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Hey Guys,

 

Whats the deal with failed courses at most schools, say someone fails an elective course not a prereq. Do you suggest them to redo the course to make it look like you didn't give up. Which schools average the scores if you repeat it or only consider the better mark?

 

Thanks in advance:)

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Hey Guys,

 

Whats the deal with failed courses at most schools, say someone fails an elective course not a prereq. Do you suggest them to redo the course to make it look like you didn't give up. Which schools average the scores if you repeat it or only consider the better mark?

 

Thanks in advance:)

 

Yeah that is annoying - they generally will not count the repeat at all and just continue to use the original grade. I am actually not aware of any that will average the grades or take the best off the top of my head BUT there are many schools that have a way of just dropping the course in the final GPA calculation depending on where you are at with your studies.

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Yeah that is annoying - they generally will not count the repeat at all and just continue to use the original grade. I am actually not aware of any that will average the grades or take the best off the top of my head BUT there are many schools that have a way of just dropping the course in the final GPA calculation depending on where you are at with your studies.

 

I thought most took the average i.e. counted both the grades towards your gpa?

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I thought most took the average i.e. counted both the grades towards your gpa?

 

Yeah oops - flying on auto pilot there, thanks for catching that! Western has a no repeats policy which I think i was hanging up on (although how that would work with a failed key prereq would just seem pretty awful then). Just went through the omsas manual again trying to confirm the other schools one way or other.

 

Overall OMSAS does say they will combine the two courses, i.e. averaging them (charmer08 is right!).

 

I checking again cannot find anyone that seems to simply replace the earlier course still(?)

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Hey Guys,

 

Whats the deal with failed courses at most schools, say someone fails an elective course not a prereq. Do you suggest them to redo the course to make it look like you didn't give up. Which schools average the scores if you repeat it or only consider the better mark?

 

Thanks in advance:)

 

Here's what I know for UofT and Mcmaster medical schools

 

Mcmaster: Average of both (http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/transcript_questions.html)

 

UofT: If you took a full course load, for every year undergraduate, you can drop 1 full semester course per each year you have completed at the point your applying to medical school (i.e you are applying to medcial school at your fourth year, therefore you can drop 3 full semester courses [ or the equivalent]). But remember you have to take a full courseload every year, and this does not apply to people applying in their third year of undergraduate. And if you did take a full course load and failed a course, this does not mean your not eligible for the weighting formula, as you attempted a full course load, and your failed mark will obviously be dropped if the weighting formula applies. - Sorry hope that makes sense! Also this is confirmed by email, which is found in another old post premed101 post.

 

You mentioned it is an elective? I wouldn't bother redoing it unless you had to by your university.

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I'm a bit confused now :confused: so if they take the average of the two, so is it recommended to redo the failed elective course, even though you don't need it to complete your degree?

 

well if you redo it what do you think your average the second time would be?

 

That is probably the more important question :)

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well if you redo it what do you think your average the second time would be?

 

That is probably the more important question :)

 

I can probably make it in the 70-80's range if not higher, but the thing is I don't really want to go through the course again, but if that would be better for me in the long run and you guys recommend it I'll definitly go about it:)

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UBC averages a fail with the first successful attempt. Not sure why you want to retake a failed elective, though, unless you know for sure that the second time around you'll actually put some effort in. You could just "balance" it with an easier elective.

 

I can probably make it in the 70-80's range if not higher, but the thing is I don't really want to go through the course again, but if that would be better for me in the long run and you guys recommend it I'll definitly go about it:)
If your overall average is anything higher than your retake mark, then it'll still be detrimental to your GPA.
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Thanks a lot, this makes a lot more sense now. The only reason that I wanted to retake it was so when schools look at my transcript they don't think I just gave up without another attempt. If I retake it and even do really well my averaged mark would turn out to be in the ~70's. So from reading all your helpful suggestions I think I'll just take an easy elective to balance out my failed mark, hopefully schools don't penalize me for having 1 bad mark in my transcript. :rolleyes:

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Thanks a lot, this makes a lot more sense now. The only reason that I wanted to retake it was so when schools look at my transcript they don't think I just gave up without another attempt. If I retake it and even do really well my averaged mark would turn out to be in the ~70's. So from reading all your helpful suggestions I think I'll just take an easy elective to balance out my failed mark, hopefully schools don't penalize me for having 1 bad mark in my transcript. :rolleyes:

 

Many won't if you follow their policies on removing bad courses (which a lot have in one way or another) :)

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