Failed Midterm. How can i recover?

[StatGrad03]

So I'm currently getting a Masters degree in Statistics and I'm in my second semester. Last semester I received a 3.79 GPA. For the most part I've been doing really well in my classes, however, now I'm at a stump. 

 

This one class only has 3 grades to the class: the midterm, a project, and the final. There weight are 30%, 30%, and 40%, respectively. I bombed the midterm...got a 38%. This is the lowest grade I have ever gotten in my academic career. The test was 10 multiple choice questions. 

 

So what now? I already have made an appointment with my professor, but how should I go about it? A C in this class is 60-70%. I realize that if I get lower than a 3.0 GPA i may be on probation, but my GPA is much higher than that even if I got a D or F in this class. 

 

So if I got a D in this class, do you think I would be kicked out of this program? The idea of this stresses me out and is destroying me. I've been beating myself up badly. Any advice helps.

[.letmeinplz//]

You can still get an 81.4, but if you don't fix the problem that led to a 38 on your midterm it would be difficult to get a 100 on the remaining 2 grades.

[MoJingly]

 

 

So if I got a D in this class, do you think I would be kicked out of this program? The idea of this stresses me out and is destroying me. I've been beating myself up badly. Any advice helps.

 

This is something your graduate program's handbook probably clarifies.  I think a D would raise some eyebrows regardless of whether you get kicked out, but you can redeem yourself. Don't beat yourself up too much.

 

 

Also, you are not alone.  I got great grades my whole life and had some of those weirdly frustrating and demeaning grade moments my first year of graduate school.  It got to the point where the graduate director brought me into her office to talk.  I had gotten a B- in one class (not a hard one!), and a C put us on academic probation (every school handles letter grades differently).  She started asking me what went wrong and starting saying maybe I should learn how to study. I just kept thinking, "this is so surreal.  I've been a straight A student my whole life." Truthfully I had no idea why I was struggling so much in that class. Anyhow, I promised I would do better the next semester and left her office to go sit outside and cry for a good half hour. You know what happened the next semester?  I got another friggin B-. I cried a lot and drank a lot of wine but life went on. It hasn't affected my graduate career at all because I proved myself in other ways. (caveat: this was a doctoral program). 

 

The point is that everybody has something go wrong in the first year of grad school.  It's just a sucky year. What makes it worse is that nobody talks about it. You go through and think that everybody else has their s*** together, and it's just not true.  After a few years people will open up and talk about how stressed, isolated, and crazy they felt. Just know that you are not alone. 

 

Also, have some ice cream.  :-) 

[fuzzylogician]

The point is that everybody has something go wrong in the first year of grad school.  It's just a sucky year. What makes it worse is that nobody talks about it. You go through and think that everybody else has their s*** together, and it's just not true.  After a few years people will open up and talk about how stressed, isolated, and crazy they felt. Just know that you are not alone. 

 

I think this is a general problem in academia. No one ever tells you about their failures, you're left assuming that you're the only one who's ever struggled to do things or had rejections. It can give people a very skewed picture of reality. Even very successful people have setbacks, and they also get low grades occasionally, and they have papers rejected and grants not awarded, etc. But no one puts that on their CV, so you end up just seeing their shiny successes but none of the hard work and frustrations that preceded them. It's like the Facebook syndrome for academics--everyone's life is full of beautiful smiling children, spiffy vacations, delicious looking food, etc., but you know no one's life is really like that.  

[Vene]

This is something your graduate program's handbook probably clarifies.

Definitely check the handbook.

Also, at least in my PhD program we also have to maintain a 3.0 GPA, but individual classes can be lower. However, anything below a C is considered a failing grade. So, if your program is set up like ours, then you just need to shoot for a C and you should be okay. Also, even if you do fail the class, I doubt a single screw up will mean you will be kicked out. Again, this is based on where I attend, but here you're put on probation for a semester if your GPA drops too low and if it doesn't get back to where it needs to be then you're in trouble.