<p>I'm a high school junior and in my first year (I transferred) at a really tough school. I'm in AP Calculus AB and have been doing fairly well throughout the year on homework and individual tests (A work mostly). However, I kind of bombed the final even though I did study a lot and now I've ended up with a semester grade of a B- (the final was worth <em>a lot</em>). I've never had a B on my transcripts before, and it stinks that it <em>had</em> to be in my junior year--the first year most colleges look at I think. Anyway, how will a bad first semester grade impact college admissions (if at all)? And how would getting an A in the second semester or doing well on the AP exam appear to colleges would it completely redeem the bad grade? Also, any study tips on how to do better in Calc? I've always been really good at math and Calc isn't exactly rocket science, but I'm not really doing as well as I expected. I probably need new study techniques what worked for you guys?</p>
<p>Everyone is allowed a wart or two on their record, so doing better second semester will definitely help.</p>
<p>Your best study technique is going to do problem set after problem set, and ask for help when you aren’t getting the right answers. You also need to be honest with yourself about how well you understand the material. It’s pretty obvious you think you know it better than you do, but that’s not uncommon. Everyone eventually hits a limit in math, otherwise we’d all understand topography and tensors just through sheer effort, when that clearly doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>Individual semester grades probably won’t even show up on your transcript, except for the first quarter or two of 12th grade, so don’t sweat that. If you can work the grade back up by the end of the year, and you other grades are good, them you should be fine just as the previous poster says.</p>
<p>Make sure you’re able to solve problems with nothing but a blank sheet of paper in front of you. Problem sets can be misleading when you have notes, the textbook, etc. to refer to as you complete problems, even if you just glance at them.</p>
<p>^^ Very good point. My S, who’s a 7th grader in algebra, has a tendency to study with the answers in front of him, and think he understands it. I tell him he can look at the answer all he wants, but until he can do it with no solution nearby to “check” his work in progress, he doesn’t really understand it, and his grade vastly improves when he’s able to blank sheet it from start to finish.</p>
<p>If you work a problem, but don’t get it right, don’t just understand what you did wrong - redo the problem from the very beginning, with the blank sheet, a few hours after review.</p>