Sad grades.. need some advice and guidance.

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It looks like I will be receiving poor grades once again this semester. This semester started out strong and I blew it with my finals. I have no excuse for my poor performance this sophomore year. I was extremely lazy. I did not attend class and only studied a few hours before an exam. Any advice on how I should set my path to having a chance at medical school would be great. Here are my stats.

Community college GPA(first year): 3.4
I made a F in two of my classes which I retook to get a C average.

Private University GPA(first semester sophomore year): 2.36
with a C+ in bio 1, chem 1, chem 1 lab, and stats. B in bio 1 lab.

Transferred to public university because of financial problems.

Current university GPA(second semester sophomore year): 3.08
with a B in A&P, B+ in Bio, and some other classes.

Overall sophomore GPA: 2.72
Overall college GPA: 3.12

My only volunteering experience is 20+ hour helping out at bone marrow drives.

I am on a five year graduation plan meaning I have two and half school years to bring up my GPA. I don't want myself to be the way I am anymore. I am willing to dedicate myself to my studies from now. I know with my current stats and my past behavior, that is hard to believe, however I have a strong resolve in me that I can do better than what I am doing right now. I know I can make it. Any advice on how I should set up my path to having a chance at medical school would be great.

I would recommend honing in on your studying habits! Studying is not a chore, it's a necessity. I'm not saying you have to study 8 hours a day. Around 2-3 hours per day set aside for just studying is optimal. Give or take on the set of classes you are taking obviously. One step at a time. You can do this.

Print this out and put it somewhere you'll see it every day:

Originally Posted by martindngu

I don't want myself to be the way I am anymore. I am willing to dedicate myself to my studies from now. I know with my current stats and my past behavior, that is hard to believe, however I have a strong resolve in me that I can do better than what I am doing right now. I know I can make it.

If this doesn't motivate you, I don't know what will. Good luck!

Your situation is not unsalvageable - I actually had a lower GPA than you at that point in time and I was accepted for next year.

What you need to do is find out why you are doing poorly in your studies. Is it because you just don't study effective? Do you just not try?

Once you have that down, work your ass off. Your situation doesn't give you any leeway - its best to make straight A's for the rest of your collegiate career.

Good luck

The route to medical school for you is fairly straightforward, it just isn't easy. You need to get almost nothing but A's in all your classes from here on out. Any grade that isn't an A is a step away from medical school. Retake all the prerequisite classes that you got anything lower than a B in. Once you've figured out how to get good grades, take some extra upper-division science classes to prove that you are capable of getting good grades in tough classes.

As you've probably realized by now, you will not be able to get good grades with your current method of never going to class or studying. Change those habits right away, no matter how much work it takes. You can expect to have a lot less fun, go to less parties, and spend a whole lot more time in the library reading about such fascinating material as the nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions of carboxylic derivatives. It doesn't matter how difficult or boring the subject material is, study until you know it all perfectly. Don't try taking shortcuts, don't hope that a certain problem won't be on the test, study until you know it. If you're not sure, go back and read it all again until you are sure. After you've mastered this technique you will probably have figured out what shortcuts you can safely take, but until then, do whatever it takes to learn all the material and have it down cold.

All this work will be very difficult, but always remember, if getting into medical school were easy, everybody would be doing it. The same rule applies when you're in medical school looking for a residency spot, so you might as well get used to it now. Just like so many undergrads start out as premeds but quit because they can't handle the work it takes to get there, lots of medical students start medical school planning to go into ortho, plastics, derm or whatever, but end up in less competitive residencies because it takes so much work to get to the top.

Ouch an F in two CC classes...

Originally Posted by Chip N Sawbones

The route to medical school for you is fairly straightforward, it just isn't easy. You need to get almost nothing but A's in all your classes from here on out. Any grade that isn't an A is a step away from medical school. Retake all the prerequisite classes that you got anything lower than a B in. Once you've figured out how to get good grades, take some extra upper-division science classes to prove that you are capable of getting good grades in tough classes.

As you've probably realized by now, you will not be able to get good grades with your current method of never going to class or studying. Change those habits right away, no matter how much work it takes. You can expect to have a lot less fun, go to less parties, and spend a whole lot more time in the library reading about such fascinating material as the nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions of carboxylic derivatives. It doesn't matter how difficult or boring the subject material is, study until you know it all perfectly. Don't try taking shortcuts, don't hope that a certain problem won't be on the test, study until you know it. If you're not sure, go back and read it all again until you are sure. After you've mastered this technique you will probably have figured out what shortcuts you can safely take, but until then, do whatever it takes to learn all the material and have it down cold.

All this work will be very difficult, but always remember, if getting into medical school were easy, everybody would be doing it. The same rule applies when you're in medical school looking for a residency spot, so you might as well get used to it now. Just like so many undergrads start out as premeds but quit because they can't handle the work it takes to get there, lots of medical students start medical school planning to go into ortho, plastics, derm or whatever, but end up in less competitive residencies because it takes so much work to get to the top.

This. In order to make an A in many science classes, you have to know everything. Make sure you cover all your bases. Good luck!

Originally Posted by martindngu

I was extremely lazy. I did not attend class and only studied a few hours before an exam. Any advice on how I should set my path to having a chance at medical school would be great.

Easy. Don't do that.