How to Improve B's to A's

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>I am just really upset because my grades are not as good as I want them to be. I am High School Freshman at an all-girls private college-prep school. It is a 4X4 Block Scheduling so I only have 4 classes for 90 minutes. Honors, AP and IB classes are on a 5.0 scale and Regular Classes are on a 4.0 Scale.
Grading Scale
A+ 100-99
A 95-98
A- 93-94
B+ 91-92
B 87-90
B- 85-86
C+ 83-84
C 76-82
C- 74-75
D+ 72-73
D 67-71
D- 65-66
F 64...</p>

<p>Here are my grades-
Honors English- B - This is a class I have cried about because it stresses me out so much. English used to be my favorite subject and I feel like my teacher is ruining it for me. She clearly picks favorites, I have spent 3 hours on assignments that should take me 45 minutes trying to make them long, thorough and well-written but it's just never good enough for her. I have never had a B in English in my life. Suddenly I'm working harder than I ever had to and it's impossible get an A. I know I'm not the only one that feels a biased also, while she will give other girls random extra credit points because she they went to the same school that her daughter goes to and she likes their 8th grade teacher, but with other girls she'll give them average credit even if they did a better job. I know I shouldn't be complaining about her because even though she can she can be mean and biased she is a good English teacher. Any advice on how to improve this grade?</p>

<p>Honors Biology- B - I think I can get A in this class if I did some extra work outside of class. This is my teachers first job and he's not an amazing teacher but I think if I just did extra stuff outside of class and spent more time working on the labs they would be fine. </p>

<p>Study Skills and Information Literacy- B+ - This is a required class for all freshman. I had a A+ in the class for a really long time, but I got a D on one my career projects because I got confused about the Work Cited and Bibliography and what teacher to turn it into. So I am hoping that we will have another project soon, but otherwise there is not much I can do about that because we don't get that many assignments. </p>

<p>Honors Algebra 2 & Trig - B+ - I enjoy this class and like the teacher, I get good grades on tests and homework, I usually get C's on quizzes because I don't totally understand the material yet. But I like math a lot so I think I'll be able to improve this grade.</p>

<p>So overall that would make my GPA 3.0 Unweighed and a 3.75 weighted. How do I make my grades better? </p>

<p>My parents don't like B's and I'm not comfortable with them either. Do you have any advice on how to improve them? How should I improve my English Grade?</p>

2

<p>I say give it a little time…school recently started, it might take a little while to get adjusted. Just keep working hard, seek out help like tutoring when you need it, and try not to worry too much.</p>

3

<p>I would really recommend finding a tutor. Find someone who did really well in English and she can try to help you replicate her techniques. If that still isn’t good enough for your teacher, there’s a weird sense of bias in that and if your teacher’s really as you describe, it is probably worth reporting her to the administration. However only do so if you have some clear reasoning. They’ll think you’re mad and crazy if you just say that to them.</p>

<p>You still have a long time to improve your grades. It’s best to notice the trends early so you can fix them, as opposed to simply misunderstanding individual assignments. That way you know what you can work on.</p>

4

<p>I’d also give it some more time, and make sure you’re understanding the material (otherwise you’ll have a much harder time later in the semester). It may also take some getting used to the class. I got a 51% on my first multi-variable calculus exam in college, but managed to pull a B+ overall.</p>

<p>Also, those grading cutoffs seems pretty high IMO…all of my HS classes were 90/80/70 for A/B/C, and many of my college classes use lower cutoffs depending on difficulty (some may have 90% A, others 85 or 80%).</p>