Bad grade in graduate school.

Graduate School
1

<p>I’m a first year master student in USC Keck school of medicine. I’m taking biochemistry right now and not doing well at all. The reason is because most students are NOT first year. Some are even Ph.D students. Even that makes it harder to do fine in the class, the exam was really unfair. It included something not in the lecture. It asked how you do experiment which we never ever learned in class! Yeah of course, Ph.D or 2nd yr students can answer well!</p>

<p>So, most of the 1st yr master students in a class screwed up on the exam. I might get C. I heard grad students should get all As and some Bs. So, getting C is pretty bad. But how am I supposed to get a good grade when they test something not in the lecture??? </p>

<p>Is this normal in other grad school too? I was accepted by UCI as well as USC. I regret I didn’t choose UCI right now… I’m even thinking to reapply and start over at UCI next year.</p>

<p>Need some advice. Thank you.</p>

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<p>First of all, you are making a lot of excuses. First-year PhD students are often not that different from master’s students, as many of them come directly from undergrad or have minimal post-baccalaureate experience. Second of all, graduate-level classes often ask you to synthesize and infer information that you may not have learned directly in class, plus information that may have not been covered in lecture. That doesn’t make the exam unfair. It makes it graduate-level.</p>

<p>If most of the students in the class are second-year master’s students and PhD students with some experience, then it’s possible that the class is not really designed for first-year master’s students and you shouldn’t be in it.</p>

<p>That aside, no, it’s not normal to get a C in graduate school - in most graduate programs, a C is an indication that you aren’t doing well, and more than one C can result in you being asked to leave the program.</p>

<p>But I don’t think it makes sense to transfer based on a single class. Are you falling behind in the readings? Perhaps you can ask one of those second-year students, or PhD students, what it was you missed that they got.</p>

3

<p>Juillet
When I said “Ph.D students,” I didn’t mean the first year. Sorry if it confused you. They are not the first yr so have research experience already. So, if the exam asked you about the research, they will answer better. That’s why I said most of the 1st yr students screwed up. Actually they are all from my program. Our academic advisor told us to take it. But the class can be taken by any major and year. So, those students occupied all good grades and raised the mean. </p>

<p>There is no book. So, no reading. It would be better if there is a book. If I asked Ph.D students, I’m sure they would say, they just knew already. I’m not making any excuse. In fact, I did good for the part relating to the lecture. Of course, they don’t ask the exact same thing from the lecture. They can be twisted or advanced. But I understood the concept pretty well, so I got them right. But how hard I study, there was no way to make a correct answer for some questions. They can be a small portion but changed a grade from B to C.</p>

<p>But what I’m asking is if this kind of situation is normal. The first yr students and older students are all mixed up, and the exam can be tough for the first yr. If it’s normal, how do the first yr students survive? How do they compete with older students and get A?</p>

<p>And I’m thinking to transfer because it made me suspicious about the program. The program made us take such a hard course. So, if it’s designed bad, I don’t want to stay here.</p>

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<p>Go back and talk to your adviser about it.</p>

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<p>Life is not fair. Graduate students taking undergraduate courses during my undergraduate college time annoyed me too.</p>

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<p>Coolweather
I know I hated that too. But it’s ok to take a few Cs in undergrad, but we cannot get a C in grad school. I don’t know how it is possible in an unfair competition.</p>

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<p>There are plenty of undergrads who get As in graduate courses. Something tells me the way you study (and used to study) was not the correct way. Even if you got As. You can’t simply memorize things (which is very common in the life sciences).</p>

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<p>Life is not fair, and the workplace is never balanced. How can you compete for promotions 2 years out of college when others with 5-10 years of experience are competing for them, too? But yet younger, less experienced employees can get promotions over older, presumably more experienced coworkers. </p>

<p>This situation just means that you need to prove that you belong there. Take this exam as a lesson of where your opportunities are. Talk to your classmates who did well and see how they prepared for the exam. Just because they have a year or two more experience than you does not mean that they did not need to study for the exam. Or, if you really feel that you were not ready to take the course, speak with your advisor. How are your other courses going?</p>

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<p>People here obviously don’t know science major in grad school. The first year and the second year are a lot of different! They are doing research in the second year, and if the exam asks how to do research, they already know it.
I said that there were some problems you can never be prepared. (Did you read?)</p>

<p>Even the class TA admitted that the part of the exam was not in the lecture at all and the professor is known as a di*k for that.</p>

<p>So, how was I supposed to prepare for it? Then, the grade will depend on how much you knew already. Of course the second year students do better. </p>

<p>If it’s all my fault, why most of the students from my program (first yr like me) did bad and even worse than me on the exam? Year matters! BUT our academic advisor told us to take the class!!! We are going to end up in C. But you guys say it’s not normal to get C. Then, our program is NOT NORMAL. </p>

<p>What people say here doesn’t make any sense!!! You guys are just saying all crap. “Life is not fair bra bra bra.”
I went to undergrad as an international. I had a language barrier but studied hard to get in grad school. If you think I’ve never experienced unfair competition, it’s fuc<em>king wrong. So, don’t give me a *</em>**.</p>

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<p>Ace6904</p>

<p>If I only memorize things, I’m not even in grad school. I would have ended up in bad GPA in undergrad. Do you think Bio major in undergrad is so easy and we only do simple memorization? Don’t think like I don’t know how to study.
Like I said, most of the students from my program screwed up. You think everyone doesn’t know how to study? They study well. That’s why they are in the grad school. I’m asking here because my program seems less considerable. So, asking if it’s normal that many students from one program get C.</p>

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</p>

<p>If that’s the case, why did you come here seeking advice? :rolleyes:</p>

<p>btw: are you in the Global Med program? As a post-bacc? (If so, the grade distribution is likely much different than a typical grad program.)</p>

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<p>What the hell are you rambling on about?
You are quite pathetic aren’t you?
You obviously don’t belong</p>

<p>Go ***** to someone else. They’ll probably just laugh at you.</p>

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<p>No, a C usually means you’re not cut off for graduate school. I understand your professors since I had those kind of professors as an undergraduate. I don’t know why you would act so surprise. It’s usually 1-3 professors in a department that teaches like this. I wouldn’t worry about it if I was not the only who failed into the same trapped as the other students.</p>

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<p>

Actually, there are quite a lot of us in graduate STEM programs on this forum.</p>

<p>

In most departments, there is little to no formal training or uniformity between lab groups or even within lab groups, so I see no reason to expect that second years would automatically know ANYTHING.</p>

<p>

Yep, happens in EVERY college.</p>

<p>

I don’t know - that suggests that there really is a problem, it does NOT suggest a specific remedy. In a lot of departments there is a lot of back and forth between grad students, letting each other know what to expect from different courses. Perhaps you and your cohorts just need to tap into that. I would suggest talking to one of the more experienced students and asking them when and where they learned how to solve the unexpected test questions.</p>

<p>

Do you have to take it NOW? If something magical happens in the second year, I would do what those second year and PhD students did and put it off until that magic has happened!</p>

<p>

I don’t think anyone said it was “normal to get C” - indeed, at least one poster said the opposite. Here is my position:</p>

<p>While it is not normal to get a C, it is not a death sentence either. At most schools it will take either multiple C’s or a bad GPA to cause real problems.</p>

<p>Most professors are reluctant to give C’s to grad students - they know what a C can do and would prefer to give some kind of B even if the sum of the grades on the individual elements equals a C. Most departments also get very unhappy with instructors who hand out bad grades like lollipops. So don’t be so sure that you are getting a C just because you got a bad grade on a test.</p>

<p>Talking to us should happen after talking to your instructor and/or TA - we have advice, but they have all the actual information. You should be going to them and saying “Hey, I got these problems wrong but don’t remember them from the course material. Can you tell me where I can learn the material that will be graded but not taught?” (Use more tact, though).</p>

<p>You have the ability to drop or withdraw from classes for a reason. If you are dead certain that a C is coming your way, you have an escape route. Learn from the experience, and try again next semester/year.</p>

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<p>You’re suffering from a case of “the wrong mindset.” This is pretty common for new graduate students, and I suspect you’d be having this exact same problem no matter what university or program you joined. </p>

<p>In undergrad, the mindset is to study and memorize facts. You learn things that are already known, documented and built on in class. Oftentimes, professors will focus their tests on in-class materials, mostly memorization based with some extrapolation required.</p>

<p>In graduate school, you are being prepared for a professional career. They assume you already know the facts and have the material memorized (which may or may not be true of 1st year MS students or 4th year Ph.Ds!), and they start getting you to think about what is NOT known and established in the field. They bring you through current research, hot topics and literature. When they test you, you don’t get a question>recall>answer scenario. Instead, they ask you to use the knowledge-based tools you have to approach a novel question. You can’t give someone a lecture to memorize for that, it’s about understanding facts and synthesizing what you know into an applicable form. You’re being prepared not only to think, but to ACT on that thinking.</p>

<p>Welcome to grad school. If you stop blaming others, you’ll probably figure it out and be just fine.</p>

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I have not gone to grad school, but I have several friends who have, and from what I hear the grading is different in grad school. Most undergraduate universities use the traditional ABCDF grading system where A = Excellent; B = Good; C = Satisfactory; D = Minimal; F = Failing and passing is usually defined as D or higher. Most graduate universities omit D use an ABCF grading system where A = Excellent; B = Acceptable; C = Inadequate; F = Failing and passing as “C” or higher, and usually if you get more than a couple of Cs or any Fs, you may be asked to leave, so I don’t think getting one C is the end of the world, but you don’t want to get more Cs. Also I hear the grading in grad school is more subjective and not as picky, you usually have to do pretty bad to get a C in grad school. Also most undergraduate universities have some mandatory core classes that you may not like and may not need for your future studies or your ultimate career, so it’s not super important that you have a good understand the material as long as you pass, and thus it’s okay to make Ds in these classes. However, most grad schools do not have core requirements outside your field of study, so everything you take will be used in your future studies and your ultimate career, so it is important that you understand the material very well, and thus you want to make good grades in these classes.

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