I took this class largely out of a sense of sleep-deprived desperation. It was 6:00 AM, my first real experience with registering for classes, and I got absolutely none of the classes I had planned. I vaguely recalled having seen a science requirement on my Degree Audit for a BS in Psychology, and the classes only met in the afternoon, so I hit register. It wasn't until I got to the first day of class that I saw that this was one of those infamous weed-out classes I had heard so much about.
Here is my first test from the class. I am aware of how pretentious I am about to sound, considering this score was largely above the class average, but I felt ashamed. Somehow, I had made it through all of high school without getting lower than probably a 90% on any given test. So 72.5% was a bit of a blow to my status. However, I did notice that while I was a little bummed about my score, I wasn't as NEARLY devastated as I would have been if this had happened 2 years ago. Back then, I may have had a mental breakdown with this, crying for 2 days before entering a sort of numb-like state of BIOL existence. I've grown a lot since then, and I've been learning to take things less seriously, so I chose to see this "low score" as an example of my own growth.
By the end of the class, I actually ended up with a 4.0, meaning I was in the top 5% of my class. Knowing that, I'm aware how whiny I look when I complain about my C on a test. But still, I'm going to choose to focus on the fact that I've learned how to confront unmet expectations with a bit more grace and humility. And hey, I also heard that if I was to get 4.0's in the next two BIOL classes, I would receive an automatic admittance to the Neurobiology major. So at least I have that option to fall back on?
I met with a Psychology adviser, who shared with me the general guidelines for classes that premed students need to take to be accepted into most medical schools. As you can see, it's...a lot. Although I did well in BIOL 180, looking at all of the courses I would have to take over the next 4 years (including chemistry and physics, which I dislike), I became overwhelmed. So for my health, I made the decision to stop pursuing premed. I decided that I didn't want my time in college to just be ticking boxes for an application. I wanted to get a variety of experiences and classes that would help me grow as a human and better define for myself my passions.