Can't switch from Honors to Regular?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>I'd say I'm pretty good at math, just above average. I definitely don't consider myself a math person though, I'm more of a humanities-type person and do not plan on majoring in anything math or science. </p>

<p>In sophomore year, I suffered in Honors Algebra 2. I ended up with an A first semester and a high B second semester, but it took a LOT of effort and absolutely burned me out. I had to make math my first priority and not pay attention to any other classes. I had to hire a tutor twice a week so I wouldn't fail the class. I still don't fully understand many concepts, and I had an intimidating teacher who seemed to hold a personal grudge against me and didn't like to give me extra help during lunch/after-school. </p>

<p>It was easy to prioritize math first in 10th grade because 3 of my other academic classes were joke Honors classes, 1 was an AP but it wasn't that hard, and 2 were joke electives.</p>

<p>Stupidly, this past spring during course registration, I decided to take Honors Precalculus junior year because that was the track I was in and I figured it'd look bad to colleges to ever take a Regular class. Now, EVERYONE at my school tells me that Honors Precal is probably the most difficult, scary math class you'll ever take (a lot harder than Honors Algebra 2) and it's a huge commitment. I have no trouble believing this.</p>

<p>I start school in about a week and I'm freaking out about Honors Precalculus. I'm taking 4 AP classes, and not easy ones. I'm taking 2 other academic classes (both Honors) and they're known to be more challenging than 9th/10th grade Honors classes. I'm going to be doing a lot of work in my extracurricular activities. I'm not going to have the time this year to devote to math like I did in 10th grade.</p>

<p>So here's the thing:
I want to switch from Honors Precalculus into Regular Precalculus. My guidance counselor is super difficult about schedule changes. There's some school policy explicitly stating that schedule changes will not be made unless you were put in a class you didn't sign up for or if you failed a prerequisite course. </p>

<p>I start school in approximately 1 week. I'm just really, really scared about this situation and I feel like Honors Precalculus is going to just bring me down and affect my grades in other classes.<br>
Is there anything I can do at this point but just suffer through it? If my parents get involved, do you think my counselor would budge? I already know the teacher I'm going to get is the one I had last year, the one who held a personal grudge against me and was probably the nastiest, most unhelpful math teacher I've ever had...</p>

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<p>Obviously I don’t have any experience at your school, and at mine it is much easier to switch, but it seems like, given the circumstances, there must be some way you can change courses. You said your counselor is very difficult about changes, but have you actually talked to her/him about it? That’s at least worth a try; if you explain that you really think this will affect your year in a negative way and whatnot, it’s possible an exception could be made. (Just from personal experience, you might want to leave out the part about the teacher, because they’re probably less likely to let you switch if they think it’s because of the teacher and not because of the class.) If that doesn’t work, I’d ask your parents to get involved - again, it’s at least worth a try. If worse comes to worse, would you be allowed to switch out after the first term if you aren’t doing well? A lot of people at my school switch out after deciding classes are too difficult for them - even toward the end of the year - but again, all schools are different, of course.
I hope things work out, and good luck with the heavy course load this year!</p>