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by anonAndOn 1351 days ago
> what's the purpose of retroactively withdrawing?

GPA inflation. Failed O-chem and ruined your chances of a top med school? Not to worry, how about a do-over!

2 comments

Which is stupid because who cares if you get it in one or ten tries? Allowing retaken classes to replace old grades should be the standard.
Doctors don't get do-overs.

Coming up in a culture of "get this right the first time" makes all kinds of sense for a medical training track.

No it doesn't, what? How do you think learning works? I couldn't remember what 7 times 6 was on my 4th grade test and now it's impossible for me to know it. I get that it's hard to see because it's so normalized but it's ridiculous that our education system is based on fixed time intervals. God help someone who needs to take a little more time on the material before mastering it, guess you just fail. And when we create a system that punishes anything less than perfect forever we end up selecting good test takers rather than good doctors.
So it's a special exception to let a student repeat a class they failed first try?
Students can always repeat a class to get a better grade but this removes the stain of a failure on your report card.