10th Grade Schedule

Azismith
Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:26:13 +0000

“It’s OK to be disappointed that you didn’t get a perfect score, but remember that 93.5% of people who took the test scored below a 5. Just think how someone who got a 3 might feel seeing you complain about a 4.”

Yeah, thanks for the reminder.

“Also, when I said more challenging classes, I didn’t mean things like organic chemistry. I was talking about learning the material more deeply with rigorous classes. I took a look at Chalkdust math, and I seriously recommend checking out AoPS. It’s an incredible resource, and the books/classes teach via extremely challenging problems.”

Ah, I see. I tried doing that this year some with Chem…there were some pretty awesome websites out there to read through. Also, I was able to read through the first 1/4 of the standard orgo textbook…it was REALLY fun!! That became my bedtime reading. That’s why I had wanted to take orgo this year. My Chem teacher would also post things outside the curriculum for us to explore. He was awesome!! I ended up doing a series of experiements on metallurgy, for instance, at the beginning of the year. I also built a salinometer (that incidentally didn’t work, because 1. the salt spilled on the wood, my circuit base, creating a short circuit and conductive wood, and 2. I started an electrolytic cell that created some really neat precipitates because of the salt, wire, and water. However, this meant that reading the resistance (and thus the salinity) was um, near impossible). Anyway, Chem was probably the class that I did the most ‘extra stuff’ in.

In music theory, I ended up doing a ton of composition…while outside the curriculum, I found it to be super fun.

I see what you’re saying, though. Rather than just ‘superficially’ learning the knowledge–enough to pass the tests–I need to continue deeply learning the material so that it ‘sticks’. Thanks for the advice!

AoPS–I’ll check that out. I’m being sufficiently challenged with the Chalkdust, I think, but I do know that I’d like to be challenged more. I’ve been going online and finding ‘stumpers’ to puzzle over in addition to Chalkdust, so AoPS could be a good opportunity. I’ll check it out.

“For classes like AP Biology, consider supplementing the curriculum with MIT OpenCourseWare videos/readings/assignments/tests. You seem like an incredibly advanced student, so try to challenge yourself beyond the AP curriculum.”

OK. Do you know where I can find good labs? For AP Bio, most of the labs are online dry labs, so I’d really like more ‘wet’ labs. But yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Do you think it’d be good to enroll in an edX/coursera ‘specific’ bio course at the same time, or should I save that for later?

Also, what do you think about my TAing for AP gov’t and/or AP Chem? I could do either, none, or both, and I’m not sure what to do.