So I’m venting here: I am bitterly disappointed in my exam scores this semester.
I already have some red flags on my med school resume I have to overcome (a low GPA from a very very flopped freshman year, quitting a biomed PhD) so my goal has been to get A’s in every class I take up to application. And I’ve done that…right up to this semester. This semester I’m in Biochem and Molecular/Cellular Bio…I take the courses at a med school with the med students and I study harder then I ever have. I’ve DEFINITELY been putting the time in and am still coming up short. How can I convince a med school I can survive there if I can’t ace the credits I’m taking now? I think I’m feeling a touch of panic because I see my (already tenuous) dream slipping away. With my other big bad black marks, I need “everything else” to be darn near perfect. I know it sounds silly to worry but at this point I’ve already used up my wiggle room and need to be able to show solid academic success. Frustration!
MJ2B:
Personally, I do not think that getting B’s automatically means a death knell for your dream of being a doctor – unless you have a very restricted pool of the medical schools to which you are applying and unless those schools are really that picky about your past academic issues.
If you have gotten A’s so far, would a few B’s hurt? – I wonder how those med school students are doing, – and do they have obligations above and beyond those two courses.
Perhaps you can seek out those med students who are doing well in that course and inquire of them their studying and recall techniques. Are office hours available to ask the professor about what you are doing “wrong”?
I am just trying to be helpful here.
Thanks datsa.
I talked to a classmate who’s been doing well and he suggested a few things I’ll try for the next one. I guess my post sounds dramatic but I’ve been calculating my “best possible GPA” and with ALL A’s in my coursework up til application I’ll still be just on the teetering point of even being considered by any med school (my undergrad GPA is my achilles’ heel; the rest of my application is very solid)…I’m worried that anything lower and I’ll be in the untouchable GPA category. I think the worst part is sacrificing things (like family time) to put in the study time and not getting the desired result!
Use resources at hand - not just other students, but see if you can get into the academic assistance office where you’re taking those classes. Figure out the tips and tricks.
Not all methods work for every class, you need the specifics for those.
GOOD LUCK!
I think if med schools see an upward trend in your GPA (and clearly getting all A’s or nearly all A’s shows that), then that may be enough.
So if GPA is your weakness – as it is mine – perhaps focusing on the other aspects may get you in, but you already said that they were solid.
If you’re working as hard as you can, that’s all you can do! I don’t think that means your dream is slipping away, I think in the end if you want to be a physician badly enough, you’ll get in somewhere. Maybe not your dream school, but it can be done!
I agree with the statement “do you want to get into med school, or do you want to get into med school quickly,” but at some point you’ve got to go for it. A “B” in a hard med school class doesn’t seem, to me at least, all that bad! All I’m saying is that at some point it becomes fruitless to continuously take and retake classes, for example a couple of extra years to go from a GPA 2.9 to a 3.5, probably worth it. A couple of extra years to go from a 2.9 to a 3.1, probably not.
Give yourself the best shot you can “reasonably” have and go for it!