Medical school hopeful, losing hope?

After hours upon hours upon hours of studying, my Honors general chemistry (year 1) class of my freshman year resulted in no more than a D+. Last semester of chem I got a C. Even after getting a tutor, varying study techniques, and taking to my professor several times, I'm boggled at how an intelligent student can be ruined by a class like this. I'm fully aware of the grades needed to enter medical school, but my heart is set on it.





Any guidance in terms of suggestions or advice for where to go from here would be greatly appreciated.

Medical school hopeful, losing hope?
Doesn't look good. Chemistry is an indicator course.





Especially bad when you also spelled TALKING wrong.





- father of a medical student.
Reply:Don't know- What did your Prof have to say? You don't have to take Honors courses- plain Chemistry would do. Are you doing well in the other Sciences?


I don't know what to tell you. A C hurts, a D really kills your GPA. You are going to have to Ace everything from here on to get a good GPA-- They will forgive you for one bad grade- might be the Prof, etc. if all your others are outstanding. Keep trying, don't quit.
Reply:though grades are main importance...u sound like u want to get in to medicine so u should have other proofs to help u out like lots of voluntary work...start now so that when u apply for med school u have alot of experience that u can talk about which proves u want to be in the medical field than just grades...lots of my friends didnt get the best of grades but cause of their years of experience they got offers from medical schools.
Reply:I'm going to be the dissenter here and recommend that you seriously rethink your career options. Medical school isn't for everybody, and if you can't get through general chemistry, what's going to happen with organic chem?





Med school is twice the information in half the time, with no allowance for mistakes. It's brutal.





Maybe you'll be able to pull it together, but you're going to be competing for a med school space with people who cruised through chemistry without batting an eye.





You might want to have a Plan B in your back pocket. I don't mean to b rude, but if you don't have what it takes to succeed in medical school, it's better that you find out now, so that you can have an alternate plan.





Look into nursing - there are a lot of opportunities for advanced practice nursing that may better suit you.





Good luck with wherever life takes you.
Reply:Honestly just work on improving, but hope is not def. lost YET. You have to take the D+ class again as you cannot even apply to ANY medical school with a D in any math or science classes.





If it makes you feel better I got C+ in both general chem 1 and 2. Freshman year GPA was about a 2.5, I want to say. Each year I kept improving. By the time I was a Jr. I had 4.0 for both semesters. I applied to medical school with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 (and an awesome MCAT I might add), and I am starting this fall! The first question I was asked in the interview was what the heck happened freshman year because my grades were substantially different. I had C's in basic science courses but had A's easily in advanced medical physiology, biochemistry, molecular cell biology, etc.





Don't lose hope but you MUST improve, or hope WILL be lost.





Another tip: Get in good with your teachers and the pre-med or pre-health director at your school. The recommendation letters needed by them are essential. My best friend could not even apply to medical school because she could not get letters of rec.
Reply:hi.. I'm actually going to medical school right now...


truthfully (not an opinion - a fact), Pre-med/medical science is the hardest thing on earth.. you need to be able to remember everything you read (every word, every sentence). before i came to college, i was studying day and night - literally.. i spent every breath i breathed studying just to maintain an A %26amp; B average.. i'm serious it's tough but you can't give up. if this is absolutely what you desire to be, then go for it! you may be spending hours and hours studying, but it's definitely worth it in the long run. right now you need to do what i did and focus on ONLY school.. no fun and games. it doesn't seem right but it is. u need to read every page of every book at least twice and get it stuck in your head where when you're asleep you'll dream about school. just hang in there and DON'T give up no matter what! it's not that you're not trying, it's just you're not trying enough- even if you've spent hours and hours of studying.. study hours and hours and hours and hours and MORE HOURS - until ur brain almost explodes!! i promise you're going to do great in life as long as you stick to your plan..


Good luck! ;)





oh, and even tho I am in college, trust me the studying only gets harder.. very hard.
Reply:Well here's the deal. Sometimes you have to take classes moer than once to get a good understanding. Try taking it again...maybe after you've had a few other classes. I had two upper level biology classes that I got D's in the first time around. I took them again the next year and got much better grades. I was actually able to understand it the second time. It doesn't show on your transcript that you took it twice either...just the better of the two grades. Good luck!