I did terrible on my Midterm exam

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around a first-year physics student's concerns about their performance in a criminology elective course after receiving a low midterm grade. The student is contemplating whether to drop the course or continue, considering the potential impact on their GPA and graduate school applications.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related
  • Exploratory

Main Points Raised

  • The original poster expresses anxiety over a 50% midterm score in a criminology course, which they believed would be easy, and questions whether to drop the course or keep it.
  • Some participants suggest that a bad grade or a dropped class may not significantly impact future academic opportunities, emphasizing the value of perseverance.
  • Concerns are raised about the difficulty of writing a term paper compared to more experienced classmates, leading to uncertainty about the decision to continue in the course.
  • One participant questions the choice of taking a criminology course as a physics major, suggesting it may not align with the student's primary academic focus.
  • The original poster explains their course selection was influenced by scheduling conflicts and the need for humanities credits, indicating they expected the course to be manageable.
  • A later reply prompts reflection on lessons learned from the experience and future strategies for handling similar situations.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the implications of dropping the course versus continuing with it. There is no consensus on the best course of action, as opinions vary regarding the significance of grades and the value of persistence.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes personal experiences and subjective evaluations of academic performance, with no clear resolution on the impact of dropping a course or the appropriateness of the elective choice.

Who May Find This Useful

Students navigating elective courses, particularly those in STEM fields, may find insights relevant to their own academic decisions and approaches to managing course loads.

Zack K
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So I need a bit of advice because I feel like crap right now. I'm a first year student right now majoring in physics, and I happen to be taking a criminology course as a breadth/elective course. I barely studied for the midterm exam because I thought it would be easy. Lo and behold I got 50% on this exam worth 30% of my mark and now I'm worried. Should I drop this course or keep it. If I keep it then it will affect my GPA(I want to get a really good gpa since I'm planning on going to graduate school). But if I drop it then it won't affect it, but I will lose the money. Also if I drop it, will it look bad on my transcript when applying to graduate school?:cry:
 
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A bad grade in one class will be fine, but one dropped class will be fine too. I wouldn't worry so much about it. I doubt it will matter much later on.
However, if I was looking at it and judging you based on transcripts, I would find it more admirable that you stuck it out even when it wasn't going well... as could be the situation in grad school when you go.
 
PCJJSBS said:
A bad grade in one class will be fine, but one dropped class will be fine too. I wouldn't worry so much about it. I doubt it will matter much later on.
However, if I was looking at it and judging you based on transcripts, I would find it more admirable that you stuck it out even when it wasn't going well... as could be the situation in grad school when you go.
I'm not so sure if I should drop it or not. I'll definitely ace the final now that I know what the expectations are. However I have a term paper due in 2 weeks that I am not confident writing in. My class is full of 2nd and 3rd year criminology students who know how to write a good sociology paper, and so my paper is going to be compared to theirs. My school has a summer term so and I'm going to do a bunch of courses in the summer as well. So I wonder if dropping it will be the better idea(this course had a prerequisite that I didn't know about so I wonder if that's a good justification).
 
Zack K said:
So I need a bit of advice because I feel like crap right now. I'm a first year student right now majoring in physics, and I happen to be taking a criminology course as a breadth/elective course. I barely studied for the midterm exam because I thought it would be easy. Lo and behold I got 50% on this exam worth 30% of my mark and now I'm worried. Should I drop this course or keep it. If I keep it then it will affect my GPA(I want to get a really good gpa since I'm planning on going to graduate school). But if I drop it then it won't affect it, but I will lose the money. Also if I drop it, will it look bad on my transcript when applying to graduate school?:cry:

Zack K said:
I'm not so sure if I should drop it or not. I'll definitely ace the final now that I know what the expectations are. However I have a term paper due in 2 weeks that I am not confident writing in. My class is full of 2nd and 3rd year criminology students who know how to write a good sociology paper, and so my paper is going to be compared to theirs. My school has a summer term so and I'm going to do a bunch of courses in the summer as well. So I wonder if dropping it will be the better idea(this course had a prerequisite that I didn't know about so I wonder if that's a good justification).

Out of curiosity, as a physics major, why in the world did you take that class? This is like a psychology major taking a modern physics course populated by physics majors!

Zz.
 
ZapperZ said:
Out of curiosity, as a physics major, why in the world did you take that class? This is like a psychology major taking a modern physics course populated by physics majors!

Zz.
Well because I need to have credits in the humanities and social sciences, etc. I dropped my astronomy course because I needed to switch my chemistry lab times and by that point, most of the interesting courses were full. This course was supposedly easy(it is, I have no excuse to get 50%) as long as you read through your notes a lot, and so I took it.
 
Going forward, what have you learned from this experience and what will your approach be if you find yourself in a similar situation again? I mean missing a prerequisite or finding yourself in a difficult class again, what will be your approach?
 
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