Struggling with pre-reqs, freshman year

[CHCOOH]

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So the 2nd quarter of freshman year is almost over and I'm not doing too well. Basically I haven't gotten an A in any pre-req science class.

My grades from last quarter:
Writing - A+
Bio - B
Chem - B-

Not too bad; I can just pick myself up, right? Well, this quarter I'm doing worse. I just got a D on one of my chemistry midterms, destroying any hope for getting an A. I've been getting straight B's or C's on the bio exams. However, I'm also taking 2 psychology classes and easily getting A's in those.

These weeder classes are really getting to me; also I am pretty involved in a few clubs so it's been hard for me to balance everything out. I've been questioning whether I have what it takes to become a doctor. I never saw myself as an "average" student in terms of academics, until now. Advice, please?

 

[chocolatethunder]

Work harder.

 

[knv2u]

From what I observed my freshman year with friends, etc., a lot of them were unprepared for the rigors of college science courses and then ended up enrolling in too many science credits at a time. Many also fell into the notorious trap, that you must get everything out of the way and sacrifice quality grades for it. Both will doom your application. My advice is to take one pre-requsitie at a time until you have learned to adjust to it, and also consider enrolling in summer courses. You could then do research and clinical research as well. At my school at least, it was not unusual to see students with science GPAs that were much lower than their cumulative GPAs, at least for the first 3 semesters or so.

My other advice is that a lot of students were accustomed to rote memorization in high school, and there was little application. College is very much about learning to apply and think critically about the things you have learned, and to analyze and synthesize large amounts of material. This is an absolute must in medical school and in your higher level work. You should visit your school's learning center if you are having problems adjusting to it in the sciences.

 

[hmockingbird]

I agree with knv2u. Try to lower your pre-req load next quarter, and look into getting a tutor (learning center). I would also suggest trying new study strategies. I think there have been a lot of topics on here about that with suggestions. It's not necessarily about how much time you put in unless you are truly slacking off, but using your study time wisely/efficiently ("study smarter not harder").

And finally, see if you can get a study group together with people from your class, or even just ask classmates how they study for the class. Hearing different points of view might give you more understanding of the subject or of how to approach it, and a study group could help keep you accountable and moving through everything at a good pace.