What do you all do, when you try your best... but it isn't good enough?

[Tennis Guy]

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The reason I ask is because I have pretty good study habits, but sometimes it seems that my output doesn't equal my input, which is extremely frustrating. I'm pretty reluctant to go back to school again this year, but I know that I have no choice because I must forget what happened last year and start anew. I know that I'm intelligent, but it seems that I'm missing that extra "something" for some reason. I refuse to believe that those around me are so much smarter than me and that I can't succeed in what I desire to do. This semester I'm going to study two hours for each hour in class. What do you guys think? I study so much, have great time management skills, and have so much drive and persistence, so I know that I'll accomplish my goals in due time. Failure can't cope with persistence... this I know for a fact.

 

[sliceofbread136]

The problem likely is in your study method (even if you think you have a good system chances are it can be improved). I tutor, and this is the problem 99% of time as opposed to not being intelligent. How do you study? If its not working, then its time to try something new. My method is a couple weeks before a test write down everything you have to know on computer paper organized by chapters. Read these sheets every day when you wake up and before you go to bed. Around a week before the test do some hardcore studying of your sheets and some hardcore practice problems. Do as many problems as you can, and identify things you are having trouble on and work on those subjects even more. If you truly are completely lost go on down to office hours.

Another key thing is to try and identify what you have to do get an A in the class, and then go ahead and do it. You need direction, not just aimless studying.

Also, procrastination is not ideal. Every once in awhile you may have to resort to cramming, but avoid it when you can. I can almost gaurantee it will make you more successful.

 

[Quaero]

The problem likely is in your study method (even if you think you have a good system chances are it can be improved). I tutor, and this is the problem 99% of time as opposed to not being intelligent. How do you study? If its not working, then its time to try something new. My method is a couple weeks before a test write down everything you have to know on computer paper organized by chapters. Read these sheets every day when you wake up and before you go to bed. Around a week before the test do some hardcore studying of your sheets and some hardcore practice problems. Do as many problems as you can, and identify things you are having trouble on and work on those subjects even more. If you truly are completely lost go on down to office hours.

Another key thing is to try and identify what you have to do get an A in the class, and then go ahead and do it. You need direction, not just aimless studying.

Also, procrastination is not ideal. Every once in awhile you may have to resort to cramming, but avoid it when you can. I can almost gaurantee it will make you more successful.

This 👍👍

 

[Slowpoke]

Sorry that you are feeling frustrated. Bread brings up some great points.

I think its encouraging to know that you've developed a sustained drive and persistence. With a bit of perseverance, I think you are on your way to where you want to go.

One question is, how are you taking in the material. Are you simply just memorizing or are you actually taking the time out to understand the concepts?

You may be absolutely correct, that for the amount of effort you put in, you feel like you deserve a better outcome - however, I personally feel that the effort is quite futile if one only ever tries to use the strategy of memorization.

 

[music2doc]

The reason I ask is because I have pretty good study habits, but sometimes it seems that my output doesn't equal my input, which is extremely frustrating. I'm pretty reluctant to go back to school again this year, but I know that I have no choice because I must forget what happened last year and start anew. I know that I'm intelligent, but it seems that I'm missing that extra "something" for some reason. I refuse to believe that those around me are so much smarter than me and that I can't succeed in what I desire to do. This semester I'm going to study two hours for each hour in class. What do you guys think? I study so much, have great time management skills, and have so much drive and persistence, so I know that I'll accomplish my goals in due time. Failure can't cope with persistence... this I know for a fact.

 

[thestrokes14]

You seem to be approaching this correctly, OP.

As a side note, this topic title reminds me of that extremely irritating Coldplay song.

 

[ur2l8]

Fix you is an awesome song 😛

It reminded me as well

 

[robertch8]

I have to agree with Bread here; I think it has to do with your study habits and potentially with your way of retaining information and properly approaching the nature of each exam you take. You probably are going to need to do some tinkering with your study methods because I don't think they are that efficient if you are taking so much to study with poor results in any pre-med class and the MCAT.

But I do like your persistent attitude; there are many of us that have failed before and overcome them in this brutal process. Don't lose that!

 

[centrigeugle]

You seem to be approaching this correctly, OP.

As a side note, this topic title reminds me of that extremely irritating Coldplay song.

More specifically, the SCRUBS EPISODE WITH IT!

PS; what a bawww episode.

 

[IMSingular]

Well. About 80,000 try their best at MCAT. About 40,000 try their best in application/interview process. About 20,000 get admitted. 20,000 will have go back to the drawing board: decide to retry or find another profession. Out of about 300,000,000 people in the country only about 700,000 are physicians. There is life without being a physician. As far as I am concerned there are more interesting professions, for example magician.😍

 

[Slowpoke]

this

As far as I am concerned there are more interesting professions, for example magician.😍

reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxu_MQSTTY

 

[varsityblue]

The problem likely is in your study method (even if you think you have a good system chances are it can be improved). I tutor, and this is the problem 99% of time as opposed to not being intelligent. How do you study? If its not working, then its time to try something new. My method is a couple weeks before a test write down everything you have to know on computer paper organized by chapters. Read these sheets every day when you wake up and before you go to bed. Around a week before the test do some hardcore studying of your sheets and some hardcore practice problems. Do as many problems as you can, and identify things you are having trouble on and work on those subjects even more. If you truly are completely lost go on down to office hours.

Another key thing is to try and identify what you have to do get an A in the class, and then go ahead and do it. You need direction, not just aimless studying.

Also, procrastination is not ideal. Every once in awhile you may have to resort to cramming, but avoid it when you can. I can almost gaurantee it will make you more successful.

+1. Slice is spot on here, OP. Have you heard of Cal Newport's blog and books, OP? Might be useful.

 

[Tennis Guy]

Sorry that you are feeling frustrated. Bread brings up some great points.

I think its encouraging to know that you've developed a sustained drive and persistence. With a bit of perseverance, I think you are on your way to where you want to go.

One question is, how are you taking in the material. Are you simply just memorizing or are you actually taking the time out to understand the concepts?

You may be absolutely correct, that for the amount of effort you put in, you feel like you deserve a better outcome - however, I personally feel that the effort is quite futile if one only ever tries to use the strategy of memorization.

Yes, this I know... especially for classes like math and physics! I'm going to try not to memorize and actually understand the concepts. For physics I tried this last semester and it worked ok, but I guess that I dug myself into a pretty deep hole by then. The professor was nice, but his way of explanation just made me more confused so that wasn't very helpful.

+1. Slice is spot on here, OP. Have you heard of Cal Newport's blog and books, OP? Might be useful.

Yes, I have and I read his book! It helped me a great deal and everything was going well, until the personal and emotional problems of last year happened. So, I should probably look into that book again and try to get back to the basics! I remember the schedule and method of studying that he suggested and they worked well for me!

 

[Hemorrage]

+1. Slice is spot on here, OP. Have you heard of Cal Newport's blog and books, OP? Might be useful.

Cal newport is awesome. Get his book called how to be a straight A student. Its nothing too unique but it has some down to earth, straightforward study techniques. None of that "5 steps to reading/writing" crap you find in other books.

The reason I ask is because I have pretty good study habits, but sometimes it seems that my output doesn't equal my input, which is extremely frustrating. I'm pretty reluctant to go back to school again this year, but I know that I have no choice because I must forget what happened last year and start anew. I know that I'm intelligent, but it seems that I'm missing that extra "something" for some reason. I refuse to believe that those around me are so much smarter than me and that I can't succeed in what I desire to do. This semester I'm going to study two hours for each hour in class. What do you guys think? I study so much, have great time management skills, and have so much drive and persistence, so I know that I'll accomplish my goals in due time. Failure can't cope with persistence... this I know for a fact.

I know how you feel, some schools are also just extremely difficult to pull an A in. Go to http://gradeinflation.com/ and find your school. See what the average GPA is. My school's average gpa is a little under 3.0 and its ranked in the top 30's on USNEWS. So.. all being said, your school could simply just be hard. I really just call BS when i see people on SDN getting 4.0's and bragging about it. Either they go to a really high end school that believes all their students should get good grades (harvard) or they goto a really easy school and try to make themselves feel better by waiving their 4.0's around. Remember theres 2 major academic portions to med school admissions. your gpa AND mcat. Someone who does well on the mcat (30-35) and has a decent gpa (3.2-3.5) still has a better shot IMO than someone who has a 3.9-4.0 and a MCAT under 30. So take SDN with a grain of salt and just work as hard as you can. Learning to learn is another major component of college.

 

[AestheticGod]

Did you try ratemyproffesor.com? lol

 

[music2doc]

Cal newport is awesome. Get his book called how to be a straight A student. Its nothing too unique but it has some down to earth, straightforward study techniques. None of that "5 steps to reading/writing" crap you find in other books.



I know how you feel, some schools are also just extremely difficult to pull an A in. Go to http://gradeinflation.com/ and find your school. See what the average GPA is. My school's average gpa is a little under 3.0 and its ranked in the top 30's on USNEWS. So.. all being said, your school could simply just be hard. I really just call BS when i see people on SDN getting 4.0's and bragging about it. Either they go to a really high end school that believes all their students should get good grades (harvard) or they goto a really easy school and try to make themselves feel better by waiving their 4.0's around. Remember theres 2 major academic portions to med school admissions. your gpa AND mcat. Someone who does well on the mcat (30-35) and has a decent gpa (3.2-3.5) still has a better shot IMO than someone who has a 3.9-4.0 and a MCAT under 30. So take SDN with a grain of salt and just work as hard as you can. Learning to learn is another major component of college.

30-35 MCAT is strong, 3.2-3.5 GPA is weak.

3.3/34 = 51% chance
3.9/28 = 67% chance

Clearly, a moderate MCAT with an excellent GPA is better than an excellent MCAT with a mediocre GPA.

This is really not surprising considering the fact that a <3.5 GPA is generally considered "not competitive" whereas a 28-30 MCAT is marginal for many low-end schools. Further, at many -- read grade-inflated -- schools a 3.2-3.4 GPA is actually below average, whereas a 28 MCAT is about a half a standard deviation above average. Getting mostly Bs and a few Cs in your prereqs shows a lack of mastery in those subjects and/or lack of worth ethic. Getting a less above average MCAT score than other applicants is actually pretty normal. A good cutoff for competitive scores would be the average MCAT and GPA for applicants (~3.5/28), since just under half of applicants (40%) are admitted somewhere.

 

[studmuffin]

If your best isn't good enough you need to make your best better. Revise how you are approaching things, come up with a new plan of action, and excecute. If necessary, repeat.

 

[DeterminedDoc]

If your best isn't good enough you need to make your best better. Revise how you are approaching things, come up with a new plan of action, and excecute. If necessary, repeat.

But if you do that and your best still isn't good enough, then just accept that you suck. 👍