freshman year finals anxiety??

[coolsongno2]

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[Sardinia]

Hi everybody!! I'm a second semester freshman & I'm on the border of an A- / A in both anatomy&physiology and psychology, I need high As on both these finals to get As in the class, and I have them on the same day one hour apart. 😳 Does anyone have advice on dealing with something like this & how to study for finals so close together? Should I expect the A- to avoid psyching myself out?
Thank you!!

Identify the questions you've missed or haven't gotten correct. Try to understand the common element behind these problems and then design a study plan to tackle them. Contact the professor for each class and see if you have the test scheduled at a later time or another day. If this is not possible then prepare for the day by treating it as a two subject testing block with a 30-45 minute break period. Create short-cut review/cheat-sheet so you can speed review the important concepts in 10 minutes or less e.g. key terms, anki, quizlet. Take a short nap in the interim period to restore mental acuity if you feel like the first test is going to be exhausting. Prepare to get an A by designing a plan that you think will work. If it doesn't work, then you will gain some insight as to how you think and learn which will enable you to get more desirable scores in the future. You are still a freshman and there will be more scrutiny for performance in later coursework than a freshman year A versus an A-. Pushing yourself to succeed is more critical than actually succeeding at this point in time.

 

[coolsongno2]

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[Sardinia]

I am not an admissions coordinator. I do not understand the peculiarities of their thinking. However, it is known that performance is looked at holistically. Two students have a 3.6 GPA and one student got theirs through a 4.0 first year and then subpar scores on a downward regression line each of the following three years. This shows that the student wasn't able to handle the harder coursework to the same degree. If the second student is able to maintain a consistent 3.6 throughout all four years it shows that the student's ability to perform is consistent because they have a solid cognitive framework with adaptable fundamentals. This is a student who you can throw into novel situation and you would predict they would perform better than the former student.

As for the amount of importance placed on A&P, if the difference is between A- and an A for a freshman level course, then I have as much of an accurate impression as you do about predicting how it will pan out in a selection committee process. I would honestly get rid of the GPA calculator and focus on mastering the subject material if the grade calculators themselves are distracting you from the learning process. @Goro can likely provide more useful information than I can regarding your situation outside of concentration problems.

 

[Goro]

Hi everybody!! I'm a second semester freshman & I'm on the border of an A- / A in both anatomy&physiology and psychology, I need high As on both these finals to get As in the class, and I have them on the same day one hour apart. 😳 Does anyone have advice on dealing with something like this & how to study for finals so close together? Should I expect the A- to avoid psyching myself out?
Thank you!!

Just do the best you can, and try to understand that even failing a course or two is not lethal to your med school chances, especially if it's early on.

Hyperneurorticism may very well kill one's chances, because you'll simply burn out.

Lastly, please don't be one of those people who think of any grade less than an A+ as a sign of weakness or a loss of face.

 

[leonardoson]

Realize that if all you have are A's and A's on your app, you are ahead of most of the pack.