Ok so I have a personal question. In my family, my little brother is kind of considered the not-so-smart, but really sociable kid, while I’m considered the really intelligent, but no-so- sociable kid. My parents have been kind of getting on him for not getting good grades in school. A majority of his grades were B’s and C’s in middle school, a lot of which were because he doesn’t turn in his homework. He’s basically the opposite of me. I believe this whole thing stems from my middle school’s lack of teaching the students goal-setting, creating many unambitious kids. I went to the same middle school he went to, and in all honesty, those kids, when I was there, either didn’t know what they even wanted to really do in high school or wanted to be recruited by the NFL/NBA. Seriously, the amount of guys who honestly wanted to be recruited by a sports team was startling. Even my little brother wanted to play sports as a career. I rarely heard anything different other than a rapper. I was among one of the only guys at my school that truly loved STEM.
Anyway, this year will be my brother’s freshman year. This year, if spent wisely, could be a new and fresh start for him. I know my parents are going to be on him especially once the school year starts about doing well and getting homework done. My parents even asked me if it was possible to help him make sure he understands what he’s learning in class and help make sure his homework answers are correct. I said only when I have free time. I know this may sound bad, but I personally think helping him should not have to come at my expense of my own grades and sleep. So what I had planned to do is, during the first quarter when I have few time, I would make sure he has his homework all done and check to make sure he understands what he’s doing. Do you guys think I should talk to him about goal-setting? Like getting him to come up with a really good goal for the year like getting 5 A’s and 2 B’s for the first quarter. Back in the 8th grade, I had to basically get him interested in college because he didn’t even see the point of going. I was thinking of maybe getting him to join a club. He likes art so I think art club would be good. He also said he might change his elective from Men’s Choir to either Art or Programming. I’m pretty he just did Men’s Choir because he’s going to just talk to all of his friends and not sing. He had a B in his 8th grade Choir class because of this. I want him personally to do Programming, but Art would be much better for him. What do you guys think?
I had to drop AP Calc BC for AP Stats because my schedule still did not work out. I’m really sad about this, but I had no other options. I was hoping to take Multivariable Calc and Discrete Math at the local community college next year. Should I self-study with the Calc teacher, so I have extra space in my Senior schedule? Would it look bad if I had an AP score for Calc BC, but no course grade? I’d still be taking more math Senior year through a community college instead of my high school. I’m think I’m going to be very bored in math class this year. :-< I was also going to take dual credit Gov’t/Econ next summer, so I’d have even more elective space open for 2 science classes and a study hall/ fun elective, so I could work on college/scholarship apps.
Final Schedule:
Honors Orchestra
APUSH
AP Stats
Honors Choir
AP English 3
STEM Mentorship
Pre-AP Chemistry
DC Online Fren 1/2
@ak2018 It’s fine to guide your brother through the start of Freshman year, but it’s not your responsibility in the end. You should only do little things like checking his grades online every once in awhile to make sure he hasn’t decided to slack off and turn things in late. If he’s at home chilling or about to go out with friends, remind him that he still has assignments and assigned reading to do first. If there’s something he doesn’t understand, have him go to tutoring before/after school and to ask more questions in class. You should be the person he sees only after he’s exhausted every resource at his school. Freshman year is a time for failure though and one could say the same about all of high school and even college. It’s better to learn and fail from a tiny mistake Freshman year than to mess up when it’ll cost you big time.
@Hamlon Thank you so much for the advice. I would say to go ahead and self-study if you can. I personally wouldn’t think it would to bad to adcomms, especially since you’ll be taking Multivariable Calculus senior year. I would also go ahead and take the Government/Economy class next summer. Have you thought about what those two science classes and the elective might be?
@ak2018 Since it didn’t fit this year, one would be AP Chem and my other choice AP Physics C. I already know Physics is going to clash with my schedule (Choir and Phys are both 4th period), but the teacher said he would set up an independent study for me if I wanted to go down that path. The AP Lit teacher started a College Transition class a couple years ago that pretty much helps you find scholarships, prep for standardized testing, and gives you time to do college apps so that’s one of my elective options. A major plus is if you did all your apps EA/ED, then you can take another class 2nd semester or just have free time every day to do homework. Study hall would be another option, but I feel like College Trans. would be more useful. If I didn’t take College Transition/Study Hall, my fun elective would probably be AP Art History, Peer Helpers, or Photography.
@Hamlon I would also go ahead and take the AP Physics teacher’s offer. Self-studying AP Calc BC and AP Physics 1 should be okay together. That College Transition class sounds like it’d be really good.
@wildguy57 I still haven’t even taken my test and tomorrow marks one week since I finished the class. :)) I’m really procrastinating on it.
Well, my brother and I just spent $500 at H&M! $-) This is only phase 1 of 3 of back to school shopping. My brother literally bought so much, while I only bought a blazer, a Henley T-shirt, and a pair of Sperry’s. The Sperry’s were the most expensive thing I bought (they were $80). My brother got multiple flannels, graphic tees, and jeans with a bunch of holes in them (I will never understand that fashion trend). In about two weeks, we’re going to get more stuff for me (phase 2). I’ll probably get some more Henley Tees from JCPenney, a pair or two of Chukka ankle boots from Off Broadway Shoes, and some pants/khakis from Target. I seriously have the most expensive tastes! :)) After that, we’ll still need to buy school supplies (phase 3).
This whole shopping experience literally, once again, made me realize how spoiled I am. :)) When my dad swiped his credit card, I cringed! X_X
@ak2018 At my school it is near impossible to get val. I go to a really good,competitive high school. I am hoping for top 10. Right now I am 22/253 mainly because I was dumb and dropped honors English freshman year and wasnt in it sophomore year;however, I picked out a really really rigour junior year schedule that should boost my rank a lot. Hopefully ill be 9 or 10 by the end of the year.
@ak2018 We don’t have any valedictorians at my school, as far as I know we don’t even rank. I already would be out of the running for it if there was, though.
As for back to school shopping, the only part I look forward to is getting school supplies… Clothes shopping bores me.
@ak2018 I go to a really competitive high school as well, and there are about 2000 kids in my graduating class (6000 total.) We’re so big we don’t even do val/sal cause so many 4.0s (we don’t weight either)
@Hamlon I also had to drop Calc BC for AP Stats, but I am actually really enjoying stats right now. I have started self-studying the topics for AP Calc BC, because I am also hoping to take Calc III or some other advanced math class next year. Try to self-study it if you can, but if it becomes to much work, you can always just take the class next year.
@ak2018 I am shooting to be the Val for my class, but I probably will not be since the person at #4 is doing a bunch of really weird stuff to get up to #1 again. It also didn’t help me when my WHAP teacher from last year decided to give A’s to any kid who had a B and who passed the AP exam. Of course I think it is a very nice thing to do, although it is a bit ironic from my perspective since I got an A in the class and a 5 on the AP exam, yet my rank will fall to someone who earned a B in the class and a 3 on the AP exam. Oh well.
Has anyone started to prep to become a National Merit SF/F/S? I’m going to use my fall break (which starts September 30th) to study really hard and push my score from around 1450 to the 1500 range, since I want to be a National Merit Scholar (cutoff for my state is going to be like 1420-1450).
I finally got my schedule for this year! I like most of my classes/teachers, but I’m not sure if I should switch out of my Precalculus class, and try to get the other teacher who teaches precalc. The teacher that I currently have has a reputation for being a little tough, AND he’s one of the advisers for National Honors Society. Since I’m not so great at math, and I feel like doing bad in his class would ruin my chances of getting into NHS. Any advice?
@DancingwithStars I doubt your teacher would not let you into NHS because you were bad at math. Harder teachers make better students. If you think you can still get an A in her class stay. If its gonna hurt your GPA id say try to get the other teacher even though you wont learn as much.
Has anyone here taken AP Seminar or know anything about the class? I read some articles and stuff about it, but I still feel pretty clueless about what to expect.
