Just Got Some Bad News...

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zgoldsmith23

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Hey guys, I'm a freshman at K-State (Kansas State) and am Microbio with a Pre-Med option. I am enrolled in Chem I (Chem 210) and just found out I got a 56 on my last exam (Molecular Geometry) and have a 73 in the class right now. :scared: I have one exam left and a final to boost my grade back up. I am really worried now about my admission chances. I am absorbing most of the material but my teacher can barely speak English and is barely audible thus making notes harder to take (no matter how many times you ask "Can you please explain?" or "Please repeat?" I am working and studying but I am struggling still. I have talked to a friend of mine to help tutor me. Do I still have a shot?!

Z
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If this is how you react to a bad grade freshman year, I am not sure medicine is your calling. You think you can't become a doctor because of a bad grade? Just tough it out and whatever happens happens. You have a lot of college left to make up for bad grades and to get many more bad grades so don't worry so much.
 
I understand what you are saying but competition is fierce these days and it's not getting any easier ...
 
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My freshman year I made a 50 on a test, dropped the class with failing grade, retook and only made a B second time around. I am having plenty of success with the application cycle!
 
if you get a c... think retake. keep a b. i got a 33 percent on my second ochem test sophmore year (i had a 4.0 prior to this). i was freaking out. i somehow got a b- and just got into 2 MD schools. Your a freshman so just chill you have many semesters to prove your a good student. and never blame it on the teacher.if it takes you 10 min everyday after class to ask some questions then thats the hefty price you must pay to do well and get a chance at med school
 
That's another problem, we don't have a textbook. There is no book to buy. I do the practice problems. I guess I just have to study harder.
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
That's another problem, we don't have a textbook. There is no book to buy. I do the practice problems. I guess I just have to study harder.
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So buy one anyways. If, by some unbelievable act of God, there is not a gen chem book for sale in your bookstore use amazon. Read the chapters right before or after lecture so that you can make sense of what the guy is saying.

Also, if someone is getting an A in the class then it's probably not just the professors fault you are having trouble. It is very easy to blame one's struggles on poor teaching, I've done it myself, but ultimately you can't change that as easily as you can your own study habits.
 
How are you a microbiology major and you haven't even finished general chemistry yet? And WTF is a premed option?

Look, you're in college. You're a big kid now. Part of becoming an adult is learning to be more self sufficient. Gen chem is gen chem pretty much everywhere. There are a ton of resources out there, and they all cover pretty much the same material. Figure out what stuff you're having trouble with, and find a text book or online video lecture or a talking parrot who'll tell you about this stuff. If all of your teachers sucked, I'd look into switching schools. But it's normal to have the odd cruddy teacher here or there. You'll have the occasional terrible boss. Figure out how to get your work done regardless.

Don't just "study harder", unless you've legitimately been slacking up until now. That's classic head-up-the-@$$ premed style stupid. Take a step back, take stock of your situation, and figure out what you need to do differently to get better results.
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
Hey guys, I'm a freshman at K-State (Kansas State) and am Microbio with a Pre-Med option. I am enrolled in Chem I (Chem 210) and just found out I got a 56 on my last exam (Molecular Geometry) and have a 73 in the class right now. :scared: I have one exam left and a final to boost my grade back up. I am really worried now about my admission chances. I am absorbing most of the material but my teacher can barely speak English and is barely audible thus making notes harder to take (no matter how many times you ask "Can you please explain?" or "Please repeat?" I am working and studying but I am struggling still. I have talked to a friend of mine to help tutor me. Do I still have a shot?!

Z
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Ok I am sorry but you really need to get some perspective on life. You also need to look at the AMCAS admissions statistics. One B is not going to ruin your entire life or your chances at admission. A 56 on a test sucks but it happens. It will be easier to do better and study differently/harder if you give yourself a break and admit that you are not a perfect student... stuff like this happens and its not the end of the world regardless of how you feel now. Worst case you retake the class, best case you get your grade up :) You will do great. Just don't burn yourself out with unnecessary worries.
 
She never "assigned" a book for us to buy and when asking her if there is a book I could get to help cover the material, she said "No. There isn't one." I plan on changing my study habits very much so.

Thanks ph, I'm doing what you suggested and taking a step back *deep breath*

I'm not saying it's not my fault (double negative!?) but I attend every lecture, take note of anything said and written down, go to labs, go to reviews, study and still cannot seem to comprehend the material.

The main reason I was worried is I emailed my buddy Mark's uncle who works in Admissions at UNC's Med School and he told me they rarely take kids with grades like these. He could've been kidding but that's not the way I took it.

I am starting to calm down. Did the math and figured I can pull a high B out of my ... if I finish strong.

Thanks guys.
 
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mmmcdowe said:
So buy one anyways. If, by some unbelievable act of God, there is not a gen chem book for sale in your bookstore use amazon. Read the chapters right before or after lecture so that you can make sense of what the guy is saying.

Also, if someone is getting an A in the class then it's probably not just the professors fault you are having trouble. It is very easy to blame one's struggles on poor teaching, I've done it myself, but ultimately you can't change that as easily as you can your own study habits.
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To repeat... Does not matter what the prof says, find a book and buy it if you learn that way.
 
Jesus crime-fighting Christ, OP, take a deep breath.

People blow their freshman year, show an upward trend in their GPA, and get into medical school all the time. The most important thing is that you learn how you study best and how to keep this from happening again in the future. As others have said, you're an adult now so you've got to to be the one to take responsibility for faltering grades. If you need a textbook to help you study, order a used, older edition off Amazon for a lot less than you'd find one in your college's bookstore.

This is far from the end of your chances at medical school and your friend's uncle is either a jerk, joking, or assumed you have several semesters of B's and C's, not just one grade.

Also, I would like to suggest you check out http://www.khanacademy.org/. Khan is a godsend. His video lectures may help you if you can't understand your professor.

And phltz, c'mon now. He's only halfway through his first semester of freshman year, of course he hasn't finished Gen chem yet.
 
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wowza! I didn't even start thinking about what my gpa was looking like until my 3rd year of college. If it makes you feel better, I remember getting a 12/100 on an ochem midterm (the average was 44/100.....ouch). It was the first of 3 classes. I saw the grade, realized I was studying ochem like I studied gchem and needed to adjust my study habits. I hated the teacher at first because I thought he was overly difficult. But it was really my fault. Once I figured out the best way, I ended up getting A's in the other two classes.

So yes, RELAX, be proactive in adjusting the way you study..... and one, two, three or even more bad grades will not stop you from going to medical school. I have multiple C's some B-'s and I am doing just fine :) GPA is only one factor. I suggest you spend your time focussing on how to become a well-rounded applicant and also figuring out if medical school is really for you.
 
Unless your professor invented a new field of science that is unique to your class, there is always a book to buy. The average weight of a carbon atom doesn't change from school to school. Volume is still going to relate in the same way to temperature and pressure whether or not your class has an assigned textbook.

You aren't being taught anything that other people don't have to learn everywhere else out of a book. There won't be a perfect correlation between the order of chapters and your class but, hell, that's what an index is for.
 
Is the bad news that you are majoring in microbiology?

Excuse me while I :barf: and then :bang:out of boredom.

Holy crap OP. Chill out, it's one class. Pony up, bring your grade up to at least a B-, and never look back.
 
Geekchick921 said:
Jesus crime-fighting Christ, OP, take a deep breath.

People blow their freshman year, show an upward trend in their GPA, and get into medical school all the time. The most important thing is that you learn how you study best and how to keep this from happening again in the future. As others have said, you're an adult now so you've got to to be the one to take responsibility for faltering grades. If you need a textbook to help you study, order a used, older edition off Amazon for a lot less than you'd find one in your college's bookstore.

This is far from the end of your chances at medical school and your friend's uncle is either a jerk, joking, or assumed you have several semesters of B's and C's, not just one grade.

Also, I would like to suggest you check out http://www.khanacademy.org/. Khan is a godsend. His video lectures may help you if you can't understand your professor.

And phltz, c'mon now. He's only halfway through his first semester of freshman year, of course he hasn't finished Gen chem yet.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

Khan owns my MCAT score
 
Geekchick921 said:
And phltz, c'mon now. He's only halfway through his first semester of freshman year, of course he hasn't finished Gen chem yet.
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Taking gen chem as a freshman is fine. I just think it's weird to be a microbiology major already when one hasn't finished gen chem yet. The OP isn't even close to finishing the prereqs necessary to take the introductory microbio class, but he's already a major? I'm not criticizing, I'm just genuinely confused.
 
phltz said:
Taking gen chem as a freshman is fine. I just think it's weird to be a microbiology major already when one hasn't finished gen chem yet. The OP isn't even close to finishing the prereqs necessary to take the introductory microbio class, but he's already a major? I'm not criticizing, I'm just genuinely confused.
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Okay I getcha. I assume he could declare whatever major and then change it later if he wanted to. I was a theatre major in college (Drrrr...) so I have no experience with that.
 
phltz said:
Taking gen chem as a freshman is fine. I just think it's weird to be a microbiology major already when one hasn't finished gen chem yet. The OP isn't even close to finishing the prereqs necessary to take the introductory microbio class, but he's already a major? I'm not criticizing, I'm just genuinely confused.
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A lot of schools encourage students to declare a major ASAP. Declaring a major before the second semester is the best way to go. You ask why is he a major already? I ask, why wouldn't he be? Like you said above, he is taking the pre-reqs for micro...if you don't have a major, how do you know what pre-reqs to take? Otherwise he might be taking intro to business classes or something. Cut the guy some slack, he has a major declared already. So what?

EDIT: and just to clarify...saying you are a "whatever" major doesn't mean you are a master of that subject already, its simply a declaration of future plans. Now if the OP would have said he had his BS in Micro as a freshman, I would have sided with you phltz.
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
Hey guys, I'm a freshman at K-State (Kansas State) and am Microbio with a Pre-Med option. I am enrolled in Chem I (Chem 210) and just found out I got a 56 on my last exam (Molecular Geometry) and have a 73 in the class right now. :scared:
Click to expand...

Ahhhh, man, don't blow on Molecular Geometry that is the easiest stuff all year. Save the I-screwed-up-card for something harder like heat capacity and calorimetry.

octahedralgeometry.jpg
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
I'm not saying it's not my fault (double negative!?) but I attend every lecture, take note of anything said and written down, go to labs, go to reviews, study and still cannot seem to comprehend the material.
Click to expand...

This is a common complaint of people struggling in class early on. In high school, going through the motions — attending class, taking notes, reviewing — suffices for most people. That's not the case in college, nor will it be in graduate or medical school. Just because you clock in a bunch of time doesn't mean you deserve a good grade. OP, if you're a freshman, now is the perfect time to evaluate your study habits and figure out the best ways you learn. There are some people who can get more out of an hour of "actively studying" than someone who just flips through their notes for two days straight.
 
Frazier said:
Ahhhh, man, don't blow on Molecular Geometry that is the easiest stuff all year. Save the I-screwed-up-card for something harder like heat capacity and calorimetry.
Click to expand...
I think molecular geometry was about the only part of gen chem that I enjoyed. Easy as pie son.
 
JFK90787 said:
What's the big deal if you can't understand your teacher? Are you planning on going on a date with her or something? Just read your damn textbook and do all your practice problems.
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I'm really tired of this answer.

Yes, let me read a 75 page chapter word for word (3 pages of which might actually be on an exam) because the teacher can't speak English.

emot-downsbravo.gif
 
K-State!! I was born in Manhattan, KS. Great city.

To answer your question... Just do your best. If the teacher sucks, learn it on your own. If your having trouble, ask a friend. If they don't know, get a tutor. In college, you have to learn how to be resourceful. To get in to med school, you have to be able to figure things out sometimes on your own. It doesn't get any easier, so get it together and beast through the rest of this year.

Cheers :thumbup:
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
I have one exam left and a final to boost my grade back up. I am really worried now about my admission chances. I am absorbing most of the material but my teacher can barely speak English and is barely audible thus making notes harder to take (no matter how many times you ask "Can you please explain?" or "Please repeat?" I am working and studying but I am struggling still. I have talked to a friend of mine to help tutor me. Do I still have a shot?!
Z
Click to expand...

hey, i just wanted to encourage you and tell you to keep up the fight. the best thing in the world for you right now is to take some hits -- and then stand back up to fight for your dreams and your future. you will fail at things. the important question is how you react to failure. do you learn from failure or do you let it rule your life? try and figure out what you did wrong -- did you practice enough problems? did you really absorb something or did you just say "yeah i get it" and move on? did you spend saturday afternoons on khanacademy or in study groups? did you wake up at 5 on the day of the exam and practice even more problems?

i mean this with all sincerity: you are capable of mastering gen chem and all the classes that come after. this has nothing to do with the professor, it's about you taking charge and not letting yourself off the hook. you may eventually want or need to retake gen-chem -- but do not allow yourself to abandon your dream because of a bad semester. if other people can ace gen-chem, you can do it to. you only need to fight for it!

(i wish i had gotten this message 14 years ago...)
 
The biggest thing that turned my college life around was realizing that depending on lectures and teachers to actually teach you the material is a good way to underpreform.

You can have the greatest professor in the world, but he still won't be able to teach you four hours worth of material in a two hour lecture.

You need to learn how to learn the bulk of things on your own and you need to learn that the professor is more of a resource now than the actual center of your education. Use the Professor to get clarification on things and to help focus your studies. Everything else is all you. The sooner you realize that, the better things start becoming.
 
You are a freshman. It's ok. I scored 65% and below on my first 3 biology tests freshman year. And I still finished that class with a low B, and *gasp* I'm in medical school. You still have plenty of time to recover! Just don't make a habit out of it.
 
I let my father and the dean of my school talking me out of dropping my premed ambitions as a freshman because I got a C in gen chem. I was really naturally good at something else, but my heart was never totally in it. I spent 10 years doing it for a living. By a stroke of luck, I got laid off. I got my chance to go back to school and try again.

Don't let anyone, including yourself, talk you of your dream because of one not-so-hot grade. Or two or three, for that matter.

You got this. Go listen to Sal Khan, buy a used gen chem textbook on amazon and teach it to yourself. I'm doing it now with physics and ochem. For the former, I have a teacher who I can barely understand. For the latter, I have a professor who won't hold office hours and won't stay a minute after class... so if I have any questions, I have to find my own answers.

From what I understand, med school will draw on your ability to teach yourself. Might as well adapt now. :D
 
zgoldsmith23 said:
Hey guys, I'm a freshman at K-State (Kansas State) and am Microbio with a Pre-Med option. I am enrolled in Chem I (Chem 210) and just found out I got a 56 on my last exam (Molecular Geometry) and have a 73 in the class right now. :scared: I have one exam left and a final to boost my grade back up. I am really worried now about my admission chances. I am absorbing most of the material but my teacher can barely speak English and is barely audible thus making notes harder to take (no matter how many times you ask "Can you please explain?" or "Please repeat?" I am working and studying but I am struggling still. I have talked to a friend of mine to help tutor me. Do I still have a shot?!

Z
Click to expand...

Dude, your telling me your a freshmen who will potentially bomb one class? Dude your screwed. I would cancel becoming doctor. Its not gonna happen for you now.
 
I completely messed up my freshman year, tried dropping out of school, changed careers, and still ended up getting into medical school. If they can forgive a year of screwing up grades, they probably won't care about one B or one C in your freshman year. It's also possible to do well in the rest of your chemistry courses even if you don't understand general chemistry. I majored in it eventually, and I still don't understand some of the general chemistry stuff...
 
Mithril said:
wat
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was wondering about this too...

OP, What is a "pre-med option"? Is the major specifically geared towards pre-meds or something? Or are you simply stating that you are a pre-med?
 
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