How bad does leveling down after 1 semester look? (PreCalc H)

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>Pigeon here. <em>waves</em> So it's my junior year and right now, I'm taking Precalculus Honors. The teacher is really talented at teaching but also incredibly tough, and I'm having a lot of trouble with the class. Basically, my test grades have followed the order of the alphabet (yeah..A, B, C, you get the picture :P) </p>

<p>The drop deadline has unfortunately long since passed and I don't want to withdraw, so I was seriously considering leveling down after first semester and taking an easier Precalc class 2nd semester. We actually have 3 levels of precalculus at my school, Honors, Regular, and a level in between (which I'm assuming is partially weighted?) So I was thinking of taking that class instead.</p>

<p>My main question is: Does it look bad on your transcript to have leveled down a class halfway through the school year? As in, does it make you seem like a slacker? Math has never been my strongest subject and in retrospect I probably should've leveled down when I had the chance :( </p>

<p>Thanks so much in advance!</p>

<p>..Oh, yeah, and this is my first thread, so sorry if I posted this in the wrong section/wrong format or something x)</p>

2

<p>It’s bad. Like Lindsey Lohan bad. </p>

<p>Nah…I’m just playing…it just looks like you couldn’t handle that level. I feel as long as you drop down and do better than you did at the higher level, you did as much as you could’ve done.</p>

3

<p>I think you should try and stick with it. Study harder, use the internet as a resource, and learn the material. It’ll be much more personally satisfying as well. You’ll have to take much more rigorous math in the future anyway, so you might as well get used to hard grading and hard tests.</p>

4

<p>If you don’t mind me asking what is your actual grade in the class? I know last year I struggled with algebra 2/did poorly on tests, but I still ended up with a B in the class/am glad I stuck with the class. Also what is your math plan for next year, I know some schools will not let you/will strongly discourage you taking AP math if you did not take honors the previous year.</p>

<p>It should not be a big deal unless you are applying for pre-med, engineering and/or a science/math oriented school.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the input, guys!! :)</p>

<p>As of right now I have a low B and probably will end up keeping that grade unless I magically get 100% on the rest of my tests. The B part doesn’t bother me at all- it’s just how time consuming it is. :C My teacher has great notes and I have a tutor but I just struggle to understand the material. It takes me around 3+ hours to do my math homework on a good day. I’ve gotten A’s in the rest of my math classes, albeit incredibly low A’s, so I probably should’ve seen this coming. It’s just the crazy pace- my honors math class is currently 5 sections ahead of the other honors math class, and everything always clicks for me around a week AFTER the test. And we’re just starting to get into new material, as the last couple chapters was just “review”, and I’m already having trouble.</p>

<p>At my school the Precalc H kids usually go to Calc BC, the Precalc “Limits” (the in-between class) usually leads to Calc AB, which is what I want to take next year, and Precalc Reg usually leads to Calc Reg. </p>

<p>I’m just frustrated because it’s interfering with the rest of my activities. I’m also taking APUSH, AP Bio, AP Spanish, science research, and I have a bunch of EC’s, and I’ve been neglecting basically EVERYTHING save for math. I’m doing well in those classes since I have a decent memory; I’m just going to bed at 2 every night and I don’t know how I can keep this up.</p>

<p>I /want/ to stick around, I really do, but I just…I dunno. If I took the Limits/semi-honors class next semester, I’d have so much more time for everything. So if I get a B in honors and then level down and get an A in Limits, would that be all right for a person planning on majoring in science?</p>

6

<p>That’s cool how your school has three levels of course: I’ve never heard of that before! To me, it really sounds like the class is leaving a rough impact on you, so maybe the semi-honor course could really help. At my school, they changed Algebra 2 Honors and it was crazy hard (straight A students were on the verge of failing) so people just switched into non-honors. Despite the jump from honors to non-honors was pretty substantial, people valued an A in non honors, with no weight, to a C/D in honors, with the weight added.</p>

7

<p>Personally I would stick with the class, though I will admit that I am a biased pro-math person (math club is one of my ECs/I tutor classmates in math)…</p>

<p>The homework is very time-consuming for pre-calc in general, though it should not take three hours. I would recommend speaking with the teacher about the homework, maybe there are more effective ways to complete it? I don’t usually receive more then an hour and a half… I have seen honors math students do better on everything from standardized testing to AP science classes, really there are plenty of benefits. If you are still struggling after you seek some help from your teacher I would consider dropping (though if you have a B not sure if it is worth it). Out of curiosity what material are you guys on?</p>

8

<p>o: a lot of other people don’t have leveling? We have 5!</p>

<p>But i’d personally drop down. Not only is the class hard to you, it’s also consuming too much of your time outside of class, yet you’re not getting the results you want. If it was me, I don’t think it’d be worth it to squeak out a B+ at the end of the year while having literally no time to do anything else.</p>

9

<p>This is probably just my own innate stubbornness, so take it with a grain of salt, but I still wouldn’t level down. Work hard and learn the subject; it’ll be much more rewarding in the end. And like I said in the previous post, it only gets harder, so might as well get used to it. </p>

<p>[PatrickJMT[/url</a>]
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org/]Khan”&gt;http://www.khanacademy.org/]Khan</a> Academy](<a href=“http://patrickjmt.com/]PatrickJMT[/url”>http://patrickjmt.com/)</p>

<p>^^Check those two out. They helped me immensely in Precalc.</p>

10

<p>Sorry for the late response, everyone- again, thanks so much for taking the time to respond! (lengthy post alert)</p>

<p>I’ve just been going ahead in the chapter a little bit so that when the teacher starts on a new topic I don’t get completely left behind. Right now we’re doing analytic trig (double angle formulas, etc) and it’s pretty heavy on memorization so I think I would be able to do okay on the test, but the next few chapters make up for that by being immensely confusing to me. I’m pretty sure I wear the derpiest expression on my face during class :P</p>

<p>I agree about the whole weighted part- I would really prefer getting straight A’s, which I could have in the rest of my subjects if it weren’t for math. If I have to suck it up and get a B in precalc, I’m totally all right with that, but I’m worried that I’m going to end up dragging my AP Bio/Spanish grade down too (they’re both borderline)</p>

<p>That’s great that you guys have 5 levels for math, though. If there were a level between the semi-honors and honors course, I would totally take it! Our semi-honors class is pretty easy though, I heard, so I’ll probably have close to an A+ in that class if I did decide to take it…which means more time for everything! :smiley: The only downside is that I’ll probably feel less intelligent than the other kids who are somehow cruising by with a 98% in honors right now, but I’m okay with that. <em>nods reluctantly</em> </p>

<p>As for now, since I definitely cannot drop down /this/ semester without jeopardizing my transcript, I’ll just have to tough it out and use the links you guys suggested to help me with math! I’ve heard really good things about Khan Academy and I’ll be sure to check out the other links as well. Hopefully that coupled with ample studying will help me maintain or boost my grade.</p>

<p>But come second semester, I think I’ll probably level down regardless of whether I get an A/B just to preserve my sanity. I’ll be doing track as well and as we often have to skip 5th period (when I have math) for meets, I’ll be even MORE lost, not to mention the virtual time vacuum track can be with regard to EC’s and classes and all, lol. Plus, I really want to tutor people in AP Chem, which is my favorite subject. </p>

<p>so I think I’ll do this:</p>

<p>Remainder of 1st semester → focus super hard on math and try to get that A
2nd semester → level down but make up for it with great EC’s/volunteering/leadership/etc etc</p>

<p>Again, thanks so much for your guyses’ help!! I feel a lot more comfortable now, having a good idea on how to tame the lion that is math for me :P</p>

11

<p>That sounds like a well thought-out plan.</p>

<p>And we don’t REALLY have 5 levels of every class…2/3 are combined “intensive” classes (even though 3 is college prep), 4 is the standard/honors, and 5 is like AP. 1 doesn’t exist because it’s an insult to any human being.</p>

<p>Also, there’s only 2 pre-calc levels. ): so I feel your pain.</p>