Nervous?

[NVWolfPack]

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A decade after I initially wanted to pursue medicine, I started researching what I needed to do to get back into the game. My GPA went from 3.6 to a 2.8 and I shortly left my education behind. The past two years I completed a major and two minors playing catch up to obtain a 3.6 GPA again.

Here's why I'm nervous. I enrolled my daughter in daycare 5 days per week starting this summer and three days per week this fall/spring. This will allow me to start on three of my pre-req's towards medicine. I take two chem courses and a biol course during the first and second summer semesters. I guess I'm nervous because my family and I are making huge sacrifices for my dream (which I'm okay with) however, I'm nervous about not obtaining A's and A-'s. Is that odd? Traditionally I have been a B student with science/math courses. I will complete all pre-req's in one year if I start June 6th. I'm excited, but I'm nervous. I think I bought every resource possible for that Chem and Biol course.

Congrats to other non-trad. people with or without families making this journey. I'm excited but I'm scared too. I'm not worried about my future MCAT score nor interviews, and admission...just these darn classes.


Any advice, similar thoughts??? Love to hear from you!

 

[NuttyEngDude]

Make a plan. If you see anything going wrong academically, take fast and decisive steps to address it. You may find that as an older student you are more focused and disciplined than your traditional counterparts. And presumably you know yourself better in terms of what works and what does not when studying.

For Example, in Chemistry, find out where/who the tutors are, if needed call on them after the first test for help. If you find it is not needed, then you have only a created an unused contingency plan beforehand. This alone will make you feel more confident and less nervous about it. The rest will come with the grades 🙂

 

[NVWolfPack]

Make a plan. If you see anything going wrong academically, take fast and decisive steps to address it. You may find that as an older student you are more focused and disciplined than your traditional counterparts. And presumably you know yourself better in terms of what works and what does not when studying.

For Example, in Chemistry, find out where/who the tutors are, if needed call on them after the first test for help. If you find it is not needed, then you have only a created an unused contingency plan beforehand. This alone will make you feel more confident and less nervous about it. The rest will come with the grades 🙂

I agree. I am more focused and disciplined better than most of the peers who are younger. Why I have the fear is beyond me however, I bet having some anxiety starting pre-req this hardcore is some what normal initially. I already looked up tutors for Physics and I didn't event think about doing this for chem. Thank you so much!!!

 

[ruraldocmom]

I did night classes, but had the same worries about maintaining A's in the classes (full-time job, kids at home, yikes!). But, I found I was way more focused than most of my peers and I had learned a lot since undergrad. Most importantly, I stopped procrastinating. Undergrad all-nighters, hah! You never know when the 2 year old is going to decide he can't sleep through the night anymore. Spreading the studying out over several days, much more reasonable (And I learned it better, imagine that). I also used to be afraid to ask for help--or to ask questions (stupid, I know). Got over that one really quickly when I re-took O-Chem. I went to study groups, sessions with the Professor, etc. And eked out the grades I wanted. Also, I made notecards and studied them anytime I had a spare, standing-on-line or riding-the-bus moment.

I felt really guilty about the sacrifices my family made for this along the way for a while--mostly when I was actually applying. It was kind of an, if I don't get in, then I've put you all through this for nothing... kind of guilt. But I did get in (whew!) and supposedly the next thing to really worry about is residency, when you'll *really* feel guilty about putting your family through it. Great....

Anyway, good luck to you! I think you'll find maturity and focus + hard work gives you an advantage in your classes.

 

[CrushMCAT]

Great advice above. Just remember getting "A"s in your classes should be your number one goal. Be extra vigilant of your academic results during the 5-week sessions because it is a lot of info crammed into a short period of time. Just treat it like a job and you should be fine. Best of luck!

 

[MCAT guy]

Doing well in courses isn't complicated. It takes discipline and hard work

• Do every assignment right away
• Use repetition if the class is harder (do things 2, 3 or 4+ times)
• Find extra resources if the course is hard (online, problem books, etc)
• Measure your feedback. Getting high A? Repeat. Got a B? Do more of above

It's really that simple. If you do something 5 times, your brain will become very good at it. If you are smart enough to do well with 1 pass, more power to you.

 

[CrushMCAT]

Doing well in courses isn't complicated. It takes discipline and hard work

• Do every assignment right away
• Use repetition if the class is harder (do things 2, 3 or 4+ times)
• Find extra resources if the course is hard (online, problem books, etc)
• Measure your feedback. Getting high A? Repeat. Got a B? Do more of above

It's really that simple. If you do something 5 times, your brain will become very good at it. If you are smart enough to do well with 1 pass, more power to you.

Exactly! This is all possible with the right discipline and motivation.