<p>Okay so here’s the situation. Second year of college, undecided major with 3.2 gpa. I have four classes currently at the moment. In one of the classes I’m positive I’m going to get an A in (comp), another class somewhere in the C (women studies) range. The other two classes are History (currently looking at an A to A-) and Chinese (somewhere in the C range… ). These estimates are before the finals. I have both History and Chinese finals tomorrow and I have barely enough studied for either of them. If I split my time to study both I would probably drop from an A in history to a B while in Chinese… it would probably still be a C, maybe a small chance of a B-. But if I focus on only history and sign a NC/C for chinese, I would get an A in that class but most likely fail Chinese. Thing is I need both for my GER so should I just stick with a lower GPA or just retake chinese the next fall semester? If I go toward the first route my gpa would drop to around a 2.9.</p>
<p>Depends on the credit hours that each is worth, and whether you can replace grades by repeating. Chinese courses are typically worth more (4-5 hours) than history. That said, suppose Chinese is 4 credits and History is 3:</p>
<p>Choice A) (study exclusively for history)
C–>F is a 2.0 GPA drop. * 4 = 8.0 total GPA points lost
A–>A is a 0.0 GPA drop. </p>
<p>Choice B) (study exclusively for Chinese)
A–>B is a 1.0 GPA drop. * 3 = 3.0 total GPA points lost
C–>BC is a 0.5 GPA gain. * 4 = 2.0 total GPA points gained </p>
<p>It seems like studying for Chinese (to the point where your grade doesn’t drop at least) is much smarter. Just spend enough time on history to pull off at least a B, because there’s the risk that you can drop below a B, while there’s no risk of dropping below an F in Chinese.</p>
<p>If you can repeat courses and replace the F’s, then cut losses with Chinese.</p>
<p>Also, there’s the option of actually trying to learn.</p>
<p>Keep in mind whether or not your Chinese class will be offered next semester. If it’s a 101 and you attend a smaller school, they might only offer the complementary 102 in the spring.</p>