I’m currently a freshmen at a community college, about to finish up my first semester! My first semester went great, other than the fact that I will probably be receiving an F for my Calculus I class. I’m currently taking:
Public Speaking - A
English - B
College and Career Success (ironic that I still wasn’t able to succeed in calc) - A
Calculus - F
I’ve been really upset and mad at myself for being stupid and allowing myself to fail one of my classes, and I’m really scared that it’ll ruin my chances of getting into a UC school. I’m usually a straight A student, but I got ahead of myself this semester and made some dumb choices. Math has actually always been one of my strongest suits, but the second my instructor started teaching, I was dumbfounded, and barely understood anything. My goal is to get into UC San Diego, and I’m really scared that the F will ruin my chances. I’ll be retaking the class next semester, but the F is going to completely mess up my GPA 
I’m a Biology major and I know Bio is very competitive, hence another reason why I’m scared. I ultimately want to get into medical school, but again, this F is haunting me. Will the F sabotage my chances? What should I do to improve my chances?
If you retake the class then the new grade replaces the F. The UC xfer website offers information on calculating your GPA and explains how retaking classes works
If you are finding the material difficult then I would recommend taking a step back. Take College Algebra and the the equivalent of a college Pre-Calc (Algebra 202?) It will do you wonders. It will help you very much.
Although not on point as to transfer, both F and repeat grade will be used in calculating med school GPAs. One F by itself will not be fatal to your med school hopes.