For those who are viewing this and are not aware of Avid, it is a college prep class. In this class you are helped with essays, filling scholarship applications, organization, and school work.
I took this class because I am a first generation student with a Hispanic background. My single parent who is my mother has little to no knowledge about the American education system. I had to regulate myself academically, such as knowing which courses to take, homework, grades. Entering high school was an eye opener. I had never studied, almost never prioritized my homework and was not intrigued by any sort of activity. Many older peers mentioned that my freshman year did not matter much. However I learned the hard way, I got a low GPA (barely above 3.0). I then realized homeworking was extremely important as well as studying. I had no studying skills, and my mother could not help me when homework help was needed…
As a sophomore I was highly concerned about my future. I knew I did not want to be working 10x harder for 3x less the pay than someone who is educated. My mother was okay with me doing whatever, I was not. She still to this day does not know the amount of stress I have upon me (like any other teenager). So the beginning of my junior year there would be a new class called avid in place. I got recommended for it.
I thought this was an amazing opportunity of my luck. However it was not like I imagined (nor what any other peers imaged for that fact). I, myself am organized, but for organization skills we were forced to carry a 3 inch binder with every class we took. Having this binder just made me less organized, I did not like taking it in and out of my book bag. Making me avoid it created disorganization. Stating the fact it was an elective, it was VERY hard for anyone to achieve a B or A. Almost everyone had a D. I tried very hard in the class because I needed guidance and received a high B. Although I gained nothing from it (aside from a crappy GPA) and all we did was do SAT vocab, and tutorials, pointless doings. Alright, alright, the SAT vocab was not useless but overall I saw about 3 of the 100 words we had to learn.
All in all, my other classes suffered for the effort put in this one class. It was to much of a work load for an elective. Avid being new to the students and teachers may have been the factor of such horrible experience. My point is, I do not know if I should quit the class or not. I need advice, I do not want to miss out on something that could be useful to me. I have to many things on my plate to make Avid a priority. I do not wish for low grades my senior year. I would say it was a horrible experience. What would you do? Give up what could be an opportunity for your grades? I know it may sound ridiculous, which is why I prefer responses from those who have taken the class. However any advice is welcome.
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Our school district didn’t really handle the Avid program well and a number of those students did eventually improve in their English skills but I don’t recall those students applying to our dominant state uni’s. Most did community college.
I can’t comment on your district/school but I would make sure that you ask for a strong English class. An honors class might be tough, but you could try. Our children had an excellent AP Art history teacher but the paperwork was voluminous.
You have to organize your binder; our bright son had us purchase the Costco zip binders ($14 for a three pack), for his AP classes, since many of the teachers had each student turn in related vocab cards or their memory sticks. There were multiple handouts, references, blue books, etc. All of that had to be organized and the Costco binders were not as bulky as regular 3-ring binders.