Hello, I am a sophomore who is taking some pretty rigorous courses, such as AP Chem and HPC. Recently I’ve been getting awful grades lately. My work habit is all over the place, and I’ve missed a lot of homework this year in almost every subject. To make things worse, I have never gotten over a D on precalc and AP chem tests. The thing is, I’ve never been a top student, or even a mediocre one. I’ve constantly struggled throughout middle school and freshman year, but I almost always managed to bring up my grades, even in math, my worst subject. It doesn’t help my self-esteem either when the chemistry teacher calls out the names of the people who got A’s on the tests, and everyone is talking about how easy the last couple units were. During freshman year I only had 2 B’s and pretty much everything else was a low A. The only class that I have an A in is regular history, and I have a B or below in everything else. I know that I’ll probably seem like a failure to most of you, but I really want get better grades from now on. How can I bring my grades up before the end of the semester?
Be kind to yourself. You’re taking on so much more than most students in high schools all over the country. AP chem is pretty rare sophomore year of high school.
Second, see if you can block out the “calling out A” mentality and the toxic students who want to brag about how “easy” the test was. You know, it’s sad to peak in high school . . . . life is long . . .
The rigor of your classes plus the competitive atmosphere tells me that you’re prob in a pressure cooker school. The most important thing you can do is to be gentle to yourself and promise yourself that no matter what happens, your health is most important. Your mental and physical health is most important. It’s worth saying a third time: your mental and physical health is the most important thing of all.
Grades – who cares? Compared to your health? Meaningless.
What is not said in most high schools is that no matter how crappy your grades are, there’s a college out there waiting for you. Most colleges (70% each year) do not FILL. If you have the minimum requirements, that means, you can get into a college. What most people don’t tell you is that getting into college is not the hard part, but paying for it.
If your grades are enough to pass and graduate, then make that your goal. If you need to drop out of high school, no worries. YOu can get a GED and you’ll be on your way. (The GED is high school equivalency test. It’s a test that says that you have the basic info required in high school and you get the equivalent of a diploma).
Even if you fail a class in high school, like really fail it, and need to retake it, you can still go to a college. In fact, you can go to a great college, some of the best. To do so, with low GPA or with a GED, your path would be different, but there’s still a path. What you’d do is take a little time off from school (like a gap year or a gap decade or whatever) and work or do whatever you want in consultation with your parents, probably. Then you start at Community college–any community college. Once you get decent grades, then you can transfer to one of a set of Dream Colleges.
One of the big big problems IMO currently with how high school works is that students are evaluated just on their ability to churn out grades. Nothing else. Grades grades grades. This works for a very narrow group of people. Like for about 12 years, kids do this one task. And it’s not just any 12 years, it’s basically children’s entire lives up to graduation. The cool thing that’s waiting for you to discover is that once you’re done with high school–none of that stuff really matters. The BMOCs who brag about their A-getting prowess? None of that really has a lot of meaning once they graduate, and they will still be jerks for being unkind braggarts.
Once you gradute, if you take a gap year or twelve, you get a job. You’re evaluated on what you did at work that day. Scoop ice cream. Serve coffee. Work in a lab. Volunteer for the park. Work in an office someplace. Clean hotel rooms. Whatever you decide to do. You finish your job. You go home: NO HOMEWORK. No more anxiety. No more pressure. YOu might even be able to read for pleasure, or to write that poem you want to write, or take a painting class: because it’s fun! Not because “it will get you into college”. The rest of life really doesn’t give two flips about that stuff. So: my advice if you were my child would be: take care of your health. Make a vow to pass if possible. If you can’t pass, then get your GED. You have a long happy life ahead of you. You’re going to be fine.
** FYI there’s an entire track in college for older students. There are so many older students that many of the best schools have special colleges just for older students (UPenn and Columbia for example, and Yale)–or they welcome those students. In other words, you don’t “fail” if you mess up a class and need to go to Community College then transfer. All you’re doing is starting on a different track. It’s just as prestigious, and in fact offers to my mind a very interesting creative alternative. Many of these tracks are for students older than age 23, although Penn’s and Columbia’s is for younger older students. If you’re a young woman, the traditional women’s colleges have special scholarships for you, above age 23 I think, but they may have other financial aid before then.
But most important is to make yourself herbal tea at night and to sleep as much as you need and to gently take care of yourself. You’re doing really well and you’re clearly a lovely and thoughtful person. Best wishes.