Struggling with developmental Biology and may not qualify for student loan..

[JAW0172003]

Hello everyone!

I am sorta new here, I read most of the posts daily but rarely post myself. I love this site, great information.

I am a fulltime older student (35 isn't that old egh?) I started taking classes here and there back in 1998. The first semester I was going through a really nasty divorce and ended up dropping most of my classes. I made a HUGE mistake by not formally withdrawing from 3 of the classes and received F's on my transcripts. Since 1998 I have attempted to go back a few times and have finished a few classes here and there and withdrawn from classes on several occassions receiving a W on my transcripts. Prior to March 2004 I'd always paid up front for my classes. I started back to school fulltime and quit my job with the support of my dear husband. I have received 5 A's and a B+ (the B+ was in a developmental Math) since returning to school. My GPA for the last 2 semesters has been a 4.0 but my accumulative is very low at a 2.5, I am trying very hard to bring my GPA up and am actually retaking 2 of the 3 failed courses this semester to try and clear up.

I ended up getting a student loan for this semester and last and am now scared about next semester. I am having a REALLY hard time in my developmental Biology class. My current grade in the class is under a 75 and we must have 75 to pass the class. If I do not pass I will not qualify for a student loan next semester due to already being on student loan probation due to my 5 Withdrawn classes prior (had I known W's were a bad thing I never would have withdrawn this many times). Has anyone else been in this situation?

As for my Biology class, I do have a tutor and I meet with other students to study. I really feel like I know this stuff but my anxiety level is overwhelming for some reason this semester and I just can't seem to prove myself on the quizzes and Exams. HELP???

I know nursing is my "Life calling" and I'm not giving up, I just need some ideas on how to get through this..

Thanks for any positive advice you may have to offer.

[Fun2, BSN, RN]

I wish I could help. I'm not sure what is taught in Developmental Biology, as I haven't taken it.

However, you seem to be doing the correct thing. Make sure you are studying as much as you can. If you look back at what you have done this past week, is there more time to study? Did you watch a movie, instead of study? Make flashcards. Repeat things over and over. Do what you have to do to pass your class. Go to as many tutoring sessions as you can. Ask someone to quiz you from questions in the book. Do you have a study guide for your book?

Good luck to you!

[CaterpillarGirl]

Does your school allow you to switch to "auditing" the class? If it gets to that deadline and it looks like you're not going to pass, you can switch it over to audit, that makes it look like you were taking hte class for fun. You don't get credit, but you also don't have a bad grade or that nasty "W" on your transcript. "Audit" looks much better. Talk to your financial aid office though to make sure that it wouldn't jeapordize your loan status.

Good luck with the class!! Are you close to a 75%? If it's test taking anxiety, there might be some help in the student services at your school to offer you techniques for relaxing for exams and quizzes.

[bioniclewoman]

I wish the financial aid office would make things like withdrawing being a bad thing better known to the students. I know a girl that was notified a week before classes were to start that she would have to pay for the classes herself because she had reached the limit for attempted courses. What she had done was withdrawl from a lot of classes, which were really counting as classes taken as far as FA was conserned. The school will only let you take like 90hr on FA before making you pay yourself. She was really upset because she didn't know about this and they didn't tell her she wasn't getting FA until right before school started. I'm sure the FA office has this info somewhere but why don't they tell us so we don't screw ourselves.