I am currently in dental hygiene and it is much harder than I expected. Obviously I was warned before I got into this program and I was expecting it. However when they said it was hard, I thought they meant I would have to put in a lot of effort in order to succeed. I have been trying harder than I ever have in school before. I work on things until 12 every single night. I study so hard for tests and still fail them and get bad marks. And it's even harder that the passing mark is 70%. I'm doing worst in this one class. My teacher recently had us make clay teeth which the clay and tools were expensive. I also spent over 10 hours trying to make them. We had to do a write up on the some of them so I did. I did research and stuff and thought I did it fairly well. No one in my class listed their resources so I didn't either. But since my writing "sounded too elevated" she thought I plagerized and gave me a zero. Writing is always something I've just been good at so I wasn't too impressed. She didn't even run it through one of those plagerism checking websites. And I even have her my references to show her I didn't copy word for word, I summarized like everyone else in the class. She didn't care. I just feel so discouraged now even meow because of this. I think I want to take assisting instead because this is just way above my level. But I'm not 100% sure what to do..

As a 3 time dropout myself (in the 60s), I won't sit here telling you to stay.
It's mostly a personal decision, along with talking to those who know you well. If you aren't paying for school, then the first people you talk to are those who are.

As for the plagerism accusation, we aren't there... I am curious how you knew from everyone in the class that they didn't list sources. It's not a relevant question anyway. Of course you list them, preferably with footnotes and if needed, quotation marks. I'm sorry to say that your writing doesn't sound particularly elevated, and I believe the teacher. 'Didn't copy word for words' and 'summarized like everyone else' (like sources, how do you know that?) are very, very weak arguments.

But this is all a side track from the issue at hand, what you do next. It isn't clear whether or not you want to drop out totally or change programs, so my first question is, have you looked into changing to assisting at this stage?

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Originally Posted by joypulv

As a 3 time dropout myself (in the 60s), I won't sit here telling you to stay.
It's mostly a personal decision, along with talking to those who know you well. If you aren't paying for school, then the first people you talk to are those who are.

As for the plagerism accusation, we aren't there... I am curious how you knew from everyone in the class that they didn't list sources. It's not a relevant question anyway. Of course you list them, preferably with footnotes and if needed, quotation marks. I'm sorry to say that your writing doesn't sound particularly elevated, and I believe the teacher. 'Didn't copy word for words' and 'summarized like everyone else' (like sources, how do you know that?) are very, very weak arguments.

But this is all a side track from the issue at hand, what you do next. It isn't clear whether or not you want to drop out totally or change programs, so my first question is, have you looked into changing to assisting at this stage?

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Well of course I'm not writing elevated on this website. English is something I've always excelled in. If it was an easier career to be successful in, I would have been a writer. I had a spare in high school and managed to take the time to write a novel and have it printed and I was very proud of myself. And I knew no one else listed them because none of my friends did and when I came out of this teachers office bawling my eyes out everyone told me how confused they were because they didn't add the sources either and they googled everything.

Perhaps you would be happier as an English major in a liberal arts college, or just drop out and write novels.

I stand by what I said based on what you said about why you didn't plagerize, especially 'didn't copy word for word.'
But I suppose it's possible that the teacher was trying to get you to quit the program for other reasons, and that seems like a good idea, given how difficult all of it has been for you.

You need a 'What do I do next?" plan.

I didn't finish with the degree I started with when I went to university. I started with something I thought I wanted to do not what I loved to do. I started in biology and finished with a computer science degree.

It might be worth it to take time to explore what you REALLY want to do at college. Take programs that tweak your interest and find out what you want to do.

If you think there was some academic misconduct on the part of your professor I would take it up with student services for the dean of your faculty. IF you're going to be failed for something, make sure it is because of a shortfall on YOUR part and not because of a teacher or unfair and inconsistent grading practices.

If I were you, I would make an appointment to see the dean. Bring the paper and source materials and let the dean know you are considering dropping over this incident and ask if anything can be done.

I had a class in college that seemed impossible. I went to the professor's office hours for help and was able to get an A in her class. I then used this same method any time a course was particularly difficult, and graduated with honors.

I would never quit because of one prof being a jerk, nor because it seems too hard. I would only leave because there was something I would rather do.

Sure, you could downgrade to dental assisting of you want to work just as hard as the dentist and hygenist for considerably less pay for the rest of your life. Or you can view these problems as temporary and set yourself to solving them. Even if you have to take a class over, it is very well worth it to have a better career for life.

I thought about this overnight If you are doing so badly and at the semester are failing and have such bad grades, it may actually harm you, moving ahead to another school. So if you can not pass, perhaps you need to drop out. I dropped a few classes I really was not happy with.

Many students change majors in their first year or two.