I always wonder why schools even bother to offer AP classes, when there is such a low passing rate…
@ZucchiniSoup It’s good for the kids that can, though, isn’t it?
I go to a large public high school where most of the college hopefuls stay in-state and go to schools with acceptance rates of 60% +. There is a prevalent presence of soon-to-be first generation high school graduates and the less competitive schools will be wonderful for them. My counselors know a LOT about these particular state schools and I think that’s really awesome because they need to be knowledgable in these areas since their student’s parents may be clueless. It kinda sucks for a handful who don’t follow this path though. Basically going out of state will be a hassle because counselors give priority to instate apps. In Texas, most schools use ApplyTexas which is basically CommonApp but for TX schools. Because of this, some teachers and even counselors get confused when navigating the commonapp. If I ask a teacher for a rec, they will straight up say that it might take them a few weeks to figure out how to upload and send my LOR. College prep is virtually nonexistent at my school for anyone who isn’t a senior. I just found out that we’ve all had naviance accounts since 9th grade just sitting there and finally got our login info senior year. And to my horror this summer I learned about SAT Subject Tests. I did not even know they existed until I saw it was required for a couple of my apps. I don’t think any Texas schools require it for their applications and no teacher/counselor/adult ever mentioned them. Sure, it was my responsibility to take the tests but you’d think it would have been name dropped a few times in proportion to the amount that we stress over SAT.
On CC I only hear bad things about APES (it’s time consuming, hard, lots of busy work, complicated labs, etc) At my school it’s one of the easier APs. Today my class of 8 went outside and collected soil samples and then went back to the class and listened to a 4 minute npr segment. I mean it IS constantly changing and the curriculum is all over the place at times, but I guess it depends on your teacher!
Teachers who don’t teach well. Teachers who assign busywork. Over-confident brats who like to assume leadership even though they aren’t competent. People giving bad marks to each other during peer grading in hopes of sabotage. People who tell on each other for petty things that the teacher doesn’t care about.
Teachers/Principals/People who think that “smart” kids or those that are in AP/honors classes are geniuses with huge egos that automatically expects As just for being “smart.” Like, a kid can be a genius but that doesn’t mean he can’t flunk a class due to hw or hard tests.
AND my principal decided that obviously there is a correlation between AP students and rich people (like what?) and so he let the AP prices go up five dollars each (which is a lot for people take 4+ tests) and give those who also take AVID ALL FREE TESTS. They don’t have to worry about paying or studying too hard to make the money worth the score because its FREE (or hear their parents complain about prices). And when I (sorry it’s personal now) asks to get a discount or some kind of financial help one year (my total was over $300), they said it wasn’t “need based”, as if I haven’t gotten only 4s and 5s on my APs just to boost their school’s stats. Like, just because I can afford it, doesn’t mean its easy to get the money. Honestly, my school generally has a disregard for honors students as long as they keep giving good scores.
Also, how come a convicted criminal can have a better relationship with the principal than the valedictorian of his/her class???
OOOH and once I spent hours, which could have amounted into days, on an essay about nature v nurture. Like, I picked a side and did a kick-a** job with the topic and it was beautiful and I was so proud of myself for tackling such a topic, but when I turn it in, I get a 95. Now, I’m not angry at the lack of a perfect score because whatever, its still an A, but when I ask my teacher what I could have done better she says: Oh it was fantastic, I just could never agree with your opinion, even if an MD convinced me…EXCUSE ME? Are you saying I could have gotten a hundred percent if I wrote this essay based on your opinions?? Like, there was literally no logic to her decision and that makes me angry at the subjectivity of English classes.
Another one
Many physics teachers are not qualified / do not know how to teach physics. Perhaps teaching position isn’t given enough prestige to draw in brightly qualified minds. If you study physics to teach it, a job is right there for you because of a shortage of physics teachers.
How do I explain this… Many students learn physics as a game of finding the right formula / constants and using them to get answers. (You can do fairly well on the AP Physics exam doing this too) One of the girls I’ve worked with whose taken AP Physics for a whole semester already was struggling to write a lab report for an experiment done with 3 other girls on finding the kinetic coefficient of friction of a couple of bricks while being able to use force probe.
For one part, she wanted to find the mass of the block using it’s weight. She had down Formula: m = F/g. Okay. What does she want to argue about next? “g = -9.8 so the mass is negative…” DXDYDXYX so I put in absolute value signs because the mass cannot be negative? I let her work with a lot on her own because it was over a Facebook messaging thing and the final answers were reported in Newtons/meter which made me go nuts. She wanted to approach calculating everything (and not even give value to the problem solving process / measurements to make to get to the final answer) in terms of formulas and had struggles even trying to figure out what to plug in. My classmates in high school struggled with the material and the way it was taught too. Supposedly that’s how college is run, but I think it is better to impart on these students a better understanding and appreciation of the material too.
How early school starts. They tell us to get 8 hours of sleep but then hit us with that 10 hour’s worth of homework.
When people just stand in the middle of the hallway and talk. They clog up the hall, and slow everyone down.
the counseling system.
@iamstudyingnow My past four years of English have been really up to the teacher. One of the was super religious and liked to play Devil’s Advocate on inappropriate issues and the another got upset when students disagreed with her on debates. My hard work ethic hasn’t changed much but my essay grades in english fluctuated a lot because some content was unappealing to my teacher 
Teachers who try to take an experimental approach to learning, and none of the kids are understanding anything, but the teachers are too stubborn to change it because they think they can change the education system.
My chemistry teacher was really big on teaching each other through discussions (before we actually learned the content). She would bring up a topic like moles and we were expected to talk to each other until we figured out what it meant. This was without any background knowledge, she just expected us to figure it out. Needless to say it wasted so much time. And in the discussion, she wouldn’t monitor the content, so we could be saying the complete opposite of what it actually was and she would just nod her head and explain what it actually was at the end of the class, if ever. I specifically remember a time where I convinced the whole class that I was right about something even though I eventually I found out I was wrong, and my teacher never said a word.
I’m just really tired of all of the busywork we get and the little sleep. Also, you can add on to the list the stress that teachers put on you to do well so that they don’t receive failing grades themselves, the stress to get into a good college, and the peer pressure (I personally try to ignore the “popular” crowds, as I’m way more of a nerd myself, but it still bothers me constantly.)
Everything. I find it frustrating that you have to balance social life, grades, and sleep. Sleep might be the worst part because ever since Sophomore year, most school nights, I have had less than seven hours of sleep.
Getting 5 hours of sleep every school night. Sometimes 4 @-)
6, if I’m really, really lucky. Almost never happens though.
People who walk and text in the halls between periods.
Also, grade-grubbing.
Idiots.
I don’t even want to explain or give time why for them. They anger the poop out of me. One of the reasons why I repeatedly say, “I literally cannot wait to be attending a 4-year legit college”.
You’ll have to deal with idiots throughout your entire life, though. It’s a struggle 
@annbern school starts at 7:30 for me and ends at 2:40.
Does anybody’s school start earlier than 7:30?