<p>Hi everyone I really need some advice. I am having a hard time here and seem to be getting all B's though I am studying pretty much all the time. I work hard on the psets, do the reading, go to each lecture, do every practice test (multiple times), but mostly I still get average or a few points below. Only three times this semester I have gotten above average. This is really disappointing for me and takes away my motivation and excitement in my classes. I have always had high expectations for myself and never got a B in high school.
I am worried that if I am struggling to do well in these intro classes then I will have a much worse time later on. Also I am unsure about my major. I am thinking about 6-1 but I don't know if I really want to do it and I have heard it can be very difficult. Should I transfer?</p>
<p>Fact: About half of MIT students are below MIT’s average.</p>
<p>It sounds like your all-A’s in high school have led to some very skewed views on grades. B’s are fine. B’s at MIT - getting a degree from this place at all - is excellent. If your identity is based on being the best in your class, then I’d try reframing your identity into something much healthier. Get into an extracurricular activity or two.</p>
<p>We meant it when we said this place was hard. Don’t let a letter grade make you give up on all the discovery and adventure you find here. (If there are other reasons you’re thinking of transferring, feel free to express them! But B’s… I don’t consider that a good reason - unless if you’re premed, I guess.)</p>
<p>Hi thanks so much for responding.
I know a few B’s are okay but it seems that I will have all B’s in my classes. I know half of MIT students are below the average, but I am almost sure they all must not be studying as much as I do, given that I have made grades my sole priority this semester. My identity is not based on being the best in my class, that has never been my goal. My identity is based on working hard. I want to learn as much as I can and confirm my understanding by doing well on tests. I knew it would be hard here but I thought hard work can overcome anything. However, when all this hard work brings disappointment after each exam, it has become much more difficult for me to get excited about what I am learning. Because of this I have had a hard time choosing majors and am still undecided. However I am not premed. If you can consider this, I study all week for a test, starting my studies the earliest possible, then I take the test, and usually get average or up to 10 points below. Then everything just repeats for the next test, and each time I hope for a better score, though it just doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>You could be my daughter – if you are, call home!
Perhaps asking yourself these questions might help. Are you having fun learning? Are you happy to be there at MIT? Have you made friends? Do you feel like you belong?</p>
<p>The answers to these questions are much more important than whether you spend the next four years NEVER getting an “A” in a class again. </p>
<p>As a parent of a child who never got anything lower than an A+ in a class since 7th grade, I tried to drill it into my daughter that we would consider a B from MIT to be totally amazing! And while I may be just a little worried that she there may be more C’s than B’s this semester, I am proud of her for having made friends and enjoying “finding her people”.</p>
<p>I hope you can think about your life there outside of the letter grades you receive this year. That’s the way to determine whether or not you should transfer. That all call home and speak to your parents!</p>
<p>
All B’s are also okay.</p>
<p>Things do get better after freshman year, because you’ll have much more flexibility to pick courses, and you can pick subjects that are really interesting to you and worth your time. Upper division classes are also less likely to be graded based on a curve, and give higher grades in general. The data I’ve seen suggest that average MIT GPA goes from just below a 4.0 freshman year to about 4.2-4.3 senior year. </p>
<p>If what drives you is working hard, then work hard. Just don’t let grades be the output by which you measure your success. If you feel like you worked hard and learned something, then that should be your measure, not the grade you got on the test. You could also think about getting a UROP – something you can do to work hard and be successful on your own terms, without comparing yourself to anybody else.</p>
<p>I’m someone who got 3 B’s and a C second semester freshman year, so I do know what it’s like to be in that position. I also am fairly sure I never got above class average on a GIR exam. I still got more B’s than A’s as an upperclassman, but I double-majored, worked really hard at my UROP, and participated in an EC – I consider that success.</p>
<p>^ I’ll note that Mollie is a Harvard grad student now :P</p>
<p>As a course 6-1, you will find out that there is a lot more to being an engineer than grades. Some of the most creative, energetic circuit designers I know at MIT aren’t the top-graders type. I have several recommendations:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Learn how to enjoy your education independently of the grades you obtain. This is easier said than done, but you should try to build a goal for your MIT education. What do you want to obtain? Bad-ass circuitry skills? … etc… Doing extracurriculars will help that.</p></li>
<li><p>The fact that you are studying all the time and doing badly means you probably have to modify some of your studying techniques. See what your friends do that you don’t, not what you do that they don’t.</p></li>
<li><p>Note: statistically speaking, about 50% of the people are doing worse than you do. But the vast majority of MIT students end up doing something exciting with their lives. Don’t worry…</p></li>
<li><p>Course 6-1 is hard. But I would not say it is hard inherently because of the tests you will have to take. The difficulty of 6-1 really lies later when you will have to build things, create things. This is done in the lab classes. They are much more predictive of how good of an engineer you will become. You might discover the test-taking geniuses who kill the curve in the GIR’s won’t be as good as you are when it comes to actually building useful things. I’m definitely an example: I am pretty decent at test-taking, but am a noob when it comes to building something useful. That’s why I’m not an engineer, but a math/physics major.</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, I suppose you are a freshman. If so you have to realize that you are taking classes with people might have a lot more background in high school than you do. The gap tend to equalize later when everyone is learning new material. This usually occurs 2nd year, when people get into their major requirements. Of course, if you are 6-1, you will want to make sure you know well your 8.02, 18.03 materials, or they will come back and bite you later.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Study tip: I notice that it is much more efficient to study BEFORE lecture. This summer, you definitely want to learn ahead the material for next year. That might be one of the ways you can reduce the gap.</p>
<p>Hey guys I actually got all A’s!! I guess I was being too critical, and I also probably understimated the weight of psets and final exams. Thanks so much for all your help and support!!!</p>
<p>Haha, this thread is pretty awesome.</p>