AP class

[sophieee]

Hi,

I have a LOA and I recently got my waiver and now I'm waiting for my portal update.
I'm currently taking AP Calc BC and I've been struggling very hard as I moved on from calc B to C. I've never felt so lost and I feel terrible. I also don't want to risk getting possibly a D in the class and lose my soon-to-be appointment. I've been giving a careful thought over this matter for the past few days and I couldn't come up with a solid answer.
I've already emailed my counselor about this, but I wanted to hear as much thoughts and advice as I can.

Should I drop the class and would dropping the class affect my soon-to-come appointment?

Thank you!

 

[A1Janitor]

Hi,

I have a LOA and I recently got my waiver and now I'm waiting for my portal update.
I'm currently taking AP Calc BC and I've been struggling very hard as I moved on from calc B to C. I've never felt so lost and I feel terrible. I also don't want to risk getting possibly a D in the class and lose my soon-to-be appointment. I've been giving a careful thought over this matter for the past few days and I couldn't come up with a solid answer.
I've already emailed my counselor about this, but I wanted to hear as much thoughts and advice as I can.

Should I drop the class and would dropping the class affect my soon-to-come appointment?

Thank you!

Go to the teacher ... find a tutor. You can do this.

 

[brewmeist]

If you drop the class, you will certainly be questioned as to why, and your answer will be that you were afraid to get a D. Same impact as if you did get a D. USNA is a STEM school. I suggest that instead of worrying about getting a D, you work as hard as possible to not get a D.

 

[MidCakePa]

Fight through your struggles and get a good grade. Do all you can: office hours, tutor, extra study, calculus above all else. Whatever you do, don’t drop it. That will raise more eyebrows than a D. So just don’t get a D.

And if you do end up at USNA, hang on to your hat. You’ll do a minimum of tbeee semesters — yes, three — of calculus. And it will make AP look like child’s play. So learn to fight through. Best wishes to you.

 

[bopper]

0) GO TO CLASS, READ THE CHAPTERS, AND DO THE HOMEWORK!

1) Go to Teacher's office hours early in the semester and Ask this question: "I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?"

2) If you have problems with the homework, go to Teacher's office hours. If they have any "help sessions" or "study sessions" or any thing extra, go to them.

3) Form a study group with other kids in your class.

4) Don't do the minimum...for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or chemistry whatever. Watch online videos (e.g., Khan Academy) about the topic you are studying.

5) If things still are not going well, get a tutor. Your National Honor Society will have some. Or ask a teacher for a referral.

6) Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.

7) For tests that you didn't do well on, can you evaluate what went wrong? Did you never read that topic? Did you not do the homework for it? Do you kind of remember it but forgot what to do? Then next time change the way you study...there may be a study skill center at your guidance office.

8) How much time outside of class do you spend studying/doing homework? Is it enough?

9) If you run into any social/health/family troubles (you are sick, your parents are sick, someone died, broke up with boy/girlfriend, suddenly depressed/anxiety etcetc) then immediately go to the guidance counselor and talk to them.

10) At the beginning of the semester, read the syllabus for each class. It tells you what you will be doing and when tests/HW/papers are due. Put all of that in your calendar. The teacher may remind you of things, but it is all there for you to see so take initiative and look at it.

11) Make sure you understand how to use your online class system...Login to it, read what there is for your classes, know how to upload assignments (if that is what the teacher wants).

12) If you get an assignment...make sure to read the instructions and do all the tasks on the assignment. Look at the rubric and make sure you have covered everything.

13) If you are not sure what to do, go EARLY to the teacher's office hours...not the day before the assignment is due.

14) Take advantage of any "re-do" tests you may be able to take..your teacher wants you to learn the material. Future material depends on it so you need to have the foundation. By explaining what went wrong you really understand it. Take advantage of this.

 

[justdoit19]

You will need to figure out how to get through this. It’s a skill you will need to hone at USNA. There are ways! Lots of good ideas suggested above.

It doesn’t get easier at USNA.

 

[ders_dad]

Learning Calc is like learning new pieces on a piano - it requires practice. There is no secret about this. You must put in the out of class time doing practice problems for a particular rubric or problem type until it becomes “finger memory”.

When I was a freshman I struggled with Calc and got a D first semester. I bought a book of problem sets (pre-internet) that showed a few different examples of how to solve particular problems and then hundreds of practice problems. Today, you can find all of this on-line. A personal tutor can also guide you but you must fail on your own (over and over again) before you can succeed. You must practice and fail on your own, by yourself if you want to succeed. Don’t spend all your time spinning your wheels but don’t expect that having someone stopping you every time you make a wrong turn is going to help you learn this stuff.

Practice practice practice. Calc is like any sport or musical instrument- practice and you will succeed. Nobody just “gets it”.

 

[Dr. Strange Love]

Learning Calc is like learning new pieces on a piano - it requires practice. There is no secret about this. You must put in the out of class time doing practice problems for a particular rubric or problem type until it becomes “finger memory”.

When I was a freshman I struggled with Calc and got a D first semester. I bought a book of problem sets (pre-internet) that showed a few different examples of how to solve particular problems and then hundreds of practice problems. Today, you can find all of this on-line. A personal tutor can also guide you but you must fail on your own (over and over again) before you can succeed. You must practice and fail on your own, by yourself if you want to succeed. Don’t spend all your time spinning your wheels but don’t expect that having someone stopping you every time you make a wrong turn is going to help you learn this stuff.

Practice practice practice. Calc is like any sport or musical instrument- practice and you will succeed. Nobody just “gets it”.

Amen. Falling can hurt, and it can do you a bit of good Most of the time.

Nothing replaces Eyes, Pencil, Paper. These 3 things together (triangle), and a Lot of examples of the problem you are trying to master, enforce a Type of "Muscle Memory". It's a memory circuit that from your brain through your eyes to the problem on the paper, the pencil in the hand, and the Nerves from your hand/arm back to your Brain.

You cannot expect to master a particular Set of problem just by doing the 1 or 2 cases presented in Class. You have to do as many different Use Cases of the type of problem set as possible to master the Set.

It is just like learning Music just as @ders_dad says.

 

[MidCakePa]

+1 to the comments above about practice, practice, practice. It doesn’t get any easier at USNA. Just last week, DD — who aced AP Calculus as a 10th grader and Multivariable Calculus as an 11th grader, said of her Calculus 3 test: “Dad, it was impossible!”

 

[A1Janitor]

I have an identical twin brother. We were math majors - and in the top of the math class in the grade ahead of us. Calc 3 in college sucked. I dropped math as a major and switched to accounting.

I didn’t put the effort in, didn’t like it.

My twin put the effort in, graduated with a bachelor in math and Econ with a concentration in computer science, masters in statistics, and a PhD in Econ.

So yeah. Practice and effort.

 

[Dr. Strange Love]

I have an identical twin brother. We were math majors - and in the top of the math class in the grade ahead of us. Calc 3 in college sucked. I dropped math as a major and switched to accounting.

I didn’t put the effort in, didn’t like it.

My twin put the effort in, graduated with a bachelor in math and Econ with a concentration in computer science, masters in statistics, and a PhD in Econ.

So yeah. Practice and effort.

The turning point is interesting for the Identical Pair of you (Calc 3) …. How much is Nature, and how much is Nurture?

 

[A1Janitor]

I have an identical twin brother. We were math majors - and in the top of the math class in the grade ahead of us. Calc 3 in college sucked. I dropped math as a major and switched to accounting.

I didn’t put the effort in, didn’t like it.

My twin put the effort in, graduated with a bachelor in math and Econ with a concentration in computer science, masters in statistics, and a PhD in Econ.

So yeah. Practice and effort.

The turning point is interesting for the Identical Pair of you (Calc 3) …. How much is Nature, and how much is Nurture?

What are you talking about?

He was always favored by my parents and teachers!

He and I are very much identical ... in nature and nurture. I just wasn’t interested in upper level math.

 

[Dr. Strange Love]

I have an identical twin brother. We were math majors - and in the top of the math class in the grade ahead of us. Calc 3 in college sucked. I dropped math as a major and switched to accounting.

I didn’t put the effort in, didn’t like it.

My twin put the effort in, graduated with a bachelor in math and Econ with a concentration in computer science, masters in statistics, and a PhD in Econ.

So yeah. Practice and effort.

The turning point is interesting for the Identical Pair of you (Calc 3) …. How much is Nature, and how much is Nurture?

What are you talking about?

He was always favored by my parents and teachers!

He and I are very much identical ... in nature and nurture. I just wasn’t interested in upper level math.

I don't mean anything negative about the use of "Turning Point" .... Both of you have careers that are Math oriented, just different applications.

 

[A1Janitor]

I have an identical twin brother. We were math majors - and in the top of the math class in the grade ahead of us. Calc 3 in college sucked. I dropped math as a major and switched to accounting.

I didn’t put the effort in, didn’t like it.

My twin put the effort in, graduated with a bachelor in math and Econ with a concentration in computer science, masters in statistics, and a PhD in Econ.

So yeah. Practice and effort.

The turning point is interesting for the Identical Pair of you (Calc 3) …. How much is Nature, and how much is Nurture?

What are you talking about?

He was always favored by my parents and teachers!

He and I are very much identical ... in nature and nurture. I just wasn’t interested in upper level math.

I don't mean anything negative about the use of "Turning Point" .... Both of you have careers that are Math oriented, just different applications.

LOL

I was joking. It’s a good discussion point. We had the exact same nature and nurture.

My brother is an endowed chair and travels around the world in his economic specialty.

My son beat him on the Math SAT so I consider me the winner.

 

[sophieee]

Thanks for the advice! I decided to stay in AP calc C instead of dropping to AP calc B