Should I drop physics?

[studpremed]

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So I woke up late for my exam and I did terrible. I'm considering dropping the class and retaking it cause the first exam is 33% of my grade. I'm already taking biochemistry right now and dropping physics would free up more time to study for this class as well as taking away the mental stress from physics. However I would be taking only ten credits and I don't know whether medical school will look down on that. Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[FutureD0C17]

So I woke up late for my exam and I did terrible. I'm considering dropping the class and retaking it cause the first exam is 33% of my grade. I'm already taking biochemistry right now and dropping physics would free up more time to study for this class as well as taking away the mental stress from physics. However I would be taking only ten credits and I don't know whether medical school will look down on that. Any advice is much appreciated!

It depends on how bad you did and your chances of recovery. If you drop you'll get a W, which won't look great, but definitely better than <C. That W may raise some questions as to whether or not you can hack it. At the same time, a tough schedule with mediocre grades won't do you any favors. Can you still pull a B or > out of this?

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Need more detail. Bad can be a 70 or a 30 depending on the person, you have a wierd system if right now is the start of the semester. If you have lost 20% or more of your overall grade already, you should withdraw (I.e. you scored less than 45) if you got a 60 or better I think you tough it out, provided you know you can do better.

Waking up late isn't a good excuse in my book for failing, that really implies that you never studied before test day. Be honest with yourself about your abilities and proceed. Med schools are not impressed with C's and even B's. If you can't get a at least an A in half your classes (and B's in rest) you need to adjust the load.

 

[MedNation907]

Your school must do quarters instead of semesters? I'm familiar with fall/spring semesters, in which it would be too late to drop and would definitely say to just finish the class.

This same thing happened to me in Physics II, I woke up late to my MIDTERM exam. The feeling and memory of me sprinting through campus to get to my class is burned into my soul lol. But my point is I ended up with a C, and the only C on my entire transcript. Even though my semesters were always 16-18 credits, at least one of my interviewers would bring it up. A C isn't the end of the world but you'll definitely have to defend it, especially with only a 13-14 credit course load. Map out the entire grade breakdown of the course, if you can't realistically make up for that test with at least a C then drop it.

 

[dapdrow]

I was a commuter student and couldn't handle being around the campus for around twelve hours with huge gaps and no where to go/nothing to do. (Had a class in the morning at 8 something, one class after that and then a HUGE gap before physics that didn't start until 7 PM. Home was over an hour away so going back didn't make sense.) So after I did poorly on the first exam, I took a W (was too late to drop) and retook it in the summer. Got an A and could actually focus on it, so it was worth it to me.