Getting C's in masters program

[Speednewb]

Hi guys,

This has really been bothering me and it's really bringing me down. No matter how much I study I keep getting C's in masters program. I've been thinking that I do enough studying because I end up teaching some of my buddies the concepts but then they end up all doing better than me. It's really ticking me off. I have 3 C+'s and Anatomy...dont even get me started. But point being is that I study but it's not doing me any good vs. my friends who end up doing better than me even though I help them learn the material. What in the world am I doing wrong? Help guys

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[okiedokeartichoke]

What are your study habits? I'm taking Anatomy & Physio now, and I understand that it can be a lot to take in, but how are you studying for that class?

 

[Speednewb]

Well...I usually try to understand the concept the same day as the lecture and a few days before the exam I review the material.

 

[cacajuate]

Well...I usually try to understand the concept the same day as the lecture and a few days before the exam I review the material.

Spread out the information more. How many days is a few days before the exam? If you are having trouble recalling doing it that way, you need to lengthen the amount of days before.

 

[okiedokeartichoke]

Well, that's good at least! What do you do to study though? Read the lecture slides only? Personal notes? Textbook? Everything? What I find helpful for anatomy is to create flashcards and go through them each day leading up to the exam.

 

[Frank22]

The key to getting good grades can be summarized in one word: preparedness. Be prepared for the upcoming exam. Be prepared for any homework or quizzes. Be prepared for any presentations and understand the material from the previous lecture so you can be prepared to follow along with the current lecture.

 

[jmcunnin]

Following this thread because I'm a little down and out myself. I'm taking post bacc prereq classes. I've done well so far, up until
taking cell and molec this semester. I'm failing, and I'm probably going to drop the class because I don't see myself being able to pull my grade up. It's very frustrating because I study the same way I do in other classes, and every other prereq I've made all A's with only 2 B's. So I am hoping some of the suggestions can help me out as well.

I also struggled with Anatomy last semester, but I ended up with a B. I wish I had some better suggestions for you, but I mostly just studied notes from class and PowerPoint slides.

 

[kobbix]

try to make sure you're staying engaged while the class is going. I've found my friends are just absent minded during a lecture, whereas I'm trying to "study" as I listen and type notes. Tis helps immensely when it comes study time

 

[darknightzzz]

contrary to popular belief that bio can be studied by brute force and hard work, some upper div bio classes above posters mention actually require high end logical thinking and critical thinking . whereas lower div bio u can get by with brute force and memorization

you need to be able to study diff facts (fragments) and piece it into a system (a big picture) only u can do this ull improve doing well

this means u have to change ur study style. dont ask me how to change cuz im this type of learner already and actually struggle to memorize stuff in lower div

 

[Teeth4Life1234]

I may be a bit late in this convo, but I was a tutor in physiology at a masters level.

Most of the students I tutored were putting in a lot of time studying, but were still performing poorly. What I did was I tried to help them link all of the concepts together. I'm not sure about your program, but a lot of classes in our program have exams that consist mainly of 2nd and 3rd order questions. This requires you to understand the material, and also be able to "connect the dots" so to speak.

Try studying on your own, and get together with a group. Each time, have everyone make 10-15 questions that everyone else will try to discuss and answer them.

If you are a visual learner, get a huge whiteboard (or use your window) and dry erase markers. Draw concept maps, diagrams, etc.

However, if you have multiple C's in a masters program, I would recommend you to take a LOA. Yeah, it sucks, but it sucks even more to finish a masters and be right back where you started. Or worse.