The X-Factor: Bumping Up GPA and Personal Advice

[Shibbyboi182]

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So I suppose I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I'm halfway through undergrad, currently with a 3.4 overall and a 3.3 science. I'm working my a** off to get that up as high as possible by the time I graduate and apply for schools in 1 and 2/3 academic years (5 quarters, not counting additional classes I plan to take over summer).

My problem is I have everything going decent for me except the GPA: good extracurrics, research with my own projects, great LOR's in the works, that "unique" angle everyone harps about to avoid getting cookie-cuttered during interviews. Everyone who knows me knows that I study DAMN hard. I really do put a lot of effort into my studies, what I feel is a lot more effort than friends/classmates that have outperformed me in the past. I go to a top 25 public school that's known for pretty hefty grade deflation (especially during the first 2 years of pre-req's, where they throw anything and everything at us to cut the number of Life science majors down). Last quarter ,starting my upper divs, I pulled a 3.5, and I know that with each passing quarter the pressure is building more to get it higher and higher.

So I guess what my real question is, what am I doing wrong? I pour myself out into my studies, and a lot of science classes are coming out to B's/B+'s. Am I just not smart enough? I accept that there are people that are obviously brilliant and can pull an A out last week of the quarter, and that I'm not one of those people, but I REALLY do work hard. What is my X-factor, that I'm missing (aside from finding easier upper div sciences--example: I'm actually taking a graduate-level orgo class this quarter that's 1000x easier than orgo 2 I took with the same professor)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Silverfalcon]

tl;dr, but Ace MCAT, apply broadly, and get in somewhere.

 

[Isoprop]

So I suppose I'm at a bit of a crossroads. I'm halfway through undergrad, currently with a 3.4 overall and a 3.3 science. I'm working my a** off to get that up as high as possible by the time I graduate and apply for schools in 1 and 2/3 academic years (5 quarters, not counting additional classes I plan to take over summer).

My problem is I have everything going decent for me except the GPA: good extracurrics, research with my own projects, great LOR's in the works, that "unique" angle everyone harps about to avoid getting cookie-cuttered during interviews. Everyone who knows me knows that I study DAMN hard. I really do put a lot of effort into my studies, what I feel is a lot more effort than friends/classmates that have outperformed me in the past. I go to a top 25 public school that's known for pretty hefty grade deflation (especially during the first 2 years of pre-req's, where they throw anything and everything at us to cut the number of Life science majors down). Last quarter ,starting my upper divs, I pulled a 3.5, and I know that with each passing quarter the pressure is building more to get it higher and higher.

So I guess what my real question is, what am I doing wrong? I pour myself out into my studies, and a lot of science classes are coming out to B's/B+'s. Am I just not smart enough? I accept that there are people that are obviously brilliant and can pull an A out last week of the quarter, and that I'm not one of those people, but I REALLY do work hard. What is my X-factor, that I'm missing (aside from finding easier upper div sciences--example: I'm actually taking a graduate-level orgo class this quarter that's 1000x easier than orgo 2 I took with the same professor)?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

You should probably evaluate your study methods. I would bet that you don't do enough "active" reading or waste a lot of time with busywork nonsense (recopy notes? read textbooks word for word? not enough practice problems?). I would also bet that you try to learn everything in one pass and review at the end.