<p>My AP Chem teacher is notorious for giving students Bs and Cs (no extra credit or rounding grades). Tests are 70% of your grade and his tests are full of ridiculous, never-before-seen content.</p>
<p>I've had an A this ENTIRE SEMESTER until this week, when I bombed a test and it dropped my grade down to a B. THE WEEK BEFORE THE SEMESTER ENDS. NO OTHER OPPORTUNITY TO REVIVE MY GRADE. I studied my a** off and thought I aced it, but guess not. I've worked really hard this semester (tutors, Kahn, study groups) and I CANNOT get a B right at the last minute. What should I do ? :(( my teacher is so god damn stubborn ugh</p>
<p>Nothing. live with it. You’ve just got your first dose of what college life is like. To give you an idea, my math class this semester is 60% tests, 30% final (combined with normal tests thats 90%), 10% hw. CS is 40% tests, 20% final (combined with normal tests thats 60%), 40% labs and hw. </p>
<p>@LordBendtner Lol I’d have to ace the final… I go to regular public high school so I guess I just wasn’t exposed to that kind of grading scale before :-</p>
<p>There are classes in college with only two exams: a midterm and a final. There are other classes with maybe 3 or 4 exams and that is it. It is what it is. I don’t think I had a class in college that had a homework grade. Most of my professors never had quizzes. Other classes were only papers and 15-25 page papers due every other week or so. Just try your best that is all you can do. A ‘B’ will not ruin your life.</p>
<p>Yeah, most of my college classes are like that. However homework is a small portion of the grade (usually 15-20%) and the rest is exams. In fact a few classes are “generous” enough to set your final grade equal to the max of your final exam score, and the score obtained with HW/exams/final 20℅/40%/40%. The best strategy is to deal with it, study well, and do a few practice tests, if any.</p>
<p>AP is supposed to be equivalent to college-level work. In college, you will be lucky if tests only make up 70% of your grade in a STEM class. Nor is there generally extra credit. Life goes on.</p>
<p>Depending on the college you attend, your labs may be a separate course. That could easily mean that for the lecture course, your entire grade is based on exams. Your lab reports would contribute to a completely separate grade.</p>
<p>I don’t like threads like this because I’m not going to just take your word about the difficulty level of the test. If we haven’t taken one of the tests, we can’t know if it’s fair or not. </p>
<p>In my high school, the tests are 90% of your grade… Also, we are graded on a 0-4 rubric, and some teachers refuse to give 3.5 (equivalent to an A) because (they believe) it “goes against district policy”. For instant, my Spanish teacher did this so if I just got one wrong on a test my grade went from a 4 (a+) to a 3 (b+). Also I go to a “regular public high school” too, where no curving or extra credit is allowed. Is it unfair? Maybe, but I can’t do anything about it so I just work around it. That being said you just have to ace that final. If you’ve managed a’s up until now, it should be a breeze. </p>
<p>Aren’t most math classes like that? Tests count for a lot of your grade? (I know this is AP Chem, though) I don’t think it is unfair, the tests are supposed to show how much you know, how else will the teacher know if you know what you know?</p>
<p>Get used to it - that’s how you’ll be graded in college. Generally, 70 to 90 percent of your grade is based on 2-5 exams/papers/large projects. Here is the breakdown for my 3 classes.</p>
<p>Engineering:
40% 2 group projects
30% 2 Exams
15% 10 HW Assignments
15% 10 Lab Assignments and 5 Quizzes</p>
<p>Calculus:
20% Midterm
30% Final
30% 3 other exams
10% Quizzes
10% Homework and Attendance</p>
<p>Chemistry:
45% Exams
40% Lab
15% Homework</p>
<p>And like others have said, it’s rare to get extra credit or a professor willing to round. </p>
<p>1/7 Labs
1/7 max(Quiz 1 - core, part 1 of Final exam)
1/7 max(Quiz 2 - core, part 2 of Final exam)
1/7 max(Quiz 3 - core, part 3 of Final exam)
1/7 max(Quiz 4 - core, part 4 of Final exam)
2/21 max(Quiz 2 SRN, SRN 2 of Final exam)
2/21 max(Quiz 3 SRN, SRN 3 of Final exam)
2/21 max(Quiz 4 SRN, SRN 4 of Final exam)
(SRN:= spiritual & right now)</p>
<p>So get used to the fact that you will actually have to prepare for exams and demonstrate good understanding of the material to do well. Fortunately, some professors have open-note exams, or allow you to bring in a page of notes, which reduces simply memorizing theorems/facts (all three of my finals next week are open-note).</p>
<p>Wow I’m gone for like two days and I’m blown up with “GET USED TO IT.” I get it, I get it, COLLEGE IS HARD, stop being pretentious and bombarding me with your own numbers. You guys have to understand my background: a dingy public high school in a small town in one of the least educated states in the country. I’ve obviously never been exposed to this grading scale; AP Chem is one of my first AP classes and I just took it as a shock, no need to “one-up” me with your own grading scales.</p>
<p>AP is supposed to train you for college so just take this as a learning experience. You might have not seen 70% before and thats okay but know that it can get so much worse, so prep yourself. As far as fairness goes, it really depends on your teacher and how s/he grades…not so much what we on CC can say. anyways just study hard & good luck. :)</p>