What is causing my low GPA and how can I improve it?

[pitagora]

I am a third year and half a year behind alredy with many repeats. my GPA is 2.01 at the moment. I think I do study but I find it very hard. I think I am a dedicated student, I attend all classes, I hand in all work in time and I try to study as much as I could but I don't get good marks, except when I repeat the course than I get B+ and/or A.

It means I can't get into Master's Program since the requirements are minimum B or B+ .

 

[chroot]

You need to spend a lot more time with your TAs and professors. You need to be at every single office hour they offer.

- Warren

 

[Cyrus]

I am a third year and half a year behind alredy with many repeats. my GPA is 2.01 at the moment. I think I do study but I find it very hard. I think I am a dedicated student, I attend all classes, I hand in all work in time and I try to study as much as I could but I don't get good marks, except when I repeat the course than I get B+ and/or A.

It means I can't get into Master's Program since the requirements are minimum B or B+ .

I seriously doubt it.

 

[zhentil]

Why would you want to do a master's program? You would be eaten alive.

 

[G01]

You are going to have a VERY hard time finding any graduate program that will accept you with a 2.01 GPA, sorry.

As chroot said, you probably should go to EVERY office hour and tutor session if the classes do not seem to be enough.

 

[mathwonk]

if you get an A or B+ when you repeat, then you need to audit every class once before taking it. then the first official take will be the one where you get the A or B+.

have you never thought of this? one of my friends from harvard always did this.

 

[Asphodel]

have you never thought of this? one of my friends from harvard always did this.

Doesn't that have the effect of doubling the time and money consumed?

Although I'd be all for it if I had unlimited time and money.

 

[Cyrus]

Yeah, on top of that. For the next semester, you will have to take twice as many courses. The ones your in, plus all the aduits for next year! Not to mention that some courses are only offered one semster. Its not realistic. But it is good to audit some if you can.

 

[Poop-Loops]

Doesn't that have the effect of doubling the time and money consumed?

Although I'd be all for it if I had unlimited time and money.

Does auditing cost anything? My assumption is just "I'm not a student, but I'd like to watch your class, please." and you just don't turn in homework or anything.

You'd have to buy the books, but assuming you'll take the same class or from the same prof, you'd have to buy it anyway, right?

 

[rbj]

Does auditing cost anything? My assumption is just "I'm not a student, but I'd like to watch your class, please." and you just don't turn in homework or anything.

You'd have to buy the books, but assuming you'll take the same class or from the same prof, you'd have to buy it anyway, right?

for those of us that are old enough, there was a TV show in the 60s called "Hank". remember what it was about?

i'm sorry, but even if something changes for the OP drastically, it might already be too late.

 

[mathwonk]

things may have changed but in my day auditing was free. you just went to the class and did the work. so no there is no increase in time or money, just work.

taking courses twice on the other hand does double the time and money.

 

[rbj]

things may have changed but in my day auditing was free. you just went to the class and did the work. so no there is no increase in time or money, just work.

taking courses twice on the other hand does double the time and money.

could you officially audit a class with limited space for free? every school i attended (or taught at) had auditing on the tuition and fees schedule. some schools it was the same price as taking it for credit. one school it was about 80%.

now, if you simply ask the prof if you could sit in on his class, that's different. the registrar would not know about it and there would be no record of you auditing or having anything to do with the course on any record. but, if the class was full or if the prof didn't like you (or think you were ready to even audit the class), or just was a stickler for the rules or policy, he could always say "no".

i "audited" (for free by simply asking the prof if i could sit in) two classes in my undergrad and grad school experience. but it was clearly contrary to school policy (and unenforcible).

 

[leon1127]

just ask the professor if you can audit, usually they don't mind if the size of class is manageable.

What do you study? Do you understand the big picture behind what you are studying. I think it is important for some people to understand the big picture behind what you are learning. For example, I used to dislike linear algebra very much. Gaussian elimination was gotten to the point that I was about to fail that class. I thought I will never get to use linear algebra again because it was nothing but solving system of equations. But then I went onto taking more high level applied maths class which they all use algebra extensively. I realized that linear algebra was so important and I tried to understand all the theorem and CONSEQUENCE of theirs. I then went onto advanced linear algebra and did well in it.

This is a one of many stories from my classes and it is definitely not unique. I have similar stories in other classes. You might not understand why you are learning such thing and no matter how hard you try, it just won't story in your brain. But then once you understand the application you will learn them with ease.

hope it helps

 

[mathwonk]

it is possible that someone is so oriented mentally that they cannot benefit from auditing a class unless it is an official audit, but i despair of being able to help such a person.

if you cannot discipline yourself to do the work and get the benefit simply by being allowed to sit in, then you need to find another line of work.

i myself audited a class one semester and learned the material so well that i did not even bother to take it afterwards. hence one class that helped me greatly, and from which i learned a great deal, is one that does not even appear on my record.

please begin to take responsibility for your own education, at some point nothing else will help you.for linear algebra, take a look at my notes on my webpage. it is definitely not all gaussian elimination.

 

[Asphodel]

Does auditing cost anything?

If you can just sit in, no. Some places discourage that more than others, and there may be legally imposed room size limitations for safety purposes to worry about in some sessions.

I try to do this sometimes, but am usually schedule-limited by overlapping time slots or just plain old needing the time to do work for classes I'm being graded on. It would make the most sense for courses offered at irregular times that aren't part of a progressive sequence.

 

[leon1127]

for linear algebra, take a look at my notes on my webpage. it is definitely not all gaussian elimination.

That was back then when i start learning undergrad linear algebra, now i look at matrix as linear functional. When I have some spare time, I will definitely read over your note too

 

[pitagora]

Somehow I find it there is not enough time to master all this material, because of this retakes and low GPA I am stuck with 5 courses/ semester and 2 courses in Spring/Summer short time. If I don't take all those courses then I can't progress to the next level.

In high school I was a top student, I took all math courses and I was very good. I failed Calculus I first year and when I repeated it I got A+ .

It looks like I shouldn't take more than 2 courses per semester but mentally I am not ready for it.

I am in trouble, I do worry, worry will I make it and can't think of anything else to switch to, I am in Electrical Engineering. Thank you.

 

[bravernix]

Since you are so far along in your degree, it will be hard to bring your GPA up very much. I think you might as well forget about graduate school (for now). However, it may be difficult to get an employer to look at your resume with that GPA as well. I hope that since you are doing EE you at least have had a good internship and might be able to parlay that into a job when you graduate. Otherwise, you are in a tough situation.

 

[rbj]

Somehow I find it there is not enough time to master all this material, because of this retakes and low GPA I am stuck with 5 courses/ semester and 2 courses in Spring/Summer short time. If I don't take all those courses then I can't progress to the next level.

In high school I was a top student, I took all math courses and I was very good. I failed Calculus I first year and when I repeated it I got A+ .

that should have given you a signal that it's a little bit different in college. when i was in high school and my early college years, i had a girl friend who did pretty well in HS, but not so well on her SAT (or ACT). even though she got A's and B's in HS Chemistry, she flunked Chemistry 105 (freshman inorganic) right away and was shocked. i remember going in with her to the prof's office to help her argue her case against the F and i left completely convinced that it was appropriate (she had the 2^nd lowest total score and the lowest final exam score of a class of about 80 students).

she wanted to go into nursing, but was literally being weeded out with the courses designed to do that. it was hard, but she eventually left college and found some kind of life in the medical field (but at a much lower level).

it made me wonder about the relative difficulty of HS and college courses about the same material and of about the same level (Freshman Chemistry, Freshman Calculus vs. their counterparts in HS). even though we are trying to train kids for the real world out there, i think that high-school, middle-school, etc, is still in the business of reinforcing self-esteem and some other touchy-feely efforts (besides brain washing kids with whatever is the political doctrine of the country one lives in and/or the religious doctrine of the parochial school, if the kid is in that).

It looks like I shouldn't take more than 2 courses per semester but mentally I am not ready for it.

I am in trouble, I do worry, worry will I make it and can't think of anything else to switch to, I am in Electrical Engineering. Thank you.

pitagora, i don't know what to say to you. try to finish your BSEE, but if your grades are as lacking as you say, and if you do similarly poorly on the GRE, you simply will not get into grad school. maybe, after a few years of experience in the industry, you can return to this with a little more hardened steel in your being and get into grad school and do well. but, to be honest, if you can't learn the important and hard stuff without taking every hard class twice, that's a real problem. you would be eaten alive in grad school.

BTW, i am EE myself and had quite a bit of experience in American grad schools, not all of it successful. so i have some empathy (just not a lot of encouragement). even though i failed to get my PhD, i did have some experience teaching EE to undergrads in a couple of different contexts.

 

[mathwonk]

doing well in high school is easy if you are smart. in college doing well is about studying almost all the time, and even more so in grad school. i was an all A studebnt in high school, 800 SAT in math and state champ in the algebra contest and middle tenn champ in senior level math.

then i got D's in college math and was kicked out of school. i re entered with mroe commitment, not wanting to leave with no degree, but continued to go up and down, until i at last, with a family, became single mindedly devoted to my work.

then i became president's scholar in grad school, an NSF postdoctoral fellow at harvard, and an internationally known researcher in algebraic geometry, with grants, invitations, etc...

do not keep taking more courses than you can handle and expect to get good grades in them. if you must keep taking so many for graduation timing reasons, expect to get mediocre grades and make it up later somehow.

my best buddy in college did this, taking three and four hard courses in math and physics just to graduate early, got mediocre to poor grades in them, but was very smart, and after entering grad school became the top student in the physics program he entered, and a successful professional.

 

[symbolipoint]

Mathwonk (based on post #20),

Would colleges generally accept a student who does not have a current degree objective but wants to just study one course per semester in one particular subject area (such as Mathematics), in order to possibly later earn a bachelor's degree in Math or to merely complete required "core" courses without earning a bachelor's degree in Math? In this regard, too, which ARE the typical "core" courses which all Math majors need if they may one day want a bachelors?

 

[quantumdude]

It means I can't get into Master's Program since the requirements are minimum B or B+ .

Have you considered the possibility that you might be in the wrong field anyway?

 

[pitagora]

Have you considered the possibility that you might be in the wrong field anyway?

According to my GPA could be.
otherwise no?

 

[rbj]

listen, if you're not so far from it, finish up the BSEE. i see no reason why that is not doable (particularly when i compare to students that were my peers when i was a student and, later on, students in the EE program i taught in at the U of Southern Maine).

i think the reality you need to consider is that, coming right out of the BSEE, grad school might not be in the cards. but, after a couple/few years of work in the industry, and if your company values you, they might encourage (and possibly fund) you to go back to school. maybe in EE, maybe something else.

 

[Asphodel]

then i got D's in college math and was kicked out of school.

I got Ds in high school, 4.0s in college math, then 3.0s in college math at a different college.

Sometimes I start getting the idea that the validity of the assumptions made in curriculum planning and your situation outside of school have a much higher impact on your academic performance than your intelligence or study habits. Sometimes.

 

[pitagora]

listen, if you're not so far from it, finish up the BSEE. i see no reason why that is not doable (particularly when i compare to students that were my peers when i was a student and, later on, students in the EE program i taught in at the U of Southern Maine).

i think the reality you need to consider is that, coming right out of the BSEE, grad school might not be in the cards. but, after a couple/few years of work in the industry, and if your company values you, they might encourage (and possibly fund) you to go back to school. maybe in EE, maybe something else.

still 5 more courses from my 3rd year + 4th year, i will, I must finish,
thanks bro

 

[mathwonk]

symbolipoint, colleges have all different rules, but many accept mostly students with a degree objective. but remember basically they want your money, so there are a lot of exceptional arrangements possible.

 

[Mindscrape]

You could always ace the GREs. :)

 

[zhentil]

There's very little correlation between high school grades and college performance. If getting a 4.0 in HS guaranteed a 3.7 in college, why would colleges look at SAT scores?

 

[zhentil]

You could always ace the GREs. :)

This is the only way I got into grad school.

 

[Defennder]

I don't think I can offer the OP any advice beyond what has been already suggested here, but perhaps if possible he should go on a term-long or longer break, something like a disruption (one that is approved by his college), and spend his break auditing the courses he wants to take when he resumes his studies. Of course there's a possibility that the syllabus may change before he gets to take the course, but I doubt there'll be much of a change in short order.

 

[NickAlger]

If you want to improve the GPA, I think you should identify precisely what is stopping you from getting higher marks, and then work on fixing that.

Are the low scores from test scores? Homework scores? Look back at what you got wrong on homework and test problems - were your mistakes conceptual errors, computational errors, or lack of problem-solving skills errors? These issues can all be fixed.

How much time do you spend studying, and how effective is the time spent? Some people "grind out" hours and hours of cramming and studying, banging their head against the material and zoning out without actually getting much learning done. Don't be like that! Study hard, but be smart and focused about it.

Do you get enough sleep? Good nutrition? Some exercise? Do you feel motivated to learn the material? Emotional issues? Identify the issues and work on it.

Were there key concepts you missed early on that are now screwing you over? You got to find out what those concepts are, and either spend time to understand them, or if you don't have enough time, figure out how to use key points from those concepts so they don't hold you back.

As for broader career advice, I can't really comment.