Honors Chemistry?

<p>Hi everybody,</p>

<p>I'm sorry if some of my posts might be kind of repetitive but I really need the advice. </p>

<p>So I was doing pretty well in Honors Chem until I hit a quiz that I didn't thoroughly study for and it dropped my grade by alot (might have a low A or a semi high B) I am so extremely disappointed and I feel stupid. Ever since that quiz I felt like I was inferior to everybody who did better than. It's even harder because I unintentionally made the reputation of always make awesome grades so the fact that I failed the quiz makes me feel like trash. I am extremely worried about my class rank (4/234) and my chances at a good college (Princeton or Standford or Harvard). Do you think I could ever make up my grade and bring it up to atleast a 96 or 97??? I totally underestimated Chemistry...</p>

<p>I just need some reassurance and comfort right now and I know I know it might seem like its too early to be worried about all of this but I don't want this to sneak up on me and really later on in the long run...</p>

<p>Just study harder next time, and do your homework to the best of your ability. You can probably bring it back up to a mid-A.</p>

<p>bump</p>

<p>Getting a bad grade on one quiz in Chemistry isn’t going to prevent you from getting into a top school. I don’t why some people think so though… as long as your general grades are high, you are fine so long as you have the good extracurriculars/essays/ect. (which a 4.0 doesn’t make up for not having these)</p>

<p>Honors chem, if taught by a competent teacher, is one of the hardest classes that you’ll ever take in high school.</p>

<p>I personally knew at last half a dozen kids in my school’s '14 graduating class who received Bs in honors chem, didn’t make a ridiculous fuss about it, and got into Stanford, Princeton, Yale, and other top schools. The distinction that any top university will be making between a kid who was 4th in a class of 250 and a kid who was 10th out of 250 won’t be based on class rank–it’ll be based on other factors such as essays, extracurricular involvement, and leadership. 4th rank vs 10th rank out of 250 is like a 2350 SAT vs a 2320 SAT. Sure, one’s better than the other, but they both fall so closely together that unless every other tangible and intangible factor is equivalent between two applicants, they won’t influence anything past the initial stage of fitting the numbers needed for consideration for admission. </p>

<p>You’re in the second or third week of school, taking what is (assuming you’re a sophomore, since that’s when honors chem is usually taken) probably the first remotely difficult class that you’ve ever had to deal with, and you’ve probably got about three things in the grade book right now. Study for your next test, make sure you know the material well enough to pass, and don’t worry about this. </p>

<p>You don’t seem like you have a home life that’s physically dangerous for you if you come home with low As or high Bs (yes, that is a thing–I’ve known kids who faced physical abuse at home if they returned with anything less than As), so it legitimately won’t be the end of the world if you don’t get the high A that you’re hoping for. Worst case scenario if you do get a B, just take AP Chem next year and do well there and admissions folk won’t care the slightest about a B in the lower level course. </p>

<p>I also underestimated chemistry last year and in the first semester my grade dropped to a B at one point because I wasn’t taking it seriously enough. Luckily it came back up to an A before report cards but I learned the lesson to study harder. So the next semester I got a 96-97% because I learned from my mistakes. You must do the same.</p>