Bad grades, freaking out

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spdoctor

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Ok so I know there are countless threads on bad grades, but I just really need to post mine to ease my mind.

So my story goes: this fall semester (my first semester-im a freshmen) my grandfather passed away unexpectedly right around finals. Needless to say it did mess up my grades.
I ended up with a A, C, B-, D. The C being in Calc and D being in Gen Chem 1.
Spring semester I started strong, fixed my learning methods. But I acquired (or rather realized I had problems) with anxiety. I ended up doing terrible on my chem exam and failing the class again with a D+. The rest of my grades are A, A-,A-, B-, C+ (In bio 1). My overall GPA thus far is 2.65. I am taking 3 summer courses and planning to get As in all, and I'm retaking Gen Chem at a state college. Any advice as to what I should do from hear on out, and how bad this will affect my chances at med school. I know a lot of hard work will have to be inputed on my part to raise my GPA, but even with consecutive A's and A-'s, I will barely slide with a 3. 6 GPA comes end of Junior year. Any advice and honest input would be greatly appreciated!

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Medicine is a long, hard and expensive road. You have a minimum of 10 years of training between now and when you start to practice medicine. In that time, you will have countless exams for school, hospital, boards, and government. You will be expected to manage your time on your own and direct your own learning through most of that. Our best predictor of whether or not a student will be likely to survive that training are your academic metrics, ie your prior grades and your MCAT score. We do not want to admit people to our schools who we will have to worry about being unable to complete the classes or rotations.

First, everyone 'plans' on doing well. Everyone plans on getting good grades 'from here on out' or 'doing well on the MCAT'. The question is really, what are you doing to change? Personal life issues happen to everyone. It affects everyone negatively. But, 2 B-, 2 Cs and 2 Ds in two semesters are reflective of far more systemic problems than a life event around a single set of finals. It is hard to imagine that you were on your way to a bunch of A's and then dropped that low in all your classes.

Second, there are many people every year who are admitted to medical school who struggled their freshman year of college, or even for longer. But, who they were during those times are not who they are when they are accepted to medical school. They typically have 3+ semesters of solid grades in science classes coupled with a reasonable/strong MCAT. But, the grades are just a marker for what has fundamentally changed, which is how they study, how they prepare and a general maturation.

Third, you need to figure out why you are doing poorly in multiple classes every semester. Are you taking too many classes? Do you have poor study habits? Are you focusing on memorizing things instead of learning the material? Do you get distracted easily? Are your ECs getting in the way? Etc. Your focus this summer should be on fixing those things because if you don't, you will not perform at the level that you want to.

Fourth, hard work is one thing... But, you can bang your head as hard as you want against a brick wall and it still isn't going to fall over, no matter how hard you try. Longer studying is not always better. Get help, early. Learning centers, tutors, whatever it is, you should have local resources available to help you figure these things out for your situation. There is only so much that people on the internet can advise.

Fifth, work on your writing. There is certainly an expected level of laxity with grammar, spelling and punctuation on the internet, but between the punctuation errors, spelling mistakes and sentence fragments, there is a lot of room for improvement.
 
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To follow up on the outstanding advice my learned colleague gave, seek out your school's counseling center for help with your anviesty issues.

NOW!

Building up coping skills will be important as well.


Ok so I know there are countless threads on bad grades, but I just really need to post mine to ease my mind.

So my story goes: this fall semester (my first semester-im a freshmen) my grandfather passed away unexpectedly right around finals. Needless to say it did mess up my grades.
I ended up with a A, C, B-, D. The C being in Calc and D being in Gen Chem 1.
Spring semester I started strong, fixed my learning methods. But I acquired (or rather realized I had problems) with anxiety. I ended up doing terrible on my chem exam and failing the class again with a D+. The rest of my grades are A, A-,A-, B-, C+ (In bio 1). My overall GPA thus far is 2.65. I am taking 3 summer courses and planning to get As in all, and I'm retaking Gen Chem at a state college. Any advice as to what I should do from hear on out, and how bad this will affect my chances at med school. I know a lot of hard work will have to be inputed on my part to raise my GPA, but even with consecutive A's and A-'s, I will barely slide with a 3. 6 GPA comes end of Junior year. Any advice and honest input would be greatly appreciated!
 
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My advice would be to keep earning A's. Getting to the 3.6 area is going to be a doable but very hard slog for you. Others, albeit a minority who have tried, have done it.

Also, what have you done for clinical experience, research, or volunteering? Those things won't make up for poor grades but can slightly offset them a bit.
 
It's your freshman year. Don't freak out just yet. You obviously need to revisit your study methods. Maybe instead of trying to take on extra classes this summer, you should spend some time this summer figuring out how YOU learn best so that you can come into Fall semester like a boss. Perhaps you were able to read the textbooks in HS and do fine on exams, but with college maybe you will need a new approach. Question banks, visual aids, note-taking, etc.

Also, having failed Gen Chem 1 twice already, I wouldn't retake at a CC. You should probably figure out why you aren't do well before tackling it again, and then retake at your university.
 
You need to re-evaluate your study habits/skills/methods. retake those classes - and seriously consider DO. DO programs allow grade replacements - so you still have a good shot.
 
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