I am a second year dental student at the moment and I feel like I’m barely scraping by ( not due to laziness). My habits are not the best but, I do try to study when I can and I don’t have a problem learning when I study enough. In my perspective it seems as if time is never on my side yet somehow my classmates manage. I am so tired most of the time and getting frustrated. My gpa at the moment is a 3.0 I believe. Don’t really know if I’m looking for advice or words of encouragement tbh. I just need people who are going through or have been through dental school to say something, anything about this.
As I've said many times in many different posts, what matters in the end is just to pass and don't fail out. A DDS/DMD is a DDS/DMD, and the dental school grading scale means almost nothing in the real world of dentistry. 2nd year is probably the most intense out of all the years, it'll be smooth sailing afterwards. 3.0 is not barely scraping by UNLESS your school requires at least a 3.0 to remain in the program, then I'd be afraid. Shoot, if our school had grades back in the old days, I'd be happy with a 2.0 as long as I graduated. We had something called Marginal Pass, and we would high five each other if we got an MP and it was a class that we hoped never to see again.
You just need to keep your eyes on the prize and take this more seriously. During finals week, I would cram 23 hours a day for a week (and study between exams), but I knew what was on the line. If I fail, I have debt but no means to make the money back. However, this was my fault because I wouldn't look at the material until the week before finals. Whatever sets your motivation and gets you on fire to do well. It's exhausting, it's traumatizing to the brain, and it's all part of the dental school hazing process.
You know what you need. If you're frustrated that you're not doing well, just think of this way: none of this matters. Just like the DAT doesn't matter, neither does your board scores or grades. Just do well enough to pass. Unless you want to specialize. If you want words of encouragement, think of this way, you're halfway through and going through the worst part. It's gonna be smooth after 2nd year. As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, if you are on the brink of failing, you need to create a better buffer if you have to maintain a 3.0 or above. Otherwise, if failing out is considered below 2.0 (and/or failing a class), then you got plenty of buffer.