lotuspuppy
Phoenix
Joined: Jan 15, 2008
Age: 24
Posts: 853
Location: On a journey to the center of the mind
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 Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:02 am Post subject: |
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| Stinkypuppy wrote: | | therange wrote: | In high school, I was in the advanced (best) classes and only struggled in math and science because I'm sub-par in both. In the other classes, I got mostly As and Bs with the occasional C, and that's despite getting bullied and being suicidally depressed. In community college, I excelled in the english and writing and liberal arts classes, didn't do too bad in math because I was taking College Algebra instead of Pre-Cal. Still struggled in science. But I feel like I peaked in community college.
From my brief experiences with university, it's taught at an AP level. How students who were no better than myself in high school manage to not only take 5 classes, but pass all of them with a 3 GPA or higher, is beyond me. I'm not a dumb guy, but I felt dumb in those classes. Add on top of it not being able to concentrate or understand certain things, and having a boatload of work every day in 5 classes, and I don't understand how other Aspies are able to take 5 classes, do well, and go on to grad school.
I'm wondering if in my situation, I'm a low-functioning Aspie, not socially, but academically. |
Nah, therange, college is just hard. And it's not just a function of learning the material, but also learning how to learn the material. I was really good at math, taking first year calculus as a junior in high school. But when I took multivariable calculus two years later, I did considerably more poorly. Similarly, I got an A+ in introductory chemistry, but nearly failed out of organic chem the following year. It just seemed so foreign to me, because I didn't know how to learn it. Maybe a whole variety of factors contributed to the poorer performance: a new situation and location, bad instructors, less individualized attention, the speed of the class, etc. etc.. I think you'd be unfairly beating yourself up about your past university performance if you think it's because you're "just dumb" or "low-functioning" or something like that.
At any rate, life is all about learning and growing, about improving yourself, and not about comparing yourself to others. Compare yourself to how you used to be, instead, and marvel at how much you've grown in the meantime. Besides, people who are successful 100% of the time and never have an unfortunate moment lack wisdom... and lack entertaining stories to tell the kids.  *hugs* |
Thanks for the advice, and for the emotional support! |
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Axion004
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Jan 27, 2010
Posts: 28
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| Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 11:22 pm Post subject: Re: Unhappy with GPA |
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| lotuspuppy wrote: | With serious academic problems on this forum, I feel mine is trivial in comparison. Neverthelss, I have to say it. I am a junior in college, have a 3.00 GPA, and am very unhappy with it. I am unhappier still because I know I can do far better, but something holds me back. It’s not that I’m not smart enough to do the work, but a variety of factors: work ethic, not understanding directions clearly, etc. The greatest problem, I find, is the stigma of getting help. This is an embarrassing problem to admit.
I’m not asking for sympathy, but I feel I can do better, and this whole stigma thing is part of what’s holding me back. Thoughts? |
What is your major? How do you study? How many hours do you study per week? How many hours do you study daily? Do you enjoy what you study or does it seem like you are doing work?
Those are all some of the basic questions I had to answer.
GPA is not a measurement of intelligence but more so a measurement of work ethic. If you can get into a schedule of studying X amount of hours a day or at certain times during a week then this seems to work for many people(Not for everyone; I hate routines).
Speaking only from personal experience the biggest problem I had was understanding what I should study. There was a lot of information available to me throughout the notes and textbook and it took me a long time before I figured out what most of the Professors would use as test questions.
Once I figured this out.....getting a high grade on an exam became much easier(And I found myself studying less and reading more material outside of the classroom).
My major/minor is Economics/Information Technology.
| Stinkypuppy wrote: |
At any rate, life is all about learning and growing, about improving yourself, and not about comparing yourself to others. Compare yourself to how you used to be, instead, and marvel at how much you've grown in the meantime. Besides, people who are successful 100% of the time and never have an unfortunate moment lack wisdom... and lack entertaining stories to tell the kids. *hugs* |
People tell me that I am "All work, no play."
I respond "My work is my play."
Then they tell me it is not normal for a twenty two year old to be interested in only work.
So I respond "When I was six years old all I did was take apart electronic toys and put them back together. Was that normal?"
They respond "no"
I respond "Didn't think so." |
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aspiegirl2
Aurtistic Rainwoman
Joined: Feb 24, 2005
Age: 24
Posts: 1461
Location: Washington, USA
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 1:30 am Post subject: |
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I don't have the best GPA either, as I'm a Junior and have a 2.98 at a private liberal arts university. It's not all that bad compared to others that I know, but it's not the best either. I'm trying to get a BS in Psychology, which requires a lot of science classes along with the psychology ones. It's good to be involved at school or the community, though. I'm on the Track and Cross Country teams at my school, and I think that this has been very worth it. Not only am I staying fairly healthy and in good shape, but it provides a social circle, which really helps me out. I'm also still inthe process of starting an aspie support group at my school. I really want to help other aspies, just pointing them in the right direction and offering them a listening ear, and resources if they need a bit of help. They say that graduate schools, depending which program you want to go into, typically like students taking time off before jumping right in. This is because many graduate schools want to know that if they accept an applicant out of possibly thousands, which takes a lot of their time and money, that it's not just a pipe dream to the student, that they will stick with the program. In other words, you get accepted into a graduate program, they are making a huge investment in you. I'm thinking of joining Peace Corps or AmeriCorps for a couple years after college, just to immerse myself more in the world, plus for paying some of my loans off. GRE scores are also important, as well as letters of recommendation. It looks great with a fantastic GPA, but if you did nothing but study for classes and take tests, then that doesn't look the best either. I'm stuck in the same boat you're in. We'll eventually find our way and it will be over soon 
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I'm 24 years old and live in WA State. I was diagnosed with Asperger's at 9. I received a BS in Psychology in 2011 and I intend to help people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, either through research, application, or both. On the “Pursuit of Aspieness”. |
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