Hey guys,
Sorry I've been MIA for the past few weeks/months- but this last semester plus med school apps have taken up all my time. For my last semester at Cal (and for the last time on this blog), I took:
IB169- Evolutionary Medicine with Carlson: Another typical Carlson class where memorization is everything. But for this class, he seemed to ask very specific and detailed questions, including dates/time frames. There were three exams, all worth 50 points (40 MC and one essay question that's broken down into a few parts), and a discussion section worth 17 points, which includes participation, one presentation, and 3 quizzes, for a total of 167 points. The discussion section felt like a complete waste of time, but unfortunately it was mandatory. The discussion quizzes were written by the GSIs and given once before every exam. These quizzes felt harder than the exams, and in a class based on a point system, that didn't bode well... For the first exam, I received 44/50 which was slightly below the average. Second exam: 49/50. And they never posted the results for the third exam, but I felt I did well. My class attendance started off very strong and gradually slipped into no attendance after the first midterm, but I ironically ended up doing better on the exams that I skipped lecture for (but I am in no way advocating skipping class!). As far as material goes, evolutionary medicine is not the most thrilling subject but it had its interesting moments- it was also fun to see Carlson get so passionate about natural child birth haha.
Grade received: A
East Asian Languages and Cultures 105- Dynamics of Romantic Core Values in East Asian Premodern literature and Contemporary Film with Wallace: The class is just as hard as the title is long... I took this originally to fulfill a breadth requirement and it was definitely my hardest class this semester. This class was WAY too much work- we had very long readings and movies to watch, and several assignments based on those readings due every week. That wouldn't have been so bad if those assignments weren't highly analytical and specific to working with love in a premodern context. Also, Wallace is a tough grader and bases all of his assignment grading on very specific rubrics. We didn't have any exams this semester but we had to complete an independent assignment and a team project, which was worth a big chunk of our grades. Although this was a high-stress class, I enjoyed listening to the professor analyze some of the works and I believe I improved my analytical skills as well.
Grade received: A (was borderline for a long time)
ESPM 144- Insect Physiology with Tanouye: This class sounded more interesting than it turned out to be. Tanouye was a very cute professor who seemed very passionate about some of the topics he taught, but it got very difficult to pay attention after 5 minutes- much like Carlson's classes.. One of the pros about this class was that Tanouye told you what was most likely going to appear on the exams as he went through lecture- such as "You're going to have to know this for the midterm". There are three exams, each worth 100 points, and a mandatory discussion section taught by Tanouye, worth 50 points. The discussion section only accounted for attendance and one presentation. The exams themselves were made up of MC, short answer, matching, and one essay. The exams weren't particularly difficult but there were a few tricky questions.
Grade received: A
PMB13- Genetics Revolution with Freeling: possibly the most pointless class I've taken at Cal- mostly because i didn't learn anything from this class but also partly because I felt this class was filled with Freeling's biases and cynicism.. I took this class as a GPA boost but it almost wasn't worth it haha. 50% of your grade was based on 2 exams and 50% was based on discussion, which accounted for participation, one presentation, and 2 essays. Most questions on the exam were based on online lessons (basic biology) and he tested us by giving us screen shots of the pictures and asking a question based off of it. He also tested on lecture material and assigned readings so I would advise future students to pay attention during lecture, but that was impossible for me no matter how hard I tried haha.. Nonetheless, I think an A is around 20/30, and anything below an A- he strongly advised you to retake. You can retake any exam but with the highest possible score being one notch lower each time- so for one retake, the highest you could get would be an A-.
Grade received: A
H196B- Honors thesis + poster presentation
Grade received: A
So overall, even though this wasn't a very relaxed way to end my Berkeley experience, I did graduate with another 4.0 and got on the Dean's list for the third consecutive semester! :)
If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment!
-K
Sorry I've been MIA for the past few weeks/months- but this last semester plus med school apps have taken up all my time. For my last semester at Cal (and for the last time on this blog), I took:
IB169- Evolutionary Medicine with Carlson: Another typical Carlson class where memorization is everything. But for this class, he seemed to ask very specific and detailed questions, including dates/time frames. There were three exams, all worth 50 points (40 MC and one essay question that's broken down into a few parts), and a discussion section worth 17 points, which includes participation, one presentation, and 3 quizzes, for a total of 167 points. The discussion section felt like a complete waste of time, but unfortunately it was mandatory. The discussion quizzes were written by the GSIs and given once before every exam. These quizzes felt harder than the exams, and in a class based on a point system, that didn't bode well... For the first exam, I received 44/50 which was slightly below the average. Second exam: 49/50. And they never posted the results for the third exam, but I felt I did well. My class attendance started off very strong and gradually slipped into no attendance after the first midterm, but I ironically ended up doing better on the exams that I skipped lecture for (but I am in no way advocating skipping class!). As far as material goes, evolutionary medicine is not the most thrilling subject but it had its interesting moments- it was also fun to see Carlson get so passionate about natural child birth haha.
Grade received: A
East Asian Languages and Cultures 105- Dynamics of Romantic Core Values in East Asian Premodern literature and Contemporary Film with Wallace: The class is just as hard as the title is long... I took this originally to fulfill a breadth requirement and it was definitely my hardest class this semester. This class was WAY too much work- we had very long readings and movies to watch, and several assignments based on those readings due every week. That wouldn't have been so bad if those assignments weren't highly analytical and specific to working with love in a premodern context. Also, Wallace is a tough grader and bases all of his assignment grading on very specific rubrics. We didn't have any exams this semester but we had to complete an independent assignment and a team project, which was worth a big chunk of our grades. Although this was a high-stress class, I enjoyed listening to the professor analyze some of the works and I believe I improved my analytical skills as well.
Grade received: A (was borderline for a long time)
ESPM 144- Insect Physiology with Tanouye: This class sounded more interesting than it turned out to be. Tanouye was a very cute professor who seemed very passionate about some of the topics he taught, but it got very difficult to pay attention after 5 minutes- much like Carlson's classes.. One of the pros about this class was that Tanouye told you what was most likely going to appear on the exams as he went through lecture- such as "You're going to have to know this for the midterm". There are three exams, each worth 100 points, and a mandatory discussion section taught by Tanouye, worth 50 points. The discussion section only accounted for attendance and one presentation. The exams themselves were made up of MC, short answer, matching, and one essay. The exams weren't particularly difficult but there were a few tricky questions.
Grade received: A
PMB13- Genetics Revolution with Freeling: possibly the most pointless class I've taken at Cal- mostly because i didn't learn anything from this class but also partly because I felt this class was filled with Freeling's biases and cynicism.. I took this class as a GPA boost but it almost wasn't worth it haha. 50% of your grade was based on 2 exams and 50% was based on discussion, which accounted for participation, one presentation, and 2 essays. Most questions on the exam were based on online lessons (basic biology) and he tested us by giving us screen shots of the pictures and asking a question based off of it. He also tested on lecture material and assigned readings so I would advise future students to pay attention during lecture, but that was impossible for me no matter how hard I tried haha.. Nonetheless, I think an A is around 20/30, and anything below an A- he strongly advised you to retake. You can retake any exam but with the highest possible score being one notch lower each time- so for one retake, the highest you could get would be an A-.
Grade received: A
H196B- Honors thesis + poster presentation
Grade received: A
So overall, even though this wasn't a very relaxed way to end my Berkeley experience, I did graduate with another 4.0 and got on the Dean's list for the third consecutive semester! :)
If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment!
-K
And that was the last time we'll ever see K...
ReplyDeleteDo you think I can ask you how you got such a high gpa at cal?
ReplyDeleteI'm a junior predental student, and I have to be honest--my GPA is very low (2.8).
I feel like I'm studying nonstop but I can't seem to get better grades..
How did you do it?
Also..
How is medical school?
Take a bunch of easy straight forward science classes where you just need to put in effort and memorize (IB 131, IB 117, IB 169, IB 140)
DeleteLook for science classes where the averages are really high (ESPM 19, ESPM 119, Plant and Microbial Biology 40)
Avoid all MCB classes, even MCB 135A (which does have a high average), because these classes are very stacked with very intelligent people. You can study all you want, but if you know you lack some testing taking abilities and you haven't done so hot then it's going to be difficult. Trust me, I had to drop MCB from my MCB & Public Health double major because the costs of getting a bad GPA outweighed the strong interest I had.
So, if you follow those tips and put in a lot of time in these straightforward classes I've mentioned, you can definitely raise your GPA above a 3.0. If you look at her past last few semester updates, the classes she took weren't nearly as challenging as the ones she took in her first 5 semesters. That's how she raised her GPA really high towards the last few semesters. It's really a numbers game in the end, so you need to now be strategic in how you approach your classes now. With the time you have left, it's about being smart about the choices you make.