Struggling in university

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I went to a Psychiatrist to figure out what could be wrong (possibly recovering from being in romantic relationships for the first time and having them both fail might still be bothering me to the point of harming my grades) and they said I was depressed/had social anxiety and prescribed me citalopram. My question is, do any of you know if depression really effect marks this bad? Like I said before, maybe my study habits aren't perfect but I'd say they're decent/good and I don't know how I could go from getting 99% in highschool anatomy to 59% in university anatomy..

So I basically I went and talked with the Assistant Dean of my program and we worked out an arrangement to withdraw me from my current classes without them showing on my transcript and also withdrawing me from my second semester classes so I could come back to school in either next semester or fall 2017. I had to tell my parents what had been happening which was hard but they were understanding and at first agreed that I should go back fall 2017 instead of winter but now said either one is my choice.

I need help deciding which to do, go back next semester and take whatever classes I can that didnt require my first semester classes as pre-reqs or take the next 8 months off? And if I do take the next 8 months off, what should I do to make sure my marks improve? I guess I kinda got in an argument with my dad last night, and he said go to college/technical school but I really am not interested in that. My goal was to get into Medical School and then if my marks weren't good enough for that I would seek out a career in academia/industry science by pursuing a PhD. I guess my whole life I always saw myself academically oriented and I thought my head was in the right place for that this year but I guess not

tl;dr
-did bad in first year but was distracted
-doing bad in second year with no tangible distractions
-if i take the next 8 months off, how can I get that 4.0 gpa?

>>17842915
If you don't change anything: nothing will change. I would recommend a change of pace, like going abroad to Asia for a semester or working a physically hard job. These might change your mindset. Otherwise, just take the bare minimum for your pre-reqs and graduation requirements. If you can, throw in one easy class like something you already know or would love to know. For me, this was Japanese language classes and intro chemistry/math classes. Since you can only pull yourself so many ways, the easy class really helps.

you probably dont actually need medication

you're still young

you probably need a break to refire yourself up for motivation

that or accept that you need to try harder

but its easier to try harder when you've had a break. it's not easy to maintain 98% averages, and in fact it's a lot of work. so take a break and do something interesting. if you have money you can travel. if you dont have money, pick up a sport or a hobby

>gets bad grades

>"and I find the material easy and understandable"

Huge red flag right there. The only way you can possibly do both at the same time is if you aren't studying what's going to be on the test. In that case I suggest you do so.

It would be helpful to know your study habits too. For example when you "study" do you do any of the following:

- Do exercises.
- Work out example exercises by yourself.
- Other stuff that's likely to be on the exam.

It might be that your "studying" consists of reading over your notes/book, summarizing/highlighting info, memorizing stuff. While that may be what's required in some classes (History, Anatomy) other subjects (Math, Programming, Physics) you aren't going anywhere with this.

Tl;dr you need to figure out how the exam is going to be (exercises/regurgitating info/etc) and tailor your studying according to that.

As someone who only gets by on high test marks, listen to >>17843260

If the prof has a study guide then that's your bible.
I got the highest marks on the midterm for one of my classes and never even opened the textbook until the day before the exam.
Now I don't condone cramming, I know myself that it's a terrible practice. But the point I was making is that a study guide can really make or break your grade, whether you "understand" the material or not.
Also professor or TA led study sessions help too, since they know entirely what you need to study.

>>17843302 cont.

Also the point >>17843260 makes about exams being exercises, memorization, etc. is an important part of it.
I quoted "understand" to imply an additional meaning or caveat to that phrase in context.
To understand something in a class doesn't necessarily mean you're prepared to be tested on it. Understanding is mostly just the result of critical thinking, which most exams aren't testing you on. Any true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, questions are going to be based on your memorization or ability to apply a memorized formula.
Short answer/essay questions are where an understanding of material becomes necessary. In testing understanding you are able to verbally prove that the concepts behind a class make sense to you.

For example, in Psych a factual portion of a test may be asking you to match specific philosophers with and ideology they're associated with, or a short answer asking you to describe the ideology. Very much a Who/What/When/Where question.

An understanding based question would ask you to explain the how. How does this philosophy work? How does it differ from the others? How is it applied in the real world? How does it manifest itself?

The way I studied for anatomy, epi, and psych was to make handwritten notes where I basically transcribed powerpoints/podcasts and if I had time I would go through and make notes from the textbook, which was going through the book and trying to summarize the readings/copying out what key points
is this is a bad way to approach studying?

>>17843405
The right way to study depends entirely on the test.
For most classes, just keep up with what's in class. Keep the important information fresh.
When the first test rolls around, be as prepared as you can be and see how it goes.
After that, you should have a good grasp on the a professor formats their tests and know what to look for specifically next time.
If you can anticipate what they're looking for on future tests you'll either improve your grade on the next test, and likely be able to save time by studying more efficiently on top of it.

What Canadian university program has a 4% acceptance rate out of highschool?

>>17843495
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/the-5-toughest-undergrad-programs-in-canada-to-get-210150421.html

I personally would wait until the fall semester to get the more serious classes out of the way. I think you could manage to get easier classe out of the way in the meantime though. But don't take too many, you don't want to strain yourself. You'll just end up getting stressed.

Shit, I'm currently going through a somewhat similar ordeal. I did awesome in high school and the first year of college was alright for me, but ever since I started my second year some of my classes just bite right now. I was looking forward to them and I tried my best at first but I let emotional distractions get in the way. Now it's close to finals and I'm just now trying to make up for what i fucked up. This is just primarily for one class that I completely fucked up in but I have a chance with my other classes I think..I'm still going to move forward and keep applying myself in hopes of working towards a better work ethic. I hope things get better for you too Op.

>>17843513
Why is it so difficult to get into? It doesn't even offer anything special.

>>17843535
it's supposed to be a free ride to medical school but for some reason i'm struggling

>>17843529
Yeah I guess my only concern is that most medical schools require that you take a full course load for them to calculate your GPA