<p>Ack. These are my first quarter grades, and the lowest in my life:</p>
<p>Honors Calculus: - C+
A.P. Literature - A-
Journalism Practicum - A-
Writing for Publication - A
A.P. Physics B - B+
A.P. French - C- (might be now a C, sans minus, but I'm not positive)
Honors Independent Study Social Studies - B+</p>
<p>I've read all the other threads about first quarter grades, where everyone seems to say that it doesn't matter because colleges only see one half-year grade. However, my school is one of the few that do not do that. It sends the college three grades: first quarter, second quarter, and midterm. </p>
<p>Now, I hopefully will have improved my grades for Calculus and French significantly in the second quarter, but how will this first quarter affect me? Should I explain why I struggled with these courses on the application (even if those reasons are "Conceptually, I find it difficult to understand mathematics like other people do," and "My French teacher is crazy difficult and has a grading system that no one quite understands but results in no one in the class receiving anything above a B+!")?</p>
<p>yeah some times you have to get as crazy as your teacher. My D had a geometry teacher who would put a zero in for each homework assignment if NOT ALL the questions were done. D asked if she left the answer blank (because the last question was always something not yet taught) how is it fair to get a zero. Teacher said she should put in an answer even if it is totally wrong and she knows its wrong. She was going to flunk Geometry until she came up with an " answer" and used it on all the questions she did not know and got a A in the second half. Unfortunately for her she did not learn how to fly over the cookoo's nest early enough and ended up with a B.</p>
<p>My son has an absurd physics teacher this year. The regular teacher got shuffled to some other science classes to cover the maternity leave of another teacher, the school brought this guy in from... I don't know, from outer space.</p>
<p>He's one of those guys who, in the first class of the year, gleefully says to the high GPA kids, "I'm going to give you your first B!" And thinks it's funny.</p>
<p>Well, on top of that he's just an awful teacher. He presents utterly confusing explanations, takes homework but doesn't score it (so the few tests take on huge weight in the overall grade), and marks kids down ruthlessly for any little divergence, error, anything. He's also completely unavailable during his so-called "office hours" to help out. Fortunately the old physics teacher is spending virtually every one of her lunch hours helping out the kids that got stuck with this clown this fall.</p>
<p>He's so damn arrogant, it's unbelievable. He insults the kids and talks about how much smarter his kids were at his old school. It's nuts.</p>
<p>So many people have complained that both the principal and the superintendent have met with him, sat in on class, held many meetings. He'll be gone now at the end of the semester and the old teacher will take over (thank heavens!), but there are a few kids in that class who are really smart ambitious kids who've had a 4.0 (no weighting here) all through school, and those kids are going to take a hit on their semester grades just for the sake of this guy's ego.</p>
<p>There really are rotten vindictive confusing teachers out that think they're god. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like there are too many of them.</p>
<p>'rentof2: That sounds awful! I'm having a similar experience with my AP Calculus teacher this year. Our grade is weighted like this...50% tests/quizzes, 40% homework, and 10% participation/attendance...</p>
<p>With over 100% in both homework and participation, I still ended up with an 80% for first quarter. I was sick for three days in September and when I came back I had to take a test and I ended up with a 39%(!) on it. Even with high C's and one B on the following three tests, my grade didn't improve. And THEN my teacher decides to totally disregard a test (the one I got a B on!) because she was too lazy to record all the scores.</p>
<p>Literally, she said to me when I asked her why it wasn't on my report that "Oh yeah, I forgot about that." And I was like 'Well, maybe you could put it in for second quart--" and she interrupted me with "No, I'm not going to do that for you."</p>
<p>For ME?! For the whole class, idiot! Ahhhh.</p>
<p>Some teachers, seriously...</p>
<p>But in response to the OP, I'm sure you'll be fine if you get your grades up second quarter. You are taking a very rigorous courseload and I'm sure they will appreciate your efforts. I'm not sure about the protocol for explaining the difficulty of individual courses/teachers, but if you are really worried about your grades maybe write an explanation yourself and look it over with your guidance counselor and maybe he/she can back you up a little bit?</p>
<p>Or if you're close with one of your difficult teachers, maybe THEY can write a justification for the tough grading scale of your class. And if they know you're working as hard as you can, they might be able to brag about you a bit.</p>