Marianopolis College Then, PreMed?

[ChosenDestiny]

Hello, next year I will be attending Marianopolis in Health Science. At first, I thought that I will be able to compete with the others, but it looks like I was wrong. My current average is only 84. I am not naturally born intelligent nor stupid. I work hard (a solid 5-6 hours study for math/chemistry/physics the day before the exam) to be able to get an 90 average. It's too late for me to apply for the other Cegeps.

My ultimate dream is to enter into Premed at Mcgill University. It will probably be the end of my world if I don't succeed.

I heard that the only thing you have to do is study hard at Cegep. But how can studying improve greatly your grades? I mean, let take math for example, the questions the teacher gives me in an exam were not in the homeworks. So even if I have done all of them, I would have not managed to successfully complete them.

Or during a french essay. Correct me if I am wrong but if you are not born to be a good writer, no matter how hard you try during the exam, one can't write an excellent, fluently written, essay with minor mistakes. I do put all the efforts I can during the essays, I can only roughly get a 84 but most of the times it's 75...

Or during Phy. Ed, which is the thing that lower the most my average. I am not physically strong, I have asthma and I suck at sports.

What would you do if you were me?
Can anyone give me some tips so I can get way better grades?

[Golgi]

Well one thing you can do if it's really not going well during your first semester is change to any other Cegep and see how that goes... However, in my opinion, you can do well or badly in any Cegep. It doesn't really depend on the school itself, but on you.

Phys. Ed. in Cegep is reaaaally different than in high school. They don't take into account your talent in sports or your physical strength or capacities. They count participation/attendance (don't skip!), LOTS of homework (projects, essays), your progress in the class (so if you start really badly and get slightly better, that's good enough) and tests. And anyways, gym courses are only 1 credit, so they don't have a big impact on your R-score... so not to worry! :)

I don't really have many tips on how to study/get good grades... That really depends on who you are and what works for you. However, I suggest that whenever you have questions, ASK the teacher as soon as possible, participate in class, do the suggested problems, and so on. If you don't understand, read the book! Don't depend on the teacher to learn things, because some teachers are REALLY bad, so you have to learn how to learn by yourself :P

Hope that helps :)
(I didn't go to Mariano by the way... so I can't really give you tips about that)

[p0o9]

Hello, next year I will be attending Marianopolis in Health Science. At first, I thought that I will be able to compete with the others, but it looks like I was wrong. My current average is only 84. I am not naturally born intelligent nor stupid. I work hard (a solid 5-6 hours study for math/chemistry/physics the day before the exam) to be able to get an 90 average. It's too late for me to apply for the other Cegeps.

My ultimate dream is to enter into Premed at Mcgill University. It will probably be the end of my world if I don't succeed.

I heard that the only thing you have to do is study hard at Cegep. But how can studying improve greatly your grades? I mean, let take math for example, the questions the teacher gives me in an exam were not in the homeworks. So even if I have done all of them, I would have not managed to successfully complete them.

Or during a french essay. Correct me if I am wrong but if you are not born to be a good writer, no matter how hard you try during the exam, one can't write an excellent, fluently written, essay with minor mistakes. I do put all the efforts I can during the essays, I can only roughly get a 84 but most of the times it's 75...

Or during Phy. Ed, which is the thing that lower the most my average. I am not physically strong, I have asthma and I suck at sports.

What would you do if you were me?
Can anyone give me some tips so I can get way better grades?

Hey there,

Relax… don’t beat yourself down, you haven’t even started Cegep yet ;) . I’m not sure what you meant by “what would you do if I were you,” but here’s a few tips:

1) Of course studying will help improve your grade, but it has more to do with how you study than how much you study. You said that you were able to get a 90 by studying 5-6 hours “the day before an exam,” right? Well, that’s great, but keep in mind that the only sure way to be consistent is to study continuously. i.e. don’t wait before an exam before you begin to study and try to develop a healthy work ethic early on—it will serve you well. Also, make sure to be up-to-date on your classes; as a rule of thumb, study one hour for each hour of lecture.

2) For math, the questions on midterms/finals will often be similar to those given in homework. Being willing to go the extra miles and do some exercises in the textbook will certainly help.

3) As for french, again, this goes back to the whole work ethic thing. Don’t wait til you have to hand in an essay to start putting your butt off, try reading books, novels in your free time—that’s what’s gonna help in improve—you can only do much to improve yourself if you are pressed in terms of time!

4) In Phys.ed., you are evaluation on how much you have improve relative to yourself vs. everyone else in the class.

As aside, just to give you an idea of what you can expect in terms of grades, etc. a 90 in a science class will generally translate into a R-score of 34-35 while a 96 will get you something around 38. There’s a graph on the third floor at the junction between the A-wing and the F-wing showing states average vs. r-score if you are interested :rolleyes: .

Hope this helps :)

PS: those are just my opinions/tips based on what generally worked for me... feel free to take it with a grain of salt

[over9000]

You should make sure you understand the material as much as you know it, especially in physics and chemistry. Ask your profs for help. You really need to know yourself (study patterns, etc.) I believe everyone studies differently. For example, some people will spend days studying and perform miserably.

On the other hand, I'd like to add emphasis on the fact that it's not only about grades. Yeah you need to get preferably at least 31 of R-Score or else even if you're a great person, you might have a hard time during your medical studies. I knew some people who only had 32 or people who needed tutoring in CEGEP and still managed to get through the process, and they are doing well in premed now.

[JJ1985]

You have put a lot of pressure on yourself. Getting into pre-med is nice, but it is not the end of the world if you do not succeed. You can always apply after university. My advice is enjoy the journey... CEGEP is a lot of fun and university is an amazing experience. You will realize that there is always another hurdle to jump over in life.



Hello, next year I will be attending Marianopolis in Health Science. At first, I thought that I will be able to compete with the others, but it looks like I was wrong. My current average is only 84. I am not naturally born intelligent nor stupid. I work hard (a solid 5-6 hours study for math/chemistry/physics the day before the exam) to be able to get an 90 average. It's too late for me to apply for the other Cegeps.

My ultimate dream is to enter into Premed at Mcgill University. It will probably be the end of my world if I don't succeed.

I heard that the only thing you have to do is study hard at Cegep. But how can studying improve greatly your grades? I mean, let take math for example, the questions the teacher gives me in an exam were not in the homeworks. So even if I have done all of them, I would have not managed to successfully complete them.

Or during a french essay. Correct me if I am wrong but if you are not born to be a good writer, no matter how hard you try during the exam, one can't write an excellent, fluently written, essay with minor mistakes. I do put all the efforts I can during the essays, I can only roughly get a 84 but most of the times it's 75...

Or during Phy. Ed, which is the thing that lower the most my average. I am not physically strong, I have asthma and I suck at sports.

What would you do if you were me?
Can anyone give me some tips so I can get way better grades?

[ChosenDestiny]

Thank you to all of you so far. Absolutely great advices, I feel way more confident right now. But there are still some fears inside of my heart :

Do you guys personally know a guy that wasn't really smart, let say a normal IQ of 110, and got into premed by studying hard?

Will a 90% in science really give you a 34-35 grade at marianopolis? I heard that the average over there is like 88 so it should be a 29-30 right?

Are the Humanities classes at Marianopolis hard?

How many students, on average, try to enter in premed in Marianopolis? Was it all your friends?

[p0o9]

Thank you to all of you so far. Absolutely great advices, I feel way more confident right now. But there are still some fears inside of my heart :

Do you guys personally know a guy that wasn't really smart, let say a normal IQ of 110, and got into premed by studying hard?

Will a 90% in science really give you a 34-35 grade at marianopolis? I heard that the average over there is like 88 so it should be a 29-30 right?

Are the Humanities classes at Marianopolis hard?

How many students, on average, try to enter in premed in Marianopolis? Was it all your friends?

Do you mind if I asked you what’s with this genetic determinism attitude of yours? You seem to mention it quite often (“not naturally born writer,” intelligence, etc.). Maybe it will be time to have more faith in yourself ;)

And to answer your questions, nope… class averages are usually consistently around 80 with 75 and 88 being the lowest and highest that I've seen respectively. And yes, they are a lot of people who applied... But again, as someone already pointed out, Cegep isn’t all about grades or competition with your peers and there are more than one pathway for medicine…

hope this helps

[a1b1]

Thank you to all of you so far. Absolutely great advices, I feel way more confident right now. But there are still some fears inside of my heart :

Do you guys personally know a guy that wasn't really smart, let say a normal IQ of 110, and got into premed by studying hard?

Will a 90% in science really give you a 34-35 grade at marianopolis? I heard that the average over there is like 88 so it should be a 29-30 right?

Are the Humanities classes at Marianopolis hard?

How many students, on average, try to enter in premed in Marianopolis? Was it all your friends?

A grade of 80% will give you atleast a r-score of 33 , atleast that was the case with the science courses I took in cegep, then again i dont go to marianopolis, so you may need slightly more than that. The same cant be said about the other courses thought, an 80 only got me a r-score of 26-28 in humanities/english courses, I have no idea how they calculate this.

And yes, if you work hard you can do well, i did very poorly in high school and managed to turn it around in cegep, and I dont consider myself anything great.

Be positive, do your best, what ever will be will be.

Best of wishes.

[IAmDisappoint]

Hard work will get you places in life :).

You will need good grades to get into the initial stages of admissions, however (this is very important), it is important that you do what you enjoy during these years... By taking breaks to do what you enjoy (in my case sports, music, and volunteering) you will be rejuvenated to study more, as well as motivated to push on with what you are doing. Don't go into CEGEP with the mindset that you will get into medicine from your grades alone, they are only a small piece of the puzzle in the scheme of things (they count for 0% of the McGill admissions decision after the interviews...!).

Studying tips: space out your studying (read, highlight, write, do problems), ask questions, don't fall asleep (in class ;) )

TLDR; Try your best, don't burn out, don't set overly high expectations, do what you enjoy (don't focus entirely on academics! use these years to meet people and find out who you really are).

Regards,
IAmDisappoint, Medicine hopeful 2011

P.s. maybe it won't be such a good idea to look at studying at Marianopolis as competing against others (unless it's friendly competition...)... If you work with each other (tips, sharing notes, comparing strategies, approaches) you will all benefit, and there is no quota for different schools, so if you work with all of your friends maybe you will all (!) get into medicine and there will be a higher amount of Marianopolis students getting into medicine in your year :)

[IAmDisappoint]

If you would ever like some advice, feel free to send me a private message by the way, however, I will be very busy until my exams are over (May 25th).

Maybe it'd be interesting to find out who gets into medicine (or who got interviews) this year, and have everyone pitch in some advice to future hopefuls in a thread (not necessarily to get into medicine, but how people coped with studying and doing other activities).