Help. Possible C in Anatomy

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Hi everyone, I need some advice. Located in southern ca attending coast colleges with hopes of getting into Golden west’s program.

I’ve just started on my prenursing journey last year. I also had my son last year in June. While I was pregnant I took childhood development and Fall 2018 I went back to school and took public speaking and intro to sociology which I got all B’s in. This semester I’m taking Anatomy and it has been an absolute struggle to maintain a C. My husband has helped at much as he possibly can with baby and paying most of the bills which allowed me to only work part time. BUT I completely underestimated how much I would be needed/how hard balancing a baby at this stage and course work.

With golden west, you must get a “C” or better in the sciences(anatamoy,physio,micro) and then they average your gpa from them for their point system. My question is, should I retake anatomy? Or continue on with the pre reqs? Somome recommended just failing the class to retake and replace grade..? Ideally, I would like to become an RN then do the bridge to BSN later.

I appreciate any advice.

Thank you!

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First, I certainly would not recommend failing the class to retake. Unless there is a rule where you are that C's cannot be retaken (which would be a bizarre rule in my mind), getting a C the first time and then an A the second time would be better than an F the first time and an A the second time. I don't see any reason to "just fail" unless there is some strange rule in place.

With a C in Anatomy, there are a couple things I would think about in regards to retaking. First, what is the policy of the school you are applying to in regards to retakes? Some schools don't accept retakes at all, some may average both the old and new grade together, and some may only consider the new grade. As long as they accept retakes in some way, I certainly would consider doing so at some point. The main question then would be when.

I generally would recommend to go ahead and get the retake earlier rather than later. You will have the information fresh in your mind and hopefully will really excel the second time around. The main exception to that would be if you don't know that you could do that much better the second time through. If you thought it would still take you a ton of time/effort to potentially get a B this time, it may not be worth it but if you think an A could be achieved the next time, it very well could be. Retaking would also hopefully set you up well to do better in physiology whenever you do take it and maybe it won't be as much of a struggle with a very solid foundation in anatomy. The main reason to just continue through the prereqs now would just be to push through, apply for whatever cycle you hope to start, and see what happens. Then, if you happen to not be accepted, you could always go back and catch the Anatomy again (but obviously, at that point, it may be harder to retrieve all the information from your memory banks the second time around).

Again, before anything, I would reach out to the school you hope to go to for nursing and find out how they view retakes. If they only take the most recent grade (or in some other way it seems "worth it" to retake), I would probably look to do so sooner rather than later if you feel you could jump from the C up to an A.

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Thank you for your response. I think what this person was trying to say was that if I failed and retook the class, the grade would be replaced and the new one would be replaced with the F not counting towards the gpa. If I retook the class with this final grade being a C they would just average it but I guess it would show growth. I don’t want to have an F on my transcript so I guess I’m really weighing whether or not to move foreword with the C.

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On 5/10/2019 at 4:01 PM, Alexandra Nicolette said:

Thank you for your response. I think what this person was trying to say was that if I failed and retook the class, the grade would be replaced and the new one would be replaced with the F not counting towards the GPA. If I retook the class with this final grade being a C they would just average it but I guess it would show growth. I don’t want to have an F on my transcript so I guess I’m really weighing whether or not to move foreword with the C.

I recommend retaking classes for a strsight 4.0 GPA, I had a 3.8 in science GPA and had a hard time getting in any school.

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Most, if not all, CA community colleges usually do not allow retakes in which a previous grade of C was earned.  However, I recently read that the state has instituted a change that all 115 CA community colleges will allow retakes of any course started during the Covid crisis.  The first grade will not be counted in the GPA.  Of course, individuals facing this should verify with their school administration and also consider that at some point in time, it is possible for the policy to revert back to the regular policy which came about around 2012 or so.  

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This post was from last year and I retook it at another college. Thanks for the input anyway!

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It's good info to know for those struggling through their prereqs at this time.

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On 10/2/2020 at 11:28 AM, Alexandra Nicolette said:

This post was from last year and I retook it at another college. Thanks for the input anyway!

yes it is possible at a different college or different district! Best of luck!

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