Last semester I failed my organic chem class. Since I failed it during the pandemic, I was able to change it to pass/fail, so it did not affect my GPA. This semester, I failed gen chem 2. I also changed that to pass/fail, so it wouldn’t affect my GPA. Is there any way I can still get to med school if I retake these classes?
Check with the schools to see which semesters they accept P/NP grades. I took gen chem 2 lecture P/NP last summer (2020) and most schools accept it. As far as I’m aware, most schools aren’t accepting P/NP beyond summer 2020 - a few do, but that’s not the norm. Depending on which semesters the schools you’re interested in accept P/NP, you may have to retake. If you got a NP in one or both of those classes you’ll have to retake. But definitely check with advisors and med schools to be sure!
I would definitely do some reflection on why you really failed these classes (it’s easy to just say “pandemic”, but what is it about the pandemic that really seems to be stifling you), you certainly don’t have to post that reflection here, but I would really take a look at things that were going on and why that affected your ability to digest information, block out your time, study, and/or focus. Figure out ways under stress to re-focus yourself, not get distracted, or take on a tad bit less and build up again. Outside of school you have to create your own structure, and that can be very difficult for folks who’ve not been outside an academic institution.
Going pass/fail today is going to be a difficult story to push, especially since we’ve all been doing this for a year. Now, it’s time for some solid, honest, self-reflection and self-learning, and being able to see the fix for it, and articulate that.
The worst thing is going to be retaking these classes and not doing any better because we haven’t really identified the problem that was holding us back to begin with.
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