How to explain a bad year

soxsox
Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:58:17 +0000

I had a terrible sophomore year. By terrible, I really do mean terrible-- one D, one F, and the rest Bs and Cs.
Junior year I got all As and one B in PreCalc (I retook the classes I got the D and F in).
Freshman year was so-so. Not bad, not impressive.
My senior grades are great as well, straight As so far.
I have a 27 ACT.
I’ve always taken all Honors and AP classes… but still, I want to explain such a bad year to colleges, I don’t want them to think that a year like that, or even similar, will happen again.

I’m planning on doing this with the additional information section of the common app, but I also need that section to make a reference to another part of my application, so I can’t dedicate the whole page to it.
How would you guys suggest I do it? Add another bullet and explain the year… how would I start off…?