I can't get A's despite taking a decelerated course load. Help?

[President Trump]

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I am in grad school and chose to take a lighter courseload so that I could graduate with a higher GPA. Slow and steady wins the race, was my thinking.

One semester in and it doesn't look great. I study very hard, and pretty much every day. I only take days off on days there is an exam, and even then I do some reviewing.

16 credits in, I barely have over a 3.0 and students taking the heavier courseload (almost doubled mine) are doing better than me. I'm right around the middle of my class right now (heavy and light students included; 100 students) but I feel like I should be doing way better.

Am I being too hard on myself or is this a cause for concern?

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

I am in grad school and chose to take a lighter courseload so that I could graduate with a higher GPA. Slow and steady wins the race, was my thinking.

One semester in and it doesn't look great. I study very hard, and pretty much every day. I only take days off on days there is an exam, and even then I do some reviewing.

16 credits in, I barely have over a 3.0 and students taking the heavier courseload (almost doubled mine) are doing better than me. I'm right around the middle of my class right now (heavy and light students included; 100 students) but I feel like I should be doing way better.

Am I being too hard on myself or is this a cause for concern?

Probably a cause for concern if you're taking a decelerated course load. Are you in a full-time job? Over-stretching time with volunteering or clinical experiences? If you're in grad school to try to show med schools that you can handle rigorous grad school classes since you may have a lower undergrad GPA, then not performing well could be a huge concern. You need to re-evaluate your study habits because they're obviously not working. Good luck!

 

[President Trump]

Probably a cause for concern if you're taking a decelerated course load. Are you in a full-time job? Over-stretching time with volunteering or clinical experiences? If you're in grad school to try to show med schools that you can handle rigorous grad school classes since you may have a lower undergrad GPA, then not performing well could be a huge concern. You need to re-evaluate your study habits because they're obviously not working. Good luck!

I have yet to fail anything yet, but I just can't seem to get consistent A's. Always Bs. In HS and college it was the same way.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

I have yet to fail anything yet, but I just can't seem to get consistent A's. Always Bs. In HS and college it was the same way.

Not saying you failed. I'm saying that you want to do better in your courses than you did in undergrad. I just graduated with my masters, and, by taking a grad program, you want to show med schools that you have what it takes to perform well in advanced classes. If you are not performing well, then your shot at MD will be a severe uphill battle. You may have a shot at DO though.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Not saying you failed. I'm saying that you want to do better in your courses than you did in undergrad. I just graduated with my masters, and, by taking a grad program, you want to show med schools that you have what it takes to perform well in advanced classes. If you are not performing well, then your shot at MD will be a severe uphill battle. You may have a shot at DO though.

You'll want above a 3.7 GPA in your master's program to be competitive for MD. 3.4-3.5 for DO.

 

[President Trump]

You'll want above a 3.7 GPA in your master's program to be competitive for MD. 3.4-3.5 for DO.

Damn. I feel so worthless. Feels like I study more than everyone else but just can't beat them.

 

[frosted2]

Have you switched up your study techniques? How are you studying? Is it active or passive? If you are studying the same way you did in college/HS and are getting the same results... well... see here.

 

[Donna Moss]

OP can you detail your study plans for us, in order for us to provide feedback.

 

[President Trump]

OP can you detail your study plans for us, in order for us to provide feedback.

Preview the lecture before class (this isn't always the case though). Go to class, which is mandatory. Don't take notes in class, just try to absorb main points. Study after class until nighttime. 20 min breaks every 1 hour. Review the week's material on weekend. Rinse and repeat. For exams, I review my notes and makes practice questions. I go over the learning objectives as practice.

One potential flaw- I rarely read the textbooks, as they have info that isn't usually tested. With the amount of info we already have to know, it just seems unnecessary.

 

[Select All That Apply]

@President Trump You aren't in an educational program to "beat" your peers, you're in it to achieve your own set goals and to come out yourself as gaining understanding of the material, yourself, and the process. There's a lot of reliance on external acceptance for self-validity that is present in your posts and if I were to read in between the lines there is too much of a mind for peer acceptance. A quality that you might share with our current POTUS.

 

[Select All That Apply]

@President Trump What program is this in the first place? Is this a clinical program such as an MD/DO linkage program in biomedical sciences? A masters in public health? Informal post-bac? There's literally so many subject areas that have niche granules of advice that it's inefficient to provide advice without knowing anything about what you are actually doing in terms of educational content.

 

[ciestar]

Textbooks are largely unnecessary imo.

How much ACTIVE review are you doing? Reviewing your notes over and over is more passive and much less effective

 

[JeSuisUnDoc]

Read what I’m going to say. Start studying smarter not harder. I have a 3.9 GPA and I never studied more than 6 hours for an exam and it’s always the night before. It worked for me, because I figured how my brain works. My brother has to study couple hours a day for a week before an exam and he gets A’s. Everyone is different but all who get A’s have one thing in common, they do active and not passive studying.

Trust me, reading isn’t going to get you A’s. You need to test yourself over and over. I like rewriting my notes to organize them based on how I see things. If it’s something that involves just words, I go through my notes and write down questions and answer them over and over again. If it’s science, I like watching YouTube videos then explain them to myself.

There is active and there is passive studying, you need to know your notes by reading them and understanding them. You think you’re done? Hell no, your brain is bored and already forgot all of it. You need to reinforce all the concepts by actually mimicking tests by putting away notes and start quizzing yourself.

I like when people do math problems or other types of problems with the solution next to them and be like oh yeah that makes sense. That doesn’t work!!!! You need to put in the effort. No cheating.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Damn. I feel so worthless. Feels like I study more than everyone else but just can't beat them.

Nah, don't feel worthless fam. Just change your study habits. Work smarter, not harder!! If you can't get that 3.7, show adcoms growth. Start changing your study style and grinddddddd like you've never grinded before. Trust me, you can do it. 🙂 I didn't mean for what I said to be a deterrent or make ya feel bad. I said it to motivate you! Aim for that 3.7+ and make the changes that you need to! Good luck!

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Preview the lecture before class (this isn't always the case though). Go to class, which is mandatory. Don't take notes in class, just try to absorb main points. Study after class until nighttime. 20 min breaks every 1 hour. Review the week's material on weekend. Rinse and repeat. For exams, I review my notes and makes practice questions. I go over the learning objectives as practice.

One potential flaw- I rarely read the textbooks, as they have info that isn't usually tested. With the amount of info we already have to know, it just seems unnecessary.

Try being active in lectures by taking notes. I take notes on my masters program's PowerPoints on my Surface Pro and have all the info that I would need on the exams. I just studied those notes. You have to be able to make connections across lectures, instead of purely memorizing the material.

 

[Robin-jay]

You'll want above a 3.7 GPA in your master's program to be competitive for MD. 3.4-3.5 for DO.

Depends on the masters.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Depends on the masters.

That is the general rule of thumb, my friend. Very common, in fact. Of course, there are exceptions.

 

[Robin-jay]

That is the general rule of thumb, my friend. Very common, in fact. Of course, there are exceptions.

The stats you just mentioned are for SMPs, not traditional masters, which have much larger ranges according to major.

 

[Goro]

I am in grad school and chose to take a lighter courseload so that I could graduate with a higher GPA. Slow and steady wins the race, was my thinking.

One semester in and it doesn't look great. I study very hard, and pretty much every day. I only take days off on days there is an exam, and even then I do some reviewing.

16 credits in, I barely have over a 3.0 and students taking the heavier courseload (almost doubled mine) are doing better than me. I'm right around the middle of my class right now (heavy and light students included; 100 students) but I feel like I should be doing way better.

Am I being too hard on myself or is this a cause for concern?

Check out your school's learning or education center ASAP. OR, consider this a sign that med school is not for you.

 

[Robin-jay]

I am in grad school and chose to take a lighter courseload so that I could graduate with a higher GPA. Slow and steady wins the race, was my thinking.

One semester in and it doesn't look great. I study very hard, and pretty much every day. I only take days off on days there is an exam, and even then I do some reviewing.

16 credits in, I barely have over a 3.0 and students taking the heavier courseload (almost doubled mine) are doing better than me. I'm right around the middle of my class right now (heavy and light students included; 100 students) but I feel like I should be doing way better.

Am I being too hard on myself or is this a cause for concern?

Have we established what masters degree program you're even in (sorry if it was stated somewhere and I couldn't find it)? We can only give limited advice, as we don't even know your major.

 

[President Trump]

Check out your school's learning or education center ASAP. OR, consider this a sign that med school is not for you.

Med school is P/F though.

 

[ciestar]

Med school is P/F though.

Not all of them.
My school is P/F. I was an A student in undergrad and came close to failing several courses the past two years.. plenty of people fail in a P/F curriculum

 

[getdown]

Med school is P/F though.

The P/F of med school is designed to decrease the stress and competition level between students NOT to lower the bar for material mastery. Just because a school is P/F does not mean that they have a hard cut off of 50%. They likely use a standard deviation based on the class exam's mean and go 2 standard deviations below as pass. If that mean is in the 90s and have a small standard deviation, getting a 70 could still mean you failed. Your academic struggles now despite a decelerated course work clearly indicates you are unable to master the material relative to your peers. It may mean your study techniques needs to be changed or you or you're just not cut out to be a med student.

 

[President Trump]

I think it may help if I list my grades so far. Only 3 classes taken but:

A-
B- (messed me up as it was alot of credits)
B+

3.1 gpa overall

 

[Robin-jay]

I think it may help if I list my grades so far. Only 3 classes taken but:

A-
B- (messed me up as it was alot of credits)
B+

3.1 gpa overall

What are the classes though.

If it was Advanced bioengineering concepts 700, and you scored a B-, that's not the end of the world.

We need more than this...

 

[President Trump]

@President Trump What program is this in the first place?

Trump University.

 

[Hi_I'mPaul]

Trump University.

solid choice, you'll get interviews to all schools you apply to. Scratch what I said apply applying only DO, only apply MD. Good day.

 

[Robin-jay]

Trump University.

Why even waste people's time trolling this poorly. At least be a witty, entertaining one.

 

[Catalystik]

I am in grad school and chose to take a lighter courseload so that I could graduate with a higher GPA. Slow and steady wins the race, was my thinking.

One semester in and it doesn't look great. I study very hard, and pretty much every day. I only take days off on days there is an exam, and even then I do some reviewing.

16 credits in, I barely have over a 3.0 and students taking the heavier courseload (almost doubled mine) are doing better than me. I'm right around the middle of my class right now (heavy and light students included; 100 students) but I feel like I should be doing way better.

Am I being too hard on myself or is this a cause for concern?

Your school should have (free) resources available to you like academic counselors or evaluation for learning problems. Do you have an advisor who can make suggestions?

 

[Catalystik]

Trump University.

Which closed in 2010, was not an accredited university, and did not confer college credit or give grades.

 

[President Trump]

Why even waste people's time trolling this poorly. At least be a witty, entertaining one.

I wasn't trolling. I don't want to list more details about my classes to protect my privacy

 

[AttemptingScholar]

Preview the lecture before class (this isn't always the case though). Go to class, which is mandatory. Don't take notes in class, just try to absorb main points. Study after class until nighttime. 20 min breaks every 1 hour. Review the week's material on weekend. Rinse and repeat. For exams, I review my notes and makes practice questions. I go over the learning objectives as practice.

One potential flaw- I rarely read the textbooks, as they have info that isn't usually tested. With the amount of info we already have to know, it just seems unnecessary.

You're doing a poor job convincing us you aren't trolling, but I'm sure other people will have this problem and may actually use the search function, so here's my advice.

I don't consider reviewing notes, reading the textbook, going over learning objectives, or redoing things from class 'studying.' It's what you do to prepare you to study. The only thing you listed that I actually consider studying is making practice questions. Studying should be creative and new. It should be done under testing conditions (no using your notes to remember things!). You should be thinking deeply about the implications of the topics and how you can apply them to outside ideas, be able to fully explain large topics without notes, and consider how the test will likely ask about them.

Consider studying with a group, as I find they often help me find 'blind spots' in topics I forgot to study at all.

 

[JugglesMed]

What i did in undergrad was I made sure to know everything without having to look at questions or hints.
If you can answer questions fill in the blank style, then you can easily answer multiple choice.

 

[President Trump]

Check out your school's learning or education center ASAP. OR, consider this a sign that med school is not for you.

Learning centers seem like a waste of resources. All they tell people is to study smarter, not harder and then make you fill out a schedule planner.

 

[deleted915763]

Sucks to suck I guess...

 

[Goro]

Learning centers seem like a waste of resources. All they tell people is to study smarter, not harder and then make you fill out a schedule planner.

So what's your Plan B?

 

[MyOdyssey]

Learning centers seem like a waste of resources. All they tell people is to study smarter, not harder and then make you fill out a schedule planner.

1. Read the relevant readings BEFORE the corresponding lecture. This will help you understand the lecture better by introducing you to ideas, vocabulary, problem types that you haven't seen previously. Doing this will also allow you to hone in on where the lecture departs from the readings. If a professor departs from the readings, it's because the professor wants to add important stuff that's not in the readings. Therefore, reading beforehand helps you identify the most important stuff from the professor's perspective.

2. Take notes during the lecture. You cannot remember everything said in every class you're taking. Further, the act of taking notes will help you remember. If you do #1, your notes can focus more on stuff that's different from the readings.

3. Rewrite your lecture notes after the lecture. This will force you to think through what's been said and to identify things you don't understand.

4. Work lots and lots of problems from old problem sets, from old exams, from the back of the textbook and from other textbooks that have problems and solutions. Buy (and use) solution manuals that go with your textbooks.

5. Go to office hours if topics come up that you don't understand, if there are problems you can't solve and do so well before any test.

 

[MyOdyssey]

So what's your Plan B?

And consider hiring a tutor to go over your problem set solutions if office hours are inadequate.

Always try to write out your own answers to problem sets and old exam questions first. Always. The act of doing so will force you to try integrating the material being presented in class.

 

[Typeracer]

It's exceedingly bad not to perform well in a grad program because med schools are going to assume you've been through enough schooling and had enough chances to prove you're capable of handling med school.

With that said, as everyone else has alluded to, you need to strategize. If something isn't working, adapt. Imagine you're trying to throw a ball over a wall. If you can't throw high enough to get it over, stop throwing it. Try kicking it or bouncing it or building a contraption to get it over. It sounds like the conclusion you've come to is you're going to just spend more hours throwing it.

 

[President Trump]

Sucks to suck I guess...

Found the internet tough guy. How's premed going?

 

[Goro]

Let's keep things civil here, kids.

 

[DrMcCoyDO]

Sucks to suck I guess...

Said the pre-med who hasn’t even taken the MCAT yet.

Congrats, your comment just made OP’s posts on this thread seem sane by comparison!

 

[DokterMom]

You're not doing a lot of the basics like reading the textbook and taking notes in class. How can you dismiss these two core items without even trying them? Yeah, the books might be low-yield, but without even trying them, how can you say that? They might just fill in the gaps in understanding that are keeping you in the B zone.

And no notes? The simple physical act of writing notes (and then reorganizing and rewriting them) can be extremely helpful in helping you structure and organize your thoughts. Try taking notes, reviewing and annotating them shortly after class, then rewriting and reorganizing them right before bedtime. (I find reorganizing ideas right before bedtime to be particularly effective -- they tend to resettle overnight.)

And dismissing the learning center? Again without really giving it a shot?

Do what you've always done and get what you've always got. And the longer you make excuses and refuse to try things, the longer you stay on a road of mediocrity that will never take you where you want to go. It may already be too late...

 

[President Trump]

Said the pre-med who hasn’t even taken the MCAT yet.

Congrats, your comment just made OP’s posts on this thread seem sane by comparison!

Most of these commenters are premeds. Neurotic pre-meds, to be more precise. I appreciate the advice from everyone else here.

 

[President Trump]

You're not doing a lot of the basics like reading the textbook and taking notes in class. How can you dismiss these two core items without even trying them? Yeah, the books might be low-yield, but without even trying them, how can you say that? They might just fill in the gaps in understanding that are keeping you in the B zone.

And no notes? The simple physical act of writing notes (and then reorganizing and rewriting them) can be extremely helpful in helping you structure and organize your thoughts. Try taking notes, reviewing and annotating them shortly after class, then rewriting and reorganizing them right before bedtime. (I find reorganizing ideas right before bedtime to be particularly effective -- they tend to resettle overnight.)

And dismissing the learning center? Again without really giving it a shot?

Do what you've always done and get what you've always got. And the longer you make excuses and refuse to try things, the longer you stay on a road of mediocrity that will never take you where you want to go. It may already be too late...

I still have 16 credits left...

 

[DokterMom]

I still have 16 credits left...

It'll take more than that, I'm afraid. From what you've written, it sounds like you have a 16.5-year history of being a B+ student. It would take more than one semester in a graduate program to convince me you have the academic chops to succeed in the med school furnace.

 

[Goro]

I still have 16 credits left...

You need to ace things from now on, with a rigorous course load, and then more, to convince an Adcom that you can handle med school. So far, you havn't done that. 16 credits is a single semester. That alone will not be enough.

 

[President Trump]

It'll take more than that, I'm afraid. From what you've written, it sounds like you have a 16.5-year history of being a B+ student. It would take more than one semester in a graduate program to convince me you have the academic chops to succeed in the med school furnace.

Pretty sure it expired now, but I had a 32 MCAT.

 

[Goro]

Pretty sure it expired now, but I had a 32 MCAT.

That tells us that you're a good test taker.

I can't sugar coat this, with your academics, how do you know that you can handle the rigor of med school? Do you just "know"?

If you're just barely making a B with a lightened course load, med school will kill you.

 

[President Trump]

That tells us that you're a good test taker.

I can't sugar coat this, with your academics, how do you know that you can handle the rigor of med school? Do you just "know"?

If you're just barely making a B with a lightened course load, med school will kill you.

I just feel like that one B minus was a fluke. The next semester already started and I currently have an A with 30% of the grade accounted for. If I can finish with a 3.3/3.4 and get a 512 on the new MCAT what are my DO chances?