Dear Reader 50

Anonymous said...

Hi K!
I'm a freshmeat at Cal and I feel like Chem1A is slowly devouring me into pieces until I die. Okay, I'm just kidding but in all seriousness, we just had our first midterm and I felt like I wanted to cry after seeing my first midterm grade. I know it's hard to judge but what do you think would be a good grade for the midterms? I've also heard that the first midterm is the easiest out of the others...Is that true? Thank you so much! Love your blog! <3

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for stopping by! You're not the only one feeling that way about chem 1A- trust me haha. After my first midterm, I was depressed for three days straight, so I know exactly how you're feeling. Chem 1A is structured slightly differently than when I took it (lab is separate now) so I'm not sure how the grade distribution works, but as far as a good grade for midterms go, it depends on what you're shooting for. If you want an A in the class, then you should try to shoot for at least one SD above the average. If your goal is to get at least a B in the class, try shooting for average or slightly above average (professors base grades on a standard curve so average should be around a B-). The midterm difficulties vary by person. For me, i think content wise, the first midterm was easiest out of the...4 that we had.. But it was also the midterm that I got the lowest score on mainly because I wasn't prepared for the difficulty. That first midterm score scared me into studying really hard for the next midterms, and my grade started improving slowly (although I did terribly on my second and third midterms too I think..). What saved me in the end was my final- I ended up doing pretty well on it (not great- but not bad either haha). For your next midterms, try to find studying strategies that will help you learn the material better- do practice tests early and go to GSI office hours to ask questions, rent out different chem books and see if they explain concepts better, get a study group together, go to SLC stuy groups, etc. I know this sounds tedious but if you put in enough effort, it will be well worth it in the end! :) 

Best of luck! 

-K