How to get a 3.5+ in undergrad

[MaenadsDance]

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One last thing -- community college takes all sorts. Make friends not with people your own age - other 18yos who don't know jack about life -- but with the nontrads: people coming back for a second degree and career change, or people who started college late in life, people with kids or people who are working full time. These are the people who are DEAD SERIOUS about their educations. They won't always have a lot of innate "talent", but they are the people who will study a week ahead of every test, who will take organized notes, who will photocopy said notes if you have to miss a class (which you shouldn't if you can help it).

Dedicated older nontrads in community college are going to outnumber the reformed slackers (who happen to have high IQs). Get in with THEM, not the cute lazy smart-alec potheads or the people who can get you a fake ID.

 

[munchymanRX]

I will be going to community college in the fall because I was the smart kid that never took high school seriously. I always skipped class, slept in class, hardly ever did my homework, smoked weed all the time, and quite honestly, didn't learn nearly as much as I could have.

I think everyone knows someone like this.

I know there's no magic bullet for success but surely there are some general tips that will help. I know that discipline is surely the first step.

Becoming the doctor means the world to me, and I know I can put in the work. Problem is, I don't know what it takes because I've never tried that hard in my life.

Seeing students that I KNOW I was smarter than (not a brag), make it to top universities depresses me, but motivates me to turn my ways around and become a success story.

Some advice please 🙁.

Sleep with your TAs. 😎


Seriously though. Just be disciplined and develop a routine for studying. Take care of yourself healthwise. Feeling better leads to better academic performance.

 

[UrshumMurshum]

You're not even remotely funny.
Seriously 0/10.

Someone was a psychology major.

I wasn't being funny. Follow those steps.

 

[jjeangi]

One last thing -- community college takes all sorts. Make friends not with people your own age - other 18yos who don't know jack about life -- but with the nontrads: people coming back for a second degree and career change, or people who started college late in life, people with kids or people who are working full time. These are the people who are DEAD SERIOUS about their educations. They won't always have a lot of innate "talent", but they are the people who will study a week ahead of every test, who will take organized notes, who will photocopy said notes if you have to miss a class (which you shouldn't if you can help it).

Dedicated older nontrads in community college are going to outnumber the reformed slackers (who happen to have high IQs). Get in with THEM, not the cute lazy smart-alec potheads or the people who can get you a fake ID.

Sound advice. Wasn't expecting to hear anything like this at all.

Thanks man.

 

[Ignatius M.D.]

Eh.... some people don't find medical school to be that difficult.

Some, but it's generally not the overly cocky person that went to an easy uni and pulled a 3.8 without working. There is simply too much "big fish little pond syndrome" on SDN. Well, pre-allo at least 😉. None of us are as smart as we think we are. It's like a person who was the best mathematics student in their high school, thought they were awesome, and then took multivariable calc at Duke and barely broke average. Yeah, there's the odd student that remains the best, simply because someone has to be, but many find themselves as "normal" med students despite being superstars earlier. (and there's nothing wrong with that)

The introduction of P/F grading helps too.

 

[HealthE]

I too was looking for a formula for success, and I realized there isn't any formula out there. I think college success comes from within. If you are able to fight pressures of living life as a traditional teen, take matters seriously, and persevere for success then you should be quite alright.
Being too late as it is for me to fix up my GPA, one thing I do regret not doing is actively meeting with professors to figure out questions I had on the subject. Wish I did that in Orgo II...but yea, even if they seem unapproachable, it's their dang jobs!
Something my dad always tells me "Never EVER be ashamed to ask for help."

This is so true.

 

[dechristine]

I had a similar experience in high school (though I got good grades, I often cruised by without trying too hard because I thought I was "naturally smart"), and I'm also going to be a freshman in college this year! Here's my advice.

1. Accept the fact that you won't be the smartest person in your classes in college. I was lucky to learn this in high school.

2. Don't look down on people who have to study a lot to have good grades. In fact, become one of them! At the end of the day, if one person receives an A after studying for 9 hours, and you receive a B after not studying at all, that person still has an A while you have a B. Being smart doesn't matter if you don't work for it.

3. Make generalizations while answering questions during homework that you can apply to tests. For example, in chemistry you can always convert to moles and play with the units. In physics, I found that in each unit there were many different types of problems, but each type had the same way to solve it. If you learn and remember how to solve each type, you're set.