I recently started my sophomore year in high school and was surprised to see that I wasn’t in more honors/ AP classes. I had fairly good grades freshman year and I was curious to know why I wasn’t placed in more advanced classes.
I went to the office and got a copy of the grade requirements for each class. I qualified to get into Honors Chemistry, and AP European. My grades were completely eligible to get into both those classes. I wondered why i wasn’t placed, and was notified that both of those classes required a teacher’s recommendation. Now even though I had A’s in biology, I wasn’t recommended. I’m currently enrolled in Regular CP Chemistry, and World History.
I just felt almost as if even thought I got good grades in a certain class, my teacher didn’t recommend me, just maybe because they didn’t like me or something. I don’t think it was necessarily fair that even though my grades made it in, a teacher recommendation is what kept me from taking 2 honors classes.
Talk to your counselor, he/she may help you.
Also, is it customary to ask the teacher to give you a recommendation, or to talk with your teacher at the end of the school year? Perhaps you forgot to/didn’t know/misheard the teacher.
Many schools will allow you to petition to take classes when you didn’t automatically get enrolled in them. Talk to your GC and find out what the process is. BUT do it soon! You won’t be able to catch up on the work if you wait too long.
Isn’t AP Chem considered a higher level course than Honors Chem? In our school, students can’t take AP chem without having taken honors chem first.
As for the other aspect, our school has a process whereby parents can sign a waiver to permit their child to enroll in an honors or AP class if the student isn’t recommended or doesn’t pass the entrance exam.
Of course, there are other schools which permit any student to enroll in an honors or AP class. There is a district nearby which has open enrollment for honors and AP and is ranked more highly than our school, even though it is far less socio-economically successful. I wish I lived in that district…
In your case, I second the poster above and urge you to involve your parents.
In my daughter’s school, you have to ask the teachers for a recommendation. Not all kids are interested in taking honors and AP classes so the student has to make a request.
If you didn’t ask for a recommendation, the teacher probably didn’t think you wanted to have that class. HURRY and see if your previous teacher would recommend you NOW - make a very polite request - and see if you can switch. I agree that with an A in science, you should be qualified for Honors chem if you want to try the class.
My daughter was not recommended for honors bio in 9th grade because her 8th grade science teacher did not want her to have to work too hard!!! She was trying to do my daughter a favor and give her nice easy classes. So silly. We petitioned and she got A’s in both honors bio and ap bio. Do what you need to do to get the job done! Take control of your destiny.