How long would you stick with a C in honors?

ruthstoops · October 2019

Hello there! My son might be looking at a C for his first term in honors physics. We are told that B's are expected and very few actually get A's. His other honors are in the B's but he's one bad test away from sliding in those too. How many terms would you stick with a C before considering a level drop?

gwnorth · October 2019

I guess that would depend on your son's long term post-secondary goals. Are there academic supports he can access?

lookingforward · October 2019

I'd rephrase it to: how long do you go before getting him academic support?

compmom · October 2019

Drop a level. I am PMing you.

A student can drop a level in math or science and still get into top schools. Promise.

If that is even a goal, and not saying it should be.

High school should not be a time of stress. It mostly is, but it is healty to try to address it by lowering the level any way you can.

momofsenior1 · October 2019

What do his teacher and guidance counselor recommend? What year is he? Does he have a college major in mind? What supports has he been utilizing for test and quiz prep?

PS. A C grade in an honors course would have been a recommend level drop at my D's HS by policy.

DadTwoGirls · October 2019

Two things:

First of all you should think about getting some sort of tutoring if you can afford it and if he has time.

Secondly, classes at "top 20" universities are massively more difficult than honors classes in high school. If your son is getting B's and C's in honors classes in high school, then at some point you probably will be looking at "top 100" or "top 200" universities. There are huge numbers of very good schools that could potentially be a great fit for your son. These are not schools that require that students take lots of honors and AP classes. As such there is no need for your son to take honors classes.

Putting this together I would be inclined to drop back to normal classes for some classes, and get a tutor for at least one or two honors classes that your son finds particularly interesting. In the future I would limit the honors classes and never "skip ahead" in a class sequence, particularly in math where nearly every class depends very much upon what you have taken in the past.

ruthstoops · October 2019

thank you all! he is in grade 9 and it's very early. i do not see a top 20 school for my son. he is not gunning for that and it's a bit hard to see him getting that way. he could go in to get help at school except i think he mostly understands the material but makes small mistakes. they have labs set up for any kid to go get help but my son's schedule isn't very conducive to getting to any of them. we have khan academy. i guess overall i want him to really learn and in this class - physics - i'm concerned he isn't solidly learning at the pace they are going.

DadTwoGirls · October 2019

"i'm concerned he isn't solidly learning at the pace they are going"

This sounds exactly right to me.

SJ2727 · October 2019

Post#6
With that context, I don’t see any reason for him to continue struggling in this class. (Some kids also take a big confidence hit with a C that can have wider consequences. ) I’d drop him a level and let him learn with the class, and do well.

Groundwork2022 · October 2019

Lots of great tips to share with your son here:

https://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/2026961-what-to-do-when-you-arent-doing-well-in-a-hs-class.html#latest

If he is a future STEM hopeful, I'd get him a tutor and see how that goes. If he is a non-STEM/humanities major, dropping a level is probably fine. That only helps if he has an idea of what he would like to study, and in 9th grade, that is by no means carved in stone.

Another consideration is how difficult is it to get back on the honors track once off of it? Physics may not be his cup of tea, but he might ace biology and/or chemistry. Guidelines vary by school, and you may want to know what they are before taking the leap.

Our HS would also bump down a C-student, but it is the end of the year grade that would determine that, not in-progress averages. Again, it may differ by HS.

mathmom · October 2019

My son and a friend of his were the only freshmen in an honors chem section because of scheduling conflicts. All the others were in another section. My son swore that this teacher didn't believe freshman should be in her classroom and that they were the only ones getting C's on all the subjective stuff. He got a C+ for the year and got into very selective colleges. I still don't know if I should have complained or pulled him out, but he felt at the time he understood the material. He's always been iffy in math and science because he's got a lot of natural ability and some LDs that tend to interfere in those subjects.

Anyway, it's not the end of the world, to make either choice, at least as a freshman.

thumper1 · October 2019

@ruthstoops

Is this your ninth grade son who is doing homework for hours on end?

It sounds like it. I think I would allow him to leave this honors class if it’s going to help preserve his grades in his other classes.

Massmomm · October 2019

I'd have him drop to a regular class. There's plenty of time for academic suffering during college. Why start in high school?

thumper1 · October 2019

I have to say...in our high school, it would be very unusual for a freshman to be taking honors physics. Most would be taking some kind of biology or maybe chemistry, but not physics. I think this is primarily because of the math involved.

ruthstoops · October 2019

@thumper1 I so agree! Luckily my son's math is decent, but what is the option for other kids to perhaps try an honors science in grade 9? Apparently it's because our state tests have physics this year. I think my husband would like him to stick it out for at least one semester. He does have a lot of extracurriculars - several singing groups and two sports. One sport will go away, I think, but the singing and sport are honestly so positive in so many ways, I'm not very quick to see one of them go and I'm not even sure it would help. I'm not sure he has the fire to fix it. (I was the opposite kind of student but lacking in the EC's) That said, the regular classes seem SO easy.

suzyQ7 · October 2019

Absolutely drop him down to regular. He should not be struggling so much to get a C and to be honest if he's getting mostly Bs in the other classes, it may be because she's spending too much time on this one.

bopper · October 2019

I would have him ramp up how he works on this class:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/2026961-what-to-do-when-you-arent-doing-well-in-a-hs-class-p1.html

FourAtShore · October 2019

What math is he taking, how is he doing in his math class, and if he's in geometry now, how did he do in algebra 1 last year? My kids' school has a "physics first" science curriculum for everyone, and placement is based on math level. Regular-level physics is for 9th graders taking algebra 1, honors physics is for kids in geometry (either honors or regular), and AP Physics 1 is for kids in algebra 2 honors. The honors physics had a big range of math abilities, given that it combined kids who were A students on the honors track, with students like my son who had struggled with algebra 1 at the regular level. In retrospect, given my son's shaky algebra foundation, combined with a lack of solid study skills and general immaturity, he should have dropped to regular-level physics.

How long would you stick with a C in honors?

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