Having been through undergrad, I have found that for practically any class you take, as long as you have completed the pre-reqs and/or you are literate enough to read and understand the syllabus, you can ace the class provided you put in a set amount of time to study for examinations. If this is the case, then your GPA is simply a reflection of your ability to manage time well, not necessarily a good reflection of how "smart" you are or how much you truly know about the subject. I myself have taken classes where I earned a near 100% (Genetics and Cell Biology and Organic Chemistry) and yet I found that my depth of knowledge about the class was close to 0. If you asked me even a trivial conceptual question about any of the above classes now, I might get it completely wrong. I find that this is the case not just with me, but with many of my pre-medical peers. Is this normal? And if so, why do grades matter so much? Shouldn't a standardized test like the MCAT which tests your analytical thinking skills and actual depth of knowledge matter so much more? It just doesn't add up.
Undergrad classes and grades
- Thread starter Hejman
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What you described is exactly why the MCAT exists. Some schools will be like yours. Some will be much more conservative in their handing out of A grades. The MCAT (the great equalizer) in combination with GPA is what interests adcoms.
High GPA + really low MCAT will raise a red flag that the student's grades may not be representative of his aptitude to master med school material.
Low GPA + high MCAT will help an applicant who has not done as well with grades demonstrate that he does in fact have a good grasp of conceptual information and can think critically. He'd better have a good excuse for the GPA, though, or at least a compelling story about what he's learned and how its all better now.
High GPA + really low MCAT will raise a red flag that the student's grades may not be representative of his aptitude to master med school material.
Low GPA + high MCAT will help an applicant who has not done as well with grades demonstrate that he does in fact have a good grasp of conceptual information and can think critically. He'd better have a good excuse for the GPA, though, or at least a compelling story about what he's learned and how its all better now.
Your insights apply to YOUR own personal situation at YOUR school.
At state school X, you still have kids who study hard and can barely get C's in the pre-reqs.
At cutthroat school Y, you have people struggling with A-level work to get a B in a pre-med class because the competition is higher.
So, it all depends.
At state school X, you still have kids who study hard and can barely get C's in the pre-reqs.
At cutthroat school Y, you have people struggling with A-level work to get a B in a pre-med class because the competition is higher.
So, it all depends.
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Personally, I find my University extremely difficult to succeed at. I have a B average, which is a 3.0 - and I have retained a lot of knowledge from my classes, but my grades are not so good because I overthink everything and try to cover all my bases, when in the end, I knew the answer all along. That's what happens when you know your profs are being tricky because they have to weed out a lot of pre-med students. I refuse to be weeded out though, since I can see that my interpersonal skills and ability to learn are better than those that spit out A's just because they are spending way too much time with their books and not doing anything in the community. Here its not a matter of just time management - which I admit I'm terrible with - its also how well you can navigate a multiple choice exam. Oh well... Still have my hopes for medical school, where tests will be about knowledge, not about whether you can dissect the wording of a question.
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I'll add my voice to the crowd and say that grades are extremely dependent on both your school and the class you are taking at that school. For example, in the OChem class I took, 1/3 of the class failed and had to retake. I'm not exaggerating. I think that's because the prof wrote tests that really got at the heart of the subject material, and brute force memorization was useless without a solid understanding of the concepts.
At some schools and in some courses, your grade really is a reflection of how much you learned. In other courses you can succeed via academic bulimia...cram it all in and spit it out for the exam.
Lesson to be learned here: There's a reason why a high GPA alone won't get you into medical school.
At some schools and in some courses, your grade really is a reflection of how much you learned. In other courses you can succeed via academic bulimia...cram it all in and spit it out for the exam.
Lesson to be learned here: There's a reason why a high GPA alone won't get you into medical school.
