Why don't you just retake the courses you did poorly in?

[dentalmagnet]

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I'm not being sarcastic. Why do people that do poorly in undergrad immediately go into a masters program? Why don't people like retaking courses they did poorly in? If you did poorly in those courses, you will struggle will likely struggle with the DAT. It just makes sense to me to retake those courses, retake the DAT and if need be, take some upper level courses or a masters.

I know the retakes do not replace the original grades, they are just added to the average. But still, that's all that upper level courses do.

 

[AggieDDS]

Not all schools allow you to repeat courses (mine only allows it if you got a D+ or lower).

 

[dentalmagnet]

you don't have 'forgiveness grades'? I thought most schools at least gave 3 of these out.

 

[AggieDDS]

you don't have 'forgiveness grades'? I thought most schools at least gave 3 of these out.

lol, what schools are these.

 

[vlct0ria]

Yeah, we can't retake unless we don't pass it. We used to have grade forgiveness but they got rid of that policy and replaced it with "late drop", where we can drop a class up through the 7th week without getting a W...I kinda liked the forgiveness policy better :/

 

[somethinpositiv]

I'm not being sarcastic. Why do people that do poorly in undergrad immediately go into a masters program? Why don't people like retaking courses they did poorly in? If you did poorly in those courses, you will struggle will likely struggle with the DAT. It just makes sense to me to retake those courses, retake the DAT and if need be, take some upper level courses or a masters.

I know the retakes do not replace the original grades, they are just added to the average. But still, that's all that upper level courses do. 😕

You sound very critical about a process that you do not understand. There was one class that I did very poorly in and chose to retake, to get an A on the retake. But my overall GPA is fine, thus I don't need a Masters.

If you have straight B's, which doesn't sound too bad at first, but that amounts to a 3.00, which is generally not good enough for dental school acceptance (there are exceptions of course, very high DAT, URM, or legacy..)

You cannot remedy a 3.0 GPA simply with class retakes. That's the culmination of 3-4 years of work, and it's harder to bring your GPA up the later it is in college. It has nothing to do with people liking or not liking to retake. A Masters is a chance for a clean slate, you can spend one year and get a 4.0 taking graduate-level classes, to show that you can succeed at the graduate level and can succeed in the didactic courses in dental school.

Also, just because you struggle in courses does not mean you will do poorly on the DAT. I struggled with Gen Chem and did not do well, yet I got a 25 on the DAT Gen Chem. There could be outside factors beyond your control that cause a drop in GPA, and there is also a difference in difficulty from school to school, and even from professor to professor within the same school. There are many reasons for someone's GPA to be low, and beyond the point where a retake would fix the problem, thus a Masters is good idea.

 

[sajjy]

I'm not being sarcastic. Why do people that do poorly in undergrad immediately go into a masters program? Why don't people like retaking courses they did poorly in? If you did poorly in those courses, you will struggle will likely struggle with the DAT. It just makes sense to me to retake those courses, retake the DAT and if need be, take some upper level courses or a masters.

I know the retakes do not replace the original grades, they are just added to the average. But still, that's all that upper level courses do. 😕

Probably, everyone is not as smart as you are to understand this simple basic concept, right?




[Pun Intended]😀😀

 

[DRHOYA]

You could not retake courses at our school unless you received lower than a C-. Even then, AADSAS averages the grades, so it would not help you out as much as you would think. Doing well in graduate coursework will show you have increasing academic strengths. Anyone can retake a course and do better in it (I hope so). I also agree with the above poster about the DAT. I did better in genchem class than I did in orgo........on the DAT I scored 2 pts higher in orgo.

 

[dentalmagnet]

Probably, everyone is not as smart as you are to understand this simple basic concept, right?




[Pun Intended]😀😀

funny? I know if I had a C or a D or an F, I WOULD certainly retake it if it was a pre requisite. Where I go to school this IS an option. I don't know exactly what everyone else is thinking. That's why I asked.

 

[dentalmagnet]

You could not retake courses at our school unless you received lower than a C-. Even then, AADSAS averages the grades, so it would not help you out as much as you would think. Doing well in graduate coursework will show you have increasing academic strengths. Anyone can retake a course and do better in it (I hope so). I also agree with the above poster about the DAT. I did better in genchem class than I did in orgo........on the DAT I scored 2 pts higher in orgo.

Thanks for the answer! That's kind of what I was looking for. I bet a lot of people did poorly in a class and do fine on the DAT in that subject. I just thought that retaking the course would insure a better understanding of the subject.

 

[dentalmagnet]

You sound very critical about a process that you do not understand. There was one class that I did very poorly in and chose to retake, to get an A on the retake. But my overall GPA is fine, thus I don't need a Masters.

If you have straight B's, which doesn't sound too bad at first, but that amounts to a 3.00, which is generally not good enough for dental school acceptance (there are exceptions of course, very high DAT, URM, or legacy..)

You cannot remedy a 3.0 GPA simply with class retakes. That's the culmination of 3-4 years of work, and it's harder to bring your GPA up the later it is in college. It has nothing to do with people liking or not liking to retake. A Masters is a chance for a clean slate, you can spend one year and get a 4.0 taking graduate-level classes, to show that you can succeed at the graduate level and can succeed in the didactic courses in dental school.

Also, just because you struggle in courses does not mean you will do poorly on the DAT. I struggled with Gen Chem and did not do well, yet I got a 25 on the DAT Gen Chem. There could be outside factors beyond your control that cause a drop in GPA, and there is also a difference in difficulty from school to school, and even from professor to professor within the same school. There are many reasons for someone's GPA to be low, and beyond the point where a retake would fix the problem, thus a Masters is good idea.

Great point. An overall low GPA would not benefit by retaking a few classes. I was thinking about those that have a lower GPA due to a few key courses that they messed up in. Thank you for the post. It really does help me understand the whole point of doing a masters vs. retaking the classes.

 

[dentalmagnet]

Yeah, we can't retake unless we don't pass it. We used to have grade forgiveness but they got rid of that policy and replaced it with "late drop", where we can drop a class up through the 7th week without getting a W...I kinda liked the forgiveness policy better :/

That's cool though. You get to take your first exam before getting a W. Thank you for the input. 🙂

 

[Flipper405]

Yeah, we can't retake unless we don't pass it. We used to have grade forgiveness but they got rid of that policy and replaced it with "late drop", where we can drop a class up through the 7th week without getting a W...I kinda liked the forgiveness policy better :/

That's nice... We got 4-5 days to drop a class without getting a W at my school =/

Anyway, I got a few W's, but retook them and got As (didn't replace the old grade, just in addition) and it seems like it's working out for me.