<p>At my school, AP US History is a joke of a class. Even below average students enroll and consistently earn high marks. No one save for a few braves the AP exam- this year only 9 of us out of nearly 70 students took the test, and I think everyone agreed that we definitely did NOT earn high marks on it. Many people including myself had an attitude of general apathy towards the class.....I basically did enough to earn my A and that was it. Not much effort. First semester this worked out splendidly for me. I got an A+ basically without doing any homework the whole semester. </p>
<p>Second semester was a disaster. The teacher took a strong disliking to me. It's almost as if she picked up on the fact that I was coasting and decided that no matter what happened, she was not going to allow me to earn an A. I had a 93% in the class headed into the final week, and everything fell apart. The teacher gave me a solid <em>"</em><em>ZERO</em><em>"</em> on an assignment that I had partially complete (it is standard to receive partial credit for a partially complete assignment). Also, she didn't give me credit for an assignment that was intended to be an <em>alternative</em> to the AP exam (even though I took the exam) since there were so many students that didn't step up and take it. This left me with an 89%.</p>
<p>I had a meeting with my teacher, dad, and counselor in an attempt to explain my situation, and my teacher would have none of it. While it's not right....It looks as if a "B" will be the grade that I'm stuck with. This has potentially dire implications for my grades....I was previously ranked #1 in my class. Heading into my senior year, I can still snatch my #1 spot at the end of my senior year with my extremely difficult schedule, but It would have been nice to have an unweighted 4.0, and to be able to hold the #1 spot when applying to colleges next winter.</p>
<p>My question is:
How much does this hurt just the academic portion of my prospective application to an elite school? Is the drop off from #1 to #3 steeper than the drop from say, #2 to #4 due to the certain sacredness that the #1 class rank holds? What about GPA? (4.4 to 4.3 /// 4.0 to like 3.9 or something) </p>
<p>I don’t think it will matter much because, if you don’t mature a fair bit and your current attitude comes through in your essays, your chances aren’t good anyway.</p>
<p>May I share this possible perspective? Your sense that the teacher dislikes you may be spot on. Because you may have portrayed yourself to her as a grade-grubber, solely fixated on your #1 ranking. Certainly, you’ve only posted a specific question to a specific scenario – but if it’s a keyhole view on you-- then you might rub people wrong.</p>
<p>Obviously I don’t know you and I’m not trying to attack you. But the whole “brought dad and the counselor into it to discuss getting an A vs a B” confirms it to the teacher.</p>
<p>The sad thing is that the advice given to you by these posters is 100% correct. Your sole B means NOTHING. Your #1 ranking means nothing. Relax a bit. Allow yourself to be imperfect. </p>
<p>At our school, there is an order. You are supposed to talk to the teacher first, then the GC, and then bring others in. However, teachers set rules like ‘You have one day to talk to me after I post the grade.’ My kids were burned more than once by following the rules. I requested conferences with the teachers and then was told it was ‘too late.’</p>
<p>I just started copying the GC on everything, and now that school is over, the principal will get a letter from me because I think one teacher in particular bullied my kids. If either asked a question, he would say 'Is your MOM going to send an email?" That is what the rules say to do. He is an idiot and I think the principal should know how he treats students. This guy cannot read cursive, so didn’t want my children to take notes or write in cursive. It’s almost like he thought it was witchcraft.</p>
<p>one B won’t destroy you, although I hope you aren’t trying to become a stem major with that attitude. If grades are that important to you, you’ll probably commit suicide =X in college. This is not a joke. Stem fields are gpa killers. </p>
<p>@twoinanddone this is a bit of a side track, but perhaps that reaction was because YOU were bringing things to their attention, not your students. At my school, parents are only supposed to get involved after students had already tried to resolve things on their own. That doesn’t mean I agree with his reaction however…</p>
<p>The path we followed, as directed by the school, was for the student to ask the teacher about a grade or assignment. She did. Then the rules say for the parent to contact the teacher, preferably by email. I did, and asked the teacher to call me. Oh, he couldn’t possibly CALL because in the 21st century no one has a phone. He did somehow manage to call, his explanation didn’t satisfy me (I did not ask him to change a grade, only not to put my daughter in groups anymore) and he said his hands were tied, that the principal wasted his class periods with announcements and other drivel, that my daughter was a B student and would never be an A student because she chit chats so even if she did A work, she wouldn’t get an A. Next step was to ask the guidance counselor to make a change, but there was no way to change her schedule. I asked that D2 not be assigned this teacher, and yet she was. This teacher accused my children of cheating because they happen to be sisters. All other students got their projects back, by D1 didn’t because D2 was in the next semester’s class. Like there has never been a sibling group in this school before? Perhaps the lazy teacher should have changed the assignment from semester to semester to prevent cheating. BTW, my kids are less likely to do homework together than they are to do it with friends who might have had the class already.</p>
<p>We followed the protocol, and this teacher, and others, did nothing to advance their education. I think the principal should know. He won’t care, but I do.</p>
<p>One B,especially in an AP class is not a huge problem. However, your attitude and the idea of “coasting” and “turning in partial assignments” and expecting extra credit doesn’t bode well going forward. Take it as a lesson learned and move on. </p>
<p>Wow. Haven’t checked CC in quite some time. Thanks for not tearing into me too bad guys, I was really frustrated when I wrote the initial post and it looks quite idiotic in retrospect. Taking it as a lesson and moving on, as suggested by happy1, is certainly what i’ll be doing. </p>