoyed my freedom way too much and slacked off like crazy. I failed the majority of my classes and I am going to be put on academic probation, this I know. I plan to work extremely hard next semester to hopefully right what has been wrong.
My main question is, what other things (besides doing well next semester) can I do in order to make up for this huge failure? I have heard of such things as replacing grades and whatnot but I have no clue how that works.</p>

<p>Thank you all,</p>

<p>Ryannnnnnn</p>

<p>You should talk to your adviser about the policies at your school. Sometimes if you retake a class the new grade replaces the old grade in your GPA calculation. Although I had to do that once, and the NC still counts as a 0 in my law school gpa anyway, which blows.</p>

<p>It might depend on just how low the gpa is. Some schools boot you out with gpa under 1.0. Others make you take a leave for a year before they’ll readmit you. Consider summer school there or a community college at home to more quickly beef up the gpa. I know of a girl who was forced to leave for a year. When she was finally allowed back in she was grateful to be there and did fine from then on out. Good luck.</p>

<p>For my school, you can replace up to 16 units of courses, so the new grade that you get will replace your old one. Just talk to your guidance counselor and he or she will guide you.</p>

<p>If your parents paid for the first semester, go apologize to them and develop a get well plan.</p>

<p>This topic appears on the parents forum frequently from the parents’ perspective so you might want to take a look at some of those threads.</p>

<p>Retake some of the classes if the new grades will replace the old ones. Take some “general education” classes that are known to be easier. And other cliche stuff like better time management.</p>

<p>I think one of the first things you need to do is identify where you screwed up; it looks as if you’ve already done that. The next thing you should consider is coming up with a plan so that it doesn’t recur…otherwise your second semester is probably going to end up looking a lot like your first. </p>

<p>And you’re in the same boat with many. I’m not overly pleased with how I did in some of my classes :s. Pwn next semester :).</p>

<p>You need to check with your school about their policies. They will vary from school to school. At my daughter’s school you can retake up to 4 classes (max 18 credits) for a new grade if the original grade is a D of F. Only the new grade will be in the GPA, but the original class and grade will still appear on the transcript with a notation that it is not included in the GPA.</p>

<p>I would suggest sitting with an adviser and picking your classes for the next couple of semesters very carefully.</p>

<p>thank you all for the help. I am trying to meet with and adviser soon, but he’s unfortunately being a bit of a prick. </p>

<p>and with regards to my parents paying as said above; we have a plan in place where if I do well they pay and if I don’t then I pay. When I discuss my grades with them i plan to tell them that I messed up and this semesters on me.</p>

<p>One more thing to ask: Has anyone else that has seen or been through a similar situation know anything about how replacements and whatnot affect financial aid and/or dorm situations.</p>

<p>Thanks again</p>

<p>Don’t worry about it, i totally bombed this semester. I’m in the same boat as you, i slacked off and took this semester way too lightly, i got 3 Fs and i’ve never failed anything before. I’ve got no one else to blame but myself since i like never went to class, haha. I’m probably gonna take 3 online classes this summer to make up for the lost credits. </p>

<p>Good luck with everything bud!</p>

<p>“and with regards to my parents paying as said above; we have a plan in place where if I do well they pay and if I don’t then I pay. When I discuss my grades with them i plan to tell them that I messed up and this semesters on me.”</p>

<p>That’s good. When I ended up on academic probation freshman year due to excessive partying, I paid for the courses I had to make up. I ended up graduating with honors and going to grad school and obtaining a doctorate as the top student in my class.</p>

<p>Check with your college about their policies, which should be in the student handbook, which probably is online. Colleges differ greatly in how they address grade problems.</p>

<p>ryannn…
I think you already well on the road to success. Realizing your problem and placing the blame where it belongs demonstrates your growing maturity.</p>

<p>You let yourself down but the fact that you are so determined not to do it again speaks volumes. If you were my student, I would be very proud of you and expecting to see such great things in the future.</p>

<p>please come to this board for support or help if you need it, and keep us posted on how you are doing!</p>

Hello every one, i am in same conditions, very motivated to join the college,i was 1st position till 11th in school never fall down from A grade, but now this spring jan19 i got admission at ECC but soon got sick, got anxiety, couldn’t sleep all night its because of the college my work schedule and all activities changed, Plus got some other medical concerns which resulted me F in 2 Classes, now i am thinking to Withdraw all off them , i am sure next semester i will be very active, actually while i got admission i got Zero advise how to start i got books 3 weeks later i did not know the Black board and any assignment! Please advise me to remain in the classes or withdraw, i fail med term exams, i did not go through the final yet,

Meet with your adviser ASAP. That means actually meet with them, not just send some half hearted emails. Find out when their office hours are and go. If you can’t do that , meet with the Dean of Students. But tell them what you will do differently next year.

  1. GO TO ALL THE CLASSES AND DO ALL THE HOMEWORK

  2. Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester. 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?”

  3. 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.

  4. Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.

  5. 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.

  6. Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)

  7. If things still are not going well, get a tutor.

  8. 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.

You just have to retake those classes you failed. It’s basically just a waste of time and money. Some colleges have grade replacement where you retake the class and the F won’t count towards your GPA. It’s best that you talk to your academic advisor as they would be in the best place to inform of the options at your college.

Good day, I have failed two modules for my first semester for public relations and I don’t know what to do, this is my first time failing anything and I am stressed as a first year student, I don’t know what my second step is, because I don’t even know what and how to tell my parents

Go immediately to talk to your professor about what happened.
You are studying wrong.

So to do well, consider the following:

  1. GO TO CLASS, BUY THE BOOK, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!

  2. 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?”

  3. 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.

  4. Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.

  5. 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.

  6. Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)

  7. If things still are not going well, get a tutor.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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.

  12. At first, don’t spend too much time other things rather than school work. (sports, partying, rushing fraternities/sororities, video gaming etc etc)

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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).

  16. 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.

  17. If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the professors office hours…not the day before the assignment is due.

^Great advice, and hopefully the OP didn’t wait 8 years to take it!