<p>@anterograde: Thanks! It can be pretty hard especially considering my school is in one of the most wealthy suburbs in the area- we spent $80 mil on the campus alone because that’s just the general money situation! This naturally leads to high competition due to the population being very well educated, etc., etc.</p>
<p>@sweetcupcake12: And no, my school operates on a six weeks schedule the grade of each six weeks is averaged for a semester transcript grade…</p>
<p>Does anybody go through periods of euphoric hope about being admitted to their dream school, followed by deep despair after reading results threads? 
Sometimes CC can be a great motivator as well as a tool for doubt to creep in. It would be really alliviating to know that there are others out there that feel the same…</p>
<p>@Sweetcupcakes: my school also does quarters but its the semester grade that shows up on transcripts. 40% is each quarter grade and 20% is our final 
</p>
<p>@ivygolfergirl I totally get what you mean. Sometimes it’s a rush like when I was comparing my AP world history score from last year and other times when you look at chance me threads you feel like “wow I’m screwed”</p>
<p>20% is the final? awww that’s a LOT. and i actually thought my 10% was a lot… </p>
<p>At my school, the 1st and 3rd quarter grades dont even matter. I have semester grades; if I end up with like a 95 the first quarter, my 95 carries on till the end of second quarter (or end of first semester). Everything is started fresh in the start of third quarterr.</p>
<p>It’s not that bad actually just gets annoying like last year I didn’t study for my math final and that kind of screwed me over</p>
<p>awwww i see i see. </p>
<p>i have no school tomorrow and fridayy. so happy!</p>
<p>Our final counts as an entire quarter grade (the “5th” quarter), so it’s technically worth 20% of my yearly average, too.</p>
<p>To those of you who think you aced the test and end up in the 80s…it’s obviously not the best score, but consider yourselves lucky that you’re not me. I always end up in the 70s. :P</p>
<p>How do you guys raise your grades? For one of my classes, I almost always get 100’s on quizzes and 100’s on homework, so doing homework doesnt even bring up my grade. However, if I don’t do one homework, my grade drops a lot. Same with quizzes. I had a quiz today and fortunately I got a 100. I was happy, but then I realized that my grade didn’t even change. It’s so frustrating. Does this happen to you guys too?</p>
<p>At my school quarters 1 and 2 are each 37.5% of your semester grade and the final is 25% of your semester grade. So the final is kinda a big deal.</p>
<p>Anyone preparing for any contests?</p>
<p>^yeahhhhhh.</p>
<p>Kind of. I’m prepping for other stuff that’s taking care of contest prep. Not entering any 2013-2014 ones though; 2014-2015 FTW. Unless, of course, debate tourneys count as contests. Speaking of which, we (my partner and I) went to our first debate tournament and decided to do varsity. We made it to quarterfinals 
Probably not THAT great, but I think it was decent for our first time ever.</p>
<p>As for summer programs, I’ve already got one that I may or may not take. The other ones I’m interested in (HSSP, RSI, etc.) require you to be 16 or a junior, so nope. </p>
<p>To address the stats/calc thing, I think the reason “more people pass Calc BC than Stats” is because of the difference in demographic. Usually, the people who take Calc BC are stronger in mathematics and flourish in BC; many who take AP Stats view it as an “easy” course (many times, it is, but there are some teachers who make it insanely hard; the test is, from what I’ve heard, really easy though).</p>
<p>letmeseetheworld - I’m in Raleigh, in Wake County. I’ve hardly started on my online application though. </p>
<p>loltired - I thought about it, but I don’t think I want to leave my friends. I’m still thinking about it. It would change my life, but I’m still not sure. </p>
<p>I don’t think my application is very strong right now. When it said to click the clubs your were in, I couldn’t list anything, because this year was the first time I joined clubs that involved science/math. </p>
<p>Sorry for the late reply.</p>
<p>My final is 25% and each 6 weeks is 25%</p>
<p>@gbrl10 Oh hahah, I feel the same way. Last year, I didn’t do any math/science clubs because I thought it was “lame”. I’m trying to make up for it this year by doing a bunch of math competitions and science olympiad… but meh, we’ll see.</p>
<p>And it can’t hurt to apply (to NCSSM)! Applications opened yesterday, I think? Or you could apply to the online program.</p>
<p>Have you guys taken a survey about STEM and college majors? My survey answers are just make me sound so indecisive about my major lololol.</p>
<p>Grading systems in all kinds of schools are real different, huh. My school just has a 18 week system, but a 6-week grading period three times. The last one, of course, is the final grade. But basically you have 18 weeks to patch up and get the grade you want. So no 6-week has much advantage or percentage over the other because the grades don’t reset or each period has a percentage towards where it counts for the final grade. Just 18 weeks to get the grades right, basically. </p>
<p>Whenever we have to do surveys for college (not necessarily STEM) I get really nervous because I’m like “wow! I’m such a phlooey!” when I fill out what stuff I’ve done so far and etc.</p>
<p>We filled out a general college survey the other day in school, too. I put Duke as one of my top 5 schools and I was actually surprised when I got an email from them saying that they put me on their mailing list. I didn’t expect that the company behind the survey would actually reach out to the colleges I wrote down, I just thought it was one of those arbitrary things guidance counselors made you do.</p>
<p>I really really like math and I’ve been looking at programs like PROMYS (which is super awesome and basically my dream summer…don’t judge :P), but the students who are accepted are all so brilliant and I’m just the best student in my honors math class. Even if I somehow miraculously got accepted, I feel like I would be the most stupid person in the program…</p>
<p>I know how you feel catchinginfinity, but I’m just so absent minded throughout the day, so no one is really surprised by my aloofness. On the survey I didn’t know much out of state schools so I put Stanford and other universities in CA.</p>