Hanna Renaldi's Blog: What Every Premed Student Needs to Know About Retaking Classes

What Every Premed Student Needs to Know About Retaking Classes

AACOMAS has changed its grade forgiveness policy as of Feb 2017. For more about this, check out AACOMAS Changing Their Grade Forgiveness Policy.

If you have retaken classes in the past or will need to retake a class in the future, reading this post will tell you what you need to know about how the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOMAS) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AMCAS) view these grades. AACOMAS and the AAMC use all grades received for repeated coursework in the total GPA—including the failing grade and all subsequent attempts.

While both of these application services request that applicants enter in the coursework to create a standardized approach and final calculation, each individual medical school has its own way of reviewing academic records. The individual schools may rely only on the official transcripts, the data entered and/or some combination of both or only a section of either. For example, some osteopathic medical schools only review the last 60 hours of coursework. Each school as well as each individual selection committee member has their own approach.

Here is the most important information that you need to know:

For AACOMAS:

• All attempts at repeating the failed course must be recorded with the correct units and grades earned each time because they are calculated into the GPA.

• It does not matter where you took the class or retook it as long as you designate it as an equivalent course by labeling it “Repeated.”

• Withdrawals cannot be considered repeats.

• Classes that are designed to be retaken repeatedly, like PE classes, should not be listed as repeats.

• You can list classes as “Repeated,” even if you did not receive a failing grade in them, if you are allowed to take the class for credit again by your undergraduate institution.

• Some DO medical schools use this GPA calculation, others rely on official transcripts and still others may only review only the last 60 hours of coursework.

For AMCAS:

• All attempts at repeating the failed course must be recorded with the correct units and grades earned each time because they are calculated into the GPA.

• AMCAS relies on the institution’s guidelines in allowing a student to retake a class (often this is only allowed for classes in which students have received failing grades, which is defined by each individual institution. AMCAS does not have a definition.).

• Any classes that are repeated without receiving credit should be listed as “Exempt” courses and will not have any impact on your GPA totals.

• Withdrawals and incompletes should not be included as repeat courses.

• AMCAS will not consider courses retaken on other campuses as “repeats.”

The most important information that you can take away from this blog post is that if you do need to retake a class, if at all possible, it is best to retake it at the same institution so that whether you apply to osteopathic or allopathic schools, it will be considered a repeat course and demonstrate your improvement. Before deciding to repeat a course, you will need to research your undergraduate institution’s policies on what they define as a failing grade and whether they have any rules about retaking classes or the number of times you can retake a class. Taking classes for which you will not receive any credit will not help you in any way. Be strategic in your approach. Many students who have had to repeat classes have gotten accepted into medical school—it’s a matter of how quickly you can bounce back.

Check out our medical school admissions services for help crafting an admissions strategy that will get you accepted!

Alicia McNease Nimonkar is an Accepted advisor and editor specializing in healthcare admissions. Prior to joining Accepted, Alicia worked for five years as Student Advisor at UC Davis’ postbac program where she both evaluated applications and advised students applying successfully to med school and related programs. Want Alicia to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!

Related Resources:

• Applying to Medical School with Low Stats: What You Need to Know, a free guide
• 5 A’s for Your Low GPA, a podcast episode
• Boost Your GPA for Medical School Acceptance