nosm_d Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 Hey guys, I am a fourth year Social Science student at Western University. I have earned predominantly mid to high 80s through my undergraduate degree... bysleeping minimally and having next to no social life. On these forums I am seeing an overwhelming population of people with 4.0 cGPAs. This means, as per the OMSAS scale, that students have not earned ONE grade beneath 90%. How in the world is that possible? Am I missing something here? I was speaking with a dean recently who said she has never seen a student with 90s across the board in all her years of teaching. What am I doing so wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nice Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnGrisham Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 38 minutes ago, distributed_healthcare said: Hey graduated western health sci last year. I know what you mean when you hear stories about people with 4.0 cGPAs and your just like how. I think it has to do with how a class is evaluated. If a class has knowledge or application based exams getting near perfect on these is very possible. If a class requires writing subjective essays or exam answers, or a lot of group work then getting 90s here is a lot more difficult. Especially for subjective/idea based essays, getting 90+ on an exam is BOUNDS EASIER than getting 90+ on an essay (at least in my experience). So if majority of a classes mark is based on exams, especially of multiple choice in nature, pulling a 90 is IMO easier (still not easy per se, but easier than other forms of evaluation). This is the answer. My science based courses were far easier to get 90+ in undergrad(there is only one right answer, often multiple choice etc) than my writing/composition based courses. Despite the content being far more difficult in the science courses, it was objectively easier to simply work hard, and know the material inside out...compared to written composition that was evaluated subjectively, often by differing markers(TAs mostly, sometimes the professor in higher levels). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_jacob_45 Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 1 hour ago, distributed_healthcare said: Hey graduated western health sci last year. I know what you mean when you hear stories about people with 4.0 cGPAs and your just like how. I think it has to do with how a class is evaluated. If a class has knowledge or application based exams getting near perfect on these is very possible. If a class requires writing subjective essays or exam answers, or a lot of group work then getting 90s here is a lot more difficult. Especially for subjective/idea based essays, getting 90+ on an exam is BOUNDS EASIER than getting 90+ on an essay (at least in my experience). So if majority of a classes mark is based on exams, especially of multiple choice in nature, pulling a 90 is IMO easier (still not easy per se, but easier than other forms of evaluation). This is definitely true. I did my BSc in psych at Western, and took a few bio/physiology courses as electives simply because they had multiple choice exams, so it was much easier to get in the 90s than my more essay-based/research based upper year psych classes. But generally tried to minimize essay courses as much as possible even within my major. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosm_d Posted February 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 3 hours ago, m_jacob_45 said: This is definitely true. I did my BSc in psych at Western, and took a few bio/physiology courses as electives simply because they had multiple choice exams, so it was much easier to get in the 90s than my more essay-based/research based upper year psych classes. But generally tried to minimize essay courses as much as possible even within my major. Thanks guys, I can understand essay courses having a 'subjective' downside... My undergrad was comprised of almost all essay courses (ugh).. I even think my electives were essay based too. My GPA is around a 3.8 but I still wonder if I should be doing a second undergrad or taking more courses (non-essay) to try to increase this. I'm not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jr2 Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 On 2/4/2018 at 4:59 PM, nosm_d said: Thanks guys, I can understand essay courses having a 'subjective' downside... My undergrad was comprised of almost all essay courses (ugh).. I even think my electives were essay based too. My GPA is around a 3.8 but I still wonder if I should be doing a second undergrad or taking more courses (non-essay) to try to increase this. I'm not sure. Luckily, all that reading and writing was not in vain....if you can score CARS >= 129 on the MCAT, you will be competitive for both Mac and UWO (as long as you meet the other science cutoffs, which are fairly straightforward). Your 3.8 will only hold you back at UofT and Ottawa (but don't forget the weighting schemes at these schools may significantly inflate your GPA). I also noticed your user name has NOSM in it....if you were born/raised in the north, I think a 3.8 would be competitive for NOSM, no? All that said, CARS can be unpredictable sometimes. I was consistently scoring 90+ on all the question banks and got 131 on both AAMC practice tests to end up with a <129 on the actual b/c I was sleep deprived and ended up with a killer ECONOMICS passage on my exam (I was hoping for English lit or philosophy, ugh). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m_jacob_45 Posted February 4, 2018 Report Share Posted February 4, 2018 1 hour ago, nosm_d said: Thanks guys, I can understand essay courses having a 'subjective' downside... My undergrad was comprised of almost all essay courses (ugh).. I even think my electives were essay based too. My GPA is around a 3.8 but I still wonder if I should be doing a second undergrad or taking more courses (non-essay) to try to increase this. I'm not sure. I think a second undergrad is unnecessary with a 3.8 GPA. That's actually really good (better than mine was anyways lol). Its likely close to 3.9 with the weighting schemes that most of the ON schools use. If you're around a 3.9, I don't think you need to do anymore school. If you need to do some GPA-boosting (i.e. you're around 3.8- 3.85 with weighting schemes applied), you could do a 5th year and just apply during the summer of 4th year and again after the 5th if needed). Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosm_d Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 5 hours ago, m_jacob_45 said: I think a second undergrad is unnecessary with a 3.8 GPA. That's actually really good (better than mine was anyways lol). Its likely close to 3.9 with the weighting schemes that most of the ON schools use. If you're around a 3.9, I don't think you need to do anymore school. If you need to do some GPA-boosting (i.e. you're around 3.8- 3.85 with weighting schemes applied), you could do a 5th year and just apply during the summer of 4th year and again after the 5th if needed). Good luck! Thank-you for the advice. I am sitting at exactly 3.8. What do you think? Should I do a 5th year or consider my average to be sufficiently competitive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosm_d Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 6 hours ago, jr2 said: As someone from a non-science undergrad, I feel your pain. Luckily, all that reading and writing was not in vain....if you can score CARS >= 129 on the MCAT, you will be competitive for both Mac and UWO (as long as you meet the other science cutoffs, which are fairly straightforward). Your 3.8 will only hold you back at UofT and Ottawa (but don't forget the weighting schemes at these schools may significantly inflate your GPA). I also noticed your user name has NOSM in it....if you were born/raised in the north, I think a 3.8 would be competitive for NOSM, no? All that said, CARS can be a crapshoot sometimes. I was consistently scoring 90+ on all the question banks and got 131 on both AAMC practice tests to end up with a 128 on the actual b/c I was sleep deprived and ended up with a frigging killer ECONOMICS passage on my exam (I was hoping for English lit or philosophy, FML). An economics passage?? Oh jeez, that is seriously brutal. Thank-you for your super helpful reply. McMaster is probably my top choice but I worry about 3.8 not being competitive enough.. even with a decent CARS score. What do you think? I am seriously considering doing a 5th year to bump my GPA to a 3.84 or so... but will that even make much of a difference? Seriously regretting taking so many damn essay courses right about now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jr2 Posted February 5, 2018 Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 On 2/5/2018 at 12:10 AM, nosm_d said: An economics passage?? Oh jeez, that is seriously brutal. Thank-you for your super helpful reply. McMaster is probably my top choice but I worry about 3.8 not being competitive enough.. even with a decent CARS score. What do you think? I am seriously considering doing a 5th year to bump my GPA to a 3.84 or so... but will that even make much of a difference? Seriously regretting taking so many damn essay courses right about now Hey! Your gpa is fine as it stands imo. If you can increase to 3.84, it will help you only marginally at mac (avg was 3.84 last year). The MCAT is the big deciding factor at this point. I recommend aiming for 129 or higher on cars. Also, I suggest you don't neglect bio, chem or psych. If you do reasonably well in these, it opens the door to queens and uwo. Make sure you sleep well the night before, lmao. I hate undergrad. There's no sum of money you could pay me to spend another year here. But if you can comfortably afford a fifth year (money-wise) and are mentally up for it, I don't have a definitive answer for you. If u elect to take an extra year, make sure it adheres to western's special year rules. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosm_d Posted February 5, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2018 12 hours ago, jr2 said: Hey! Your gpa is fine as it stands imo. If you can increase to 3.84, it will help you only marginally at mac (avg was 3.84 last year). The MCAT is the big deciding factor at this point. I recommend aiming for 129 or higher on cars. Also, I suggest you don't neglect bio, chem or psych. If you do reasonably well in these, it opens the door to queens and uwo. Make sure you sleep well the night before, lmao. I hate undergrad. The alcohol has worn off. There's no sum of money you could pay me to spend another year here. But if you can comfortably afford a fifth year (money-wise) and are mentally up for it, I don't have a definitive answer for you. If u elect to take an extra year, make sure it adheres to western's special year rules. Good luck! Thanks, i'll give it some more thought but it's probably best that I focus on the MCAT. Really appreciate the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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