Trouble with Intro Classes

[hank19]

Good evening SDN,

First off I want to apologize for this being my first post, and something that many people may be irritated with seeing (especially on a Friday night). I've been a member on SDN for a little while, scrolling through posts every so often but I haven't really posted or replied to anyone's thread yet. So for my first one, I want to ask the opinion of fellow pre-med or medical students who possibly have been in the same situation as me.

Introduction: I am a freshman Biomedical science major taking Intro Bio 1, Intro Chem 1, and two other non science related classes as core curriculum.

The dilemma: I am in a very bad situation mentally right now. I understand that the transition from high school to college is very rough but I am currently feeling very downhearted right now and I just want some opinions. On my first two midterms for Biology, I didn't do well at all (70, 52.5). The 52.5 is particularly my fault for not filling in the answer choices early enough; however, that would've only adjusted my grade to about a 65. For my first Chem midterm, I got a 61 (while the class average was a 55) but I know that she replaces one of the tests with the final and I'm hoping that this is the test. As far as my other two classes with are Geography and Psychology, I received a 55 and 70 respectively, with the Geography professor dropping the lowest test grade.

This is hitting me especially hard because throughout high school and my dual credit classes at my local community college, I've been a straight A student. I know I will get a comment saying "high school A's are nothing like college A's" and while I completely understand that, I didn't see myself having an F from an A average in my highschool classes.

The question for you guys is simple: What should I do? How should I improve my grades? How should I study? Basically what can I do for myself so that I don't give up my dream of being a doctor? I know I shouldn't be downhearted and I should rather persevere through this. But all I see myself doing now is honestly switching to a random major and working a dead-end job for the rest of my life. I'm sure this is normal for most pre-meds and I'm sure some of you out there have experienced this before. But what should I do to overcome this so I don't end up going to a dead-end job/major? I know it may be too early to decide this as I'm only a freshman, but I just need help...

Any suggestions/tips/help would really help a fellow pre-med.

Thank you and have a good weekend SDN

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[Doc2019]

I'm also a fellow Freshman Pre-Med and my advice to you is to relax and take a deep breath. These tests may look bad but you need to realize this is college not high school. What I mean by that is that the grading system is very different from high school! I don't know how your professors grade but most colleges use a curve system. In other words if you score above average or average you get get anywhere from the A-C range. Don't give up. Most medical schools understand that the transition is hard. My suggestion is to keep working hard by spending more time studying for your classes and I'm sure that you can def do well in those classes.

As for your core classes, I know most core class professors are lenient whereas if you put in the effort the professor might boost your grade up. I'm really tired since it's a Friday Night so this post is really brief but I guess what I'm trying to say is: This is not the end of the world. You just need to work harder and do better so you can score above the curve and who knows get an A!

 

[mimelim]

Simple. Get help in person. Schools generally will have education centers with tutors, study groups, etc. There isn't a formula for doing well in pre-med that works for everyone. Figuring out how YOU learn best is the purpose of a pre-med curriculum.

 

[Cotterpin]

Like Doc2019 said, the big missing piece of information is what kind of grading system these classes are on. If they're curved and you're scoring about the class average, then you're probably doing just fine.

 

[samac]

Like Doc2019 said, the big missing piece of information is what kind of grading system these classes are on. If they're curved and you're scoring about the class average, then you're probably doing just fine.

But if it's like my undergrad where they didn't give a crap if everyone scored a 50, you earned what you earned it's killer.
I'm sure your school has a tutoring and learning center or something to that effect. Utilize it. Get help now rather than later. If you can get it under control one bad semester, especially your first semester, won't sink your app.

 

[Turkishking]

..

 

[Turkishking]

 

[suzlee]

Simple. Get help in person. Schools generally will have education centers with tutors, study groups, etc. There isn't a formula for doing well in pre-med that works for everyone. Figuring out how YOU learn best is the purpose of a pre-med curriculum.

How you learn is the most important thing to figure out in undergrad. Its more important to figure out than what you learn

 

[moisne]

Here's what happened:
You aren't studying right.

Clearly you have the ability to do well - as shown in your high school courses and CC... but the difference is in college you aren't spoon fed what is important is what is not important. You need to learn how to learn the important/testable information.

Source: I taught both high school and college... I also went through a minor transition between college and med school.

 

[hank19]

Thank you for all of the responses guys! I'm so sorry for the delayed response but there were some tests in the way and I was trying to study for them.

To Doc2019: First of all thank you very much for the motivation, especially you being a freshman like me means a lot. I need someone who's in the same shoes as me and who's also struggling, to help me. But for some reason it seems like I'm the only one in this situation. Anyways, I have made an appointment with my PreMed advisor and my Biomedical Science advisor and I will see what they say. I am hoping there is a curve lol. Thank you very much again!

To mimelim: Thank you for your response, and also we have a Academic Success Center on campus which I am going to definitely visit. I am hoping they give me a couple of different methods to try out so I can see what works best for me.

To cotterpin: I don't quite know what grading system we have but I can probably say I am scoring about average or so, which sucks for being a premed

To samac: Going along with what I said to the others, I definitely will try and make full use of the tutoring and learning centers. I'm just worried that this semester will kill my application and hope.

To suzlee and moisne: Yes I definitely agree, I just need to be able to find how I study and learn.

I guess a little update: My second round of exams is over and I did a little bit better than the first tests; however, there isn't a significant improvement. Time to start trying different methods and hope for the best. I'm just hoping that if I do end up doing horrible this semester, that I will learn from this mistake and improve for the rest of my semesters.

Thanks again guys for your responses!

 

[miu2015]

I am a freshman and I am currently taking Biology for Major class. The language barrier is a lot worse than I thought. I got 65 for my first exam! ( (went to class everyday, read all chapters, and did homework.) I understood the material, but I did not understand some of the words in the exam questions so I selected the wrong answer!!!! I stopped spending too much time on reading chapters to focus more on PowerPoint and lectures. I got a 75 on the second exam. My English got better after the first two exams. I watched ALL youtube lectures related to the topics taught in class and got 95 for the third exam. The prof. will drop the lowest grade. I still have 2 more exams. I am working hard to improve my grades. I know you can do it too. Good luck to you.

 

[cantankerous]

You may need to study more than 3 hours for an exam DDDDD:

 

[G.Ming]

If your high school was anything like mine, classes were taught simply to pass a test vs. actually leaning the material so it was much easier to receive A's. You may be trying to study to pass a test instead of actually understanding the material. Also you sometimes have to adjust to the person teaching the course as some are straightforward while others try to test in a way that will confuse you a bit.

Hopefully you can figure out what he issue is...