Hello. I am a senior taking AP Calculus AB. AP Calculus is very difficult for me. I’ve always had a knack for math, but this year is very different. I’ve gone from a 104% down to a D- in months. I just checked my grades and that D dipped to an F over the weekend. I don’t know what to do. I have 2 peer tutors (fellow students who are in Advanced Calculus) and even have a tutor to help me outside of school. I have been spending lots of time working with the calculus content and have lost many hours of sleep. My teacher is also very strict and unforgiving. I don’t know what to do.
I wanted to become an engineer and applied for an engineering major for all my college applications. I feel like a laughing stock. I feel like I should change my major and career.
I have been losing a lot of sleep AND I have Calculus 1st period. I tried to change classes, but my counselor won't let me change my schedule for time and teacher complaints.
Half of me has given up and the other half of me really wants to do better. The half of me gave up because I've been trying so hard for so long and things only got worse.
The class doesn't collect homework and the only things that go into the year book are homework quizes, group quizes, and unit exams. Unit exams are 75% of your grade. I hate the grading system.
I feel like this is really going to effect my chances of getting into college and I'm really hopeless right now.
This class has worsened my mental state. I have never felt so dumb in my life and I've cried so much alone over this class.
I am so scared to confront my teacher and my parents about this.
I just emailed my teacher for some help. I’m so scared of her and her response.
Calculus 1 is one of those weeder courses for any STEM majors. To excel in calculus you have to study every day. Do the odd problems off the sections you are given homework. My highest math class in high school was Algebra. Now as a transfer student who recently transferred to a four-year university is going to take calculus 3. For me to reach that point was very hard. I even failed calculus 1 with a D then retook it and got a B. Don’t lose hope just try to finish it and not withdraw it. If you withdraw it that means you are giving up and do something else you don’t like. If Engineering is you want to do then go do it. Go to CC for two years then transfer. You won’t regret.
I understand being scared of your teacher as my AP Calc teacher was very strict as well. However once I did reach out to her and ask her questions before and after school I found myself understanding the material much better and I was even able to recieve an A for the second semester whereas for the first semester I struggled to receive an 80. I would say to contact your teacher as well as talk to your parents ASAP. I understand feeling ashamed especially since you’ve always done well in math but MANY students struggle during Calc AB. I have found that sitting down with your teacher to discuss what you should do to improve is one of the most effective ways to improve your grade.
My kid had problems with AP Calc AB at the beginning of this year too. I emailed the teacher and made him talk to her about extra tutoring during lunch. Outside tutoring is good, but nothing matches getting extra instruction from the person who is grading your papers. She wants to feel she is succeeding as a teacher, and if you show that you are not getting something because she is not explaining it correctly, she might adjust her expectations for grades.
Teachers don’t want to have students fail who are trying hard. That’s not why they become teachers. You could help her become a better teacher just by asking for more help and showing her where she is failing to communicate. I know it is tough to give up time with your friends, but consider going in a group to her for the extra lessons if you have friends in the same class who are also struggling.
I couldn’t agree with @ninakatarina more. Math teachers are just people who have chosen a life of trying to help kids learn. Your teacher may be stern in tone, but her goal is to find a way to teach you how this works. She wants you to succeed. Don’t be intimidated, just keep playing with it until you find an explanation that works. Maybe try some Khan Academy vids to see if that voice resonates with you. I had a friend who took one calculus class three times before he passed it (and the last time his entire quarter schedule was Calc 3 and racquetball!) But he did pass it and went on to get his masters in electrical engineering, which is about as close to applied math as you want to get.
And what @NASA2014 said is important as well: higher math is frequently a weeder to filter out the kids that can’t or won’t do the work to break through and figure out the hard stuff. Once you “get it” and start figuring out how this works you’ll be better able to pick up linear algebra, differential equations and on and on.
Finally, look at what you find interesting about engineering. Is it something specific about building things or just what all the smart people do or what your parents do? A lot of kids think they want it at first, but once they get a look at what it entails they head out for other majors. (My freshman year we had six sections of calc-based physics for majors in the fall, following by two in the spring and only one in fall of soph year. I dropped after sophmore year and I think they ended up with seven guys in our graduating class.) Point is, you may actually want to be a manager in the construction trades or an artist with the architects or a programmer for the computer business.
OK, let’s start with a minor point: You do not want to “Confront” anyone. You want to solve a problem.
Keep in mind: you’re a high school kid taking a college course. Isn’t it just a little bit possible that you’re in over your head? That next year, with a different teacher in a different setting, calculus will make a whole lot more sense? That was the case for me; it was indecipherable in high school, but an easy A the following semester. I simply wasn’t ready for it in high school.
Don’t “confront.” But make an appointment with your guidance counselor and ask his/her advice. Listen carefully, without being defensive.
But don’t panic. Don’t change your major. Just take a deep breath.
In spite of what you read here, just about every student finds one subject or class that challenges both their mind and their ego. You’ve found yours. Now take a deep breath. And, in one of my favorite quotes from the movie Apollo 13, “Work the problem.”
Follow the good advice given above. Talk to your teacher and your guidance counselor as suggested. They are there to help you. Do it this week, as soon as possible. At this time do not worry at all about your proposed college major. There is plenty of time to think more about that after you finish this school year.
I’ll bet your stress levels are so high they interfere with learning right now. Those talks will help you. Do not worry about college- your junior year is the last one on your college applications. You are done with those applications. Now is the time to get help. You will survive this. You are not that bad- “laughing stock”- in anyone’s eyes. In fact, most do not even know or care about it. You have so much going for you and are so much more than one problem class.
Repeat- You will survive this. We all have had bumps in the road.
I worry that it’s late in the year to catch up, but I do agree with everyone else that no teacher wants their students to fail. So go see her and see if she can figure out what the problem is. I remember the first time I took calc in high school I felt like I was barely getting it. I got a 2 on the exam. I needed calculus for architecture school so I took it again as a junior in college. To my surprise it was easy. I got an A easily and was asked if I’d like to assist the TA the next year.
I suggest you go back to the beginning of the calc book and start doing the problems. Where does it start to get fuzzy?
And BTW, not getting grades for homework and just showing up is common in college - the sooner you get used to it the better. My older son’s calc teacher didn’t even assign homework beyond, do as many problems as you need to to be sure you understand the material.
Agree with @mathmom about homework, class participation, etc. Our HS has strict prerequisites for getting into AP classes. You need an A in precalc honors to go into BC Calc; A- to B- to go into AB Calc; anything less and you go into honors calc. Precalc teacher said at the beginning of the year that he runs the class like a college math class, which means the class grade is based only on quizzes and tests. Not homework, not class participation, not attendance, etc. (Homework is assigned but not graded.) If you can’t do well on the precalc tests, you can’t take AP Calc.
Really, college math classes are run in all sorts of manners, some including homework, attendance, etc. Not like there is some holy writ on the matter.
AP Calc AB is teaching college level Math but not at a college pace. Calc 2 and Calc 3 are going to be much more difficult and they are required in engineering (Calc 4 can be a bit easier after you survived Calc 3). So first, you need to seek help from the teacher, counselor, and other sources. Second, being the first period should not be an issue if you have a good sleeping habit. Try everything to recover your sleep. The quizzes and exams are testing how much you understand the material. Doing homework and read additional references would help you understand the material. There is nothing wrong with the grading system one way or the other. If you want to do good in any subject, do not rely on the materials from your teacher.
If you can afford it, I’d consider obtaining a professional tutor in lieu of the student tutors. Just bcos an older student aced the class, doesn’t mean s/he can explain well how they did it. (Some of the greatest baseball hitters are lousy coaches since the game came to easy to them, they just don’t get how hard it is for others to see and react to a curveball in a millisecond.)
Perhaps a local junior college teacher is looking to make a few extra bucks? Ask your teacher for a recommendation.
Let’s talk hard numbers. What does “lots of time” mean? How many hours per week would you say you spend studying and doing homework? And has this been the time you spent each week once the semester started or just as things became difficult?
i can’t guarantee you have a nice teacher, but most are there to help. The questions you want to ask are what it is you seem to be doing wrong and in her/his experience what do you need to do to improve? I don’t think it is realistic to expect the teacher to become your unpaid tutor if that’s what you have in mind by “help”
And that’s a question you should ask yourself before meeting is why do you think you are doing poorly? Get out a few of your most recent quizzes/tests and go over each missed problem. Did you not understand the question? Did you not remember how to solve it? Was there ever a time when you would have known how to solve it, or even when the topic was covered in class did it seem confusing? Did you have a rough idea of how to solve it but couldn’t remember the sub-skills such as trig identities you needed? Or some other cause? Identifying the cause(s) will suggest solutions.
^So right. A lot of students think they are working hard when they are really spinning their wheels. It’s hard for a professor to help a student who comes in with a vague “I work hard but…”
^^ My student has had a difficult time trying to figure out how to study for one of her classes. She and I met with the teacher who explained the best way to study for her class. It has helped tremendously, and D20’s grade in the class has risen from a low C to a high B.
There are a few bad apples in every barrel, but almost all of the teachers I know want their students to do well and will do whatever they can to help them. Let’s face it, they’re teachers because they care about kids learning something, not for the fabulous paychecks. If they didn’t like their students, they could definitely be doing other things.
BTW: Calculus is hard. That’s why you take it as a junior or senior in high school or as a college student and not as a seventh-grade middle schooler.
I talked to my teacher. She told me that she has seen me improving slowly and seemed happy about that. But she pulled out my whole record and started reading out my scores. A lot of people in the class before school heard her and I felt humiliated. But I knew I had to stick there. She told me I just need to solve more problems. I want to improve my grade with a retake or something, but she didn’t give me that option or anything else. She made it seem like she isn’t going to do anything and I’m very depressed now. My parents are so uptight with grades. I already know I’m going to be severely punished. All my other grades are A’s, but this class.
I’m sorry you are going through this. I could be your parent. My kid has only struggled in AP Calc AB
Are your parents aware that you have been struggling or have you been pretending everything is okay? Please let your parents help you. At the end of the day, we all want our kids to be successful and will do anything in our power to help. The stress you are feeling will only make succeeding in the class harder.
She isn’t the one who has to do something - YOU are. She said do more problems, so do more problems. Start with the first problems in the set and work your way through as many of them as you can until it becomes automatic.Then do some more.