Okay. I found out my marks for first year soc sci, and I'm not happy at all. In term 1, I got a D+ in bio 1M03, a D in psych 1X03, a D in sociology 1A06, a B in socsci 1SS3, and a B in health and aging 1AA3. With these shitty marks, I was striving to improve them in term 2. Well, that was a flop as well. I got a C- in psych 1XX3, a C in sociology 1A06 (final mark), a C+ in health and aging 1BB3, and anthro I haven't received yet, but I'm sure will be a B, and math 1M03... I have no idea what I'll get in that either (most likely a D or C-).

What the hell do I do? I'm so upset and disappointed. I'm upgrading bio 1M03 and psych 1X03 in the summer... mainly just to improve my GPA, but will the program I want to get into accept me when considering the marks I have received AFTER the upgrades??

Help me. Please. :'(

Maybe University isn't for you. Look to me you took the easiest courses and still flopped. Have you considered College or Trades?

No, don't listen to HILLyBilly, first year is the hardest for Social Sciences and Humanities because they're such broad programs and very much essay-based. Of course, there's that whole shift from high school to university, and adjusting to the pace is difficult. I had terrible marks in first year, too (I even failed 1 course). However, I found the one major that interested me, and took courses that I actually liked in second year. Currently my average is just over a 9 (if you'd told me this after first year, I wouldn't have believed it) and I'm sure that next year, I'll push myself even harder.

If you liked any subject in first year, stick with it. If not, then maybe try some Humanities courses like Theatre and film, history, philosophy, religious studies (RS is nothing like what they taught in high school, some courses are really interesting beyond first year).

Good luck! There's no need to cry, believe me! Enjoy your summer and work harder next year!

ouch, that's what my dad's been suggesting for a bit now... I have to admit though, I do blame my marks for my initiative and time management skills... Whenever I receive a crappy mark on something I've worked quite hard on, I lose motivation, and this has been a recurring pattern for all my courses..

I'm sorry to hear what has happened. I think at this point you need to take the time to think about what went wrong, did you see these grades coming? With a lot of these courses you get marks back throughout the term. There's a lot of academic counsellors who can help you, or you can visit profs' or TAs' hours to get help. Maybe you need to change your studying style, or perhaps you should prioritize school more.

There could be so many factors at play, and I don't know your personal situation, but if you want to, you can definitely still bounce back! This is not the end of the world, a lot of students have trouble adjusting in first year of university, and just take this as a learning experience.

For now, I'd recommend getting in touch with your faculty academic advisors, and they can give you some more guidance.

Thanks, I agree with you. I'd also like to point out that I am hoping to apply to med school... I originally wanted to get into life sci, but never met the grade cut-off, so i got stuck with soc sci, and so far, the only program I want to get into from socsci is PNB. Other than that, I do not wish to find a career in the social sciences... I want to find one on medicine. I know this is a bit extreme but it is my goal. I have no interest in any other program but PNB or something that can help me get into medschool.

Thanks for the advice, I'll try to do that.

PNB is going to be a bit of a stretch since it's a limited enrolment program, especially given that you need Bs in both the psychs, not just 1XX3. you're going to have to upgrade both of them, not just the one. You should talk to Ann Hollingshead from the pnb department, her office is on the first floor of the psychology building. She can tell you what your options are if you're trying to get into the program and whether summer upgrades will be enough. good luck!

Originally Posted by sabonator

I also didn't do well on bio 1M03 and got a D+... I am thinking of applying to a med school in 4 years or so... If I upgrade this course, will any med schools take notice of this and hinder my application to be accepted into their school?

Well, good luck.

If your high school marks weren't high enough for life sci, then that tells me that you've never been brilliant academically, and this isn't a sudden thing. Maybe you never really put in the effort in high school, maybe there was other stuff going on, I don't really know enough to form a strong opinion about it. You need to take a really hard look at why your marks were so low, and then figure out how you can fix that. Once you've got that figured out, you can figure out whether or not your goal is realistic, and if it is, figure out how to achieve it. Even if you think your goal is achievable, you should still come up with alternatives, because things don't always work out the way you expect.

Your marks this year won't go away unless you actually fail out of school (and get granted reinstatement), which it doesn't seem like you will. It doesn't seem realistic for you to go from this to a 11/12 average, at least not in one year. On top of that, when you upgrade your mark, the old one doesn't go away; both grades count towards your overall average, but you only earn the credit once. So, if you get a 2 in a 3-unit course the first time and a 12 the second time, it averages out to an overall grade of 7 for the 3 units.
Basically, I think med school is pretty unlikely, at least, not in Canada or the USA. There might be some schools that don't look at first-year marks - you should look into that - but if they take your first-year marks into account, unless you pull off some sort of miraculous improvement, I really don't think you have a decent chance of getting in. Although, you did manage to pull up your sociol 1A06 grade up quite a bit since the midterm, so you certainly seem capable of better than what your marks reflect.
It may still be possible in the Caribbean, but you should also consider other medical-related fields that either don't have as stringent grade requirements or teach in a different style (many you can go to college for as well, if it's a different learning style you want).

I think a lot of it hinges on how well you do in the summer, repeating the two courses. If you can't get a decent grade in them a second time, then that makes me think that the problem isn't really an issue of you trying to adjust to university. If you manage to do really well, then maybe that's all it was and you've figured things out now.

You didn't mention any extenuating personal circumstances that would have caused your grades to suffer, so I assumed that that wasn't a contributing factor, but if it was then you should obviously take that into account as well.

Also - don't be so dead set on going in to PNB. In high school, I thought I loved neuroscience. Once I got to university, I found out that I actually can't stand it. There are other programs that you might like even more, if you gave them a chance.

you can ask to see ur exam or whatever to see if they actually marked u wrong or w/e

Did you do AT LEAST 40 hours of studying per week, using ALL of your available time in the day/night to get your shit done, or were you partying a lot? I hope its the latter case and you can get your stuff together-especially if you want to go to med school, otherwise, have fun tanning in the caribbean, I hear they have cool drinks down there.

If you want to go to med school in Canada you need mostly A and A+ at the minimum so ... kill that thought

Originally Posted by sabonator

ouch, that's what my dad's been suggesting for a bit now... I have to admit though, I do blame my marks for my initiative and time management skills... Whenever I receive a crappy mark on something I've worked quite hard on, I lose motivation, and this has been a recurring pattern for all my courses..

You blame your marks for your time management skills. Well i know your problem already. You arent willing to accept the blame for your actions. Your grades in university are a reflection (for the most part) of the effort you put into them. A lot of those courses you received bad marks in, I know for a fact that they arent all that difficult. Based on your grades, med school is practically out of the picture for you. Not trying to be rude in saying this, but based on you not having high enough grades in high school for life sci, and doing so poorly in the first year soc sci courses, you just arent cut out for med school. I agree with some of the previous posts that your best bet would probably be to look into college.
Even if you receive better marks in summer school, that wont translate into next year. Summer school is designed to pass students, so any grade you receive there is inflated compared to the mark you would receive if you took the course during the school year

As harsh as everyone sounds, I would recommend you maybe evaluating your personal university strategy with SMART goals: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound. I think that if it was a problem with your studying habits, then maybe you can salvage yourself right now and go into a decent program. Grad school may not be too far of a stretch, but definitely Med School is 99% impossible. I have close to an 11 and I dare not to even think I will get into law.

I also think it maybe a problem with your course selection too, probably you picked so many dry courses that it wore you out. I cannot imagine doing labour studies 1a03 x 10 times for the year...

If you have any issues you can always pm me! I would hate to see repeats of anything that happened lately and I hope I can help you out too!