Just looking for a quick bit of advice.

[hitchhiker13]

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So I'm sure many of you have heard other pre-meds crying about this, but I was hoping for my mind to be put at ease.

So I failed Organic Chem 1...just barely, but still. And that means now I have to retake it. My whole schedule is going to be put back indefinitely, but that's not the big problem. I know that this is going to be a huge resume killer. What I want to know is, whether or not my application is going to be thrown out because of this, even if I make up for it by getting an A.

I'm a sophmore in college and my gpa/extra currics aren't great but i plan on working on those quite a bit since I'm taking some time off before I apply to med school.

Also, please don't suggest DO school. I know everyone is going to go to that first. DO is something I will consider when every MD school in the country tells me that I have no chance. Until then, I want to know what I can do to make it into MD.

One last thing. For those that struggled with Orgo; What techniques/study methods did you use to do better?

 

[Ismet]

Ahhhh finals season.

Your app won't be thrown out. Retake the class, and if you get an A, it will be averaged with the F, so you'll have the C factored into your GPA. Not great, but not as bad as an F.

Secondaries typically ask you to describe the reasoning behind any grades lower than a C (or including C), so have a good response ready.

Figure out what went wrong (talk to professor, tutor, upperclassmen, friends who did well), fix it, and shoot for A's/B's in your other science courses.

For the future: Realize if you're doing poorly EARLY. You don't just fail all of a sudden, you were probably struggling for a while. Realize it early on in the semester so you can fix it and improve before the end of the semester.

 

[mzarrowsmith]

Also, please don't suggest DO school. I know everyone is going to go to that first. DO is something I will consider when every MD school in the country tells me that I have no chance. Until then, I want to know what I can do to make it into MD.

There's >125 allopathic medical schools in the US. Are you really going to apply to all of them?

Why so defensive about DO schools? Did your parents tell you they will disown you if you don't get that MD behind your name?

DO schools allow for grade replacement, which would do a lot of good in a situation like this. Even if your GPA is fine with this pock mark on your record, it still makes sense to seriously evaluate all of your options.

 

[TheShaker]

It will hurt you but it won't kill your chances altogether. Do well in other classes (especially ochem2) to show that it was an isolated incident. For ochem, try and understand the process in terms of bond stability and 3d shapes. Most of ochem studying is basically pathway memorizing which you can do by copying pathways over and over and explaining it to yourself step by step. For actual reactions, just practice practice practice. Realize that ochem2 is much harder than ochem1.