General What to do about a horrific grade?

[Catalystik]

Hi all,
I'm currently a nontraditional premed and I'm so lost. I took gen chem 1 and am currently in gen chem 2. I got an A in 1, along with most of my classmates. Currently, our class average is an F, and there have been complaints about the teacher for over 10 years saying the exact same thing (doesn't teach what she tests on, material is beyond the realm of gen chem 2). I am past the drop date and the withdraw date is in a few days. I tried sticking it out, but studying for 13 hours a day and still failing is breaking me. Should I withdraw and keep that on my transcript or just take the F and retake the class? I know I'm learning as the quizzes I do have been nothing lower than a B, but none of her lectures have anything to do with our exams. She spends the class screaming at us for not being experts in calculus. What looks worse, an F and a retake or a W and a retake?

Protect your GPA and withdraw to get a W. Retaking will not erase the F in the eyes of the med school application service, no matter what your university policy might be. Take the class elsewhere if there are no other options for an instructor.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[lord999]

I am filing a grievance and planning on expunging my grade as a resolution so there is no record of me taking it. Will that actually be the truth or will there still be some record that will be sent to the med schools?

It depends on how your university handles it. On record, if an instructor that is tenured keeps screwing up a basic class, they usually hire some adjunct to do it. If this is an adjunct, the more headaches you all can cause the Dean, the more likely that the adjunct will not make it another contract period. My guess from 10 years of this is that this one is tenured faculty, stuck in the class by administration because it's the least dangerous one to shove someone in a Chem department as the basic classes are considered to be an odious duty by many in that field.

 

[Catalystik]

A W is not going to count against you. It is not figured into your GPA. If it were expunged (per the usage of the term at my institution) it would not appear on your record at all, as if you had never registered for the course.

 

[Goro]

Protect your GPA and withdraw to get a W. Retaking will not erase the F in the eyes of the med school application service, no matter what your university policy might be. Take the class elsewhere if there are no other options for an instructor.

I agree 10000% with the wise Cat.