<p>A. Not all CC students tell the truth.
B. Most CC students don’t take pre-calc between freshman and sophomore year.
C. Plenty of kids get into HYPSM without a 4.0.
D. Perhaps you need to talk to a professional about the obsession with perfection. I am not joking. If you don’t relax, which may not be possible without some help, something bad is going to happen. I’ve seen it happen more often than you know, including some kids needing hospitalization for near-fatal conditions.</p>
<p>@yoshifan88
I’m not sure how the pass/fail would play out. If this policy is common in your H.S., then it’s a very unusual school. And yes, AP Calculus on sophomore year looks rigorous, but be prepared. At top high/magnet schools, that class is for juniors and seniors.
With respect to your latest post: Plenty of people on CC with numerous awards, leadership positions, research experience, and sky-high scores apply and get rejected from top universities. At the same time, people without any of the above get into the same universities</p>
<p>@MrMom62 </p>
<p>A: That’s really true. Kind of disappointing though.
B: That’s also true. 
C: I’m not aiming for those schools, although it would be nice.
D: I’m currently looking into resources for this… seems a tad OCD.</p>
<p>@Fredjan</p>
<p>The PASS/FAIL policy is only common in nominal classes like Drivers Ed. or CCR (College Career Readiness classes). It is also for students looking to either preserve their GPA or as a grade placeholder for those who have taken final exams for the class. Also, as previously mentioned, the top universities will be a killer (literally) for me, so I’m not aiming for those to reduce my stress levels. My only concern is maintaining high grades to cope and preserve my mentality.</p>
<p>My mathematical skills are strong IMO, and I will use multiple supplements to go through calculus this year. I know it will be fine.</p>
<p>Edit: Fixing “@” symbol.</p>
<p>If you’re not shooting for the top most schools (say HYPSM) as you say you are above, then you’d be fine with this grade. Do the best you can ( maybe ask the teacher for a curve but I doubt the teacher would accept it on your whim), Don’t pass-fail it.</p>
<p>Call your pediatrician and ask for a referral or go see them first and talk to them. A little perfectionism is good, a lot lead to self-destructive behaviors.</p>
<p>@fredjan @yoshifan88 Here is a problem with fast tracking math: You can run out of significant options for math classes, you take the SAT or ACT as a junior, and you took Algebra 2 two years ago, relatively a long time. The second detail isn’t a concern for a 800 math SAT test taker, but it is for someone at 720 . Nor is there a concern for an independent self motivated student who competes in significant math competitions, but there is for someone whose sole achievement is limited to achieving an A in the class room.</p>
<p>More concern? If you complete Calculus 2 as a sophomore what courses will you have as a junior or senior. Most students don’t have the option of linear algebra or derivatives. Even if you can take these classes at a local community college the commute time between HS classes and CC classes might eat up your day: unproductive.
How unsatisfactory is it to enter college and not having seen multivariable calculus in two years…</p>
<p>Are you really served better by taken courses virtually? A great many successful students would argue that virtual schools are not where they need to be yet. There is too much gaming the system, achieving an A when your work is a B+. AP course are not as forgiving even in the virtual world because you take the standardized test to measure you mastery of the subject.</p>
<p>If you are going to reinvent the wheel, your plan better work in the future.</p>
<p>@Sohoist
re: first paragraph. I did specify that AP Calc is mostly for juniors and seniors; heck, I took it as a senior. And I fit the profile of “independent self motivated student who competes in significant math competitions.”
Still, I agree in that online courses, specially for math, aren’t really the best/“most rigorous” option. One of my friends took Trig at the local college. He only had to watch the practice videos and some worked-through examples because homework and test problems were all the same. The class was less about learning math and more about algorithms/inputting answers.</p>
<p>@theanaconda</p>
<p>I’ll do all attempts to get an A via curving or (the worst for me… ugh) settle for a lower grade. There are other students in my class that are doing worse on the course than me, due to the same ambiguous curriculum being placed on them as well.</p>
<p>@MrMom62 </p>
<p>Thanks. I don’t know how to act on that… Grades are probably the only thing that I try to make perfect. I just aim for an A, not for the 100% itself. Seems a bit overkill.</p>
<p>@Sohoist </p>
<p>I’ll be concerned about my ACTs/SATs over multiple summers following this one. I’m just trying to get a course that many deem “easy” in our school.</p>
<p>My school has a dual enrollment program that allows students to take multivariable calculus (calc III), linear, all the way to calc 12 (some weird course sequence, IIRC). I will continue my mathematical studies at college once I graduate. But me not seeing multivariable calculus in two years… that might be a concern. I will have to address that problem by either taking higher math courses or reviewing the course through some audit sessions.</p>
<p>Gaming the system is kind of what I’m doing right now. But aren’t other college students doing the same thing as well (taking extra courses, going for wild ECs, etc.)? I’ve taken AP courses before, and this is not going to be an online course. It will be in-class.</p>
<p>I hope my plan works for the future. :3</p>
<p>@Fredjan I don’t regard pre-calculus as a CORE-CORE course, but rather a prerequisite to understanding some calculus concepts even more. It isn’t rigorous, which is why I’d rather take harder math classes in lieu of pre-calculus.</p>
<p>@yoshifan88
Yeah, Pre-Calculus wasn’t that useful, either. Calc was much better.
My concern with online math classes is that good grades don’t necessarily stem from actual math knowledge, but rather from memorizing algorithms and inputting answers correctly.</p>
<p>If I were an adcom, I would look down on a student with a perfect GPA because that would generally indicate to me that they didn’t challenge themselves enough or their teachers give out As way too easily. At my school, it’s a serious accomplishment to get a B+/A- in our classes…</p>
<p>@Fredjan </p>
<p>I totally understand you there. It’s kind of stupid how math has been turned into this grade-based system where you have to find the right answer instead of actually understanding the concept in more ways than one.</p>
<p>@LAMuniv </p>
<p>I am considering letting this grade slide because it will show that there is variety in my curriculum and that the 3.97 is hard-earned, instead of whatever you just said.</p>
<p>@LAMuniv, yes!! I think that quite possibly the most compelling thing that DS’s GC wrote in the recommendation was that he wasn’t a grade grubber or just looking to put trophies on the mantle. We never saw the rec, but that’s what she said her impression of DS was, so I have to assume that it was in the rec. </p>
<p>4.0>anything less than that. Far better. 54% of Harvard students had a 4.0. 54%. I bet among the qualified applicants no more than 20-30% of them would have had 4.0’s as a liberal estimate. Grade grub do whatever, if you’re aiming for a highly selective school your goal should be to get a 4.0 and still get max course rigor. That’s all you need. At affluent public or private schools, there are often more AP’s than one can take so just take whatever’s needed for max rigor, no need to double up etc.</p>
<p>
Man, that’s such bad advice. A 4.0 as a result of grade-grubbing will be more than offset by lukewarm recommendations that allude to the applicant being a grade-grubber.
With an average GPA of 3.94, which is still below the OP’s potential GPA. Oh, and those statistics are self-reported. I’m not saying the stats are inaccurate, but many posts I see here on CC have raised by BS detection awareness on self-reported scores.</p>
<p>@yoshifan88 The discussion about maintaining a 4.0 GPA is relevant. Ask your instructor to retake a test or two or review the answers on essays you thought deserved better consideration. If you don’t ask you won’t get. </p>
<p>Why is 4.0 in this class important to you? Ans: your only a sophomore and you may have another class or two challenging your GPA. The difference between being ranked in the top 4% of your class or the top 10% is likely to be one hundredths of a point (.01 - .05) in your GPA. A 4.47 weighted GPA is the historical cutoff at our school for top 4%, 4.6 is the max GPA in the curriculum. Too unkind a cut to have a 4.46 GPA, but there’s the rub.</p>
<p>Also, don’t knock dual credit PreCalculus. You refer to a core core class as if it is rigorous or not. Beware, PreCalc is typically the first core requirement math class in STEM and thus on your transcript as a core class.</p>
<p>Many H.S. promotion of dual credit classes are misleading. If it doesn’t meet a requirement for your major it is unproductive. For example our district promotes the A.A. dual credit track. One of the math classes is college algebra which doesn’t match a required course for any STEM major at the State University. Same applies to a couple of other courses. Check the college you want to attend, look at the curriculum requirements for your major and see if the dual class your taking in H.S. will match; compare the number of your dual class to the number college class to confirm.</p>
<p>@theanaconda:</p>
<p>Actually, a 4.0 isn’t all you need.</p>
<p>Killing yourself over this is idiotic. What state are you in?</p>
<p>@LAMuniv
“Didn’t challenge themselves” and taking AP Calc on sophomore year?
Does not compute.</p>
<p>@IxnayBob</p>
<p>While you’re not talking to me, I don’t think that I portray that stereotype as evidently as others in my grade, and my recommendation won’t be effected (I hope…). That’s some nice insight though!</p>
<p>@theanaconda </p>
<p>Seems a bit hard to get into those selective schools. I will apply to moderately-selective schools that will actually give me a chance to circumvent the necessity to get a perfect GPA/somewhere-near-perfect.</p>
<p>@skieurope </p>
<p>Same thing as IxnayBob. I have to watch my recommendations and stereotypes placed on me when I petition for my grade.</p>
<p>@Sohoist </p>
<p>Stupid thing is that the competition at our school is graded SOLELY by UNWEIGHTED GPA which means that there are like 20 students in the running that have a 4.00 WITHOUT taking AP/honors/dual. Therefore, it is much harder to get into the top 10% without grade grubbing or being naturally straight As. The valedictorian sometimes isn’t a challenged student, unfortunately.</p>
<p>I will contest to my teacher although in the time being I will be reviewing the course material to ensure I got a good grasp on it so I can justify my knowledge if needed. Funny thing is, she is an English teacher so she would not care that much about mathematics (I hope).</p>
<p>ALSO I checked my school and they say that you can get pre-calculus credit dual-enrollment by default, which actually means it’s one of the core classes that are counted in college and can be taken for college credit. This means I have to watch out for my grade…</p>
<p>@PurpleTitan</p>
<p>Currently in Washington state, or WA (not DC, in the northwest region).</p>
<p>@Fredjan </p>
<p>L
O
L</p>
<p>Edit:fixing @</p>