Fail/retake biochem or take the C

[jymed]

I'm doing terribly in biochem right now, so I talked to my professor. My final is next week, so she gave me the option of taking the final, seeing how I feel about it and choosing to keep it or drop the final and fail the class. If I fail the class, I would retake it next quarter and have that failing grade replaced.
If I don't do this, I'll probably get a C or a C- (or maybe even worse) in the class.

What should I do? Would taking the F hinder my chances of getting in med school?

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[Local Native]

I'm assuming your school doesn't just wipe away the old grade and shows both your retake and original grade on the transcript?

An "F" would look much worse, obviously. If you take the "F" and retake the class to get an "A", medical schools will average the two grades and it's as if you got around a "C". You might as well take the "C" now and even consider retaking it then to have the grades average out to a "B" eventually.

 

[Whatyousay]

Take the C. AMCAS averages grades, so if you take the F and retake for an A the second time around, the would still average out to a C average. On top of that, taking the C would yield X amount of hours with a C grade, while failing/retake with an A would yield 2X amount of hours with a C grade.

Chances are, you might want to retake the class anyways to demonstrate that you're capable of handling the material. Can you not retake the class after you receive a letter grade higher than an F?

edit: ninja'ed

 

[Local Native]

edit: ninja'ed

Rainbow llama ninja'd.

 

[phnerd1105]

Agree with all of the above. You DO NOT want an F in Biochem, even if it will be replaced. As a matter of fact, you don't even want a C, but you have to take what you can get. Just retake it next year. I assume its too late to drop?

And that rainbow llama is following me everywhere

 

[Whatyousay]

Rainbow llama ninja'd.

My GIF pales in comparison to yours.

 

[PikaPikaPika]

P/NP if you can at this point. But it's better to take the C, for the same reason that Rainbow Llama Guy stated in his first post.

 

[FattySlug]

I'm doing terribly in biochem right now, so I talked to my professor. My final is next week, so she gave me the option of taking the final, seeing how I feel about it and choosing to keep it or drop the final and fail the class. If I fail the class, I would retake it next quarter and have that failing grade replaced.
If I don't do this, I'll probably get a C or a C- (or maybe even worse) in the class.

What should I do? Would taking the F hinder my chances of getting in med school?

Does your school allow retake for classes with a C or better? Mine doesn't. I agree that an F looks really bad. I got a C+ in microbiology since the class was purely mindless memorization of random facts.

If your school allows retake with a C or above then go for it. If not I think you just do your best and move on. A C is not the end of the world.