<p>Please do not let your daughter choose a major or career path based on one mediocre high school math grade. </p>
<p>Here’s an anecdote.</p>
<p>My whole childhood I wanted to be a veterinarian. I was a very good student. In high school, I took chemistry, and I did terribly in my mind, which was about a B-. I was sure I was bad at science and would never be able to get through a pre vet curriculum. I decided to major in economics.</p>
<p>Turns out the chemistry teacher falsified all his credentials and was fired. He was a poor teacher and a liar.</p>
<p>To this day, I completely regret not pursuing veterinary medicine. I might not have made it, but I am disgusted that I didn’t try because of this one high school class.</p>
<p>So, I don’t necessarily believe this AB calc class is necessarily an indicator of much of anything, including her potential in math or how much she may enjoy college math. </p>
<p>Can’t let poor teacher be an excuse. </p>
<p>Teacher’s responsibility is to teach
Student’s responsibility is to learn</p>
<p>If teacher fails, it does not relieve the student of her responsibility. Sure it’s easier to learn with a good teacher, but learning how to learn with a bad teacher will pay huge dividends. There will always be bad teachers. </p>
<p>Get a tutor if possible. </p>
<p>Here is what I believe is the problem. Your D has cruised along with no problem. Now she hits calculus and it can be a little bit of a shock to the system. She is only a few weeks into the class. As someone who always cruised through math. I found my first few weeks of calculus (in college) to be more difficult than expected. Without going into detail, I made things worse by letting it get to me. Long story short, I left the school, retook calc 1 got an A. Found calc 2 to be a bit more difficult. And 15 years or so later I took Calc 3 and diff eq and found them to be among the easiest classes.</p>
<p>And to echo what amarylandmom said, my poor performance at first, moved me away from actuarial science and now 40 years later, I sometimes wonder what could have been. Besides, maybe the worst that can happen is she may have to start college again taking calc 1. </p>
<p>My daughter is in an engineering program, and thus Calc 1. About half of her class had taken calc AB or BC in high school, but the placement test put them in college calc 1. My daughter had only had pre-calc, and yet she tested into the same class. I don’t think there are many who tested out of calc 1.</p>
<p>Son started in Calc 3 as freshman engineer, took AP Calc BC as junior and got 5 on AP test, then took multivariable as senior. But who cares? So what if they start in Calc 1 or Calc 3, they are in college to learn. I don’t think it matters where they start, it is finishing doing what they want that is important. </p>
<p>Check the admission stats for undecided, sometimes they are lower than other majors, depending on the school.</p>
<p>I agree with you in principle @ClassicRockerDad , but it is important to realize that with a bad teacher your grade may not be reflective of the degree of learning going on or the student’s ability in that subject. Grades can’t be the only measure. Some bad teachers also give poorly conceived tests.</p>
<p>Interesting people don’t think there are bad professors in college.</p>