collegeorbust10

My daughter has a learning disability that she has continued to face head on and with extensive tutoring has been able to conquer most of her most difficult classes. She has hit the wall the AP Physics. She is currently taking AP Calc and has a B+ but is flunking Physics. If she drops this, how will it affect her college aps? Obviously negatively, but comments please. She wants to go to college to teach Latin or Math on a secondary level.
She has done well on her other sciences, honors all and all A's. She does not need any Physics to graduate.

AnonyMom

IMHO, having a lighter senior schedule is better than having an F in AP Physics (or in any course, for that matter.) It sounds as if your D has a stellar academic record and has been very successful despite her LD. So it's not as if lack of motivation or poor organization or study habits, which could conceivably be remedied, is at play here. She doesn't need AP Physics to graduate or to pursue her career goal of teaching Latin or Math. I'd say, get her out of that class! It must be so demoralizing. Hopefully, there will be a way for her to exit without it showing on her transcript. (If the school is sensitive around LD issues and admires how hard she has worked to surmount her challenges, perhaps they'll be flexible here.)

I'm wondering also if the issue is Physics in general or just this particular AP Physics class. Talk with your D and her tutor, but do you think she could succeed in regular Physics, and if so, would the school let her drop down? Ideally, they would let her audit for a couple of weeks to determine if she could do it. The thing is, it is probably too late to begin a different science course given the amount of material covered since the beginning of the semester. If your D is absolutely determined to do another science course, there is always the possibility of doing something different, at her own pace, using a class available through the computer.

If there is a different, unrelated course that your D could enter at this point and that is consistent with her interests to this point, or if she has always wanted to pursue, say, ceramics but there was never time in her schedule, this might be the moment to go for it. Assuming the school will allow this.

In terms of college admissions, if your D has an EC or community service project that she really likes, maybe if she ends up with an academic schedule that's lighter, she could ramp up her participation there so it will be very clear in the admissions process that she's using her time senior year to be very involved in something very constructive and interesting.

collegeorbust10

Thank you AnonyMom
In our case the issue is the learning disability. D's teacher has been fantastic, trying to tutor her and help her get around the LD issues, but it's the LD that's the
issue. D has always had difficulty taking word problems and converting them to mathematical equations, and this is the major issue with the Physics class. Dropping down would not solve the problem.

I have sent a letter to the head of the Guidance Department requesting that she be put into a study hall until the end of the semester. She will be able to pick up a .5 class next semester but probably not science related.

She may not be able to get into her "reach" schools but we are ok with that. She remains very active in school where she is drum major for her competitive marching band which is requiring 15-20 hours per week practice and performing. She is a great person and will use this as a learning experience.

The biggest problem will be the attitude of the school. It has a very active AP program and does not take lightly students wishing to drop an AP class. We will see this week.