Hey guys. I’m not sure if this is the best forum to voice my concerns about my midterm grades but I’m gonna do it anyway. So I’m taking Math 54 and my second midterm went really badly-essentially a standard dev below the mean(I don’t mean to offend anyone who did worse but I worked pretty hard on it and it just sucks to feel so disappointed). I did well on the first one(like an sd above the mean). So here’s the thing, I know I understand the material pretty well and the lecturer is really great too, but Idk I feel like every little computational mistake I made just cost me way too many points on this midterm, and I honestly wasn’t expecting to do this badly.
The professor hinted that there would be no clobbering(the final grade won’t replace one of the midterm grades) but was really vague about it.
Do you guys know what I should do about this/have any advice on how to succeed in Berkeley in general? I know that an A on the final could possibly push my grade up but I just keep cracking under the pressure. It’s like I don’t end up doing well especially when I KNOW that I need to do well.
PS: I know I shouldn’t take one midterm score to heart but I’m just so disappointed about this 
A few things to think about or do:
- First, relax. Don't panic. Everyone has a bad day sometimes. Everybody has a bad test sometimes. It sounds like you did really well on the earlier test. You should be fine. Even if you end up a grade lower than expected on this course (like a B instead of an A, or a C instead of a B), over 4 years you will still have lots of chances to do well. At the end of 4 years you will still be a Berkeley graduate (and no one will ever take that away from you).
- You say "I know I understand the material pretty well". For linear algebra and for differential equations, understanding the material well is the main point. You will use this material a lot in future courses (assuming that you take any future STEM courses).
- Talk to the professor. If you just had a bad day and did a bunch of silly computation errors then he might be able to do something (retest you, or ???). Be polite and respectful. If he says that there is nothing that he can or will do, then accept this and move on.
- Generally, relax and have faith in your own abilities. You got into Berkeley. You clearly have had a lot of very good grades on many tests and in many courses in the past, and you will again.
- Keep up on your school work. Do your homework as close as possible to the day that it is handed out. This will mean that you pick up a bit more before you show up at the next class, which means that you will understand a bit more during the next class. Over a year's time this will add up and get you ahead. Over four years time you will get even further ahead.
- For calculus and linear algebra, practice a lot. I was a math major. Personally I found calculus fairly easy, but I think this was partly because I took another class (physics) that had calculus as a co-requisite, and the professors were clearly coordinating their classes. Thus one professor would teach us a particular item in differential equations, and then a day or a week later the other professor would show us a problem in physics (I recall harmonic motion as one item) that would require using what we just learned in calculus. Thus I got extra practice in one class that helped with the other class. I had more trouble with linear algebra, and I don't think that I ever really understood it well until many years later when I took econometrics, and had to use what I had learned in linear algebra for every problem. Suddenly it "clicked" and I got it (both linear algebra and econometrics). Using both of these skills will help you get more "fluent" in them (eg, so that using calculus becomes as natural as speaking a language in which you are fluent).
I used to show up early for exams, bringing far more pencils than I would ever need (so that I was confident that I wouldn’t run out), and sit there and semi-meditate with deep breaths to keep myself calm and relaxed. I would clear my mind of all thoughts as much as possible. Then I would try to feel sorry for all of the other students because they had to compete with me. For me this helped.
@DadTwoGirls thanks so much for the advice! This makes me feel much better. It’s always good to hear from someone who has been through all of this before.I actually found the Linear algebra part to be much more intuitive. Differential equations seems to be more about plugging in the right form of the solution, but I’m sure it gets way more complex. Yeah and I’m an engineering major so I’m sure I’ll encounter some of this in future classes
I got a 37 on the second midterm in one of my first actual major classes. Studied harder, realized I was getting too many hints instead of figuring it out on my own. Pulled a 92 on the third midterm and a B in the class overall. A’s on basically everything else since. You can and will stumble. Just get back up determined to go harder.
I don’t know if the final is cumulative or not, but definitely study the material between MT2 and final which I presume it’s Fourier series and heat/wave equation. There are a lot of practice exams available either directly from the math department website or engineering honor societies like TBP and PTS.
I personally found practicing with older exams (and studying through solutions where the most learning occurs) gives me the best chance to do well myself - and if things are really lucky, a similar problem or two appears on your exam too.