@eandesmom sending you hugs!! Hopefully your GC is better than ours.
@tacocat333 I wouldn’t mind that the calc teacher is trying to encourage him if she didn’t spend half their class time discussing “gossip” with all the girls in the class. With his personality the harder they push, the harder he will resist but they can’t seem to figure that out. One poor girl, who is also a neighbor, has been “working” on him for a few years now. I almost feel badly for her but she can’t seem to take a hint or even a blunt remark (he isn’t always kind).
My son is sort of struggling but also sort of getting Calc. He just makes dumb mistakes and loses points, but he understands it. Doesn’t help his grade though. I told him he needs to stick with the class and put in more effort and practice work, as he will most likely have to take stats in college. I’d rather have him get his mind blown now, vs college. If he learns the material now, it will make it easier to re-learn it later. I also want him to learn the importance that sometimes you need to put in more effort sometimes when the time gets tough. Everything has come pretty easy to him so far thru HS, so a good butt kicking now I’m OK with. @eandesmom good luck to your son.
I have to laugh at the “I’ve got this!” comments. I hear that often, I guess i nag too much. Sometimes when she spews those words they ring true, sometimes, not so much!! Either way, they get me off her back!
@eandesmom Oh boy, sorry to hear the calc struggles continue. Let us know how you make out with the school. D ended up with an 84 (lowest B) in Calc and a 74 (lowest C) in physics for the semester. I’m hopeful they don’t hold it against her either, we’ll see.
As far as AP classes, D figures she will want to retake math/science anyway in college so we’re not looking for the credit. Poor kid studies enough, I don’t really care. She was considering taking the Spanish for credit but we’ll see. She couldn’t even take AP Spanish this year because it conflicted with AP Physics C and she took Spanish at community college but it was too easy, she didn’t bother taking it again this semester.
@eandesmom hope the call goes well and the GC Is helpful. Don’t know if this will help but when my son was struggling in calculus (yes, here too) and thinking of dropping, there were sort of two parallel conversations with his GC. The first was, don’t panic, the situation may improve and colleges aren’t as unforgiving as you think, it’s good that you are trying and challenging yourself even if you don’t sail effortlessly over every hurdle. The second was, if worse comes to worst, trying to think of a course to replace it with…whether there was something that could be joined mid-stream, because then when the school tells the colleges they might have more of a story about why replacing one course with another was a good idea.
Our story ends with son still in calculus…the GC was able to talk him off the roof, so to speak, and it’s gone okay since then. Wishing a good result for you too.
Transcripts/mid-year reports … are automatically sent by the counselor via Naviance to each college that students apply. S17 sent an e-mail several weeks ago to his counselor so she could update the Naviance results to show that he was accepted at his Early Decision University & was planning to attend – she still sent mid-year reports to the other 7 colleges!!
“I’ve got this” … is a common retort in our house this year too. S17’s academic/GPA downfall (outside of Spanish classes) has been his lack of attention to detail, forgetfulness, neglecting to read instructions, etc. Maybe he does “got this” because he’s received all A’s & B’s on his senior year report cards even with the 3 AP courses his school counselor discouraged him from taking – AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Music Theory.
@eandesmom … did I miss the post about Calculus … is he failing? I wouldn’t drop a course unless he’s received below a C both quarters, but that’s just my opinion & you/the GC know best!
AP courses … at our HS, students are required to take the AP exam if they want the GPA bump
Swag … S17 & I are getting freebies in the mail from the colleges that accepted him BUT not the one he’s planning to attend. Did he show so much demonstrated interest in his #1 choice that the love only goes one way? OR could it be that we’re full pay? :))
Prom … S17 almost went to homecoming “as friends” until he found put it was one girl & several boys He’s not interested in having a girlfriend even though girls have pursued him. He claims that the dances are attended by only couples or groups of girls.
QOTD … this was on the main 2017 forum, but I wanted to ask it here. Hubby (and guest) has the opportunity to go to Europe for a week on business. S17 will be 3 weeks shy of turning 18 & hubby said we should leave him home alone (kids are not allowed, otherwise we’d take him). S17 is an only child & our nearest relatives are an hour away. S17 is in school 5 of those days & says he’s fine with staying home alone. I don’t know what to do
@MomStudent2017 , I’d think it would be fine to leave him if you don’t have concerns about parties, etc. (Or make sure a few neighbors have the spyglasses ready to go at the sign of anything unusual going on.)
TacoSon just came home in a foul mood, annoyed at having left the history paper at home, stressed about a calc test tomorrow and upset as usual over Spanish class he hates. I actually reached out to the counselor before the holidays about having him drop Spanish because I don’t think it’s worth this level of pure hatred. No response at the time but I may have TacoSon inquire again even though I doubt he’d actually take the step of dropping. The problem is what he’d take in place of Spanish and there aren’t any half-semester options.
@eandesmom sorry your son is having a cruddy time and is stressed out.
My son just notified me that he started the semester off in pre-calc with a 90 on a quiz, I’ll take it! He’s making an effort, he just needs to stay focused and practice.
Just thought about it @eandesmom while calculus builds on itself there are certain sections that are harder and don’t necessarily rear their ugly head again until calc 2. If it’s a specific thing giving him fits, if you let me know what it is I can ask oldest son about it’s importance and frequency.
He is feeling completely overwhelmed, completely lost and that this has been progressing now for several months. He feels he has attempted to get help and that to date, it has not been enough to help him grasp the material. And that at present, the time he is investing is impacting his studies in other classes. He quite frankly sees no way out without investing even more time (which to me would mean an outside tutor) and that this will continue to negatively impact the other classes. He has no time for homework elsewhere as it’s all spent on calc. He honestly does not feel he can recover enough to not fail the semester at this point. I’ve never seen him so stressed and overwhelmed. I am not a big fan of dropping classes, especially 2nd semester senior year but I am more concerned about his mental health at this point.
He did fine in pre-calc though I wouldn’t say it was “easy” and barely survived 1st semester of the AP Calc/AB. Stats is a different animal entirely and really would have been the better choice for him I think. But it is what it is.
I can relate. I haven’t taken math since Algebra 3/Trig. Never took in college. But, it’s a different world and he felt he “had” to take it. He feels like if it was his only class and he could dedicate all his time to it then…he could probably pull it off. But that’s not realistic.
Honestly if he drops it will just be a free period as far as I am concerned. Study hall for his other AP classes. He doesn’t need credits for anything, could graduate as long as he took English and PE this semester, everything else is “extra” already.
We are only 2.5 weeks into 2nd semester. Which means he can drop without penalty, it just doesn’t’ show as ever having been on his schedule. As long as the call is made by friday. I believe. The school has yet to officially confirm that and the secretary said all changes were already done. But I beleive she is only referring to schedule changes, not withdrawals.
To answer the question, yes, he is failing. He has a test friday that he is convinced he will fail. He will also miss a full week of a unit for these stupid college visits and is absolutely convinced he cannot recover from that given where he is at today. He can’t afford to miss the week. The homework load is insane. Compounded of course by the fact he doesn’t understand it. But he literally needs help on every single problem. He spent 4 hours on it last night, for an assignment they were given one day to turn around. And didn’t complete it.
I suppose we could consider changing our plans on the college visits and try to squish them all in in the end april (at significant extra expense) but I am not really sure that would solve the problem at all and that’s right before AP testing.
@eandesmom reading the extra information you just provided - I agree with you. Get him out. His happiness and mental health are worth more than a calc class. If he has to have it in college he will at least know what he’s getting into and can plan accordingly. Struggling is one thing - drowning is entirely another and it sounds like he’s drowning.
@eandesmom oh poor kid! Reading your last note I would be same as you and if he has to drop to get out of the situation that’s just how it will be.
I know what you mean about college visits and calc; my son too is stressed about missing even one class. Second semester senior year isn’t supposed to be like that!
@eandesmom Oh that’s not good, no reason for him to be in that situation a moment longer. Withdrawing is the right choice. Hopefully he will feel a like a weight has been lifted and he can enjoy the rest of senior year!
@eandesmom I would definitely drop it at this point. There is no point in suffering thru mental duress. I thought he ad a C or B. That stinks he has to deal with this now. My son is not really loving calc and stats right now, they are 2 of the hardest classes at his school. He is grinding thru them, and can’t drop them. He just needs to buckle down and devote more time. Fortunately, his other classes don’t require tons of brain power. The bad news is lax season starts up soon, so he is going to find a way to get thru it.
Good luck to your son, Drop the class and let him enjoy the rest of senior year.
He had a B- first semester (B+ Q1, B- Q2). While it is hard for me to believe 2.5 weeks in that it is not salvageable…if he does not believe that it is…it really isn’t.
Poor thing is so stressed…between feeling like he HAS to know what he is going to major in and he HAS to know where he is going to school (not coming from us mind you) and this…he in full explode mode.
It is done. He now has a free period (or as we are calling it, AP study hall lol).
If nothing else it reinforces that environmental studies and policy is the route…not engineering or the math heavy environmental sciences. We’ve known that for a while but this cements it. He should have taken AP Stats. Oh well.
Now we get to notify the schools. Mid year report goes out next week and will have the changes so I suppose we need to be ahead of that. UGH. Frankly I am not sure we are going to bother notifying the one he knows he will not attend. Which is only 1 (though I think it should be 2).
I did look through his schools and the only one I am really mildly concerned about is UVM. It’s mild though. He met the school and the college requirements (the college he is admitted to has additional math and science req’s that are higher than the schools) with his junior year transcript with pre-calc and AP Physics so I really can’t see why it would be an issue. I would tend to think that had he been on the bubble, he’d have been deferred, not admitted EA. I guess we will see though. I have other concerns with UVM (ability to switch majors and graduate on time being paramount) and should he not do environmental I am really not sure I can justify that cost differential. But, I don’t want to force him into a major either.
I do expect high scores on the remaining AP tests though. LOL!
@eandesmom D dropped discrete finite math after 1st semester with a C minus and an F on the final. It was a good decision for her. Her mental health is a lot better without the daily math struggle.
@brindlegreyhound did you let all the schools know. Did they care? Just curious. It is what it is at this point and we all feel ok about it. I hope it doesn’t come back to bite him later but really…it was bad. And not worth it.
I took a hard look at what he could have possibly switched into and there were zero math or science options. A semester long english class when he already had AP lit seems silly and that really left…piano lab. Which I suppose if the schedule worked would be a valid and interesting option but honestly I’d rather have him have basically a study hall at this point. The kid has had 7 classes every semester. 6 for his last semester has got to be ok.
He’s not interested in having a girlfriend even though girls have pursued him. He claims that the dances are attended by only couples or groups of girls.