How many people didn't do so well in undergrad?

[medskool23]

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I just want to know the stories of some people who didn't do so well in undergrad and how bad did they do? Also how did you all turn things around to get into med school?

 

[ZedsDed]

Spend some loving time with the search bar and you can answer all of these questions.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

The nontrad forum has a below 3.0 GPA thread. Enjoy.

 

[Major]

Yub. It can be done BUT it's a long, tough, and lonely road...I've spent the last 3 years making up for my past mistakes and am finally ready to apply this May

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

First 1.5-2 years in UG I had I believe 2 D's, 1 F, 3 or 4 C's and 1 W and the rest was mostly B's. Junior year I hit like a 3.5, Senior year I hit a 3.75, and my 5th year I hit like a 3.9-4.0.

So overall when I left undergrad I felt very competent, but I am aware that it took me a while to get my crap down and learn how I learned best. A lot of it was confidence too. When I started college I didnt know what I wanted to do with my life and felt like I was not good at anything. As I grew into myself as a man and really envisioned my future I was able to get my life in a little better order. I learned how to study harder in a shorter amount of time and do better. I think a lot of it was just natural maturity that was gained with every year that passed. Hopefully the trend will continue when I start med school in the fall haha.

 

[EDK]

First 1.5-2 years in UG I had I believe 2 D's, 1 F, 3 or 4 C's and 1 W and the rest was mostly B's. Junior year I hit like a 3.5, Senior year I hit a 3.75, and my 5th year I hit like a 3.9-4.0.

So overall when I left undergrad I felt very competent, but I am aware that it took me a while to get my crap down and learn how I learned best. A lot of it was confidence too. When I started college I didnt know what I wanted to do with my life and felt like I was not good at anything. As I grew into myself as a man and really envisioned my future I was able to get my life in a little better order. I learned how to study harder in a shorter amount of time and do better. I think a lot of it was just natural maturity that was gained with every year that passed. Hopefully the trend will continue when I start med school in the fall haha.

Out of curiosity, when people say they learned how to study better, is there like a secret technique to retain more info easily or is it just a way of saying better time management? I actually feel like I'm not studying as well as I want to be and would greatly appreciate some advise. Thanks

 

[MightBeACylon439]

Out of curiosity, when people say they learned how to study better, is there like a secret technique to retain more info easily or is it just a way of saying better time management? I actually feel like I'm not studying as well as I want to be and would greatly appreciate some advise. Thanks

The secret technique I used was maturity, drive and always asking a question when you don't understand something no matter how stupid it was.

 

[futuredoc331]

I didn't do horribly, but I didn't do well a lot of the time either. I've got a handful of C's and even a D+ in a 100 level chem. Like others, I just didn't know what I wanted to do as a career, but I knew I needed a degree so I went through the motions.

Once I figured out that I wanted to become a doctor I've managed a 3.87 over 59 credit hours of pre-reqs and upper level sciences. Will it be good enough? I guess we'll find out a the end of the year. I have hope though and you should too. It might just take a while.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

Out of curiosity, when people say they learned how to study better, is there like a secret technique to retain more info easily or is it just a way of saying better time management? I actually feel like I'm not studying as well as I want to be and would greatly appreciate some advise. Thanks

Youtube active learning methods. Watch this . Choose better classes using ratemyprofessor as a guide.

 

[Shinobiz11]

Just being lazy for classes i thought weren't important (chemistry mostly)

 

[Awesome Sauceome]

Out of curiosity, when people say they learned how to study better, is there like a secret technique to retain more info easily or is it just a way of saying better time management? I actually feel like I'm not studying as well as I want to be and would greatly appreciate some advise. Thanks

Definitely just maturity and drive. Obviously its not like I drank some magic juice and became better. Basically there is an intellectual change that occurred and a management/decision type of change that occurred.

On the management side of things the decision was to not screw around when I study. Now when I study, I study hard, like it is a job. I do not go on facebook or screw around with friends or tell myself that I am hungry so I end up at Taco bell 4 times in 8 hours. Those were the types of things that I did early on in undergrad and it was reflected in my grades. I realized that I study best alone or with no more than 2 people. I make a conscious decision to study for 50 minutes straight and take a 10 minute break. Maybe that means I go to the bathroom or go for a walk, or whatever. The break is just as important as the time studying, you physically stop retaining new material after 50 minutes, look up the studies. During those 50 minutes I would go non-stop. I would focus on the task at hand, I would set goals, and I would reach those goals. By spending more time on focused studying you end up having to study for less time. The idea being to work hard then play hard. There is a time to study, and thats all you should be doing in that time. Then there will be a time to relax, and that is all you should be doing. Early on my problem was that I did both at the same time, I confused the two. You have to understanding that relaxing and studying are legit complete opposite of each other. I worked manual labor for a few years. In those jobs you would have distinct periods of hard work followed by distinct periods of rest. You should treat your mental/intellectual work in the same manner, even though it is easy to become passive while reading a book or whatever. Treat your intellectual work as an active process.

The second was intellectual. Basically I learned how to know what type of studying worked for which professor and how they test. Being open to trying different things is important. For biochem I would go heavily over my notes from class. I would rewrite the entire set of notes and then actively write down pathways and such over and over again from memory. I would force myself to know it, not just passively read a book or see the picture of the pathways. For physics I would take my notes from class and grab the important parts and make very concise study sheets which would contain all that I need to know in just a page or two. For cell biology I would skip class altogether and just reread the book over and over again. By the time a test came I would have read the chapters 3 or 4 times. I literally have read that 1,500 page book multiple times over. The first pass through I would just read, the second pass through I would highlight, the third pass through I would add (in pen or sticky notes) other things on the topic that I found on wikipedia or whatever. The idea is to just be ready to adapt. As I understand it, this is an important skill to have in medical school as well.

So the trick is to not follow the crowd and what they are doing - most people are not doing well in school lol. If you know you get nothing out of that class then skip it and study on your own, even if your friends give you crap (my friends sure did). If you have too many notes from that class then find ways to grab the important material and focus it down into more concise notes. Find ways to test yourself on the material or force yourself to recall the information. If there are equations or metabolic pathways or anatomical structures that you just straight up need to memorize. Then sit your butt down in that chair and dont get up until they are locked in your brain. Use flashcards, draw the stuff out from memory - whatever it takes for you to transition from passively seeing the material to knowing the material.

Sorry that was such a ramble, but that is how my grades went from D's and C's to A's.

 

[Solving4gravity]

Ended first year with significantly lower than a 2.0 GPA. Decided to stop screwing around, go to class, and open a book. Brought it up to 3.7 (with grade replacement). Accepted to multiple schools this year. Just gotta want it.