For example, on the first test, the professor decides to test key concepts, but on the next test, the professor decides to test detailed information?

That could be a problem. You have to sort of bank on the assumption that your professor has a fixed way of creating exams — which they typically do.

And for technical classes, the level of difficulty of the questions done in class will be similar to the level of difficulty of questions on the tests, correct? What if the questions done in class are easy but the ones on the test are difficult?

These are the hardest types of tests. The upside, however, is that everyone does pretty bad on these beasts, so your goal is to do less bad, not necessarily good. The key for such classes — in my humble experience studying math, where such tests are common — is to make sure you understand the concepts behind the problems in class, allowing you to mix and match skills on the exam.

Regarding the question by the Stanford University student who had trouble with Organic Chemistry-

By using the post-mortem technique, can one really improve their way of studying? I know the answer is obvious, but this assumes the professor won’t change the format of the test and what he/she decides to test on it, right?

For example, on the first test, the professor decides to test key concepts, but on the next test, the professor decides to test detailed information?

And for technical classes, the level of difficulty of the questions done in class will be similar to the level of difficulty of questions on the tests, correct? What if the questions done in class are easy but the ones on the test are difficult?

Are these situations possible, or too extreme to happen?

Sorry, and thanks

Thanks!

((GPA*TotalHoursTakenSoFar)+(Class1Hours*Grade)+(Class2Hours*Grade)…)/(TotalHoursTakenSoFar+HoursTakenThis Semester) = New GPA

Check your transcript. My undergraduate differentiated between Attempted Hours, Taken Hours, and Quality Hours. I’m pretty sure I could count Taken Hours in my GPA. Quality Hours was just hours that counted for graduation (I had to take a couple remedial classes that counted for GPA, but not graduation).

Calculations are a bit more complicated than this, but this is a nice basic way of figuring out your GPA from year-to-year:

(GPA*TotalHoursTakenSoFar)+(Class1*Grade)+(Class2*Grade)…/(TotalHoursTakenSoFar+HoursTakenThisSemester)

Explanation follows…

Think about it. In your first year, you have, say, 12 credit hours. You make A(4), A(4), A(4) , F(0). Your GPA your first semester is a 3.

Now, let’s say that you’ve made it your entire career in college with a respectable 3.25 GPA. You have 110 credit hours under your belt, and you’re taking a final 12 hours in your senior year. 9 of those hours you desperately need to graduate, but those last 3 are just there to keep you at full-time status, and you couldn’t care less about the course.

Now, there are much more complicated ways to calculate this, but think of it as though you’re taking one class that is 110 credit hours, and your grade is an A- (3.25). So, you have 5 classes this semester:

110 hour class
Math (3 hours)
Science (3 hours)
English (3 hours)
Basket weaving (3 hours)

Figure out the average grade at the end of that, if you make an F in Basket Weaving and an A in everything else.

((110*3.25)+(3*4)+(3*4)+(3*4)+(3*0))/122

Your GPA drops from a 3.25 to a 3.22.

An F in your freshman year dropped you an entire point. An F in your last year dropped you two one-hundredths of a point.

Short answer: Bombing a class in your last year doesn’t hurt your GPA much, unless you are borderline to begin with.

It’s been a while since I’ve had to figure that out. Does that make sense?