It’s my first semester in college. I haven’t been able to buckle down and really focus, there’s just so much around me to distract me and it’s weird getting used to being away from home and my parents and everything. We just got our midterm grades and needless to say,I am struggling. It’s not that the material is super hard, I understand most of it when I sit down and study, but when it comes to the tests, I can’t seem to focus and see to forget everything. My grades in bio, bio lab, chem, and chem lab will hopefully all be able to be at a C at the end of this semester(I might even be able to get the bio grade up to a B). However, what I’m really worried about is my chances of med school and if this is really going to royally screw me over in a few years. I am getting a tutor and hopefully will be able to get good grades from here on out once I’m more acquainted with the school and the college atmosphere. I’m just super worried that these Cs are gonna look bad in the long run.
when you apply to med school the end of your junior year they are going to take your more recent grades as reflective of your ability and work ethic, not 1st semester grades frosh year. Better grades this semester are of course preferable, but the door has by no means closed on you.
that’s the good news., Now for my guess at the bad. You write " I understand most of it when I sit down and study, but when it comes to the tests, I can’t seem to focus and see to forget everything." My bet is that you didn’t forget everything, you never actually knew it. A lot of kids confuse recognition with recall. When they do homework they see a problem, they flip back in the book to the part covering that type of question, and with the correct steps in their mind for a few minutes they solve the homework. Later when they study they read thru the chapter again, it all looks familiar and makes sense. They recognize it. What is different on a test? A test is a check for recall; the questions are no different from what you saw before in the HW, but now you have to solve them from what they have learned, and the discover they actually can’t recall the info they need.
I don’t think a tutor is going to help you here. When you sit down with the tutor it is going to be another pass thru recognition; what they say will make sense and you’ll understand it, just like you say you do when you study. But will you recall it?
The solution is to practice on your own. There are books like the “Chemistry Problem Solver” that are like SAT prep books on a topic. They have thousands of worked problems organized by topic. Find a chapter matching what you are studying in class, cover up the answer, work the problem. I bet you’ll duplicate your test results. What you need to do is work problem after problem until you can do them accurately, and then the class tests will be just as easy. Over Xmas break you might want to read a book that goes into more detail on the whole learning process called “Make it Stick” which has many more practical suggestions.
Lastly, what is going to determine whether you become a doctor is not these grades frosh year but factors under your control. I think about 1/5th of the kids at many colleges start out vaguely “pre-med” but few end up applying. A lot of it comes down to how much they want it & how much self-control they have. You seem to have an external locus of control outlook, writing " I haven’t been able to buckle down and really focus, there’s just so much around me to distract me and it’s weird getting used to being away from home and my parents and everything." The outside world is in the driver seat here, not you and your choices. One of the leading researchers in the area (Carol Dweck) writes
If being away from home is uncomfortable you are far from the first frosh to feel that way, and most colleges have psychologists or counselors you can meet with to work thru a common situation. But they’re not going to call you; it you want help, you need to go find it. As for being distracted and not being willing to spend the hours it takes to do well in math/science classes (many kids find they spend 6-10 hours per class doing homework and practice problems) then it really comes down to you and your willingness to do what it takes. You can choose to own your actions, or lay what you do at the feet of the situation; choice is up to you.
To clarify, I mean per course taken and not per class meeting. If you have 3 math & science courses this term, it would be common for students doing well in the class to spend 18-30 hours weekly on them.
Many kids underestimate how much time it takes to succeed in these courses, in part because some peers deliberately try to give everyone the impression they are just so smart they barely need to crack a book. Then as the year goes by you run across them in a deep corner of the library…
Mikemac gives some great advice.
I taught high school Biology for 16 years. What I observed is that often, students who were successful academically in high school without having to work too hard take those same study skills to college and they no longer work.
- In high school, the amount of time spent in class is greater that in college - for example, I met with my AP and IB Biology students 8.5 hours per week for 36 weeks. A typical 2 semester general Biology course would meet for 3 hours of lecture & 3 hours of lab for 14 weeks each. In this scenario, the high school student is in class with the teacher 138 hours more. What this means is that in college, you are expected to learn a lot of material on your own outside of class. Students fresh from high school are used to getting most if not all of the content from their teacher.
- In high school, a lot of grade boosters are given - homework, worksheets, projects, etc. In college, most science classes have 2-3 tests, maybe a midterm, and a final exam. Labs have lab practicals. There may be quizzes thrown in, but you will have to know a lot of material for each test, and they will count for most of your grade.
As Mikemac said, you may not be putting enough time in outside of class. You need to review what you learn each day the same day if possible. Don’t wait till the day or two before the test to study. There is something called the “forgetting curve” which was proposed in 1885 by Hermann Ebbinghaus, a psychologist, that basically says that the longer the time between when you learn something and you review it, the less you retain. If you google it you’ll find plenty of information, but here is one link:
https://students.case.edu/education/resources/onepagers/doc/The%20Forgetting%20Curve.pdf
Good luck - med school certainly isn’t out of the picture for you at this point, but you do need to make an adjustment in your study habits quickly.