Most likly failing a course

[NaCo3]

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It's the end of my first year and I ended up taking physics for my last quarter along with two other work intensive courses. With that said, I took my final a few days ago and I am fairly certain that I failed (don't know how far below average, still waiting on results). I don't know if that will land me a D, C-, or C in the course, but either way, I am beyond scared. My university's policy is that a course can only be retaken if the grade is a C- or below. Now because the course in question is physics, the most useless subject for a premed, how should I approach the situation? I plan on taking the MCAT next summer before it changes. This quarter was particularly difficult because I had been struggling with depression and other mental disorders, this however, in my opinion, should not be a reason for poor performance on my part.

Thank you for your time.

 

[bigDee]

Well since retaking a course doesn't replace your grade,there's no point in trying to retake it. The only time I would retake it is if you're majoring in something like government and so the only science classes you have are your premed requirements. In that case I would retake it to show that you can handle the class. But if you're majoring in a science then your performance in your upper division classes will suffice.

 

[eggs13]

It's the end of my first year and I ended up taking physics for my last quarter along with two other work intensive courses. With that said, I took my final a few days ago and I am fairly certain that I failed (don't know how far below average, still waiting on results). I don't know if that will land me a D, C-, or C in the course, but either way, I am beyond scared. My university's policy is that a course can only be retaken if the grade is a C- or below. Now because the course in question is physics, the most useless subject for a premed, how should I approach the situation? I plan on taking the MCAT next summer before it changes. This quarter was particularly difficult because I had been struggling with depression and other mental disorders, this however, in my opinion, should not be a reason for poor performance on my part.

Thank you for your time.

Well obviously, a C, C-, or D won't look very good on a transcript, but it is not necessarily a deal breaker as long as you don't have multiple grades of this nature. What you do from here on out is just that much more important. If you can retake the class, and get an A or A-, it will average to a B or B- in terms of AMCAS GPA (assuming you end up with a C-). If you are open to DO schools, which allow grade replacement, your new grade will be the only one factored into your AACOMAS GPA.

At this point, your best bet is to figure out what went wrong and do your best to get your mental health taken care of so that you can do well in the future (school will only get harder once you get to med school!). You WILL need to know the physics material for the MCAT, so if you can master it by the time you take the test, a high PS subsection score may allow you to make up some ground from the low physics grade. I got an B- in my first semester of physics but ended up getting a 14 PS on the MCAT--and was never asked once about my physics grade in any of my interviews!

As long as your other grades are fine, you still have potential--it all depends on how you carry on from here on out!!

Best of luck!

 

[Euxox]

Physics is a med school prereq, and there are a good number of med schools that require all prereqs to be completed with a C- or above, so there is a very good chance that you will have to retake. If you end up getting a C- or better, then I would recommend against a retake. A retake is a double-edged sword in some ways. If you do well, med schools aren't that impressed. After all, you still bombed the class the first time around, and when you took the class the second time, you had an advantage over every other student in the class. You were the only one who already took the course. So in the eyes of med school of course you should get an A on the retake. Now if you don't get an A on the retake, you've just screwed yourself.

Instead, you have to take some time to step back and reflect. Why did you do so poorly? Did you skip class? Did you fail to turn in problem sets? Did you spend at least a few hours a week studying? If you did, what percentage of that time was spent actually working and what percentage was spent on Facebook? Did you do at least a hundred practice problems or so before every test?

Once you have identified your mistakes, go into the next semester prepared for a 4.0. This means

1. Choosing a light course schedule that you that you know you will be able to handle. 12 credits of easy to medium difficulty classes sounds reasonable to me. Don't make the mistake that many people make of cramming in 20 credits in a single semester in an effort to redeem themselves. This almost always ends badly. Instead, start light and use the study habits you learn along the way to slowly work your way up to a solid number of credits.
2. Being prepared to put in the work. No pain, no gain. This isn't just true for sports and exercise; it's also true for academics. If you don't feel exhausted after a day of studying, you probably weren't studying hard enough. Studying sucks, but the feeling of bombing an exam is a lot worse. I think it is best to cycle between studying hard one day and taking a rest the next day.

 

[Euxox]

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