I want to thank @Lindagaf and @compmom for their responses. It’s very nice to see that kindness and compassion.
Thank you for all the insightful responses, everyone. I feel like a better person and student now after reading through these posts. All I can do from here on is try my best, and if I do get a C, I’ll try even harder second semester. As for my dad, whatevs. There’s no way I or anyone else can change him, but I’m just going to ignore whatever negativity comes my way. I will change my study techniques and hopefully figure out what I’m doing wrong. Thank you all very much! I’ll come back with an update near the end of January.
It sounds like you have a good attitude. Many of us struggled when first facing Calculus - you are in good company. Best of luck!
Great posts by @Lindagaf and @compmom. Your father is doing you a GREAT disservice by making you feel like your self-worth is entirely tied up in your grades.
Your mom is also not doing you any favors by saying “there’s always community college” like you’re a C student. (Not trying to be disrespectful of either C students or community college students – but the OP should be at a school that is the right fit for him/her, and community college isn’t it.)
Of course you can still get into a UC! Look, suppose you get a 1300 on the SAT next weekend, as you predict you will. Okay, assuming that’s approximately 650/650, that puts you well in range for UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine, and in the top 25% for UC Santa Cruz. (Please note that the UCs are more selective when it comes to STEM majors – which I’m guessing you won’t be! – than for humanities/social sciences majors, so you really have a very good shot at all those schools.) And your GPA – even if you get C’s both semesters in calculus – will make you even more competitive than a 1300 SAT score would show. As others have said, the UCs only look at 10th and 11th grades, so the fact that you did very well in precalculus last year brings your UC GPA way up. A couple of C’s this year will not drag it down that far – your unweighted GPA for these two years would be something like 3.75 assuming you got C’s in calculus both semesters, and I’m sure your weighted GPA will be well above a 4.0. (You can go to the UC website and calculate it – they can tell you which of your particular high school’s honors classes qualify to receive a weighted grade by their standards.)
As far as calculus goes, can you sit down with your calculus teacher and go over your tests and quizzes to see where you went wrong? There has to be an answer other than you “freaking out” before tests, or making stupid mistakes. Do you need more time for your tests, due to anxiety? That’s an accommodation that your school ought to be able to provide. If you truly understand the material (are you doing well on your homework assignments?), then your poor performance on tests is an anomaly that can be solved.
If you’ll be applying to private colleges, believe me, you will not be the only student they see who gets A’s in everything but math! Math is a bugbear for a lot of students. What you can do in your application is turn that weakness into a part of your overall story – not just by talking about how you have struggled and what you have done to come to terms with the fact that math is never going to be easy for you – but also by emphasizing the strengths you do have.
Finally, what do you plan to do for math your senior year? Does your school offer statistics? That would be my recommendation for you if possible. If the only choice is higher-level calculus, you should probably just not take a 4th year of math. Instead, take something you will actually enjoy and do well at.
I agree that stats is a good and useful applied maths class. My D is not a math person, but she loved stats and did very well. If you can’t take stats, don’t worry about taking a class you will actually enjoy. We insisted that our kid take a fun class in her senior year. It did her a world of good. Every day, she had a break from rigorous academic classes. She was accepted to a bunch of great colleges. It will not hurt your chances to take a class just for fun.
I agree with other posters. And also suggest you try another tutor. Math is a unique subject, and maybe your tutor is not approaching it in a method that speaks to you.
Just because someone is a college math major does not automatically mean they possess the skills needed to teach a subject in a way you can understand it.
Your tutor may be smart and good at math, but sometimes the student who is a little less nimble in math can actually explain it better. My younger (less good at math) kid was actually quite a good tutor which he did as a high school student as one of his volunteer activities.
I took Calculus at 16 and while I got a good grade, I always felt I was just barely getting it. I totally flubbed the AP. Three years later it turned out I needed it for architecture school so I took it again in college. What a difference, it was as though my brain was ready for it. I got an A and ended up being asked to grade homework for the class the next year.
I think part of the problem is that you’ve been over-accelerated. You may be less solid on some of the foundational stuff than you should be. I think working with the teacher is a great idea. I think when teachers know you are doing your best they tend to be a little kinder grading wise, and she may also now notice in class what needs to be covered a little better.
Good luck
If you take a math class as a senior, don’t feel compelled to be in the AP. Colleges don’t expect you to take AP everything. I’ve heard multiple briefs that if you don’t feel you can make at least a B in the AP, take the non-AP class.
Sent you a private message.