<p>My school's Physics A class (taken by juniors) is renowned for being tougher than even the college classes that seniors take. I'm a straight A+ student - or I was, until I took Physics A. I'll be lucky to scrape above a 90 or so for the year; I'll more likely get a middle/high B. My grades in the class are by no means below average - some of the previous all-A students are barely pulling 79s/80s for the first quarter (our passing grade is 75), and a few are failing miserably. What with the cut-throat year I'm in for admissions (2008 and 2009 are supposed to be even worse than the last few years, if I'm not mistaken), I am truly worried about toting a B on my transcript. Is there any way to indicate the difficulty of a very hard class in a school that doesn't offer AP courses (we have college courses instead)? Are Advanced Physics classes difficult everywhere, or is it just my luck?</p>
<p>i'm in ap physics c and it is extremely hard. maybe just for me but i'm definitely gonna have a b for the semester, now i dont know if i want to do engineering or not.</p>
<p>You don't need to have a perfect transcript (all As). I got two Bs in my Jr year Honors Chem yet was admitted to all schools applied (even listed Chem Eng as my potential major). Ended up at one of the HYP but several prominent Engineering programs wanted me too.</p>
<p>A B is fine. It won't make the difference, even at Harvard. Plus, if you go out of way to explain the reason you got a B was because the class was ridiculous it may come off as making excuses for a poor grade. It's okay, normal people get Bs, you'll live, and probably get into any school you would have gotten into with an A in the classs.
The grade is one little itty bitty place on the transcript, it's not like an essay or ECs or Awards which take a signifciant amount of space. It's not like a sign is going to come flashing out of the page "DON'T ACCEPT THIS IDIOT HE ACTUALLY GOT ONE B." Lol, it just doesnt happen.</p>
<p>A high grade on the SAT Physics subject test or even the AP exam (which you could take, with some extra study, even if your course is not called AP) would take some of the sting out of that B.</p>
<p>I think you answered your own question in your first sentence....</p>
<p>....school's Physics A class is "renowned for being tougher than even the college courses seniors take"</p>
<p>Who is it 'renowned' by? </p>
<p>If it is renowned for being tough, chances are the college admission officers already know this, and then you don't need to be further concerned.</p>
<p>From what I've read, college admission officers usually know when a particular class at a particular school is notably difficult. And they take that into account when reviewing the application.</p>
<p>And, from what I've read, if you have additional concern about this, then ask your guidance counselor to include a notation with his recommendation, reminding the application readers about the difficulty of this class.</p>