I received my appointment to USNA in February and recently participated in the Candidate Visit Weekend. I have taken AP Calc BC (scored a 5) and Calc 3 (with credit from CU) and have three full years of physics (AP Physics B and C) which is my intended major. Over my visit a number of the midshipmen I met admitted to intentionally doing poorly on the validation tests so they could retake the class. I was wondering what anyone knew about class validation because I would prefer not to repeat the same courses.
I'm not going to advice you one way or the other.
Just let me say this:
HALF of everybody in your class will end up in the bottom
HALF of their class - by definition. And,
nobody comes in thinking it will be them. So, by definition,
half the new appointees have the wrong perception of their abilities relative to their classmates.
What you will do
after graduation from the Naval Academy will partly depend on how well you do academically
at the Naval Academy. There are many midshipmen who come in with big dreams, bite off more than they can chew, and end up compromising (out of necessity) on their dreams.
For instance, I would say that
less than half of those who enter the Naval Academy intending to be pilots will ever fulfill that dream. A good number who want to be a Marine - will not. Those who want to be in a submarine may discover that the submarine force doesn't want them. There are some very harsh realities that have to be accepted
prior to attending the Naval Academy.
For instance, you want to get a PhD. Do you plan to do that while you're in the Navy? You must first get your Master's Degree. When do you plan on doing that? After graduation? Only a handful of midshipmen are allowed to do that.
You have to be willing to simply be a naval officer
first.