1st Year Midterms and Managing Expectations (Warning: slight rant)

[deleted989644]

Hello.

Today, I finished my last midterms...and I'm mentally dead.

Despite clocking in tons of hours for the finals, the scores were all over the place: barely passing, passing (but not excelling) and some that surprisingly turned out well.

I really wanted all of them to be decent (was used to getting A's and B's, for the most part) and that desire is somewhat shot due to my barely passing classes (the midterms were in the 60%s...so they will probably end up a C if I buck up - something I intend to do so I don't outright fail at the end: my biggest fear). I was shooting for a high GPA so I could get a good residency and head home (I'm out of state). However, I'm now not so sure if that is even achievable...or what kind of GPA I need to muster to recover from this debacle.

My expectations have since fallen considerably, going from a "I'm going to get straight-A's" to "C's get degrees." I'm frankly just burnt - I'll continue trying my best in courses to muster a decent grade (meeting with the professors to go over the exam), but I'm frankly at a loss concerning my future. I really want to work in a hospital or clinic, so having that residency (don't really care in what at this point) will help to get such a job alongside other potential career moves (i.e. working at an optometry school).

Anyways, apologies for the rant from a first-year. I'm just pretty disappointed with my exam results and I expected better from myself, especially since my mentor and a few of my peers aced their midterms - A's all around. That and this is only the first-year, supposedly the easiest courses within the curriculum.

Sigh...

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[UnicornOpt]

Chin up. Just have to work harder. Read more, don't memorize, and go to office hours and ask for help.
Forget career goals and residency. Hell, residencies in optometry are over-rated for the most part in my opinion. Just pass and actually know what the hell you are doing to be a competent doctor, and you'll find you have good options as long as you are willing to learn and again are competent.

I work in a hospital, and I've never done a residency, and I've interviewed candidates who have done residencies that we're not amazing applicants. But again forget career goals, you need to figure out why you did so poorly.

 

[pnw256]

I set a goal my at the beginning of school to aim for 10% above average on every exam. I went to ICO so we had 20-25 exams every quarter. I accomplished (for the most part) my goal my first quarter but my mental health was in the trash. Switched to C's get degrees mindset real quick. My experience has been that to make the jump from a high C/low B to an A requires almost doubly the amount of effort, which imo isn't worth sacrificing your mental well-being for. My advice is to take good notes so that when you encounter things in clinic you can jog your memory and relearn the material you need quickly. Now if you're desperate for a competitive residency program, you gotta bit the bullet

 

[deleted989644]

Chin up. Just have to work harder. Read more, don't memorize, and go to office hours and ask for help.
Forget career goals and residency. Hell, residencies in optometry are over-rated for the most part in my opinion. Just pass and actually know what the hell you are doing to be a competent doctor, and you'll find you have good options as long as you are willing to learn and again are competent.

I work in a hospital, and I've never done a residency, and I've interviewed candidates who have done residencies that we're not amazing applicants. But again forget career goals, you need to figure out why you did so poorly.

Thank you for the advice. I did attend meetings with my teachers and we went over what happened. Hopefully there is still time to change my grade around - I'm putting in the effort and adapting accordingly to make that happen.

I just want to make a decent career for myself. I'm just worried about graduating out of here and not finding a job, especially after the amount of headache and heartache it takes to get through this program.

 

[deleted989644]

I set a goal my at the beginning of school to aim for 10% above average on every exam. I went to ICO so we had 20-25 exams every quarter. I accomplished (for the most part) my goal my first quarter but my mental health was in the trash. Switched to C's get degrees mindset real quick. My experience has been that to make the jump from a high C/low B to an A requires almost doubly the amount of effort, which imo isn't worth sacrificing your mental well-being for. My advice is to take good notes so that when you encounter things in clinic you can jog your memory and relearn the material you need quickly. Now if you're desperate for a competitive residency program, you gotta bit the bullet

Wow! You must've put in a lot of work! I had to fight like a hellhound to even get passing (though some of my classes are better than that...somehow).

I don't even know what qualifies as a competitive residency program for optometry. I was mainly looking at just getting into one in general since it seems that it could help (maybe) with job prospects.

Then again, I really don't know. Even passing is an effort in itself. I just feel so beat up and I'm afraid of repeating or, worse still, failing out of the program.