<p>I am a freshman trying to major in engineering and college has caught me a little off-guard. I failed my first general chemistry midterm. The class average was a 62 but the professor said that she was expecting a 65. I got a 37/100 (5pts off for not filling in the correct test information). I actually felt very confident for the test and I felt like I did very well on the problems that I did do. But I ran out of time and had to guess on 6 of the problems (20 in all). I guess I was just moving too slowly. It was a multiple choice exam so each question was worth 3 (general knowledge) and 7 (calculations) points. I got most of the ones I answered right but just lost a lot of points off the ones I didn’t do because I ran out time. I felt that if I had more time I would have gotten most of the answers correct. I just did not have time to do too many example problems. I am also taking Math125 and Phyc101 and my grades in those class are average. So should I:</p>
<p>1) change my chemistry to S/NS grading and fight for a 2.0 to get S then,
2) come back prepared and retake Chem142 next quarter (b/c S/NS grading means that the class acts as an elective only)</p>
<p>Does this work? Your suggestions on what I should do?</p>
<p>btw does anyone know if UW offers Chem162 during the summer?</p>
<p>Honestly, I’d send an email to your professor asking him what he feels your best option is. If he is a good teacher, he’ll offer up the best advice for you</p>
<p>I just looked up my old grades – I had an 85 on the first test, a 30 on the second test, and a 123/200 on the final. The averages were 68, 47, and 99 respectively. So the cumulative average was 214/400 and I ended up with 238/400, even after pretty much bombing the second test.</p>
<p>I ended up with a 3.0 in the class, despite that test! So my advice is to stick it out. Study hard and do the best you can on the next two tests. My other advice pertaining to that class is to do everything you can to get all your webassign points. Sometimes it seems like it doesn’t matter – but they do add up in the end!</p>
<p>PS Be careful about S/NS. Sometimes, when you apply to grad school, they will automatically change an NS into a “0.0” when calculating your GPA, even if they would have accepted a 1.8 or whatever.</p>
<p>If you do decide to go that route – you don’t have to commit right away – you are allowed to change back and forth between S/NS and regular grading until the ~seventh? week in the quarter. I would check on that to be sure.</p>
<p>And yes, Chem 162 is offered during the summer.</p>
<p>What now? I got a 58 on the second midterm and the average was 62 again. Now all that’s left is the final and historically I know my professor’s average final is just under 100 (96-100). So if I got a 37 (average was 62) on the first midterm, a 58 (average was 62) on the second midterm how tough will it to get a 2.0 or above in this class. I haven’t lost any points on webassign (12% of grade) and missed 4.5 points in labs (20% of grade; I’m slightly above average here) and the other 8% are just gimme points that everyone gets good scores in.</p>