Need some help with motivation

[gabriellemk]

Hey guys. I'm a second year pre-med student right now and I'm struggling mentally. I had a decent first semester (3.75), but my second semester was absolutely terrible (3.1) due to some personal mental health issues. I was planning on knocking this semester out of the park in an attempt to make up for last semester, but I'm beginning to struggle with believing in myself. I had my first organic chemistry exam on Friday and I thought I was going to do amazing but I don't feel good about it at all. At this point I feel so lost and like i'm struggling with everything, and I don't know what to do. Typically I'm able to make myself keep pushing and motivate myself to do better, but I'm hitting a wall. Am I doomed after a semester like that and now that I'm struggling again? Does anyone have any tips?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[rufflev]

Hey guys. I'm a second year pre-med student right now and I'm struggling mentally. I had a decent first semester (3.75), but my second semester was absolutely terrible (3.1) due to some personal mental health issues. I was planning on knocking this semester out of the park in an attempt to make up for last semester, but I'm beginning to struggle with believing in myself. I had my first organic chemistry exam on Friday and I thought I was going to do amazing but I don't feel good about it at all. At this point I feel so lost and like i'm struggling with everything, and I don't know what to do. Typically I'm able to make myself keep pushing and motivate myself to do better, but I'm hitting a wall. Am I doomed after a semester like that and now that I'm struggling again? Does anyone have any tips?

1. If you haven't already, seek help for your mental health issues, because pursuing your education with that unaddressed will make it all the more difficult.

2. Organic chemistry is typically considered a "weed out" course, meaning that not all students do well. That said, it is definitely possible to do well, I suggest that you stay on top of the material, attend office hours when needed, and possibly seek out a tutor if you think that will help. In my experience, professors don't really teach the concepts behind organic chemistry very well, which is why students often have difficulties grasping concepts and end up memorizing instead.

3. You can definitely do it, a semester or two won't kill your chances of getting into a medical school. Just chin up and do the best that you can. If you find that's not enough, then personally address what you think the issue is and from there you can begin to improve.

For what it's worth, I started my first semester of undergrad with ~ 2.7 and was able to bring it up to > 3.7 by the time of applying and >3.8 upon graduation. You got this!

 

[USERX]

I agree with rufflev. A semester or two wont kill your chances especially if you do well on the MCAT. You will want to find what the problem is for you tho, because you cant go through this sort of difficulty in medical school and beyond. Medicine as a study and profession can be a very stressful field and you want to be prepared on all fronts. If you are struggling because something happened from the first semester to the second semester, medical schools will understand. That being said, I feel you. I have gone into semesters feeling determined to make up for the points lost in the old semester only to miss my expectations. That is normal, but you want to identify your weak points and push to fix them. Doing the same thing over and over again is not a diligent thing to do. Hope it works out for you! Stay positive! Wish you best!

 

[Pembo23]

OP, do not despair. As @rufflev mentioned, O Chem is a "weed out" course for pre-med. Orgo is not a class that people just "get," and it took a lot of out of class work for me to reach the point where I felt confident. This involved taking notes directly from the text, then taking notes in class, then comparing the two, and then doing problems from the textbook.

The good news is that this was the first exam. I don't know if you have gotten your score back yet, but there is still plenty of time to improve your performance in the course. If your professor is willing, see if you can set up a 1-on-1 meeting with him/her to review the test and clarify what concepts you need to work on. For me, it was remembering who the nucleophile was vs. the electrophile, remembering resonance structures, and factoring in steric hindrance when it comes to reaction order.

Take that feedback, and go from there. This is not the end of the road for your med school aspirations, just a patch of rough asphalt.

 

[Turkishking]

Hey guys. I'm a second year pre-med student right now and I'm struggling mentally. I had a decent first semester (3.75), but my second semester was absolutely terrible (3.1) due to some personal mental health issues. I was planning on knocking this semester out of the park in an attempt to make up for last semester, but I'm beginning to struggle with believing in myself. I had my first organic chemistry exam on Friday and I thought I was going to do amazing but I don't feel good about it at all. At this point I feel so lost and like i'm struggling with everything, and I don't know what to do. Typically I'm able to make myself keep pushing and motivate myself to do better, but I'm hitting a wall. Am I doomed after a semester like that and now that I'm struggling again? Does anyone have any tips?

Hm how strange. My school has Orgo 1 on Fridays too.

 

[gabriellemk]

Thank you all so much, this was really helpful and gave me some of the motivation I needed to push me back in the right direction. I really appreciate it!