Advice needed

[stitchxlover]

Hey everyone,

Nontrad student in my junior year and doing absolutely terrible in my classes. I am studying every day, learning the concepts, piecing everything together in lecture, performing great on quizzes and HW and yet my exam scores are so low. Got a C in genetics and just got a 60 on my first biochem exam. I just feel so defeated and I don't know what I am doing wrong. Its been a hard road getting here but I was doing so well at my Comm College and now that I am almost doing with my first year as a transfer student I have a 3.0 BCPMgpa when it was at a 3.7 before. I feel so sick to my stomach because I've worked so hard and I don't know what else to do anymore. Med school has been my goal since day 1 and I am this close to finishing my undergrad but not getting the results I was used to getting. I've changed my study habits to cater my new classes and spoken to my professors what I can do differently but they tell me that my study habits are great as they can see I am doing well on quizzes and HW.

can anyone offer me on advice on how to continue or maybe am I missing something that I am not seeing?

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[futuremdforme]

Are you allowed to review the actual exams with profs? It would be good to review specific questions where you lost points to see if you are falling into traps, not reading q's properly, etc.

 

[twospadz]

I'm a pgy 2 resident. Your situation is the story of 90% of transfer students including mine. Going from a easier school to a harder one it will take time to adjust. Your studying habits are not up to par. Community college was a joke; you have to be real with yourself. You need to try your very best to succeed. You are not trying your very best. This includes:
1) Going to tutoring sessions. The students who I knew were acing the class (even one who got the 2nd highest grade in orgo out if 1000 people) were getting tutoring and showing up to the professors office asking questions.
2. Do alot of questions. Scour the web for questions online to the subjects your learning
3. Watch YouTube vids of the material
4. Make complete notes of the lecture material.
5. Read all of the required readings
6. Go to lecture

 

[Goro]

Hey everyone,

Nontrad student in my junior year and doing absolutely terrible in my classes. I am studying every day, learning the concepts, piecing everything together in lecture, performing great on quizzes and HW and yet my exam scores are so low. Got a C in genetics and just got a 60 on my first biochem exam. I just feel so defeated and I don't know what I am doing wrong. Its been a hard road getting here but I was doing so well at my Comm College and now that I am almost doing with my first year as a transfer student I have a 3.0 BCPMgpa when it was at a 3.7 before. I feel so sick to my stomach because I've worked so hard and I don't know what else to do anymore. Med school has been my goal since day 1 and I am this close to finishing my undergrad but not getting the results I was used to getting. I've changed my study habits to cater my new classes and spoken to my professors what I can do differently but they tell me that my study habits are great as they can see I am doing well on quizzes and HW.

can anyone offer me on advice on how to continue or maybe am I missing something that I am not seeing?

1) Go see your professors for help with the material
2) Go to your school's learning or education center for help with time mgt, study habits, text taking skills etc
3) Go talk to your doctor or school's student support services about your stress. This is NOT giving medical advice!

 

[Stellaartwa]

Sounds to me like @twospadz gave you some 100% real and solid advice.

OP - I don't want to make any assumptions about how you study but is it possible that you're cramming instead of spending a little time each day reviewing/learning?

The biggest change I made to my study habits from undergrad to pb was the time I spent studying and the timing of that studying. In undergrad, I skipped a lot of lectures and I studied for 8 hours the night before the test. In pb, I went to every single lecture and I studied for 2-3 hours a day right after classes. In most of these science classes material builds on itself so if you don't study what you learned in lecture on Monday, the Wednesday stuff won't make any sense.

For all classes, but especially for Gen Chem 2 and orgo, I did every single practice problem I could find (from the book & from the internet). Additionally, I joined a weekly study group. We took turns teaching each other on the board. They pointed out errors that I didn't even know I was making and teaching them cemented the concepts in my mind.

Don't get frustrated. You can still easily turn this around!

 

[smukke]

On top of everything posted above, don't dig a hole. Protect your GPA at all costs, especially your sGPA. Take only 1 science course at a time until you've got the studying down, if it means you'll graduate with a non-science degree and have to take postbacc classes, or if it means pushing graduation to 5 or 6 years so be it.

 

[futureDocDD]

Depending on what college you're attending, Genetics and Biochem are considered some of the toughest pre-med courses (in addition to Orgo), and CC courses are generally much easier than university level so not much surprise. You should take one at a time, go to office hour for help, hire a private tutor (if you can afford) or go to tutoring center... drop the course if you think you will be getting anything below B.