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Originally Posted by Desx  I didn't think it would be easy, but I didn't have any idea what "hard" meant.
Right now I have 4 grades that affect me.
D - Philosophy class
D - Biology
D - Financial Accounting (got a high B the second time)
C - Micro Economics
One thing I've had to adapt to was the time on tests. It was never that I didn't know the material for economics, I got 95% on what I completed, but I couldn't finish the test. I gave too much detailed information.
My overall Business GPA would be a 3.0 if I hadn't got that D the first semester in financial accounting.
The 2.2 isn't showing that im struggling with my classes.. it showing that im struggling with getting higher grades. I'm not going to be dropped from the school.
Thanks for the input.. I'll keep my progress updated.. test in intermediate accounting on wednesday. |
I knew it would be hard, but had no idea it would be as hard as it really was. It was hilarious (in hindsight, but not at the time), our first day of class, our professor tells us that we should have read the first five chapters before we even hit the class. Everyone was like what? And he says that if we read through the syllabus, it clearly said that we needed to read the first five chapters before we hit class on day one. One person who had a PhD in a science said screw this and quit on the spot. And it was kind of like the same pace from day one until the graduation day. You wake up every morning being behind in your studies, and every day you struggle to keep your head above water.
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D's are unacceptable, and regardless of the employer, they are going to want to know WTH happened. You might want to have a good story lined up (like parent, sibling, gf died and it impacted you bla bla bla) because they will look at your transcript and each individual semester's classes and grades.
Understand I am trying to help, and not be overly critical, but while you won't be dropped from school, when it comes interviewing time, you will be a pariah. With a 2.2, you will be interviewed by third-rate companies that will offer you 70% of what your classmates are making. First and second rate companies won't talk to you, no matter how sparkling your personality, how nice your suit, or how good your internships and references are. If you go to try to meet them at the Ford Career Center there (does Ford still sponsor the Career center?) and get on their schedule while they are interviewing others, they will be very blunt about not talking to sub 3.0 GPA students. They'll be pretty blunt about how you are wasting their time.
Pacing yourself at UT on tests is important. Most of the time, you don't have enough time to finish the test. Professors make exams this hard on purpose. You either need to know the details and can spit without pausing, or give more concise and to the point answers.
I never had a test at UT I couldn't finish, but I got close. The tests were four hours, and in some classes, it took all of four hours to do it.
At the end of the day, I think I got a 3.6 GPA because I was able to get through the tests. Maybe I didn't give the best answer, but I got an answer down on paper. As a Dean came in and said it during our first semester, he tried to give us tips to doing well. The exams are designed to be hell.
He held up someone's exam, and showed us that the person didn't finish the last 3 pages of a 17 page exam. His comment was about 20% of the exam was in the last few pages, and that even though this person had a near perfect 14 pages, his grade still started at an 80% because he never finished the exam. He asked how people thought they were going to do well if they couldn't even finish their tests.
His comment, and I firmly believe it to be true, was that this person either wasn't as prepared as they thought they were, or that they weren't pacing themselves. His comment was that people that weren't finishing had to figure out which problem it was (or is it a combo problem?), and do so quick.
If you think undergrad is bad, the MBA program was worse. Some classes we were given cases as the exam. You weren't given the case until class started. You had to read the entire case, go through the financials and know the details. Then you had to type up your case paper. And you had to do this all in less than four hours. Some cases are so complicated that they take three to four hours to read and re-read and be able to figure out what was going on. If you plan on going to a t1 MBA program like you said in an earlier post, realize that it is ten times more intense than the undergrad program.
Feel free to PM me for any comments/suggestions, or if you need a shoulder to cry on. During my first couple of semesters, I had upperclassmen pull me to the side, try to help and give advice, so I think I need to pay it forward.
