Failed O-chem

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SupremeDoc

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Not a thread that any premed students wants to make, but it's time for me to face reality, something I've been running from for a long time. I want to warn you that this is gonna be long, I want to be as detailed as possible about my bleak situation. I failed Organic Chemistry 1, the first quarter of a 3 part sequence. Official grades havent come out, but seeing as I went to maybe 2 classes the entire quarter (missing all the clicker questions), missed a lot of online homework, didnt even show up to midterm 1 (fat zero), got like 30% on midterm 2, and a 20% on the final....passing is out of the question. As for background info, I just finished my first quarter of sophomore year, and before this atrocity, you could say I was doing ok (3.6ish gpa).

I came here for advice because I dont trust myself and am, quite honestly, scared of my judgement. I know there are some very smart, successful people here that hopefully can give me wisdom as to what my next course of action should be. Do I retake organic chem 1? I am technically able to take orgo chem 2 but apparently it's much harder, and since I am definitely not prepared, I feel like I would get slaughtered. Graduating on time is not a problem for me cause I have a lot of AP credit, so I'm willing to retake the class in hopes of showing med schools that I can handle the course work.

This all happened due to a serious game addiction (League of Legends), but I'm taking these 3 weeks of winter break to quit this toxic habit. It was a really bad addiction. I would play something around 10 hours a day, miss all my classes, and get maybe 2 hours of sleep a night which perpetuated the cycle of me waking up late, missing my classes, and sleeping late due to excessive playing. If I can successfully quit playing, I know I can do well in my classes. Has anyone struggled with something else similar to this? I'm just worried that when med schools ask about why I had such a bad quarter, I wont be able to give this explanation because video game addiction is seen as kind of childish, but I suppose I can also talk about me being depressed and suffering from asthma attacks (that i have now taken care of after visiting a medical professional).

How do I move on from here? What do I do? I believe the first step is to obviously change my course schedule for next quarter from orgo chem 2 to 1. So if I get a good grade, will I replace my failed grade from first quarter??? Anyway, thank you for reading this. And pls help a brother out.

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Never been a video gamer so I can't relate to that. Anyways, good thing that you recognize the problem. You won't replace your grade, so your GPA took a big hit, but you could probably salvage what you got if you get serious from here on that.
 
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Never been a video gamer so I can't relate to that. Anyways, good thing that you recognize the problem. You won't replace your grade, so your GPA took a big hit, but you could probably salvage what you got if you get serious from here on that.
Hey RNtoMD87,

Thanks for replying :). So I've done a bit of research, and I thought that if I retake the class, the F will still show up in my transcript but my gpa will get better? Or if not, is there any point to retaking the class?
 
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Uhmm... yeah... You need a passing grade in the class to enter med school. If you get an A it will basically end up equaling a C since an F and an A end up averaging to a C.
 
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I was a semi pro gamer in college, went to Seoul once. What you need more than anything is self control. Doesn’t matter what you replace video games with because if you don’t have the self control to realize that school is the most important thing in your life right now, something else will just end up replacing LoL. Video games aren’t the problem, it’s your work ethic. I wish you good luck though and hopefully this is just a wake up call for you.
 
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Pro gamer? Didn't know that was a thing. I want to be a pro sleeper.
 
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Playing video games shouldn’t mess up with you. I used to play Every single day and still ended with a 3.9! You really just need to control yourself and take your studying seriously.
For me, if I’m paying for something, it better pay off lol so there was no way I could fail anything as I was broke and tight on budget.
Failing isn’t always bad you know? You’re waking up now and hopefully you will continue focusing on school.
PS: retake it duh


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Being on the hook financially definitely helps. When I was 18 I was on tops. Now I'll be paying for it out of my own pocket and taking loans out for the first time. Definitely motivates you to do well. Wont be chasing women and getting drunk this time around.



Man y’all got a lot of attention being able to stare at a screen for so long. It kills me, and I’m not just talking about the headache. They make us do this BLS and ACLS video game at work and it pisses me off. Ends up making me want to break the computer.
 
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How you are addicted to League in 2018 is beyond me, considering how much Riot has screwed up. I actually went through something similar in HS. I too would play league for long, long periods of time after school, and combined with Senioritis, I went from a 3.7 student to a 2.5 student. However, I allowed this to happen because I had been accepted to college. I think you need to think about your priorities and try and find another game to satisfy your gaming itch (I went cold turkey freshman year, sophomore year played Hearthstone, and now with the time management skills I have I have no issues playing a game of league)
 
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Many med schools believe in reinvention. You can quit and take school very seriously and recover your gpa. Retake org 1 and continue on your path to medicine. You got this! Addictions take many shapes but with a strong mind you can break it, and that strong mind will help you throughout your career
 
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Not directly related to your question but still potentially useful as you plan out your undergraduate course distribution:

You mention having a lot of AP credits. A lot of medical schools won't accept AP credit for prerequisite courses, so make sure you're allotting time for (re)taking any of those. Check your state schools' requirements at the very least to get an idea of what that might entail.
 
It's definitely possible to turn yourself around. Once you kick your gaming habit, you will realize that the dedication you put into your game is a very powerful force. People who aren't serious gamers do not understand how much commitment and endurance it takes to perform well at high levels. This stamina translates very well to academics or athletics: I was able to study with high efficiency for hours on end without fatigue using the same goal oriented mindset.

If you have questions, feel free to message me.
 
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Not a thread that any premed students wants to make, but it's time for me to face reality, something I've been running from for a long time. I want to warn you that this is gonna be long, I want to be as detailed as possible about my bleak situation. I failed Organic Chemistry 1, the first quarter of a 3 part sequence. Official grades havent come out, but seeing as I went to maybe 2 classes the entire quarter (missing all the clicker questions), missed a lot of online homework, didnt even show up to midterm 1 (fat zero), got like 30% on midterm 2, and a 20% on the final....passing is out of the question. As for background info, I just finished my first quarter of sophomore year, and before this atrocity, you could say I was doing ok (3.6ish gpa).

I came here for advice because I dont trust myself and am, quite honestly, scared of my judgement. I know there are some very smart, successful people here that hopefully can give me wisdom as to what my next course of action should be. Do I retake organic chem 1? I am technically able to take orgo chem 2 but apparently it's much harder, and since I am definitely not prepared, I feel like I would get slaughtered. Graduating on time is not a problem for me cause I have a lot of AP credit, so I'm willing to retake the class in hopes of showing med schools that I can handle the course work.

This all happened due to a serious game addiction (League of Legends), but I'm taking these 3 weeks of winter break to quit this toxic habit. It was a really bad addiction. I would play something around 10 hours a day, miss all my classes, and get maybe 2 hours of sleep a night which perpetuated the cycle of me waking up late, missing my classes, and sleeping late due to excessive playing. If I can successfully quit playing, I know I can do well in my classes. Has anyone struggled with something else similar to this? I'm just worried that when med schools ask about why I had such a bad quarter, I wont be able to give this explanation because video game addiction is seen as kind of childish, but I suppose I can also talk about me being depressed and suffering from asthma attacks (that i have now taken care of after visiting a medical professional).

How do I move on from here? What do I do? I believe the first step is to obviously change my course schedule for next quarter from orgo chem 2 to 1. So if I get a good grade, will I replace my failed grade from first quarter??? Anyway, thank you for reading this. And pls help a brother out.
For starters, go visit your school's counseling center.
 
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Many med schools believe in reinvention. You can quit and take school very seriously and recover your gpa. Retake org 1 and continue on your path to medicine. You got this! Addictions take many shapes but with a strong mind you can break it, and that strong mind will help you throughout your career

Good advice. I would caution, however, that true addiction takes more than just a strong mind to beat. OP, I don't know if you were being sincere when you said that you had an addiction or just using superlative, but if you're serious, I strongly recommend meeting with a licensed mental health specialist. They can connect you with effective resources to manage addiction. You're young enough that it doesn't have to be a deal breaker, as long as you can get a handle on it now.
 
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I’m good in bed, I can sleep over 24 hours! Lol. Done it several times.

Lol I can't sleep that long. I'll wake up at like 9 on days off and go back to sleep over and over until I finally decide to get up. The longest I've slept straight through without being sick was like 14 hours. I had a busy day and decided to take a "nap" at 2 in the afternoon and woke up at like 4 in the morning. I slept through my online class's homework deadline! Saw the time on my phone and was like ****!
 
Lol I can't sleep that long. I'll wake up at like 9 on days off and go back to sleep over and over until I finally decide to get up. The longest I've slept straight through without being sick was like 14 hours. I had a busy day and decided to take a "nap" at 2 in the afternoon and woke up at like 4 in the morning. I slept through my online class's homework deadline! Saw the time on my phone and was like ****!
It’s easy, just sleep for 3-4 hours a night for 6-7 nights in a row ;)
 
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The games are designed to "addict" people, just like many other addictions. The games provide intermittent reinforcement, which is known by behavioral psychologists to be very effective. Gaming "addiction" seems to be very real in some people, and if you have it, your brain chemistry (neurotransmitter levels) can be altered. Do not hesitate to seek mental health evaluation - your "addiction" may be the cause or the result of other issues. You should also consider whether you have ADHD; there is high comorbidity with many types of addictions and the extreme focus on something like a game is not uncommon in ADHD. Retake the course if less than a C. Don't worry what to say to eventual adcoms now. It is possible that only in retrospect (YEARS FROM NOW), you will be able to make sense of this quarter. You are too close to it now. But I will advise you not to lie - that is always the wrong answer.
 
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Hi everyone,

Firstly, I want to apologize for the timing of this post. I took several days to take rest from all this and do some self-reflection. My final grades came back, and they are exactly how I imagined, with the cherry on top being the F in organic chemistry. However, what I had not foreseen was my "academic probation" status. Not fun.

I wish I could tell you guys this addiction happened over night, but it slowly started with fortnite last year, second quarter. My grades dropped to B's. Then third quarter, even more B's. And finally, academic probation this quarter.

And I know now what's going on. I've always had a competitive drive. In high school, i participated in AMC and got to AIME, and got to National chemistry olympiad. In college, there are no so-called competitions. Instead, for some reason I decided to invest all of my time in these silly games in hopes of becoming the next Ninja or Faker, compounded by the League finals this year, which gave me hope that maybe I too would be up there one day. I mean playing video games for a living and making millions? That was enough to provide false justification for me to miss "just one class" which of course turned into 2 and then 3, and then I eventually forgot how my professor even looked like. But I never improved. After almost 2000 games of LoL, I am still in silver. Yeah. I kept thinking it's just a bump in the road, but I should have known then to stop, that this wasnt the path for me.

Now, as someone who is on academic probation, I have to explain to my counselor why I went from someone with a 3.9 gpa on the Dean's list, to this. And even typing this "explanation" out, I feel silly. But as I said in my previous post, it's time for me to face reality, and get help. Hopefully I can move on from this because, let me tell you, it's not super motivating looking at that F on my transcript and imagining my dwindling chances at getting into any sort of med school. But I am also excited at the opportunity to retake orgo chem 1 and show that I can do better, and I AM capable of getting an A. And of course, I can always strive for A's in orgo chem 2 and 3, so theres a lot more chances for me to prove myself, the world isnt ending just yet.

Lastly, there are certain "friends" of mine that I realize have been enabling me. In fact, one of them literally provided me a gaming laptop and mouse. This is the kid from last year that found out I'm the only one from his dorm (we were part of the same unit freshman year along with 5 other guys) that had a higher gpa than him. Oh and btw hes premed. I dont know why this never struck me as odd, and I feel ashamed to remember that my real friends noticed a mood change in me, that i stopped responding to their texts, stopped taking care of my hygiene, stopped going to class, all for a game. Those friends are the ones who realized I was acting differently, not this fake friend who enabled me. So I will be stepping away from those people as well.
 
Hi everyone,

Firstly, I want to apologize for the timing of this post. I took several days to take rest from all this and do some self-reflection. My final grades came back, and they are exactly how I imagined, with the cherry on top being the F in organic chemistry. However, what I had not foreseen was my "academic probation" status. Not fun.

I wish I could tell you guys this addiction happened over night, but it slowly started with fortnite last year, second quarter. My grades dropped to B's. Then third quarter, even more B's. And finally, academic probation this quarter.

And I know now what's going on. I've always had a competitive drive. In high school, i participated in AMC and got to AIME, and got to National chemistry olympiad. In college, there are no so-called competitions. Instead, for some reason I decided to invest all of my time in these silly games in hopes of becoming the next Ninja or Faker, compounded by the League finals this year, which gave me hope that maybe I too would be up there one day. I mean playing video games for a living and making millions? That was enough to provide false justification for me to miss "just one class" which of course turned into 2 and then 3, and then I eventually forgot how my professor even looked like. But I never improved. After almost 2000 games of LoL, I am still in silver. Yeah. I kept thinking it's just a bump in the road, but I should have known then to stop, that this wasnt the path for me.

Now, as someone who is on academic probation, I have to explain to my counselor why I went from someone with a 3.9 gpa on the Dean's list, to this. And even typing this "explanation" out, I feel silly. But as I said in my previous post, it's time for me to face reality, and get help. Hopefully I can move on from this because, let me tell you, it's not super motivating looking at that F on my transcript and imagining my dwindling chances at getting into any sort of med school. But I am also excited at the opportunity to retake orgo chem 1 and show that I can do better, and I AM capable of getting an A. And of course, I can always strive for A's in orgo chem 2 and 3, so theres a lot more chances for me to prove myself, the world isnt ending just yet.

Lastly, there are certain "friends" of mine that I realize have been enabling me. In fact, one of them literally provided me a gaming laptop and mouse. This is the kid from last year that found out I'm the only one from his dorm (we were part of the same unit freshman year along with 5 other guys) that had a higher gpa than him. Oh and btw hes premed. I dont know why this never struck me as odd, and I feel ashamed to remember that my real friends noticed a mood change in me, that i stopped responding to their texts, stopped taking care of my hygiene, stopped going to class, all for a game. Those friends are the ones who realized I was acting differently, not this fake friend who enabled me. So I will be stepping away from those people as well.
Addiction is addiction. Your behavior shows that, you are behaving in a way that is harmful to your goals, even though you know it is harmful. Some can quit smoking or drinking cold Turkey and never look back. Others need more support. If med school is your dream, sell you gaming gear, plug in with school counseling as the sage @Goro recommends and see how thing progress. Getting involved with counseling is necessary as they will be immediately able to provide resources should your cold Turkey approach fail. Good luck and best wishes
 
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Hi everyone,

Firstly, I want to apologize for the timing of this post. I took several days to take rest from all this and do some self-reflection. My final grades came back, and they are exactly how I imagined, with the cherry on top being the F in organic chemistry. However, what I had not foreseen was my "academic probation" status. Not fun.

I wish I could tell you guys this addiction happened over night, but it slowly started with fortnite last year, second quarter. My grades dropped to B's. Then third quarter, even more B's. And finally, academic probation this quarter.

And I know now what's going on. I've always had a competitive drive. In high school, i participated in AMC and got to AIME, and got to National chemistry olympiad. In college, there are no so-called competitions. Instead, for some reason I decided to invest all of my time in these silly games in hopes of becoming the next Ninja or Faker, compounded by the League finals this year, which gave me hope that maybe I too would be up there one day. I mean playing video games for a living and making millions? That was enough to provide false justification for me to miss "just one class" which of course turned into 2 and then 3, and then I eventually forgot how my professor even looked like. But I never improved. After almost 2000 games of LoL, I am still in silver. Yeah. I kept thinking it's just a bump in the road, but I should have known then to stop, that this wasnt the path for me.

Now, as someone who is on academic probation, I have to explain to my counselor why I went from someone with a 3.9 gpa on the Dean's list, to this. And even typing this "explanation" out, I feel silly. But as I said in my previous post, it's time for me to face reality, and get help. Hopefully I can move on from this because, let me tell you, it's not super motivating looking at that F on my transcript and imagining my dwindling chances at getting into any sort of med school. But I am also excited at the opportunity to retake orgo chem 1 and show that I can do better, and I AM capable of getting an A. And of course, I can always strive for A's in orgo chem 2 and 3, so theres a lot more chances for me to prove myself, the world isnt ending just yet.

Lastly, there are certain "friends" of mine that I realize have been enabling me. In fact, one of them literally provided me a gaming laptop and mouse. This is the kid from last year that found out I'm the only one from his dorm (we were part of the same unit freshman year along with 5 other guys) that had a higher gpa than him. Oh and btw hes premed. I dont know why this never struck me as odd, and I feel ashamed to remember that my real friends noticed a mood change in me, that i stopped responding to their texts, stopped taking care of my hygiene, stopped going to class, all for a game. Those friends are the ones who realized I was acting differently, not this fake friend who enabled me. So I will be stepping away from those people as well.
2000 games in silver.........?! How is that even possible, can I see your opgg
 
It's a serious addiction and you need to treat it as such. Get professional help with it.

I'd strongly advise you to quit gaming entirely and get rid of anything that you associate with it. Alcoholics don't do well hanging around in bars.
 
Right now, go on Amazon and order “Organic Chemistry as a Second Language” (the one for first semester) so that you’ll get it in a couple of days..pay extra, if needed, to get it ASAP. Then, start reading/studying it as soon as you get it, everyday, during your break. See if you can restrict your screentime/gaming to 30-60minutes/day AND only AFTER you have spent at least a couple of hours studying Ochem.

You didn’t mention your grades for your other classes. What were they? If you did poorly (below a B) in any of those, also use your textbooks and learn what you should have in addition to the Ochem study time. If you can do this for the next 2-4 weeks while on break, it will give you glimpse as to whether you can sustain difficult coursework and control your gaming.

Also, treat your Xmas break like school time. Set your alarm for 7am and start your day as if it’s a school day. Also, get to bed at a reasonable hour each day!

If you find that you can’t self-discipline by getting up early, going to bed at a reasonable hour, and restricting your gaming to 60 minutes per day, after studying, then gaming must go bye-bye. That may mean handing over all of your “stuff” to a parent and tell them to pack it away or give it away.

I’m not an expert on addictions, but I would think that it might help for you to substitute gaming with something USEFUL and not detrimental....maybe exercise...as long as that wouldn’t become a ridiculous activity.

BTW....what are you doing for medically-related ECs? Put some of that energy towards community involvement!
 
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OP, I will echo what others have already said: If playing video games is a life-consuming compulsion for you, then you need to speak with a mental health professional. Your mental health is way more important than your grades, your pre-med track, or your academic standing.

(Also, those of you who are mocking OP by bringing up "pro sleeping" and asking him for his gaming stats should be ashamed of yourselves. Internet gaming disorder is listed as a "Condition for Further Study" in the DSM-5, and it is likely an impulse-control disorder related to gambling addiction. We are obviously not qualified to say whether the OP suffers from this disorder, but the mere possibility should be enough to discourage us from making jokes at the OP's expense.)
 
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League is designed to suck away ten hours a day while you addicted to it. This is a concept that is foreign to most people outside of the community or people who have gotten tired of the game, but the logistics for someone who was just introduced to the ranking system is that roughly each game takes around 45 minutes to 90 minutes depending on matchmaking and trolls. You roughly earn 10 to 20+ points based on how the matchmaking system assigned the balance of the teams (an elo rating system like Chess) for every game and when you hit 100 points then you go into a series where you play in a best of 3 to go up a division. This being said, someone on an upward trajectory who wants to see the next division will usually average 10 games and possibly more for the day. The gorowannabee account, was correct in touching upon games being designed to be addicting, but was incorrect in pushing ADHD as even a consideration. For people who follow games, they should know that they have spent billions in marketing research to learn how to be addicting, how to retain players, and how to shill them off with microtransactions. Activision basically patented an algorithm for identifying which players are more likely to buy game cosmetics based on lower elo players being matched with higher elo players and wanting to imitate the higher elo player through in-game purchases therefore promoting mismatches in order to the company to make money.

Game design is far more predatory in how it attracts, retains, and shills players than it was a half decade to a decade ago. This is not to excuse the OP's behavior, but I think people are not accustomed to specific mechanics that are built into games which are quite foreign when you look at someone spending ten hours on what appears to just be a single game. It is far more weird considering how the deck is stacked for someone to adopt @Tenk approach which is to have self control and engage in reasonable quantities while they are in the middle of the honeymoon phase with a game like League or Overwatch despite there being competitive professional equivalents back in the day e.g. Halo, Quake, Broodwar, Starcraft.

Games being intrinsically addictive means that the OP is not necessarily a game addict. My impression was that they are going through some variation of escapism especially when considering their prior interest in competition when applied to fields like Chemistry and the fact that they came into Organic I with a 3.9 GPA, 2350+ SAT, and 770+ on 4 different subject tests. I think that their inability to translate their competitive nature into Organic Chemistry resulted in displacement. This inability to translate into Organic Chemistry likely comes from the fact that they had likely never taken it before, therefore it was harder to be on top of things as they had self identified themselves as being a "smart slacker" who came in with a 5 on AP Chemistry and a Thurgood Marshall scholarship according to one of their threads. I think that hitting the wall in a foreign course might have been a culture shock as it likely appeared to be a second language. This combined with the brash youthfulness that comes across in their threads & posts speaks to me more of growing pains and working on sorting out cognitive/behavioral balance rather than addiction, ADHD, and lot of other input pushing the OP to potentially develop a real addiction to a stimulant. In all likelihood, the OP found some degree of unconscious comfort in knowing that they could be competitive in a game with little to no downsides for failure. On the other hand, performing in school and maintaining a perfect GPA is an expectation which just means that every exam thereafter produces anxiety. Another indicator that this is likely growing pains is the fact that the OP chose not to withdraw from class when doing so would have logically freed up more time for them to pursue their new addiction for League of Legends. The fact that they didn't speaks more to brash youthfulness and growing pains than there being addiction.

I think that escapism and addiction while the two share many overlapping qualities and superficial appearances are quite different when it comes to addressing the elephant in the room. For someone who is escaping, they will simply find something else to be addicted to in order to avoid the stimulus. From Fortnite, to League, to... the addictive behavior will shift if the underlying stimulus is not addressed. I think that self awareness of having a problem and constantly working to identify the problem is critical more so than attempting to brute force the surface issue of using 3 weeks to sweat off the addiction. I think addressing the addiction is actually the easiest response and the harder problem at hand is addressing the shift in identity from productivity to stagnancy. How does one cope with being perfect to not being flawed? How well does someone who was performing at an apex deal with compromise? Indications from the initial counseling session indicate that the response wasn't positive and delving into an individual exercise to prepare for Orgo seems pretentious when there are so many rocks left unturned e.g. not reaching out to others, not withdrawing from the class, drastic shift in attitude, etc. (although orgo as 2nd language is a great book!!!) Again, a lot of it has to do with growing pains as it isn't easy to change the focus to the process rather than relishing in the end results. And that's the surface of why many people recommend that you take counseling or seeing a mental health professional on a serious basis.

tl;dr Merry Christmas. Also, I actually think that the OP could be a troll.
 
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1. get serious help with your addiction
2. retake Orgo
3. do well the rest of college and perhaps take classes in your gap year depending on how your GPA shakes out
 
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I don't have anything good to say, but I feel compelled to say these things because it hits kinda close to home.

Through the screen, and I'm not saying this to be mean-spirited or anything, you really sound like an Asian male. I am Asian myself and I've always liked playing computer games in college, though not as seriously as yourself. I had Asian male friends in college who played DOTA, and LoL and had their grades affected like you, but never as seriously as this, and they eventually improved their academic performance and were accepted into med school. If you're not an Asian male then feel slightly relieved that your "sins" while may not be forgiven, may still be corrected. Maybe your MD hopes are shot, maybe your DO hopes too, and maybe this isn't a bad thing. You're right about your judgment being impaired. Your brain is telling you that games are more important than your future professional career, more important than your own health. If after all of this and you still want to play LoL, are still not absolutely repulsed by doing so, maybe you shouldn't pursue medicine as you clearly can't decide right from wrong. And finally, DO NOT blame your behaviors on other people. Sure maybe there were enablers, but you will forget about what they did and focus on what you did. You chose your path.

In all seriousness, I sincerely hope you get better. I don't know how to make you quit, my friends and I always just quit cold turkey when we needed to, because we weren't this far gone. Maybe all you have left right now is this med school thing, and without this you'd be worse off. So do get well.
 
I would highly recommend psychotherapy.

This type of self-sabotaging and avoidant behavior is characteristic of an underlying issue such as depression and/or anxiety. You really need to get whatever you are dealing with under control if you want to do recover from this academically. In fact, I'd recommend you take a lighter load the next quarter or two and take some time to take care of your health. Even if it means you end up needing to take a gap year, it is much better than continuing down a career path that gets even more stressful and demanding at each stage without addressing your issues and learning positive coping skills.
 
As someone who has experienced similar things to this (though mostly just trading studying time to game) it seems like you need to quit cold turkey. This IS a disease and you are not in a stage in your life where this cannot happen. StopGaming Is a pretty great resource and support group for this. I seriously wish you the best.
 
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Not a thread that any premed students wants to make, but it's time for me to face reality, something I've been running from for a long time. I want to warn you that this is gonna be long, I want to be as detailed as possible about my bleak situation. I failed Organic Chemistry 1, the first quarter of a 3 part sequence. Official grades havent come out, but seeing as I went to maybe 2 classes the entire quarter (missing all the clicker questions), missed a lot of online homework, didnt even show up to midterm 1 (fat zero), got like 30% on midterm 2, and a 20% on the final....passing is out of the question. As for background info, I just finished my first quarter of sophomore year, and before this atrocity, you could say I was doing ok (3.6ish gpa).

I came here for advice because I dont trust myself and am, quite honestly, scared of my judgement. I know there are some very smart, successful people here that hopefully can give me wisdom as to what my next course of action should be. Do I retake organic chem 1? I am technically able to take orgo chem 2 but apparently it's much harder, and since I am definitely not prepared, I feel like I would get slaughtered. Graduating on time is not a problem for me cause I have a lot of AP credit, so I'm willing to retake the class in hopes of showing med schools that I can handle the course work.

This all happened due to a serious game addiction (League of Legends), but I'm taking these 3 weeks of winter break to quit this toxic habit. It was a really bad addiction. I would play something around 10 hours a day, miss all my classes, and get maybe 2 hours of sleep a night which perpetuated the cycle of me waking up late, missing my classes, and sleeping late due to excessive playing. If I can successfully quit playing, I know I can do well in my classes. Has anyone struggled with something else similar to this? I'm just worried that when med schools ask about why I had such a bad quarter, I wont be able to give this explanation because video game addiction is seen as kind of childish, but I suppose I can also talk about me being depressed and suffering from asthma attacks (that i have now taken care of after visiting a medical professional).

How do I move on from here? What do I do? I believe the first step is to obviously change my course schedule for next quarter from orgo chem 2 to 1. So if I get a good grade, will I replace my failed grade from first quarter??? Anyway, thank you for reading this. And pls help a brother out.
I have siblings with serious gaming addictions so I sympathize with your pain. I used to game casually in highschool but I stopped after seeing the toll it did on my siblings.

It's good that you've recognized it is an addiction. The next thing you have to do is treat it like such. Seek a therapist or professional or maybe even school counselor that can help you with your gaming addiction. Remove anything that might make you relapse from your home. Throw away/sell all your consoles, controllers, gaming mouse/keyboards, etc.

Your next step is focusing on school. Start speaking to your professors in classes you haven't failed. Ask them what you can do to improve your grades. Retake Organic Chemistry. And please for goodness sake, do not go back to gaming when things turn back around and turn positive. Find a productive non- instant gratification hobby and run with it.
 
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