I am in a difficult situation and feel extremely hopeless. This year (junior year in high school), I was placed in an AP Calc class with the most notorious math teacher on campus. I have always struggled with math but it was mostly because I did not turn in homework (prioritized extras over school sadly) but in the end get the jiff of things. Last year, I failed PreCalc with a D+ because I did not turn in a lot of homework assignments but took a college class and came out a B.
After receiving that grade, I did not dare slack off once. But then receiving this teacher (who is good at teaching but famous for cutting down valedictorians and GPA) I am extremely scared and mostly feeling really hopeless. We got took our pre-requisite test to check if our class is able to remember some general Algebra 2, Pre-Calc, etc and 2/3 of the entire class is failing. Most people, when failing, got a 60% but I got a 38%!! I think part of my bad score was my lack of sleep because I tried studying and noticed all my mistakes are super clumsy, I had lightweight paralysis during the test because I was so scared.
We are taking another pre-req test called the post-req and the grades will mostly average out. The only thing is, even if I were to score a 100, my test grade would be a 69%. Of course other tests will balance it out but it only gets harder from here. Tests are 60% of our grade, Final is 20%, and homework is 20%. Before, I would never put my mind and fully dived into a class but since it’s junior year I have been fully committed. Is it even possible to shoot for anything besides a C anymore
I agree with the above poster…can you take a regular calc class? Regardless of which math class you wind up taking you need to buckle down, prepare and do your homework. All good study skills that will help you down the line if you plan on attending college.
Take a proactive approach and go to the teachers extra help as much as possible.
Excellent advice from @Thumper1. AP should be for those kids so far above grade level that they can handle college work in high school. Based on what you’ve said, that doesn’t sound like your experiences in math.
OK, right now you’re concerned because you did poorly on a test on the basics you’re already supposed to know.
Take a look at the topics you’ll need to know-- they should be the same that were on the original test. Then go to the site, find them under either Math A or Math B, and review. Today.
Don’t sweat the 69 or the 38— concentrate on mastering the material.
Also, you’re not the only one in that boat. So form a study group with other kids in the class. Work together-- sometimes the best way to really learn material is to teach it to someone else.
Make an appointment to see your teacher: stop by after class and ask when a good time would be for you to talk. Then talk to your teacher about how you can succeed in the class.
I advised my son to make appointments with the calculus teacher to always go over areas he did not understand or wrong answers on test questions. This also shows interest and an attempt to work hard in the subject. Sometimes teachers are sympathetic in their grading or grade easier when a student is working hard. Though my son did not want a tutor, you might consider one.
My son was in a situation similar to yours. He took regular calculus instead of AP calculus in his junior year. In his senior year, he took AP calculus (AB). He receive B’s in both year’s calculus. He passed the college AP exam with a score of 4 and received credits for 2 quarters of college calculus. Even though he has college credits for calculus, I suggested he might want to repeat calculus in college to hope for an easy “A”,
Or that the middle/high school put the OP and probably other students in more advanced math courses than they really should have put them. Students like the OP who are two grade levels ahead are supposed to be top students in math, not ones who struggle.
The only issue with dropping AP Calc is that there is no regular calculus class. There is only an option of AP Stats or Math 3. Since I am in accelerated maths, I cannot Math 3 and if I take AP Stats (which students who are calc-phobic do) I will not have a math to take for senior year (or so I believe). Juniors who decide to take Stats their junior year do not take math a 4th year. AP Stats is usually reserved for seniors who did not do so well in their junior year of Calc and decided to take Stats instead of proceeding to Calc BC.
Are you doing this over the summer? OP’s post reads like this class is happening now, in August.
If this is happening over the summer, is it possible to just drop the class? If the class is going to start in a few weeks (September), then IMHO for a student who is anything other than a math superstar taking AP calculus as a Junior in high school is a really bad idea. Change to a different class.
I’m a fan of AP Stats, but someone who does not do homework regularly would likely fail that class too. Not recommended.
With a D in a prereq, you should not be. Sure, you may have the raw ability to do well, but your daily work habits have other interests.
The issue, for me, is that math builds upon itself. The D that you received in a prereq tells me that you are not well prepared for AP Calc. (btw: is it AB or BC?)
If anything, you should repeat PreCalc. And IFF you ace it, then you can take Calc senior year. (If you were my child, that is what I would require.)
The Calc is AB! Just to clear things up, I’ve been consistent with homework ever since summer and the homework I have ever slacked in was just math! I was just so frustrated by numbers that I tossed math to the side during sophomore year. I definitely learned my lesson and ever since school ended for last summer, I did every single homework assigned to me by my SAT&Precalc class that I took during summer (there was homework x2 for the college class).
Just wanted to add in that when I reviewed my pre-req test, I missed a whole bunch of easy problems. I redid them on my own and got the majority of missed problems right without the assistance of anyone. However, I believe in the topic math I just get so nervous that everything I studied just turns blank. This only happens for math tests/quizzes and I was wondering how I would overcome this feeling because it’s been hurting my grade ever since freshmen year. No matter how hard I study it all just disappears.
What is the process of dropping a class? Would that mean I would receive a failing grade in that class or am I just transferred out? Also, is it normal for 2/3 of all Calc students in my grade to be failing Calculus so early on in the school year?
After just one review class? I bet it’s not uncommon.
As much as I LOVE summer, it’s a real brain drain for kids. Two months of not seeing the material wipes their brains clean. Grades on those review tests don’t really indicate what kids know; they serve more as a wake up call than an indication of much else.
That said, 1/3 of the class apparently passed. Don’t sweat the number who passed, just work to ensure that you’re one of them.
You have to a make decision. Do you want to take AP Calc and are you willing to do the very hard work it will take to get back on track? I am assuming your school year just started and this is the first test. If so, don’t despair! One mistake kids make with math is thinking they understand the material because they mostly get the homework problems right and they dismiss the errors they make as “careless”. But sometimes those careless errors really reflect a shallow understanding of the material so that a student is not able to show their knowledge on a test.
You need to go back to pre-calc and see where the gaps are. Other suggestions to do well: do every problem, not just the assigned ones in your book, work through all the example problems and get a calc review guide and/or use a website to get extra problems. You need to meet with the teacher regularly and you may need to get tutor. If you are willing to do all of this, my guess is that you will do fine in AP calc. This may take up a lot of your time and only you (in consultation with your parents and GC) need to decide if it is worth it. Certainly, getting an A or even a B in AP calc may make up for the bad grade in pre-calc on your transcript.
In any event, while this seems like a huge deal it is not. Either way, you will get into a good college and can be successful. Don’t despair over calculus!
