I'd like to hear from science/engineering majors with 3.6+ GPA

[SugarNaCl]

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For the benefit of everyone without a 3.6 GPA (which is now near the average for dental school admissions), including me, who didn't have a 3.6 until my MS program... How do you maintain such a good GPA over a period of 4 years? If possible, answer these questions for your most difficult classes:

1. What did you do every night to prepare (if not every night, how often)?

eg. I had a friend that would come home at night and rewrite all of her notes making sure she understood them fully.

2. How far in advance did you study for an exam?

3. How many hours did you spend studying during the week and right before exams?

4. How did you manage to balance all of your tough classes in one semester?

Thanks! 😉

 

[building]

For the benefit of everyone without a 3.6 GPA (which is now near the average for dental school admissions), including me, who didn't have a 3.6 until my MS program... How do you maintain such a good GPA over a period of 4 years? If possible, answer these questions for your most difficult classes:

1. What did you do every night to prepare (if not every night, how often)?

eg. I had a friend that would come home at night and rewrite all of her notes making sure she understood them fully.

2. How far in advance did you study for an exam?

3. How many hours did you spend studying during the week and right before exams?

4. How did you manage to balance all of your tough classes in one semester?

Thanks! 😉

1. No normal preparation, lectures are typically useless, and I found discussions to be better. I did homework when it was due, studied the night before quizzes etc.
2. 1-2 days before an exam.
3. Studied the night or two nights before the exam, hardcore cram style - so the afternoons and nights after class
4. planned ahead when mts would be on the same day and studied ahead of schedule.

For me, studying the night before the exam has always been most effective, although it doesn't necessarily encourage retention. I found studying far in advance like trying to study for a midterm a week before the test pretty inefficient. Knowledge that I obtained would sometimes get hazy and get confused with similar stuff. If it was a big test that i studied for, I would make sure i got general concepts down before the test, and cram for specifics right before.

I've always been looking for better ways for my personal studying, but have yet to find anything that gets me better grades. Although I believe that studying over long periods of time will result a better base of knowledge, cramming has worked to get better grades.

Hopefully when I get to dental school, I'll be in a system where I'll be encouraged to learn instead of cram.

 

[dental0903]

I'll give this a shot since I don't have anything to study for right now anyways...

1. For my hardest classes (organic, biochem, physiology, histology, grad micro) I made flashcards. I know some people think that is terribly inefficient, which it is sometimes, but it really worked well for me. You can study for hours at a time, but until you really ask yourself a question about the material, how do you know that you know it? That's why I use flashcards. I also try to read the chapters for each test about 2-3 times. Also, for biochem I made a very lovely poster detailing glycolysis and the TCA cycle. I color coded all the enzymes and arrows and that helped me memorize the whole sequence.

2. For the exams in the above mentioned hard classes, I started to study about 5 days ahead of time. I never really fell too far behind in any class, so 5 days was usually enough time for me. Plus, I don't like cramming at the end, so I wouldn't start any later than that usually.

3. I don't study for long periods of time because I can't sit still long enough. Instead I study for 45 minutes and then take a 15 minute break and get up and walk around. Then, I study for another 45 minutes and so on....

4. I'm not sure how I managed all my classes in one semester. I once took organic, physics, genetics, and micro all with labs together. That sucked. I don't recommend it. But, I generally think writing down goals of what you want to accomplish each day works well. When I am really busy, I will write down all the studying and homework that I need to do that day. Then, I am very aware about what I need to accomplish. It works for me...



But, there is no replacement for the motivation I get from being financially responsible for my own education. There's nothing that scares the crap out of me more than the possibility of having to repeat a class because I didn't do well enough in it or losing my academic scholarships.

 

[toothfairy85]

Sometimes I wonder myself. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I was a student-athlete and so outside of practices, weights, games, traveling, etc. I had to discipline myself to buckle down and study, and study in advance for my harder classes... even if it meant studying on a 9 hour bus trip to Louisiana and being ridiculed by my teammates for studying all the time. This meant that I stayed in on Fridays to study as well. I think one of my strengths was taking good notes and getting to know my professors really well. I had to take good notes to make up for the times I would miss class, and same with getting to know my professors. I ended up "retiring" from college sports after my sophomore year to focus on graduating in 4 years and starting dental school. This may seem crazy, but I always found it easier to stay focused when I was taking 18 hours, and keeping myself busy. I have never been a big proponent of reading the textbooks unless there is something I don't understand from lecture that needs clarification, so I would re-write my notes and/or make flashcards. Flashcards can be extremely time-consuming as I have found out there is not enough time to do them for all the classes I need to in dental school, but it was probably the best thing I did for myself in undergrad. It took time to make them but I was also learning the material at the same time. I always had a list of things to do in my planner every day, and I didn't go to bed until they were all crossed off. Sometimes this meant getting as little as 4 hours of sleep, but I knew what I had to do to get to where I am today.

 

[ElectraOnAzalea]

1. What did you do every night to prepare (if not every night, how often)?
Definitely didn't do anything every night. I go to class everyday to make sure I'm getting the best notes i can (even if you get notes from another person who is a good note-taker, chances are they left something out accidentally.)

2. How far in advance did you study for an exam?
Depending on how hard/important the test is going to be. Usually 2-3 days in advance. This gives me enough time to read the chapters, go over my notes and correlate whatever i wrote down to what they say in the book, and to rewrite important concepts. After i rewrite the important things on a couple sheets of paper i carry it around with me so i can go over things sporadically throughout the day.

3. How many hours did you spend studying during the week and right before exams?
Probably about 4 hours a night 2 days before the exam with a few breaks.

4. How did you manage to balance all of your tough classes in one semester?

I've taken a semester w/ 21 hours and a few with 19 hours of mostly science classes. Luckily, i go to a small college and all the science professors are really good about test scheduling. If the majority of the class has another test on a given day they'll move the test around. This really helped to balance study time. Whenever i have a few tests the same day (finals week) I just start further in advance and make sure i go ove rthe important things nightly so they don't become jumbled.

 

[Khala Jaan]

For the benefit of everyone without a 3.6 GPA (which is now near the average for dental school admissions), including me, who didn't have a 3.6 until my MS program... How do you maintain such a good GPA over a period of 4 years? If possible, answer these questions for your most difficult classes:

1. What did you do every night to prepare (if not every night, how often)?
hmm watch tv and go over flashcards...
eg. I had a friend that would come home at night and rewrite all of her notes making sure she understood them fully.

2. How far in advance did you study for an exam?
i make flashcards one week prior to exams, so i can go through them lazily for a week 🙂
3. How many hours did you spend studying during the week and right before exams?
about half hour a day...mostly dont study the nite before...i go for a run or something to get the blood moving for the exam the next day
4. How did you manage to balance all of your tough classes in one semester?
study waaay in advance and understand every word of lecture before starting to study on my own...and i dont ask other students to answer my questions..i prefer to keep the prof as my "study buddy"..more reliable 🙂
Thanks! 😉
Your welcome 😀

 

[Lurchdubious]

How do you maintain such a good GPA over a period of 4 years? If possible, answer these questions for your most difficult classes:

1. What did you do every night to prepare (if not every night, how often)?
I'm good at reading ahead before lecture for about the first two weeks, beyond that, i won't prepare for lecture but i'll study the night before & morning of quizzes.

2. How far in advance did you study for an exam?

3 days. 2 if really busy.

3. How many hours did you spend studying during the week and right before exams?

i average 10-12 hrs per exam per week. if i have no exams in a given week i'll spend <2 hrs total just going over notes. if i know i have a tough week coming up then i study a lot more during the slow week.

4. How did you manage to balance all of your tough classes in one semester?

prioritize. study for the class with the closest exam/quiz first. you can also make your life easier by balancing hard classes with easier ones in any given semester.

another study tip from an awful procrastinator: when you sit down to study, tackle the class you like least, first. (unless you need to spend time on exam prep first).

i've never been big on all-nighters either. study till midnight if you must, then get some sleep & wake up at 4 or 5 or at least 3 hours before your exam so you're fresh and alert. also, eat something healthy for breakfast! skipping breakfast is a big mistake.

hope this helps!

 

[harjay]

Preface: I cram really well. If I have a general understanding of the material and I do all of the assignments or homeworks, I'm generally set to at least pass the test. I spend the extra few hours making sure I know how to do everything
1. What did you do every night to prepare (if not every night, how often)?
I didn't do anything specific every night, just try not to get behind on assignments

2. How far in advance did you study for an exam?
Typically the night before, maybe 2 nights if I wouldn't have time or if it was a hardcore class I was worried about

3. How many hours did you spend studying during the week and right before exams?
For every class, I studied until I was "done". I went through all of the material until I knew it. If I was too tired (which happens alot for me) to coherently read text, I went to bed and woke up at 5am the next morning (I recommend this, you're very alert the next day). Hours ranged from 2-8 usually

4. How did you manage to balance all of your tough classes in one semester?
I had an interview question very much like this at UCLA. I just found myself spending less time on recreation. Fewer video games and TV, more time on the book, especially in the middle of the quarter. But 10 weeks later it's over and time to refresh again. I just buckled down and got through it