List your Greatest Defeats and Subsequent Comebacks College Wise/Grade Wise...

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Tennis Guy

Tennis Guy

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So, I thought that this would be a great idea for a forum... I really need some motivation and inspiration right now because I'm feeling pretty defeated and down in the dumps/depressed about this year. So, list your greatest comebacks from difficult situations and where you thought there was no hope and how you turned everything around for the better be it GPA wise or anything at all. Thanks... 🙂
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I got a nice, shiny D on my first exam in College Algebra in my first semester at my university. I then proceeded to kick myself into gear, 'cause I obviously hadn't put in the effort required to succeed in this course. I finished with an A in this and all of my other courses for my first semester.
 
My average in P-Chem on the first exam was ~50%, had a quiz before and after it around the same score. Ended up with one of the highest A's in the class, prof wrote me a LOR.
 
Tennis Guy said:
So, I thought that this would be a great idea for a forum... I really need some motivation and inspiration right now because I'm feeling pretty defeated and down in the dumps/depressed about this year. So, list your greatest comebacks from difficult situations and where you thought there was no hope and how you turned everything around for the better be it GPA wise or anything at all. Thanks... 🙂
Click to expand...

I had straight Cs in physics during high school. The concepts were hard to grasp in such a short time, especially since it was my first real exposure to college-level physics. 4 years later, I am taking physics again. I knew exactly where to focus on and the subtle details that made my life miserable before. Got 4.0 in all of physics and even some A+s.

This one is more trivial but in a few occasions while playing chess I find myself cornered and about to be checkmated. However, I found some possible moves to make to get back in the game. The opponent sometimes focuses too much on offense and forgets to keep his king safe. I won in the end.

Other examples not related to me include: the tennis professional players coming back from 2 sets down and match point for opponent to a win in 5 sets (of course you know this since I see you have a picture of Rafa Nadal as your profile pic) and teams from the Amazing Race who were about to be eliminated but the pit-stop was non-elimination. They came back next round and got 1st place.

Remember, it's never over until the last point has been played.
 
In a class this past semester, Biomedical Nanotechnology.

The class was set up to where it was 50% Quizzes (5 of them) and 50% essays/projects/presentations.

The first four quizzes were in the first half of the class. I scored a 77, 87, 67, 63 (class averages were usually low-mid Bs) on those first four quizzes. On the majority of the projects/presentation I was also below the class average. I don't know what it was about this class, I just couldn't get ahead.

Going in to the last week of class I had one quiz left (10% of the grade) and a term paper (worth 20% of the grade. I had a 59.9 going into that last week so I was just hoping for a B. I thought I bombed the quiz, well, everyone else did too so I was assuming he'd curve.

Checked my grades this afternoon, 100 on the quiz (class average was a low B), 100 on the paper, 90 in the class.

I love college.
 
I was doing poorly in aerodynamics with a D average. I think you could add the grades for my first and third exams to get the score for my second exam, an 88. ended up killing the final and got an A.
 
had consistently bad grades all of freshmen year....parents said I was done for in pre-med and would have to transfer to an easier college. Came back with close to a 4.0 last 6 semesters of college, always in top 5% of class. Accepted top-20 MD already. Rest is history.
 
Graduated college with a 3.1, accepted at a med school in Boston a week ago 😳
 
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Freshman 3.5 - Soph 3.4 - Junior 4.0 - Senior 3.98.

I thought I was going DO for a while...
 
high school: low gpa, played video games all the time, 1300/2400 SATs and bottom 7th percentile on one of my SAT II exams - unmotivated

"I don't think I am cut out for academics, proceed to 13th grade"

two years at community college with somewhat of a burning desire to turn my life around, cGPA: 3.35

was able to transfer to a public four year successfully (relief!) really focused after figuring out that there was a chance for me to turn my life around...

three years at public 4 year, cGPA: 3.86 and PBK distinction.

You can imagine the amount of joy when I got my first acceptance. Nearly **** my pants.
 
Freshman - 4.0
Sophomore - 1.???? (C's in orgo... ha ha ha)
Junior - 4.0
Senior - 4.0

Result = Accepted to at least 4 MD schools and counting...
 
Organic chemistry I: mid 90 percent on the first exam, 60-70 percent on each exam after that, low 30 percent on the final exam.

Organic chemistry II was pretty much the same.

edit: Oh, I forgot the comeback. I have As in my other prerequisite classes. I hate organic chemistry.
 
B's and B+'s in 2 years of chemistry.... A's in every other prereq and upper level bio.
 
Got off to a terrible start this semester, after the firsrt round of tests, I had all D's and C's, but I've raised them to mostly B's and a couple of A's
 
The other day I was down 3-0 in search and destroy hardcore. I turned on beast mode and single-handedly won the remaining four matches, getting every kill cam. I was using a 1911 the entire time, too.

😎
 
When I was a freshman I had a C in Bio 1 going into finals week. We had to take two tests, one cumulative and one for the last section of class material. To get an A/B overall I needed to only get 1 multiple choice question wrong across both 50 question tests. I somehow got a 50/50 on both tests and pulled it off. Pure luck, but I'll take it.
 
Bombed my first year (flunking all classes 2nd semester until rocking finals), tried the drop-out thing, got sober, went back, had close to a 4.0 the next four years, rocked the MCAT, got into most of my top choice MD/PhD programs... It's possible to comeback from a lot and still get into medical school (or MD/PhD). Just work hard and focus on your personal and academic goals.
 
Chemistry
On the first midterm I earned a grade in the 60s (don't remember exactly now). It was the first mark I had gotten in university and I was absolutely devastated. I worked my but off going over time studying chemistry. I was determined not to get a 60 again. Second midterm came around... 52%. Beyond devastation:scared:. I didn't know what to do, I felt like I was already doing what I was suppose to be doing. 2 weeks before the final the prof said that the final will be fine if you passed the other tests and if you failed it would be a struggle. That didn't do much to make myself feel better. There was a very real chance I was going to fail the course. A week before the final I realized that "molality" was not a typo for "molarity" and that I was officially screwed.

I checked my final grade bracing for a fail, but I miraculously finished with a B-. I could not have been happier.


...I'm in med school now and doing fine.
 
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First quarter of college I had a 2.589, I was devastated and thought that I wasnt cut out for medical school but then 2nd quarter of my freshman year I went to the Stanford minority conference and it was absolutely inspiring. Came back 2nd quarter and got a 3.321, then 3rd quarter 3.785. Second year I came back more determined and i got a 4.0 for the first quarter and now my cumulative gpa is a 3.406, I know it still needs some work but I am confident I will NEVER drop below a 3.65 again, hopefully I can consistently get a 4.0 until I graduate.
 
My grades for the spring of my sophomore year: C B C F......yea. Didnt think i would recover........ But after that semester 3 years of straight 4.0 semesters got me up to a 3.6 GPA.....once you know what you want to do it really motivates you....atleast it did for me.
 
Middle of the semester I was in a rather bad situation with a girl and some friends, fell into depression for a week and couldn't concentrate on anything. Took a biochem test that same week and flat out bombed it with a 71, below the class average of 75.

Went home for break, tried to get things back in perspective and I hit the ground running when I got back. Knowing there was just one more exam before the final, I studied my *** off for the next exam. Though I felt like crap after the test, I got a 94 on this next exam.
 
My first semester in university, I took A&P. I completely blew off the first couple weeks, and I paid for it on the first exam. We get the exams back, and I got a 33%. Awful. Not sure how that even happened, except that it was the first time I had been a significant distance from home, etc, etc.

Anyway, we had 7 exams, so to get an A, I had to ace the rest of them. And, I did. Walked out with an A and a professor who I can always count on to write me an LOR.
 
Got a 40% on my first midterm (average was a 92%), a 100% on the next midterm and final, then was one of the first 5 people to turn in the EC (worth 5%) and got an A- in the class 😀
 
B in English class.....I was so sad. Not really
 
Tennis Guy said:
So, I thought that this would be a great idea for a forum... I really need some motivation and inspiration right now because I'm feeling pretty defeated and down in the dumps/depressed about this year. So, list your greatest comebacks from difficult situations and where you thought there was no hope and how you turned everything around for the better be it GPA wise or anything at all. Thanks... 🙂
Click to expand...


After two years of undergrad my GPA was 2.89.

Graduated (after 5 years due to second major) with a 3.65 (3.98 GPA during the last three years), 33Q MCAT, accepted into 8 med schools, Honors in all preclinical courses, 255 Step I, applying in dermatology, currently have ~20 interviews.

I turned out ok (so far).
 
LuciusVorenus said:
Got a 40% on my first midterm (average was a 92%), a 100% on the next midterm and final, then was one of the first 5 people to turn in the EC (worth 5%) and got an A- in the class 😀
Click to expand...

We posted basically the same story at close to the same time. Great minds... 😀
 
I had a 3.0 my freshman year, and I managed to raise it to a 3.5. I guess it's not as amazing as some other comebacks but it's still pretty good for me.
 
This isn't that interesting, but I'm proud of myself.

I studied quite a bit for my first chemistry test in my first semester, but I didn't really know how to study appropriately yet and I got a C on it. This was my first C on pretty much any assignment I'd ever had. I went to my professor's office hours to ask for help, and I mentioned that I was taking the class because I am on the pre-med track. She said, "I don't know much about medical school, but the way you're headed, you really need to step it up to be competitive I think. I'm sorry." I pretty much started sobbing. It was awkward.

I left, and studied harder than I've ever studied before and set the curve on all the other tests and quizzes (at 97%ish), and got 100% on the final 🙂 It was a nice confirmation of the whole work-hard-and-you-will-be-rewarded thing.
 
Got a 54/100 on my third neuroscience test during M1 year...afraid i was going to fail the class and repeat...I studied for 2 week straight and got a 98/100 on the final FTW.
 
First math exam: 67 (mean was 78)
Second math exam: 95 (mean was 71)

First physics exam: 62 (mean was 77)
Second physics exam: 90 (mean was 63)

final grade:
math: A
phys: A-

Just get your game on, man
 
C+ in organic chemistry I at a UC.

A+ in organic chemistry II, and "most supportive letter of rec" the prof has ever written (verbatim).
 
This is one of the main inspirational stories in my family...

My grandfather worked as a mechanic in a corner store when he was much younger. He didn't have his family to back him up when it came to graduating high school(he had five siblings and they were all younger than he was), so he made the money to help support them in a trade.

So, he worked there ever since he was around 15 or 16, and every day he'd chill with his buddies that were still in high school after classes were over, and they'd share some soda pop by the place he worked.

And every day, he'd see this girl, who he thought was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, and he'd tell his buddies, "Hey, that'll be my girl someday."

And his buddies would respond, "It'll be snowing in hell when she's your girl."

My grandfather finally gathered his nerve together, and he asked her out on a date. She responded with a "Yes," which seemed to surprise him out of his mind.

After two years of dating, they were married in January.

50 years later, my grandmother made cards, adorned with glitter snowflakes. In pen, my grandfather wrote on each one addressed to his buds: "It's the 50th anniversary of the snowstorm in hell, right down to the day."
 
Got 63/100 on first physics midterm, 66/100 on second, and 168/175 (95%) on final and landed an A in the class. I was seriously preparing myself for a B or B- until i saw my score on the final. Complete fluke...

But also,
freshman gpa: 3.1,3.2
soph gpa: 3.7, 3.9
first semester junior gpa: 4.0
 
I got a C in the first semester of Orgo- came back with a B+ in Orgo II- with a 90 on the final. I was thrilled.
 
I came out of high school with a 2.90 GPA and a 21 ACT. I scored a 22 (because of nerves) on my first MCAT.

For the MCAT, I bounced back and got a 32 and graduated with a 3.80 GPA. Thus far, been accepted to Cincinnati College of Medicine and Kansas University School of Medicine, and I have interviewed at Mayo (waitlisted), Duke, Missouri Columbia and Loma Linda.

I believe I have been pretty fortunate.
 
Organic chem for me this semester. Started off around the average on the first exam with below average quiz grades (around a 62 with 62 first exam average, 5/10 on both quizzes that had a 7/10 average).

I had pretty low grades in my freshman year due to some family issues, so I knew if I wanted to be a doctor I really had to kick it into gear. I ended up working hard and getting about 10 points above the average and I got a 98 with a 60 average on the third exam. I killed the final and got an A in the class, also rounding out the whole semester with a 3.92 GPA. Overall I was very happy and honestly, when you're feeling down you just need to decide if this is what you really want or not. If it is, kick it up.
 
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