Should I retake math for a higher mark?

RedSeven
Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:23:35 +0000

If you retake a course for which you already seem to have learned the material, it looks like you’re filling that slot in your schedule with a blow-off course and a GPA booster. Even if you got a 100%, it wouldn’t be impressive, because it looks like you’re taking the easy way out.

Since you’re ready for the next level of math, you should attempt to enroll in a college course via a dual enrollment program. If that’s not possible, you should use that spot in your schedule to take a course in which you’re going to learn something.

The point of taking a course is to learn something, not to earn a certain grade.



I was volunteering 20+ hours a week in my community.



Plenty of applicants have busy schedules and excellent grades. This is not an excuse.



Plus everything else in my life it was just hard to balance and I ended up with a grade that does not reflect my true abilities



That’s why you have a GPA. If it really doesn’t reflect your true abilities, they’ll be able to see that it’s an outlier. There’s no reason to retake it to prove that you can do well in a course (because they really don’t care whether you can do well the second time - it’s the first time that matters). The course would obviously be easier the second time, so you’re not proving that whatever grade you got the second time is one you were ever capable of getting the first time around.

Further, I challenge that your grade is anything but a reflection of your true abilities. While it may not reflect your mathematical abilities, there’s more to life than just those - your low grade is, in this case, a reflection of your time-management abilities.