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It depends on your university but I would guestimate around the 70-75th percentile? Unfortunately it is still below average for medical admissions...

 

Did you view your final exams? Try to figure out if it is a problem of gaps in your knowledge/memory, difficulty in applying the concepts to new problems, or what have you. Once you do this, the academic help centre at your university should be able to give you some tips for rectifying the problems.

 

Hope that helps.

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At UofT, a 3.5 puts you in the top 10% of students. Not sure how it is at other universities, but it's not the worst thing that could have happened. Go in and see your final exams and figure out what went wrong, did you study differently for them? Was it just from getting burnt out?

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Hello everyone, I just finished my first year as a biological sciences major with a 3.44 GPA. I have some concerns and please be blunt: 1) In comparison to others in my major what percentile would I rank (I want to get a feel for how I stand compared to others). 2) I have a friend who took all the same courses as me and we studied and compared answers to our work daily ... but he ended up with a 3.97 first year GPA. I feel like crap when I think about this, what brought me down were the final exams. I had almost perfect A in every class but then almost every final exam brought me down a lot. How can I improve this? Thank you.

 

Apparently at UofT, a 3.5 is top 10%, which is probably true for first year (I am certain it is not true for higher years, as the low end people drop out, and grades can be given more liberally in higher years). Western is a different matter. A 3.5 is probably around 65 percentile in science in 1st year (or top 35%), and may in fact be below 50 percentile in 4th year. Class averages were really high for most 4th yr courses (usually in low to mid80s range - or 3.7to 3.9). And for some large programs out there (health sciences at mac), I'm not sure if anyone has ever gotten a gpa as low as 3.44 (I kid of course - but honestly, it is brutally rare for anyone at mac health scie to get less than 3.8, let alone 3.5!!).

 

First year is a complete write off for you - a 3.44 won't get you into any decent program out there. But the good news is that most medical schools allow you to drop some courses/years. Keep your chin up, and start being serious about school - and you have a chance.

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At UofT, a 3.5 puts you in the top 10% of students.

 

Glad I didn't go to U of T for undergrad. But if you want to improve your final exam marks, the only way is to study. It's important to realize that the final exam is not the same as midterms or assignments. It covers the most material, prohibits from having any aid, and has a tight time constraint. A good way to measure exam readiness is to do the practice finals from past years and see how you do - and study the areas that you need to improve on.

 

I feel like crap when I think about this

 

While it is important to stay competitive and use that as motivation, I would recommend not comparing yourself too much to others who have higher gpa. Instead, have a healthy mindset and do the best you can. Positivity is key.

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As a former bio sci major at U of C, I can tell you that it does get better as you go along... In first year, they make you take some pointless classes (calc, stats, english, physics, blah, blah and the list continues)

 

Once you have most of those courses out of the way, most of the courses are just straight up memorization....(either you know it or you don't)

 

To conclude, pick easy electives... U of C has a ton, and not only do they allow you to boost your GPA, but also frees up time for harder classes....

 

Good luck!

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Guest qwertyy
Hello everyone, I just finished my first year as a biological sciences major with a 3.44 GPA. I have some concerns and please be blunt: 1) In comparison to others in my major what percentile would I rank (I want to get a feel for how I stand compared to others). 2) I have a friend who took all the same courses as me and we studied and compared answers to our work daily ... but he ended up with a 3.97 first year GPA. I feel like crap when I think about this, what brought me down were the final exams. I had almost perfect A in every class but then almost every final exam brought me down a lot. How can I improve this? Thank you.

 

I finished my first year with a 3.98 and I could give you some advise. I honestly do not recommend you studying together unless you have mastered the materials, at which point you can study together to "teach" your peers. But honestly, for me, studying together from scratch didn't work out at all. For your next academic year, I recommend studying alone for the most part.

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Hey, I'm going into Biosci and u of c next year and I was wondering if you recommend taking English in the first year? Also, what are some easy electives that you would recommend taking?

 

I wouldn't recommend taking english at all b/c U of A will no longer require it past this cycle. As for easy options:

1.GLGY 209

2.GRST 211

3. Intro Psych

4. Intro Sociology

 

Those were the easy first year options I took....

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I wouldn't recommend taking english at all b/c U of A will no longer require it past this cycle. As for easy options:

1.GLGY 209

2.GRST 211

3. Intro Psych

4. Intro Sociology

 

Those were the easy first year options I took....

 

Where did you see that UoA isn't taking english any more??

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