PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO NOT HEAR MY COMPLAINTS ABOUT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL:
So I feel if my whole “track” started in second grade. In second grade, we were recommend into math 3 or math 3 xl. I was put into math 3, and so started a long precedent of me being put into lower classes without being able to do anything about it.
Back in elementary school, I could not read very well for my age, I could not do basic math in 2nd grade like subtraction, and I had staff checking up on me because I was “special,” :D, unfortunately my friends let me know that this was an overstatement.
Somehow in 3rd grade I was good enough in math all the sudden (I learned subtraction) that I was placed into math 4 xl for 4th grade.
Then we get to 5th grade, this one hurt a lot. We were given placements tests that I got an 80 on, to see if we could complete math that we did not learn yet. Now there were 3 tracks, math 6, pre-algebra and pre-algebra xl. English split up into English and English xl, but for someone who could barley read I did not care.
I went into pre-algebra and got low marks. I started getting the teacher conferences, and somehow I got my shit together in 7th grade and started getting As. In eighth grade I got As in Algebra 1 and As in chemistry, and I was recommended for all advanced classes and honors geometry and honors bio.
A highschool staff person said that some people double up on algebra 1 and geometry freshman year for IB preparation. Then the lightbulb went off, I should double up on geometry and algebra 2. The word IB was first introduced to me.
I ended up going into:
Algebra 2 Honors
Geometry Adv, (guidance counselor talked me down on this one.)
Bio Honors
History Adv
English Adv
French Adv
So I thought that Adv poured into SL and that Honors poured into HL, big big big problem ahead.
Then high school smacked me in the face.
I thought I could manage 3 extra circulars, 2 daily, 1 weekly.
I had the sudden obsession with trying everything for my resume.
I started out strong in A2 with a B+, I liked my teacher, though I thought they were too strict. Unfortunately a math teacher died in the department, about a week later I was switched into another class.
Bio MP1: B-.
MP2:
I got a much nicer teacher, but they thought text-book and tested with very hard examples. I decided to study much harder when I got Cs on their tests. Everyone was getting bad grades and it was highly curved.
Bio MP2: B-. At this point I would study for hours, making flashcards, typing up the textbook into a doc, re drawing all the notes, commingle an encyclopedia on whatever they thought.
MP2 was when I realized that now matter how hard I study, I will get a C on every test in an honors class. No matter how much I could understand the material the questions would be so confusing.
This was also when every day I would get home at 9 from extra circulars.
All my Adv classes I got a B or B+ in except Geometry Adv, with a A+ MP1, without studying at all, it was like applying what we learned in algebra 1 to word problems.
Recommendation time:
I thought that I could take AP Chem sophomore year because I took Honors A2 and Honors Bio, (I took honors A2 for this reason especially), but since I did not get As I could not get in.
The head of sciences said I would need to get my 3rd MP grades in both classes to an A- to even approach the topic.
This is when I spent hours and hours studying, instead of making flashcards making study guides for my friends in Bio, spending Tuesday with the teacher for extra help in math, watching math vids, and eventually I would get the math but the test was a few questions that were long that I would always C or B.
I pulled both A2 and Bio to a B+, but not good enough.
My friend who was put with a different math teacher had more projects, and more quizzes. He maintained a B+ for MP1 and MP2 for A2 and got into AP Chem.
My selection for sophmore year:
Honors Chem
Honors Pre-Calc
IB/AP History -waived up for IB requirements.
Adv English
Adv French
Right now I am in sophmore year.
In chem at first I got a C on the test, and managed an 84 for MP1. Now, MP2, I am just managing an -A with an 88 on the test.
History was a face smacker, I started out MP1 with a C+, and MP2, I am fighting for a B.
Math has been B so far, both.
Somehow in english, with the same teacher as last year I have a A-.
I hope to end with an A- MP2, but I thought we had a commentary last friday, and then I remembered that the teacher changed it to Monday, and then we had a surprise HW check, where I studied for the commentary. I read the book pages but she checked the notes this time. Grade went from 88.5 to 84.9… My bad… I discussed it with my teacher and I was told I could still bring it to an A-.
Adv French I have an 84 in, both MPs, though I don’t understand much of it, there is a lot of class work and homework to keep me afloat.
*****OKAY NOW TO THE POINT:
So I just found out that you need 3 HL classes for the IB program.
IDK what to do about this.
So math, you need a recommendation for BC Calc, the HL level.
History, says you need a teacher recommendation for HL, and I feel like a C+ MP1 is going to wreck this.
So English, my english teacher likes me, and has seen me go from B to A over 1.5 years now, I could squeeze an HL recommendation from her, which is required to waive up.
French, this is a student decided waive up, another HL class.
There are no first year HL sciences.
Yeah this leads me to being stuck. I talked to my guidance counselor and they were like have you considered the IB career academy… That sounds terrible.
I guess this is a complaint about school because I don’t think there is anything I can do at this point to get into the IB program. I just really hate how a public school can say okay you’re not good enough for this AP class or you’re not good enough for IB HL. (Respectfully, I have seen objection to this idea) I feel like I should be able to take what ever classes I want because these are my only opportunities to write of college debt. I feel annoyed that my parents are paying their tax dollars (and I am not trying to sound like a premadona but I am frustrated) to support classes that I would not be able to get into no matter how hard I try.