Looony2nz

My dd had a 3.775 at the end of her junior year (unweighted) and right now (start of second 9 weeks, she has a C, two D's and 3 A's. The C class is Spanish 4, the D classes are AP psych and AP Govnt. She is a good student, she is studying, and has never had this problem. Its not senioritis, she says its hard. One of them is a half yr class, and she'll move on the AP Econ. not sure about the other. I forget. But anyway. Her first 9 weeks (report card) avg went to a 3.6 - she had like 4 a's and 2 b's. Fine....but we're not off to a good start. Anyone else have this happen. ? I'm anxious/worried/for her since she's already been accepted to 3 state schools on the basis of her 3.775 / test scores.

I know she has time to turn it around, but? ...
thanks....

ag54

Senioritis? My son also is suffering from this, but the failing test grade on a calculus exam quickly put things back in perspective! He realized he cannot coast, kicked it into high gear, and pulled the term grade up to a B.

Maybe the scare will push your daughter as well. Good luck!

Looony2nz

;-( maybe.
She is excited about being a senior, but she is truly studying and says it's hard.
we'll see how it goes. Just venting I guess.

laxmom

Is she overextended with EC's in addition to all the schoolwork? Maybe she could cut back there to give her time to work on the books. JMO.

Jolynne Smyth

Been there....so not fun. You can tell your daughter there's a chance her acceptances could get rescinded if she has some big grade drops. That's pretty eye-opening.

boysx3

Talk with her about HOW she is studying. Are these her first AP classes?

APs are more like college than high school ...they ask for a lot more synthesis of ideas as compared to regurgitation of memorization. Believe your daughter if she says she is studying hard, she may just be studying wrong. Would her teacher let her bring home some tests that she did poorly on, so you could review them with her and strategize as to where she is having problems? Or could the teacher let her review some test papers, even from previous years, with high marks, so that she could see what is expected? It might be eye opening for her to be able to compare her efforts to those that were successful---and then she would be able to do what she needs to do.

boysx3

One other idea...can she buy the practice-for-the-AP study guides? The guides might help her synthesize the material she is studying, and I think some of the better study guides even have sample essays.

Looony2nz

hi boysx3 - thx for the info, yes, these are her first AP's, she's been "honors" all along, but first time AP'er. The tests are ? not necessarily essays, its a lot of reading and I guess she's not digesting it all. Her EC's are only work (3x a week) so its not that, she's been working for 4 yrs, but I guess she need not just to read, but to "digest" and "understand".
I appreciate the tips.... ;-)

Youdon'tsay

Because misery loves company, I'll tell you that ds got a failing notice in AP Govt. Threat to pull him out of one EC worked wonders for that grade ...

BurnThis

I like the HippoCampus website. It has animation and videos that help students who can't learn just from reading words on a page.

My D is having the reverse of senioritis -- her MO has always been to fail her first test then spend the rest of the year clawing her way up (classic example, Latin -- 53 first test, 98 final, argh!). Suddenly, now that she wants to go to a specific college, she's learned how to study and get good grades from the first test. Better late than never?

emgamac

My D found that buying an AP workbook for the particular class and using it conjunction with the text and class notes helped fill in the blanks for her.

Looony2nz

to: Burn this and emgamac - thanks for "hippocampus" website idea, and AP workbook idea....much appreciated.

-s