im pissed as hell

i am trying hard to resist the urge to put the rolleyes smiley in here.

key to your post -- you're a freshman. you said it yourself. there is much time to figure out your study habits, how you learn, what you like. something like 95% of college freshmen start out premed and then by year 4, only about 10% apply to med school. (pulling stats out of my a$$) you need to relax and understand that if a bad gen chem test is the worst disappointment you face in college you will be extremely blessed. keep in mind college is different from high school. getting very angry is not going to solve anything.

seriously, chill. you'll be fine. promise. i failed lots of tests, but the means on them were like 42, so failing turned out fine.

 

Calm down. One bad test grade, let alone one bad grade on your transcript doesn't prohibit you from medical school. If anything, med schools don't want people that freak out about bad grades, let alone those that get angry.

Assess what you did wrong, see how you did, and rectify the situation for the next exam. Did you study all at once? Or did you spread things out and study a little each day?

You'll be okay.

 

ditto. you've got years to go.

 

study buddies, office hours, and practice problems.

other than that, i agree dude, chemistry can be frustrating. one of my worst subjects.

 

true in college it seems I always have a tough time with the first test in every class, no matter what the subject is.

After the 1st test I can examine how I studied and what I could do better in the class. Changing your habits to suit the class/instructor is also important. Each instructor has their own style and sometimes as a freshman your used to how things are done in high school.

Much different in college, give yourself time to adjust.

BTW Im an undergrad as well so feel free to chat with me.

 

probably casue if he's having a hard time with intro to chem, then he'd completely bomb general.

 

I thought you wanted to go into dentistry, Chief? Or is that a back up?

DesiDentist

 

Dude, you're five weeks into college. Have fun, show up drunk to a class or two and skip even more. Get it all out of your system now and learn to make mistakes but more importantly how to move on from them.

Disclaimer: don't end up with a 1.4 GPA for the semester, do enough to keep scholarships and the like, but don't get so stressed you end up cracking. It's probably still early enough to drop classes or switch to pass/ no-pass. Peace.

 

yeah, you need to take a chill pill man. if you cant handle the stress of gen chem, oh boy. i'd love to trade the pressure of balancing equations and ideal gas laws for application anxiety right now

 

awww come on man, you're doing great!

 

He he!

I think I just failed a chem test myself today. It was Instrumental Analysis, open book, we had 50 minutes, it was five questions, 2 theoretical, 3 numerical problems, and when the prof. called time, I had only done the first two problems!

 

ha ha, yeah i cant really complain too much so far, but until i get a letter than confirms I've got a spot somewhere next year, i'll be stressing over. thanks though, SP

 

I am the opposite, my best test score is always the first then I go "hey I can do this" and become a total slackass.

 

i feel the exact same way. you know what they say, so close, yet so far. that's like everytime i step into the biomed library at school.

 

If you studied 15+hours per day and still cannot do the exam well, then you need to look into your study habits (i.e. inefficient).

If you stiued 15+ hours IN TOTAL for the exam, then you need to study more.

If you cannot pull your grades up, consider dropping the class. One or two designations of "withdrawal" on your transcript are much much better than C's or even B-'s. Freshmen in college are too afraid to drop courses when necessary. A minimum of B+ should be expected from all these medical schools pre-req courses. One or two straight B's should not kill ya. B- or C's however are too low and it only means you did not have the right idea of dropping those courses earlier.

 

is this 15 hours total - like cramming the weekend before? This won't cut it for most people in classes like gchem, ochem and physics.

the rule of thumb is supposedly 3 hrs study/1 hr lecture - that's per week. A 3 hr lecture course like chem would translate into 9 hrs of study per week. Break it into 1 hr of problems per day, 5 days a week. Plus 1 hr (or more) to briefly review everything from week 1 to current, and 1 hour to preview the next week - read the chapter, work the problems in the body of the text, etc. That leaves 2 hrs for stuff like recopying your notes, redoing any problems covered in lecture, making study aids or flash cards, reviewing the examples in the text that were covered in class, etc.

many people will find that this type of schedule is overkill and cut it waaayyy back - but you still need to spend at least enough time to do all the homework problems each week and review. I'd suggest you start with this schedule and then back off from it until you find the right schedule for the way you study.

 

it is better to study two hours a day then 15 hours all at once. You are cramming that means and that doesn't work for these kind of tests. This isn't art history, ya know. You may feel you studied hard because the night before you spend 15 hours studying for it, but that doesn't mean you studied hard. For every hour of class you have you should study 2 hours outside of class. That means if you had 25 hours of class before your midterm, you should have devoted 50 hours of studying to truly master the curriculum. Now compare your 15 hours to 50 hours. Get the point??

The best way to approach it is to study one hour before class: review new material that is coming up, go to class, and then spend an hour to rewrite your notes after class. At night if need be read the text book. That is a good plan to follow.

DesiDentist

 

Wow, you mean you guys studied more than 15 hours for exams in Gchem?

 

Here's my quick three points:

1. Don't freak even if you don't do that well on ALL the gen chem tests. My first semester I ended up w/ a 3.0 average after getting a B in gen chem (and the lab) and a C+ in a five hour calc course. Now I think I'm pretty competitive, especially since schools also look at the trends in your grades.

2. Could be that gen chem isn't your thing. (God knows it wasn't mine - still can't figure out pKa to save my life.) I know a lot of people who end up getting C's in gen chem and get A's in orgo and biochem.

3. You're a freshman! Hell, at this point in your undergrad career feel good if you've figured out the bus system or who has the best pizza! Don't stress too much, or ya run the risk of becoming one of those premeds that people complain about all the time. Just do the best you can, and the rest will fall into place.

Good luck!

 

wow if you think you bombed on an easy gen chem exam, how do you think you'll do on the mcats? or worse, the usmle?

 

Easy there, killer! First, he never said it was an easy exam. I believe he actually said that there were tricky questions and a time pressure issue. Second, I am proud to say that I gloriously failed an orgo II exam this past wednesday, yet got a 12 on the BS portion of the MCAT (37 overall). Also two B's in both gen chems - so don't freak the poor kid out, okay?

 

Sounds to me like you need to spend more time on study. As other posters have said you need to spend time EVERYDAY on chemistry...not just the couple days before the test. When I took general chem. I studied 2 hours EVERYDAY. I'm not exagerating. I worked HUNDREDS of problems for every chapter. I spent an hour EVERYWEEK in my professors office asking questions, talking to him, getting to know how he thinks and what is important to him. His tests were MISERABLE. Spring term we actually had a test where the average was 64%.....and he doesn't curve. (60% was a D) I however, didn't miss a point! WHY? because I KNEW what he thought was important....and I'd put in the time to make sure I knew how to do it. (good 'ol rate laws, and pKa). For our final at the end of the year the ACS national exam was given. My class was EXCITED to have the ACS rather than one our prof. had written. Start now, setting up good study habits...ones that put in time for every class, EVERY DAY. You are far more likely to retain what you learn if you do it this way...and you will most likely improve your grade. Check out your test and see what the prof. thought was important...odds are you can see a trend that will help you study for the next one. --Good luck

 

I was wondering the same thing! I probably studied an hour or two for each gen. chem test. Now, for orgo, I studied more like 10 hours a week, but dang, do you guys study that much for each class??? I wouldn't have the time.




I agree with some others who advised the OP not to cram. Cramming doesn't work. Besides, you actually need to retain this knowledge for more advanced courses. I like to study a little as I go along. If I feel like I'm not understanding, I put in an extra 3 or 4 hours of studying over the weekend. Then, I study a couple hours each night the week of the test. That's what I do when I'm really on my game; sometimes I only study 2 nights before.

 

Sometimes you can study many hours but it doesn't do much if you're studying ineffectively. Have you tried studying in a place away from sights and sounds that are distractive, like the library, for example?

I noticed over the years that students who do poorly lack a good background in Chemistry. Before I took the G-chem I took Intro to chemistry. It was a review class, and I did so poorly. I was a studyaholic like you and I studied and studied. No matter how much I studied I got a C on the quizzes and hence pass the class with a C. I can kind of relate to you, I know how it feels. After the quarter was over I did nothing but review intro the chem for Christmas break for 2 whole weeks until I knew the material inside out, forwards and backwards. I got into G-chem and kicked ass! After that I never ever got lower than an A- in any of my chemistry classes because of the background, and I've taken all my g-chem and 2 out of three classes of o-chem. If you feel that you are doing poorly in g-chem you should review your notes again before the midterm you just took, or maybe go back and take intro to chem (if this is possible). All chemistry material builds on itself, this is why background knowledge is extremely important.

Assuming that you studied so much and did so poorly may reflect the fact that you studied the wrong material. Look at the exam questions again. Did you "reflect" the exam during your studies?, i.e. did you study the material that was on the exam? If not then you have this problem. Sometimes professors give hints on what is going to be on the exam. You might think that this is trivial, but it isn't. Mark down the hint, and study in detail more on the material related to that hint. Practice midterms are excellent for giving you a good idea on what is going to be on the midterm. Looking at the concepts of the practice midterm you can make certain guesses what concepts the professor is likely to put on the exam. Make sure you know the lecture material well. In my experience with chemistry, lecture material has ALWAYS been more reflected on the exams than the book material.

Another thing I noticed about struggling chemistry students is that they don't go to lecture. They stay at home and read the book. THIS IS VERY BAD, DONT DO THIS!! Lecture material is extremely important, and should have more priority in being studied than the book.

Are you taking good notes? Students who struggle with chemistry seem to have this problem, especially in organic chemistry. They seem unable to write down important things like the properties of a reaction, or are unable to keep up with the professor. If so, you need to develop good notetaking skills, or you may need to keep yourself concentrated on the topics in lecture. See if you can keep yourself focused on what the professor is saying for an hour without having your mind drift away. I know this is hard because chemistry is extremely boring. Like I said before lecture is extremely important.

Finally, my general advice to you is... Try everything, try anything, you never know whats the successful way for you until you try.

I hope I was helpful.......

Good luck on future studies in Chemistry....

 

way to be encouraging..

thats a complete over-generalization.