Hi, so I am currently a freshman at a New England boarding school. I am currently enrolled in Precalc Honors, which I currently have a B average in. The class is only going to get harder as the year progresses, and I feel as if I continue in this class, I will be overwhelmed. It is my only class where I do not have an “A” average in.
Is it worth it to drop down to regular Precalc and get an A and do AB Calc Sophmore year instead of BC Calc?
If it wasn’t for my concern for college admission, I would’ve dropped down much sooner as I am currently stressed out over this one class.
TLDR: Will a strong GPA (4.0+) be better than an okay gpa (~3.7+) with a harder class?
One B will not be the reason you get rejected, if that happens.
Having said that, one of the things a New England boarding school provides is excellent college counseling. They will be able to better advise you if you are on track for your targeted colleges.
Colleges prefer that you take the hard course and earn an A in it.
Also, it seems odd that you are three grades ahead in math (precalculus in 9th grade) but are not finding it to be an easy A like other students who are that far ahead in math.
Part of it may be the adjustment to boarding school. As a BS alum myself, I have said many **many **times on that forum that students (and their parents) need to have realistic expectations of grading standards at a BS. Few classes have extra credit, multiple retakes, and all the other things that one might find in MS (and some HSs). At top boarding schools, 95%+ of the graduating class do **not ** graduate with a 4.0 (I certainly did not), but more than 5% will go to HYPMS. It’s all in context.
Also, I came across many over ambition students (and parents) that tested out geometry and/or another Math level that they ended up with a weaker foundation and suffered in higher level Math classes.