Don’t do too much of this. Asking the group if they could see the decimal and then telling the teacher what the class said is a bit much. You don’t want letters that hint that you are a grade grubber.
I wasn’t the one who asked the group; the teacher himself went around and asked, and still wouldn’t give me the points. Doesn’t everyone want a good grade?
The point still holds about trying “to get my points back.” That’s not what I meant when I asked if you’d gone to the teacher for help. Your goal is not to be squeezing for a .3 boost. You need greater strength in the subject and to avoid little mistakes, which may come (at least, in part,) from insecurity about the material. These will snowball, if you don’t get up to A level. If MITis in your sights, you need the strength and the ability to navigate the potholes-- see the issues and successfully tackle them
This is really a ‘life lesson’ sort of tip. A building is only as secure as the foundation it’s built on.
As all the other posters have already mentioned, no. Admissions are usually holistic, and they’d be more concerned about the fact that you’re taking classes meant for seniors and question whether you’re gifted or were forced into that track by tiger parents. Next year’s grades will help them reach that verdict.
I think you should step beck and re-evaluate what’s actually important to YOU. Why do you want to go to MIT? If there’s a specific program MIT has you’re passionate about that other schools don’t, good on you. If it’s just because your parents influenced you into believing that’s the only way to be successful in society, then you’re doing it all wrong.
Don’t worry about getting a B early on. Not every successful engineer/scientist gets into MIT from being flawless in high school. The real world is multi-faceted and characterized by failure, and the successful are those who try new things and fail a lot early in life but learn to get back on their feet independently (no parents). That’s why most questions on the Common App are in regards to failure. Colleges want real people who fail and are interested in what they do afterward. Thus, I advise you to try something you’re uncomfortable with as an EC. Your behavior and grades while doing so would better reflect college and adulthood altogether.
Sorry if I went off on a tangent. I felt it’d be a disservice to simply state what three others have already said before me. Please re-evaluate what you really want in life though, not what your parents want.
Yeah, I really am questioning if I’m doing it all wrong…I’m really confused right now.
I appreciate the response…I really need to step out of my comfort zone (erm, what’s an EC?), but I get lots of anxiety before doing things I’m not familiar with.
On a good note, my teacher gave me back two percent on the test, and my quarter grade went up one point this quarter!
EC = extracurricular activity
Ok I’m reviving this thread because this quarter, we have two tests, and I got my first test back today…83! So furious. I need a 90 this quarter to end with a B+, but it looks like I will get a B now. There were 6 questions, and one question was to prove 1 - tanh^2x = sech^2x. I rearranged it to 1 = sech^2x + tanh^2x, and then proved it correctly. However, he said I couldn’t do that and took off all my points for that, and so I ended with the 83.
Is a B significantly worse than a B+? I’ve been working so hard to finish with a B+ but that just doesn’t seem possible now. I have one more test, and I need to get a 97 on it to finish with a 90…doesn’t seem very likely.
Is this B going to be really bad…I’ve tried talking to my teacher but he won’t budge.
“Is a B significantly worse than a B+?”
No. And most high schools will give the same weight to both while calculating GPA (it can vary by school, though).
Also keep in mind that this is an ap class and that most teacher will give some projects after the AP test to help the students raise their grades and just to fill the time.
To say what? Teachers are generally more receptive to questions like “What resources do you recommend to help me raise my grade?” vs “Will you curve/bump my grade so that I get an A-?”
Good for him.
@Groundwork2022 That’s a relief. However, we consider B+ and B different…even an A+ or an A. I know I probably won’t finish top of my class because I’ll be taking 2 to 3 times as many APs as others.
@nomood @skieurope We have no extra credit, and just two tests a quarter with few quizzes that do minimal to our grade. I tried asking him why my method was incorrect (I even asked on StackExchange, and they said I should have gotten points)…he just says that I can’t do that. There’s nothing I can do at this point but to take the B.
Reeeeee
The aggravatin thing is if I had any other teacher I would have a very good grade in the class (I think I almost aced the AP exam)…but just the way the teacher grades is bleh
As I said upthread, these are just 2 more examples of what you can expect in college. Let’s not forget the fact that you’re taking calc as a freshman,which is pretty impressive. So to get a grade in the B range as a HS freshman in a course that many college students struggle with is still an accomplishment to be proud of.
Again, it early in your HS career, so things may change down the road with your college targets, but it is my belief that if you get rejected from a college, you would not have been accepted if you got a B+ (or A- or A). Good luck.
You are on a very accelerated track to begin with, and you admitted earlier in this thread that you may have been mis-leveled to begin with. So you’re actually doing pretty well.
Minimize the grade grubbing going forward and teachers will be more open to making an exception when you really, really need it.
Could you ask your teacher to do the problems that you got wrong on the test with you so you know what to do next time? That way, you learn something, and if he did the exact same thing you did, you could point that out and hopefully get points back. Win win.
@nomood It was a six question test out of 33 points. He took 3 out of 4 points on a problem I did correctly, except I did addition at the start of the proof which is LEGAL but he just decided its not. He took another point off for me using a calculator on one section, where he didn’t make it clear that I couldn’t. And he took off another point because I forgot to right in an “x” in my work even though I included it in the end and got the right solution. Had I had another teacher, I could have gotten a 100…but nope, an 83.
My D’s experience in HS was that math teachers were very picky. They want you to get out of the habit of making careless errors. Believe it or not, they are getting you ready for the rigors of college. Instead of complaining that you disagree with the teacher’s grading, figure out how you can succeed in his class and do the work the way the teacher wants.
@momofsenior1 Welp too late now, finals are next week and unless I get a 97 or above, I’m finishing the year with a flat B 
The B is not the end of the world and as previously noted by others, one B isn’t going to keep you out of even the best schools.
Please consider the advice for courses going forward.
Another good piece of advice to the OP. Stay off CC if you are a high school freshman. You have 3 years to fine tune your college apps, do ECs, and take standardized tests. Wait until you’re a junior to ask for chances.
And oh yes, don’t feel that you’re entitled to getting good grades or being accepted to a Top-20. Read some Sun Tzu or Robert Burns poetry to get a better perspective of life. ‘To A Louse’ is a great poem to understand how our perspective of how we view ourselves can differ when it’s someone else viewing us.