Calculating BPCM and repeats?

[CoverMe]

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So... i've googled, amcas'ed, and searched this site... maybe my search terms haven't been right.

How does one calc their BCPM and account for repeats... which grades of repeated courses count?? I'm looking at my science classes, all scores under a B- have been repeated (i managed to flunk pre-calc TWICE my freshman year, 10 years ago... ugh!). So, i have THREE grades for that class... the last one being a B+.

Also, i took General Biology which had seperate grades for lecture and lab, and at a different university (10 years later) took Gen Bio again (for an A)... but this is lab/lecture combined. How does one calculate that???

Thanks for the help... i've pretty much finished the AMCAS and now i'm wondering about all those early crappy grades... 😱

 

[exmike]

You enter all three grades. That happened to me too.

 

[CoverMe]

hi exmike!!! i entered all of them... just trying to calc the bcpm gpa... will all the scores count equally, or do some replace others in the calculations?

 

[exmike]

you will get an average of the three. lets say its three units, C, B, A are your grades. You'll end up with 3 units of B added to your overall GPA.

 

[CoverMe]

farrrrrr better than F's!!!

how about the "repeat" with a different unit amount?

 

[OnMyWayThere]

you will get an average of the three. lets say its three units, C, B, A are your grades. You'll end up with 3 units of B added to your overall GPA.

It's not 9 units of B?

 

[exmike]

It's not 9 units of B?

No

If you look at your total units on AMCAS, it should be the exact number of units you took at your school. For example, my AMCAS says 121 units, just like it says on my transcript. Since most schools erased repeats, the only way AMCAS units and your trascript units can match is if AMCAS averages the repeats and uses that average as the single grade.

Counting repeats I had like 140 or so units, but amcas averages it down to 121 just like my transcript shows.

 

[exmike]

hi exmike!!! i entered all of them... just trying to calc the bcpm gpa... will all the scores count equally, or do some replace others in the calculations?

Since you took it at a different school, it will be a different line on your AMCAS. It doesn't average.

 

[CoverMe]

Mike, thanks for coming through and answering all these questions!!

For some reason I figured the computer would be doing all of this automatically... now i'm supposing it's only made clear after everything has been certified?? I realize these seem like stupid questions... if i knew where to look them up, i would.

 

[CoverMe]

well THAT bites... all of my poor grades were at a different college... guess i'm just screwed on that one. 😡 😡 😡

 

[exmike]

well THAT bites... all of my poor grades were at a different college... guess i'm just screwed on that one. 😡 😡 😡

you could email amcas and ask them about it, but the general rule is that it has the be the same class at the same institution (for consistency). How can they average two classes when the material is a bit different at different schools right?

 

[CoverMe]

seems a bit nit-picky... if medical schools accept one gen chem... or anyone's gen chem... they're assuming they're all quite similar.

as it is... doing the quality points and converting quarters to semesters and everything, i'm down to a 3.15... SHOCK. with those grades replaced it was significantly better. sigh.

 

[exmike]

seems a bit nit-picky... if medical schools accept one gen chem... or anyone's gen chem... they're assuming they're all quite similar.

as it is... doing the quality points and converting quarters to semesters and everything, i'm down to a 3.15... SHOCK. with those grades replaced it was significantly better. sigh.

Yeah I had my 3.3 dropped to a 3.1! 😡

 

[CoverMe]

Plus, it seems to really hurt older applicants who are very unlikely to complete the final classes before medical school at the same university they first attended when they were 18.... unlike younger applicants.

 

[exmike]

Plus, it seems to really hurt older applicants who are very unlikely to complete the final classes before medical school at the same university they first attended when they were 18.... unlike younger applicants.

fortunatly most schools value recent course work more, and your AMCAS will be broken up into years so they can see the recent good work. fear not!

 

[Apparition]

AMCAS averages the repeats and uses that average as the single grade.

Hey Exmike, are you completely sure about this? I was under impression that AMCAS just counts repeats as separate, independent courses.
So if I took a 3 credit class at another school during summer and got an F, then retook it and got an A- at the same school, It will be counted as about a C- (1.85) for just one class? It makes a lot of difference if it's not two separate grades. Thanks!!

 

[exmike]

Hey Exmike, are you completely sure about this? I was under impression that AMCAS just counts repeats as separate, independent courses.
So if I took a 3 credit class at another school during summer and got an F, then retook it and got an A- at the same school, It will be counted as about a C- (1.85) for just one class? It makes a lot of difference if it's not two separate grades. Thanks!!

As someone with 7 or so repeats, I am absolutely sure this is how it was done last year, and I am pretty sure it is how it is done this year. Think about it this way though, you WANT amcas to average it and use the units once.

Lets say you took a 4 unit class and got a F, then retook it and got an A.

If AMCAS counted it twice, you would get 8 units of C
If AMCAS averaged it, you would get 4 units of C.

Now which would you rather have on your AMCAS GPA, 8 units of C or 4 units of C?

Besides, if they just took both classes, it wouldn't be "averaging" per se. It would be more like a sum of the two.

Like I said, your transcript units and your AMCAS units add up (after conversion) and the only way that can happen if is courses are averaged, not added.

 

[CoverMe]

Right you are, Mike... i suppose all the resistance is due to my ridiculously optomistic hopes that they would replace.

thanks again for the info... you're extremely helpful! 😀

 

[Apparition]

Right you are, Mike... i suppose all the resistance is due to my ridiculously optomistic hopes that they would replace.

thanks again for the info... you're extremely helpful! 😀

I second that, you just raised my science gpa. Thanks!!! 😀

 

[CoverMe]

jeeeeez louise... if i could go back and do something over, this would be it.

Two "F"s and my BCPM goes from a 3.42 to a 3.15

dammmmmmmmit. 😡