<p>^ I am very concerned with what’s going on now and have actually discussed it on another thread. We are doing everything we can think of including the tutor, staying in touch with the teachers, having him go in after school, studying in sight at the dining room table instead of in his room with electronic distractions, etc. We are also considering having him drop one of ECs and quit his 8 hr a week job if necessary.</p>
<p>“Yes, this son was diagnosed with ADHD 10 years ago. But we had felt this was something he had outgrown – especially based on his grades”</p>
<p>YOU dont “outgrow” ADHD. HS classes are more and more demanding each year, and very smart students with disabilities, who have been able to make accommodations along the way to stay on top of their classes, can and often do" hit a wall" eventually. You need to figure out what is happening at this point, cause College classes are harder than HS.</p>
<p>"We are also considering having him drop one of ECs and quit his 8 hr a week job if necessary. "
those are good first steps to take. The JR year of high school usually means a big increase in homework. Fewer, focused EC’s will be better than a smorgasbord of EC’s .</p>
<p>agree with most…get help now…but dont freak about about colleges yet…as he is a junior…but not doing well in physics doesnt preclude him from being a science guy…my S2 excels in chem and bio…but hates physics,</p>
<p>Cross-posted before seeing P56’s note- my thought is, as long as he isn’t planning on a major that depends on math or pyhsics abilities and is still doing well in other challenging classes, he is ok. It would obviously look worse for a STEM kid. But, I can see where P56 is right- he’d just have to have plenty of strengths in the other math-sci arenas, including great club involvement and competitions, to overcome this math and physics issue.</p>
<p>One of mine is at a top 25 LAC, had a similar issue and got in ED.
Think carefully about dropping an important EC or the job since colleges do count those.</p>
<p>If he isn’t a senior, he could retake the class next year, get an A, and have that A replace the C.</p>
<p>Higher ranked schools might pay attention to a single grade. But, the OP mentioned the 20-50 ranked LAC range. Realistically, for those schools one low grade on a transcript with otherwise strong grades in rigorous courses should have no impact on admissions decisions, unless it bumps him out of the top 10% of his class. This is especially true for a male applicant. </p>
<p>The single grade could be a factor in merit scholarships at these schools.</p>
<p>In terms of colleges, I’ll share our experience with one adcomm. This adcomm was speaking at my S’s HS, a place well known for its academic intensity. He told us he knew that most of the kids in the program had lower grades the first half of junior year. He had been reviewing apps from here long enough to recognize the pattern. What he then told us is this: “Given that we know what happens at this program, what we want to see is how the student responds to that challenge.” Do they drop the class? Leave the program? Quit ECs? Do they buckle down? In his view, the second semester junior year grades were more important.</p>
<p>Kids who never “hit the wall” until college are in for a sharp dose of reality when those As are elusive, despite their belief that they are giving it their all.</p>
<p>How we respond to adversity and challenges is a measure of our character and how we build the skills and tools required for long-term success.</p>
<p>And yeah, he may not be a math/physics guy. It’s OK. And he might decide to come back to these subjects later and enjoy them. That’s OK, too.</p>
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<p>mini, if the guys in my class who failed organic chemistry bailed out of “math and science”, they would have never become successful university professors in their chosen fields of quantum physics, materials science, biochemistry, etc. I got a C in one of my HS physics classes (college level), yet I got As in thermodynamics and other “math and science” coursework in college. Pretty much every scientist I know failed or performed poorly in one such course. Bottom line: it is impossible to tell if one is not a “math and science guy” based one one HS grade.</p>
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<p>My son was one of those who compensated for his ADHD (inattentive type) by having a very high IQ. He graduated from HS with around a 3.4 UWA. He finished his first year of college with a 3.8. We had him tested the summer between freshman and sophomore year of college. We were stunned to learn he had ADHD. The psychologist who tested him said this is very common with super bright kids, they do well but sooner or later they hit a wall. It can be AP Calculus/Physics, it might be organic chemistry in college, it might even be in medical school. She specifically said since math and science tend to be very sequential,if you aren’t able to pay full attention, these classes will eventually trip you up.</p>
<p>Sounds like your ADHD son has hit his wall.</p>
<p>4gsmom: My S also got a strange mix like yours, a D in AP Calc and a 5 on the exam! Overall his GPA was 3.5 even with the D, so he was successful in getting into his first choice school, albeit a state school.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wish we had gotten a tutor for the class, but by the time we discovered the low grade, it was almost the end of the year.</p>
<p>“Mini, if the guys in my class who failed organic chemistry bailed out of “math and science”, they would have never become successful university professors in their chosen fields of quantum physics, materials science, biochemistry, etc. I got a C in one of my HS physics classes (college level), yet I got As in thermodynamics and other “math and science” coursework in college.”</p>
<p>You didn’t read what I actually wrote, did you? I said, “If this allowed him to discover he really isn’t a math and science guy, it might be one of the best things that ever happened to him.” He may or may not have discovered it, and his grade may or may not have had anything to do with it. BUT if that’s what he discovered in the process, more power to him. (He might have discovered, for example, that he IS a math and science guy, and figures out how to go fix this. Not that I’m particularly worried about a lack of successful university professors…)</p>
<p>Menlo – I thought I had in fact read that kids often do outgrow ADHD. Besides, how do we deterimine 1) if this is ADHD related and 2) what would we do differently about it even if it is? The only thing I can think of is the fact that we have never medicated him. But this seems like a drastic and crazy move based upon his performance in one class.</p>
<p>There are millions of adults with ADHD. It is not something you outgrow. That is a fallacy. He is hitting a wall because the increasingly harder material, which requires more time to learn, is overwhelming his ability to concentrate for longer and longer periods of time. He probably needs to be medicated, and soon. This first failing class is but a wake up call.
The medications available these days are much advanced than those available 10 years ago, and Physicians are being more careful about the dosages prescribed. Getting him Medication for a Known condition is neither “drastic” or “crazy”. If he had a small tumor would you withhold treatment? Until when? </p>
<p>“Besides, how do we deterimine 1) if this is ADHD related and 2) what would we do differently about it even if it is?”</p>
<p>Get him to a Dr asap- the sooner he is diagnosed and started on meds the sooner he can find the right medicine and dosage for his condition that he can tolerate the better. He will really NEED it in college.</p>
<p>Instead of thinking about it along the lines of medicating him for one class, why don’t you ask him if he feels he has problems focusing on the material at hand? If he does have ADHD, he will probably tell you he feels ‘foggy’, has a hard time focusing, etc. That is why we finally had our son tested - his grades were fine but he keep complaining about ADHD like symptoms. Turns out he had not only ADHD but a sleep disorder. Medications have made a world of difference for him. He takes them when he needs them, not all the time.</p>
<p>Even if you don’t want to go the medication route, there are ‘tricks’ that people with ADHD can be taught that will enhance their performance. ADHD can and does affect people’s ability to function well in school, in careers and in relationships.</p>
<p>OP, thanks to your multiple threads on the AP Physics class, I now start paying attention to D2’s physics class. It’s not just the grade, it’s the way it’s been taught. I finally looked at her college physics book and it’s not very good. The teacher is new and he has boasted that he has lots of exams from past AP tests(teaching to the test kind of guy). D2 has been googling to find out how to solve some of the homework problems, which I don’t think it’s a best way to learn this subject. Worst yet, since this is a junior year there are tons of homework on other subject that could overwhelm most students. So I think it’s a combination of many things for my daughter, not devote enough time to this subject since she has other AP classes, not allow enough time to absorb these new concetps in physics, and having a new teacher. It’s could be a perfect storm for her. There are few grades posted so far so we don’t really know whether she has any problem or not. I’m not worried about the grade but rather the lack of understanding a fundamental science subject. What really bothers me is that this could potentially be her college major and this subject is not taught well. Sigh</p>
<p>cbug… if in fact he needs medication to help… it wouldnt just help physics (so not just for this one poor grade)…it should provide an overall improvement in all classes…i know you said he is a 4.0 student but perhaps it would be less stressful for him to maintain that…or when he is in college it may help during the transition period of different teaching styles, new environment, stress of freshman year etc</p>
<p>The bad grade probably doesn’t have anything to do with a previous diagnosis of ADHD. If he’s maintained a 4.0 without being medicated and is only struggling in one high level math related class, maybe he just doesn’t have the aptitude for math at this level. Some people simply aren’t inclined to be math whizzes.</p>
<p>Don’t stress about his grade. If he’s doing his best, that’s all one can ask for from anybody.
If he’s a junior, he can retake the class next year. On the other hand, why torture him by making him take it again? Even with one poor grade, he’ll still gain acceptance into many good colleges.</p>
<p>Some people get bad grades without it having anything to do with the lack of psychotropic substances (and their relatively limited, short-term effectiveness.)</p>
<p>mini, I read your post. First, it was not relevant to the subject of this thread, but CC threads do meander… Second, I do not think that *one bad grade in a single *class in one particular field can allow anyone to discover that he really isn’t a math and science guy. These sorts of discoveries typically take time and several classes in several subjects for someone who is seriously thinking about becoming a science major.</p>
<p>Oh, I think you can discover things from one particular field VERY quickly - in fact, I think that is how the world usually works (though it isn’t usually the way skool works) - tasks we meet up with the world meet up with the truth of our inner development. It isn’t to say he COULDN’T be a math and science guy (after all, he has done just fine before), but maybe the seeming failure in his “getting it” is a part of him telling himself that he really doesn’t WANT to get it. (that’s precisely what happened to me, and in calculus as well). And that’s a heck of lot more important than all the rest of the skiool talk.</p>
<p>Of course, it could simply be lousy teaching, and if he met up with a different teacher, or met up with the subject at a different time, or if his shoes weren’t pinching on test day, things might be entirely different. That’s the way life works, isn’t it?</p>
<p>(P.S. I didn’t see a single word in this thread from the OP about her son even wanting to be a math and science guy, and the EC might be more important to his overall development than the calculus course.)</p>