Worst grade you've ever received during undergrad?

[Garaygeree]

Do spill the beans.

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[StIGMA]

A.

A- was a possibility, but I managed to avoid those. On an exam, perhaps a grade in the low-70s? Undergrad is temporary, and a few bad grades are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. It helps to know a professor's grade distribution for classes where you get a choice between professors. Many classes I took ended up with ~5% A's though. Once you get to your PhD, it is more important what you learned/internalized than the grades you earned- much of my useful education in undergrad was working in lab and figuring out how to best balance that with classes/extracurriculars/dates.

What is your worst grade, OP?

 

[Garaygeree]

A.

A- was a possibility, but I managed to avoid those. On an exam, perhaps a grade in the low-70s? Undergrad is temporary, and a few bad grades are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. It helps to know a professor's grade distribution for classes where you get a choice between professors. Many classes I took ended up with ~5% A's though. Once you get to your PhD, it is more important what you learned/internalized than the grades you earned- much of my useful education in undergrad was working in lab and figuring out how to best balance that with classes/extracurriculars/dates.

What is your worst grade, OP?

B- in Bio II. Yay for phylogeny and plants....literally had zero interest all semester long, minus the short stint in Genetics and virology, which was actually the reason I made a B-. The professor that taught it was actually the professor that served as the mentor for all the PhD in Plant Science/Botany students. All she did was rant about her personal garden, the pretty rose garden her mother had by using coffee grounds, and the chemical composition of organic/inorganic fertilizers....then the tests were extremely abstract hardy weinberg predatory-prey models, consumer resource models, etc


I really like Genetics, and that part of hereditary/physiological bio...so I made up for it in Genetics and Micro.

My major is originally chem, so I'm much more of a "STEM" thinker, too. Math, Physics, Chem, Computer Programming and Hardware...etc.


EDIT: I hope I didn't sound like a whiny baby, it was just clarification for the circumstances of my B-. I fully accept responsibility for my grade.

 

[StIGMA]

then the tests were extremely abstract hardy weinberg predatory-prey models, consumer resource models, etc

It is worthwhile to ask the professor where to focus your studying. They may even tell you what will be on the exam. Also, it is helpful to befriend senior students in your major who can give you advice/tips/ perhaps old exams (as long as the professor doesn't confiscate exams/you are using stolen material, it is kosher to use old exams in your studying [depending on your school's policies]). The best way to consistently do well in classes is to not bomb any single test- consistency throughout a course is important because it is easier to get, say, 4 x 90's than a 60 and 3 x 100's.

 

[Garaygeree]

It is worthwhile to ask the professor where to focus your studying. They may even tell you what will be on the exam. Also, it is helpful to befriend senior students in your major who can give you advice/tips/ perhaps old exams (as long as the professor doesn't confiscate exams/you are using stolen material, it is kosher to use old exams in your studying [depending on your school's policies]).

If you had nothing to say about gardening tips, or about intelligent design/evolution/Richard Dawkins (we watched like 10 of his YouTube videos where he debated with British Muslims), she wasn't interested in talking to you, so I couldn't ask her about what to study. She was like a last minute instructor after the original instructor got a new job in biotech industry and abruptly quit. So, I couldn't get any tips. It was her first time teaching anything below a junior level course, so there were no old tests. One of the questions even asked us to find an equilibria point for a population model given an equation, and I was appalled. I knew calculus, so I could set the derivative equal to 0 and solve, BUT IT'S A BIO II CLASS. Not everyone should know Calculus by then.

Lolz, you're in a lucky position to have your lowest grade as an A. Where do you want to apply for MSTP? Any top 15 schools?

 

[StIGMA]

Lolz, you're in a lucky position to have your lowest grade as an A. Where do you want to apply for MSTP? Any top 15 schools?

Well, I worked my tail off for 4 years straight and made a lot of sacrifices. They were worth it to me- and wouldn't be worth it to everyone. Many people work just as hard but aren't as smart/lucky/scientifically-inclined, so they end up with worse grades. I doubt anyone worked appreciably harder than I did at my school (a large, well known public uni). I felt I needed to prove myself to compete with the ivy undergrads and to make the most of any talent / opportunity I had been given.

The other person who graduated with similar stats in my class is currently a Harvard med student. I am a PhD-phase MD/PhD student at a 'top 15' school. I applied to 18 programs and received 10 interview invites, 7 of which were for MD/PhD, 3 MD only.

 

[mTORC]

I got a 54% on my first physics exam. That was a complete shocker. I have never worked harder in my life to get an A.

 

[Alaxandra]

I got a D in a pol sci class. Boringest class ever, and the teacher was stupid and biased.