How to do better in the sciences? Seeking advice?

[eccles1214]

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Despite studying hard, my science grades suck. I'm studying harder than I've ever studied, yet I still cannot do as well as I would like. What is even more frustrating is that some of my smarter classmates study far fewer hours than I do, yet get better grades. "Study the principles, and you'll do fine," they said. It worked for them -- they all got A's. I tried the same approach - with their coaching -- and got a D on the same test in which they got A's.


Part of the problem is a memory thing: I have a hard time recalling information during a test, yet I can easily recall it after the test.

Take the OChem final. I approached Ochem by learning the principles of electron pushing -- or so I thought. While I could the homework fine without help, on tests -- even with the same questions -- I couldn't recall hardly anything. Yet, when I walked out of the test, all the information came back to me -- again without looking at the textbook. This is not the first time this has happened; it has happened on almost all of my tests during the past four semesters.

As a result, my grades are rather poor. I'm thinking of staying in school another two or three years just to make up my science GPA, althought those years would probably be in grad school, since I graduate in three years.

Overall, the lesson that I'm learning is that what works with others doesn't work for me, and that I cannot let other students convince me that their approach will succeed with me even though it has been a successful approach for them.

So the question is, "How can I find an approach that works?" when the several other study methods (SQ4R, flash cards, doing problem after problem) has failed me nearly every time?

 

[justin984]

It sounds like a confidence thing to me. If you're remembering the facts after the test then you've learned the information, you're just clamming up during the test. If you think you're going to fail, you will, if you think you're going to ace it, you will.

 

[Law2Doc]

Despite studying hard, my science grades suck. I'm studying harder than I've ever studied, yet I still cannot do as well as I would like. What is even more frustrating is that some of my smarter classmates study far fewer hours than I do, yet get better grades. "Study the principles, and you'll do fine," they said. It worked for them -- they all got A's. I tried the same approach - with their coaching -- and got a D on the same test in which they got A's.


Part of the problem is a memory thing: I have a hard time recalling information during a test, yet I can easily recall it after the test.

Take the OChem final. I approached Ochem by learning the principles of electron pushing -- or so I thought. While I could the homework fine without help, on tests -- even with the same questions -- I couldn't recall hardly anything. Yet, when I walked out of the test, all the information came back to me -- again without looking at the textbook. This is not the first time this has happened; it has happened on almost all of my tests during the past four semesters.

As a result, my grades are rather poor. I'm thinking of staying in school another two or three years just to make up my science GPA, althought those years would probably be in grad school, since I graduate in three years.

Overall, the lesson that I'm learning is that what works with others doesn't work for me, and that I cannot let other students convince me that their approach will succeed with me even though it has been a successful approach for them.

So the question is, "How can I find an approach that works?" when the several other study methods (SQ4R, flash cards, doing problem after problem) has failed me nearly every time?

Science courses can be aced without rote memory and without understanding the principles all that well (at least I sure didn't). The key is to do problems over and over and over and over... You need to do problems until you can do them in your sleep and you ideally want to work with at least one other person who can talk you through the problems you cannot do. And don't just do the problems assigned as homework, go pick up eg one of those 1000 organic chemistry problems books you can find in any bookstore, and do them as well.

I can't tell from your post what age you are, but one suggestion I have is to perhaps take some time away from science and come back to it. There are people I've known for whom the sciences just "click" later in life and while they might struggle at 25, they can master it at 30.

And one other concern is your test anxiety/memory issues. You need to figure out a way to get past this. I don't know if its a self confidence thing, something that requires meds, or whatever. But you want to get a handle on it before med school when the real memory and test anxiety hurdles will hit. Good luck.

 

[BitingPlates]

Exactly, do the problems over and over again. If one problem would give me trouble I would do it over and over until it stuck. The test anxiety, I don't know because sometimes I have problems with that myself, if you can try some relaxation breathing before the test that might help, using really deep breaths. goodluck to you

 

[AlkaIL]

Go to a counselor at your school, they help people deal with test anxiety all the time. And talk to your instructor!