<p>Lol, I’ve competed in science fairs state level and nationally.
This year, I’m doing research with my dad’s colleague at Harvard Med. He’s a genius sakdjaskld</p>
<p>Never did any of the Olympiads… but might do it next year??</p>
<p>No APs offered at our school for freshies, but you can take an online AP course sophomore year for credit. I’m taking AP Chem next year.</p>
<p>I’m in Model UN which is like debating. It’s awesome, we get to eat delicious food each week, and it’s one of the more “serious” clubs in my school. I’m going to my first conference soon!!! :]</p>
<p>Thus far, I’ve been experiencing some slight growing pains with the whole transition to high school. I’m in four honors classes (Geometry, Bio, Global History, English) and there are no APs for freshmen. I was told my average for Geometry H today, it was a 90, because I kind of bombed one test and knocked it down maybe four or five points. But I’m doing very well in the rest of my classes. Any ol’ way, currently the only extracurricular I’m involved in is as a delegate in Model Congress, and I’m a bassist in the orchestra. This is because I haven’t found many other school-sanctioned extracurriculars that interest me. I also haven’t done any community service yet. Oh well, I have time.</p>
<p>Yeah, I’m also experiencing your pain BigE. I’ve gotten 2 very borderline As this quarter in Algebra 2 H and English H, as well as a 92% in both World History and Bio H. I have a B in PLTW IeD H as well, and it’ll be quite hard to get back into an A (I have an 84%. I’m terrible in that class, mainly joined it to just get a scope of what engineering design was like and to get my fine arts credit without doing band, as I didn’t enjoy band. I don’t plan on being an engineer, but everyone else in my class does xP)
The only solid A I have is in Chinese, and that’s probably because I took a semester of Chinese last year and know what’s going on. It’s my favorite class though, and just learning about other cultures and experiencing them is where my interests lie. </p>
<p>Wow Catsby, science seems to be your thing, haha!
There aren’t any APs at my school for freshman either, but I am self-studying AP World.
Ah man, I really wish our Model UN team was one of the more “serious” clubs in our school :P. I would do it even if it wasn’t, but I’m also on the debate team which for some reason is during Model UN season. Speaking of which, I have a debate meet tomorrow and should go to bed. Haha, see you guys. Have a good weekend.</p>
<p>@KingshukR: aww that sucks. Well at least it’s like first quarter/term, so there’s always more opportunities next time. I have a couple borderline A’s too… (English 1 H and Chem H) because of the supposed grade deflation way too prevalent in my school (honors kids gets c’s and d’s because of one test and only like five kids from the entire school make the head list). Other than those two classes, I’m lucky I have A’s/ no B’s because it’s really hard to get all A’s in my school so might as well accomplish it freshman year. Oh, I speak Chinese (Mandarin) :))</p>
<p>Also, the transition to high school is difficult for me too. I’ve been to public schools all my life and now, it’s just a different world for me. Also, I have to commute one hour to and back from school which is really stressful… and it’s always so cold during this time and I have to walk to the bus station… sighs…</p>
<p>@ TheGreatCatsbyx - I’m in a really selective school also, and the commute each way is over an hour, maybe 1 hour 15 if the bus comes fast, or 1 hour 30 if it doesn’t. And usually I can’t bring myself to do any work during the commute (too sleepy) and I can’t really sleep either (don’t usually have a seat, scared I’d miss the stop) and that’s 3 hours a day “wasted”. Hopefully it’s worth it going to a better school though.</p>
<p>I’ve become some expert on begging rides from friends’ parents and that usually cuts the journey by a good half hour. But that doesn’t happen very often. </p>
<p>Public transport means 10 mins walk, bus, train, bus again, 5 mins walk, and the commute is really torturous. Usually I don’t even get a seat except maybe for the last few stops on the train! Really envy friends who have a 5-10 mins ride to school!</p>
<p>Is anybody thinking of doing an SAT soon or has anyone taken it before? My cousins both spent a few weeks in intensive prep courses during the holidays and produced 2300+ scores and my mum’s thinking of doing the same for me. I think it’s a waste of time and if I score (hopefully) high enough before it’s time for the course (soph) I might be able to evade it. So I’m thinking about taking next year, but that’d mean I need to start self-prepping soon.</p>
<p>Going back to previous discussions, yes, my school lets us take AP world. Due to block scheduling, I will be taking the class next semester (which is totally screwing up my class rank btw). Sophomores are only supposed to take APUSH, but I and three other kids will be taking AP Calc AB, too. On the extracurricular front, I’ve finally realized why theatre and show choir people do like nothing else in the school Oh well, at least my planned major is in music.</p>
<p>-------------------------------------------If it is to be, it is up to me…</p>
<p>I’ve been considering doing it, but I don’t know much about the geometry, since I’m taking that this year, and no algebra 2, so it will likely not be a very true representation of my abilities once the time comes. Plus, I’m not completely sure about how to make it happen.</p>
<p>Also, another extracurricular question: Any of you doing music (e.g. piano, violin, voice) take ABRSM grades? It’s pretty standard to take the grades here (either ABRSM or Trinity) as proof of mastering a certain level, but it doesn’t seem very common in the US or other countries.</p>
<p>@ BurningIce I quit playing piano because my piano teacher was forcing me to take that test! I take an annual ‘test’ for the oboe, which is way easier since all I do is play. They give you a rating from 1-5 (1 being the best) and so far I’ve gotten all ones!</p>
<p>How are you? (To ask the same question for the infinite time)</p>
<p>Also, a lot of you guys go to private schools. I personally live in a large town (125,000 people), but we have bad schools around. My school only goes up to AP Calc AB and has a lot of cool parts of it (I posted photos somewhere on this thread) but nearly no money. </p>
<p>My friends are kinda blown away to see what you and the rest of CC is doing as for them the highest they do in Freshman year is Honors Geometry (I am in Honors Algebra 2). I realize colleges compensate for the type of high school you attend, but I think you guys are really lucky. For example, there is nothing I want to do more than Junior State Assembly and Model UN, but my school can’t afford it. Oh well. </p>
<p>Hope you all are well. I was without power for a while due to Hurricane Sandy messing up the East Coast, so I didn’t post for a while.</p>
<p>@Apollo I don’t go to a private school. I go to a public school in a ghetto location but decent district. I live in a pretty large town of over 200,000 people and we’ve got poor parts and rich parts. My debate team is pretty pathetic. We have no funding whatsoever. No busses, no coach, etc. Even so, I’m really lucky for all the things my school offers. It goes up to Linear Algebra (with Multivariable Calculus & Differential Equations) being before that. Hope everything is going well for you and that Sandy didn’t impact you too much.</p>
<p>I actually can’t figure out where the local curriculum stands in comparison to the US one, because we do a spiral approach where we do some of everything every year. This year (8th grade) we did things like partial fractions, quadratic equalities/inequalities and graphs, polynomials, circle properties, trigonometry? I guess something like Alg. I + Geometry mixed together? Next year I’ll be in an Advanced class and it’ll go much faster, so maybe Alg. II / Pre-Calc standard? </p>
<p>And anyway to continue the conversation I don’t go to a private school, but rather over here we actually stream students starting from 3rd grade within the school, then at 5th grade again, and before 7th grade there’s a massive national Primary School Leaving Examination that determines what school you go to. And then schools usually stream internally after 8th grade, and there’s another national exam end of 10th (O levels) and another end of 12th (A levels). So basically it’s all public schools here and you need to be on your toes to survive each round of cutting to ensure you stay at the top. It’s also a system that’s not very generous with second chances, as though it’s technically possible to do well in the next national exam after flunking the previous one, you end up in a lousy school with poor facilities and classmates who aren’t focused and a generally bad atmosphere so it really affects you. Can’t say I like this system much, though it means that my school does have a lot of funding and facilities and a nerd atmosphere because we’re one of the best schools.</p>
Oh well, at least my planned major is in music.</p>