Repeating course a bad idea?

[Mopsd]

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Previously taken chemistry in my first year of college - years ago (got a B). Then "dropped out" of college for a few years.

Made the decision to return this semester at a local cc to complete my degree and pursue pre-med. Decided to repeat chemistry - thinking I'll need it to gain a refresher for organic chemistry next year.

I am currently a month into the course and I am feeling unmotivated. The lack of motivation, I believe, is coming from the familiarity of the subject, and this too is making me slack off in the class. Knowing this now, I believe a self-review book could have easily "refreshed" my mind on the subject without possibly risking my grade.

Anyway, as the weeks go by I'm really afraid that this lack of motivation could lead to getting a grade less than an A. Deadline to drop without any marks on my transcript is in a couple weeks. Should I drop?

 

[CrunchyPeanutButter]

Up to you, you can either stick it out and prove to yourself you can get an A and MAYBE use the content material.
Or withdraw and probably have no bad repercussions, (if it's your only W)
Both my organic courses did not use much of my knowledge from general chem


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Bionista]

Previously taken chemistry in my first year of college - years ago (got a B). Then "dropped out" of college for a few years.

Made the decision to return this semester at a local cc to complete my degree and pursue pre-med. Decided to repeat chemistry - thinking I'll need it to gain a refresher for organic chemistry next year.

I am currently a month into the course and I am feeling unmotivated. The lack of motivation, I believe, is coming from the familiarity of the subject, and this too is making me slack off in the class. Knowing this now, I believe a self-review book could have easily "refreshed" my mind on the subject without possibly risking my grade.

Anyway, as the weeks go by I'm really afraid that this lack of motivation could lead to getting a grade less than an A. Deadline to drop without any marks on my transcript is in a couple weeks. Should I drop?

Honestly, if you are feeling unmotivated now then this is going to be a super long road for you. I think you need to try and motivate yourself (for chemistry and all of the other courses you''ll be taking) and stick with this course. I am assuming there have been no exams yet so you still have time to step up your game and work towards an A.

Also, you can never have too much prep when it comes to the MCAT, so getting in the extra chemistry will definitely be useful for you later on.

Good luck, you can crush it! 🙂

 

[aformerstudent]

1. Bad move to retake a B in anything unless you had to retake a course because the credits "expired" which you did not mention.
2. Drop...IMO, retaking a course is not the way to "refresh" the material. Coursework should be credit only; refreshing should be done via the Internet or library.

 

[863168]

The previous two posters didn't catch on to the fact that you transitioned from taking General Chemistry from a college institution to a community college site. This is significant. This combined with the fact that this is a retake, means that the onus is on you to perform. To put it bluntly, an A is expected regardless of how many other credits you are taking because you should be a maestro considering consensus is that community colleges are perceived to be easier than university institutions (adcoms do not know all the nuances with respect to the many, many, many local community colleges) and that taking a course for the second time means that you have an advantage over students who never took the class at all.

The following is my stance. You are unmotivated and aren't gaining intrinsic benefit from taking this course. You aren't advancing your knowledge in Organic Chemistry, you are reviewing concepts of General Chemistry which I speculate is on an even more rudimentary level than the content you learned in college and honestly will make no impact on your performance in Organic Chemistry, especially if you are taking the course with a different professor in a different system. Even if you are taking the course with the same professor, the list of offhand benefits are so minimal and so easily compensated by processing the syllabus that it is trivial.

You are extrinsically in a bad position to put it mildly as I explained in the first paragraph with the fact that a withdrawal not showing up on your transcript being the best piece of information you have shared in your opening post. Time = money in both a literal and figurative stance assuming you have a job and are a premed in need of time to spend on extracurriculars. You may feel committed due to your tuition investment and initial work done in the course, but you need to reconsider how any grade from this will be processed in the mind of an admissions committee member.

Before you make a decision, try considering your decision from the perspective of a third party person looking at your transcript out of a saturation of many. The academic component is one of many, but if there is chance that they could see something which could give them doubts regarding your ability to perform then you need to consider excising it from being associated with you. You can't guarantee you will do everything right in this process, but you can also make decisions where your application doesn't raise a red flag that will get you omitted in the selection process.

May the odds be ever in your favor.