<p>Hi, my S's midterm grade arrived Friday -- F in AP Calculus. He's a humanities kid -- AP Calc was only 4th year math available at his school. This class is not needed for graduation. He's been admitted to 6 of 12 colleges so far -- inc. 2 UCs. Suggestions? How do we approach teacher, school, colleges that have admitted him, colleges that are still considering him? Thanks so much!</p>
<p>I was struggling a bit with Calc earlier this year as well, and still am a tad. I would say to have him talk to his teacher and pick up one of those self-study books for Calc. They really, really help, because they explain things in layman’s terms. Check out The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems.</p>
<p>Any way he can drop down to regular Calculus at his school and get a C in the class? If not, ask the teacher for a referral to a tutor and see if he will guarantee a C if your child can get a B- on the final. Then, study, study, study. Start with a tutor from the begiining of the course material and work your way up to the current level. One other option is to contact the school(s) your child wants to attend and see if he can drop his AP calculus and replace it with another math class at the local CC this summer.</p>
<p>Well… I’m doing really poorly on Calculus also. I also vastly prefer the humanities to math/(and mostly science) </p>
<p>Do you mean midterm grade as in the final, semester grade sent up to colleges and left in permanent record? Or do you mean a midterm grade as in the temporary transition grade on the way along a semester? </p>
<p>If it’s one of those grades that appear on the transcript, for the end of the semester or trimester, then this could really be serious. An F is a rescind at most schools except Cal States.</p>
<p>However, if this is just an along the way grade that won’t appear on the transcript, then either:</p>
<p>1). Drop the course immediately. </p>
<p>or</p>
<p>2). Make him work literally hours a day on just Calculus… impress upon him the severity of this situation. Go to teacher for help, get tutoring, etc…</p>
<p>I hope everything works out for you.</p>
<p>Your son will need to notify the UC schools about the grade; it will be required in the letter of acceptance, and you can see this on the admission websites of UC campuses. Adcoms aren’t always looking for reasons to reject kids; if you can provide them with a reasonable explanation that can help them decide to keep a kid they’re leaning towards admitting. A reasonable explanation should be something along the lines of trying to challenge oneself by taking a math class in excess of the requirements, and what was learned from the experience so he’ll do better in the future. What he learned hopefully isn’t just to avoid math classes, its about studying, asking for help, etc.</p>
<p>That said, this should be raising a red flag for your son. Even if he is a “humanities kid” there are plenty of kids with no passion for math or science that take courses like this and pass them. In college he’s going to have to take classes that don’t necessarily thrill him, too. A question for you – how many hours per week was your S actually studying calculus?</p>
<p>Thanks for these replies. Spoke with teacher, have hired tutor. Hope he can raise it to a C – this was a “progress report” that comes out 7 weeks into the semester.</p>