<p>Hi everyone I need honest very honest feedback. I am a junior in Highschool and I have decided to take 3 APs (US History,Physics B,and Language and Compostion. I take 4 honors classes :German lll,Digital Electronics(PLTW)*, Advanced Government and Pre Calc. My target colleges are UCs: Berkely,UCLA, and maybe Irvine, also MIT,Carnegie Mellon, and Standford. My GPA as of currently is a 3.4 unweighted. I haven't calculated my weighted GPA because I am waiting for a few AP and Honors grades to be finalized. But I have possibly just recieved a D+ in my AP Physics class. For some reason I do work and study really hard in this class while also trying to juggle the amount of work from other classes and manage to recieve a D. its low test scores for the most part, which is why my grade is so low. I am used to getting mostly A's and maybe a few B's here and there but to have a D at this point just makes me feel as if I have no chance to ever make it to the colleges I have above. I may have recently started to have test anxiety in ap physics and I have talked to my teacher about the circumstances. I could study for 2 hours a night and probably still go take the quiz/test and not get what I expected at all. In October I talked with her again because I was very concerned about my grade. I knew I was struggling I tried to get help whenever I had the chance. I watched Khan academy, read my textbook, and even asked for assistance most of the time. At this time I still had an F. She told me that if I was able to pass the final exam I could get at the very least a C in the class. While C's are nothing I'm accustomed to ,I didn't scoff at the opportunity. I believe I probably put in enough effort to have a C in this class. Well yesterday I recieved my final exam grade and I only recieved a 60%. I went back afterschool to review my final and told the teacher that I have faith and have a solution to do much better next semester.She expects a lot of students in my class to drop the class next semester and I don't want to.She most likely thought I would be one of them, but she is wrong. I am not giving up, I want to do more than just pass the class and the AP exam next spring. I want to fully understand Physics because I plan on being an engineer. There are students in my class who I know and who told me frequently they never studied or did the course/homework, recieve the same grade as I have. I think this is infact unacceptable. Not because I feel that I am better than them but I have infact put in hours and hours of practice into this class and just not have yet been able to display my understanding. I have had plenty of talks with my teacher about my understanding but I'm not sure if she takes me seriously. There is a guy in my class who was also struggling in the class I think he has a B for the final grade now. She told me this yesterday and said the reason was that he stayed afterschool and worked on problems. It is not always possible for me to stay after everyday and work with physics and I thought I explained this to her. I always took the chance to stay after whenever I could. I guess because I don't stay after 4 days a week that I don't try hard enough. I had no idea why she would say something like that to me. I work at home and I watch a bunch of videos. I would go home work on a problem and if I got stuck come early the next day for help. So I have showed plenty effort to show her that I really care. I am not blaming her for my bad grade, this class was very difficult for me. I had a F by the 3rd week of school and that had never happened before so I have started to work my behind off to raise that grade. I have read in certain places that some teachers raise your grade for both semesters depending on what you recieve on the AP test. I was wondering what do you guys think I should do? Should I ask her if she does that for AP students since she seemed as if she would have on the final? Guys right now I am so crushed but I have a plan to do much better and better my test anxiety next semester. I think I have made this post long enough so if something isn't clear just ask me. I am still in panic mode so my grammar and sentence structure may be awkward but please bare with me.</p>
<p>Hi Koolmars - I read your entire post. Sounds like you’re really having a hard time with this class, yeah? I have to ask - is this the first time you’ve taken physics? Have you bought AP review books? I have never taken AP physics but I have taken (chem, euro, apush, bio) and I found the review books to be <em>incredibly helpful</em>. Try Princeton review, barrons, etc. Go to a book store and flip through one that looks best to you. I found these so helpful because they were short and to the point - unlike a textbook which you have to sort through a lot of word salad. (but that’s just me!)</p>
<p>Now about this class…I asked you if you’ve taken physics before because it might be a possibility for you to step down to regular? I ask because I knew quite a few people that took AP physics without ever taking physics in my high school. I’m asking you to just consider this - I am not saying you’re not capable. I am just saying that maybe you need a little more of a slower pace. It sounds like you are putting a lot of effort in this class and it just isn’t getting you to a good place. There is nothing wrong with saying “I can’t do this right now”. It might just be her and her teaching style just aren’t meshing for you…there are several reasons.</p>
<p>So before I go on, have you taken regular physics before? Can you step down to a lower level?</p>
<p>Hi! As a student who took APPB last year, I would like to make a couple of points:
First off, I want to let you know that it is doable. I got a 75 in the first quarter of physics last year (by far my lowest grade ever) and ended up with a 5 on the AP. A friend had an F the first quarter and got a 4. So a poor beginning does not necessarily doom you to failure.
However, physics is difficult. Everything stems from the basics, and if you don’t have a firm grasp on them you will have a lot of trouble with everything else. As far as tests go- what kind of mistakes are you making? Careless errors are relatively easy to fix, but more fundamental errors take more time, which it sounds like you might not have. If you’ve actually put in hours of studying without a discernible result I would seriously consider dropping the class. You mentioned a plan- what is it? I wouldn’t count on any quick fix.</p>
<p>Just my 2 cents ;)</p>
<p>Thank you guys! My teacher said that she will continue to work with me if I want to stay on the class.I really do because I want to be an engineer one day. She said if I did drop the class she still wants me to still do at least honors physics.She also agreed to talk to the principal about mending my grade next semester if I get a 3 or higher on the AP test. She says that it is apparent that I have like severe test anxiety when I take her tests. On my final exam I got the right answer on a problem but I erased it and did something else. She knows that I know the material. I am practicing currently over Winter Break strategies to tackle test anxiety and doing plenty of practice problems and previewing the material we will start next semester. I think I can do it. So I’m going to go ahead and give it another try next semester.</p>
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