How to get higher grades for pharmacy school?

LucasCollins
Tue, 10 Feb 2015 23:16:40 +0000

I know your first response to my question is to study my butt off. Well, the problem is that I do, and I know my material, but somehow all the material I know doesn’t translate well into midterms and finals. I’m currently a 1st year at UCI (2nd quarter), and I am hoping to go to pharmacy school. These are my grades so far:

Chem 1A: C
Bio 93: B+
Writing 39B: A

My 1st midterm grades for second quarter are:
Chem 1B: 19/30
Bio 94: 20/30

Based on my midterm grades, I should expect more Cs coming my way. I’m not frustrated at the fact that I am not studying hard enough, because I know the material. However, I am frustrated with the fact that I can’t adapt quickly enough to new professors and new midterm formats. I’ve tried going to office hours to ask professors about their midterm-writing “style,” but what can they really help me with without giving me the answers? I guess what I’m trying to ask is:

1. Do pharm schools focus mainly on total GPA or science GPA? I think my writing and other G.E. grades can give my GPA a little boost, but they won’t do much if science classes keep dragging me down.

2. What should I do to do better on midterms and adapt more quickly to new classes and professors?

3. Did anyone of you go/going through what I’m going through right now? What did you do to overcome the problem?

4. It’s kind of difficult to thoroughly describe the exact problem, but I would say it’s a psychological problem. Why do I think like a different person during exams?