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<p>As best you can. What you need to do is explain WHY you did poorly. Were you bad at time management that year, were you overwhelmed with other work, was the teaching method not clicking with you. The idea isn’t that the material was hard, but that you hit a learning block. </p>
<p>A suggestion I would make, though, is that you send two essays with your application. One to explain the poor grade and another one that is more “fun” (i.e. about a hobby, a Why Pitt, etc.) </p>
<p>One thing that I am confused by is why you took honors history as a sophomore when you clearly did not do well in it as a freshman (you said you got C’s). You might want to explain that too.</p>