It’s one thing to fail at a goal to participate in a sports program. It’s quite another for a student interested in getting into medical school to experience academic failure. There’s no place where this is more likely to happen than in battle with every pre-medical student’s arch-nemesis: organic chemistry. I was a good general chemistry student. I enjoyed the classes, and my high school background in general chemistry was strong.
Organic chemistry was a different beast. It’s not just memorization and math. Organic chemistry requires an understanding of concepts so that they can be applied. I was able to get through the first Organic Chemistry class. I did OK. Then, I started Organic Chemistry II. Two course sections were offered that semester, and I didn’t do a good job of picking. The professor for that section had taught the honors course the year before. He had a reputation for being a tough professor. I didn’t know that.
Sitting through this man’s lectures were painful. He would use up all portions of the multiple chalkboards in the lecture hall. I would take 4-6 pages of notes during a 50-minute lecture. I tried to study. I went to the discussion sections and prepared for the first exam.
And then, I sat down in lecture one day, where he passed back the first exam.
12.
Out of 200.
6%.
The average for the exam was not high. But it wasn’t 6% either. The professor promised that our grades would stick. There wouldn’t be a curve. We had to earn the grades. He took his job as the head of a gateway course seriously. I sat through the rest of that lecture and took my pages of notes, but the decision wasn’t hard. I would need to cut bait and come back to play another day.
Lot’s of questions went through my mind. What would be the effect of a W on my transcript? In the end, however, I decided the W would look way better than an F. I would withdraw and then re-take the course during a summer session. It would allow me to focus solely on organic chemistry.
It’s pretty crazy how much fear comes with getting good grades for those who want to go to medical school. It’s important to know that good grades are important, but it’s OK to be human. Not every grade has to be an A to gain acceptance into medical school. Students are allowed to start slow, but you have to show progress along the way. We have to be learners to be competent physicians. Medicine is improving at breakneck speed, and the knowledge we gain during medical school is frequently defunct by the time we receive our diplomas.
I’m not trying to blame my first organic chemistry II professor on my lack of success in that course. I didn’t fully know how to study for organic chemistry at that point. I didn’t know how to apply the concepts, and I needed a new strategy. Luckily, the second time around, I did much better.
None the less, I made it to where I wanted to be, and I learned a valuable lesson along the way. You need the right strategy to be successful, and you need to be willing to course-correct along the way if you find yourself at risk of failure.