Hey everyone!
Firstly, I am a freshman in high school, and a very self driven student. Although I am Indian, I am blessed to have parents who - although they do care about grades - also allow room for error and growth. However, their lack of stress on grades has manifested itself on me overly caring about them. I have always been a straight A/A+ student, although I am not as mathematically inclined as others might be.
Recently, I had a very dear family member pass away, and I have had to travel to my home country in order to grieve and host ceremonies. It was a rough time, to say the least, and even after coming back, my workload had drastically increased since only the working parent was able to come home. I have been taking care of my sibling, the house, and school while dealing with jet-lag and random episodes of depression. So yeah, rough for me.
I had missed a few tests in my mathematics class while I was gone, and since I came back on midterms week, I had made the haphazard decision to retake them that week when I was tired and overloaded with make-up work. Our teacher had said our midterm would consist of questions from the test, and as I could not take the midterm at a later date, I took the two tests I missed the day after I came back. Of course, this was a bad idea, and I ending up scoring an A- and a low B on the tests. This dropped my grade substantially, but I thought it was fine because I could make it up with the future tests.
I didn’t.
Maybe I was burned out, maybe I had just gotten lazy, but from then on out, I have been scoring low As or high Bs on all of my tests, resulting in an overall grade of an 89.4%. Finals were a few days ago, and my teacher said that she would round grades if it made mathematical sense too, meaning I only needed 0.1% more to get rounded up to an A. So I studied for the next two weekends, with minimal distractions besides household cleaning and cooking, completing the review packet three times over and going over all the old tests I could find. I was determined to bring my grade back up, especially since I was so close. But, after the final, I ended up getting an 89%. My grade didn’t change, and I didn’t get rounded up.
This is officially my first B in a class.
I was shocked, crying for an hour straight. I don’t know why I care this much, but I do. My GPA is no longer the shiny 4.0 it was supposed to be in freshman year - arguably the easiest for most people. I had failed. The worst part was that I had aced all of my other finals, so why was math my worst when I had gotten all A+s before my trip?
Now, I’ve finally come to terms with it, although I feel like a failure and so mean for complaining about a B when others have it worse. But, since I will be taking far harder classes in the near future, which I was essentially “saving my Bs for”, I kind of have to get an A in all of them to stay competitive. I’m not even aiming for an Ivy League or T-20 at this point, maybe just schools with good resources like UCI or something similar. Of course, a top public like UC Berkeley would be nice but now I’m doubting if I would even be able to get in.
Sorry for the rant. Now, for my questions. Would this look very bad to colleges to have a B in a freshman math class like this (or even later on in other, more advanced classes)? Secondly, is there a way for me to console myself because I just feel very irrational right now, but with how competitive college applications are especially for Asians, I feel like I have to have the bare minimum of a 4.0 but I don’t even have that now.
I just need some help, I’m very lost in this process with some people saying a B in 9th grade doesn’t matter and others saying I have no shot.
Hmmm - a grade or overall gpa doesn’t measure intellect vs another.
You had stress, perhaps time management issues. Perhaps you didn’t grasp the material.
Be the best you that you can be. And that’s good enough.
You may have things you can optimize. Or not. Learn and grow and family first.
Good luck.
I remember when my younger daughter got her first B. It was a B+ in a history class in high school. I told her it was fine. We stopped to get ice cream on the way home from school. I was in fact very glad when she got it. It made the point that she did not need to be perfect. She still got accepted to very good universities that were a good fit for her and affordable for us. She did very well in university, and is currently just finishing the first year of a very good PhD program. She learned from this B. She learned to be a better student.
Recently (this all occurred about 8 or 9 years ago) she told me that she remembers this and remembers that we stopped to get ice cream.
You do not need to be perfect either.
Missing time in the middle of a school year is tough. This makes it hard to do well in school, and you are doing very well if this only resulted in one B.
When you get to applying to universities, your freshman year of high school will be a lot less important compared to other years of high school. Some universities do not even care about freshman year as long as you pass your classes.
Are you in California? I am pretty sure that the various Universities of California, including UC Berkeley and UC Irvine, are included in the list of schools that do not care about your freshman year.
You might want to spend a bit of time over the summer to make sure that you are caught up in math and ready for next year’s classes.
Otherwise I would not worry about it.
You can definitely relax and continue to work to the best of your ability in future classes! Small anecdotal story… While there were ~30 or so students with unweighted 4.0s in my S25’s graduating class, he was not one of them. Of the UW 4.0 students, many did not take the most challenging classes. My S25 is very academically motivated, and has a close knit group of friends that are also academically motivated and talented. Of his close group, all but one had just shy of an UW 4.0. Most had 1 semester of 1 class that, just like you, something happened that caused their grade to slip. My S25 tested out of a class, and got a B on the test-out, which he decided it was worth taking because (long story short), it allowed him to have the prerequisites completed for an accelerated program he really wanted to participate in. It counted as a full credit (equiv of 2 semesters) of a B in that class on his GPA. He still got into a top 20 school! His friends also got into selective schools they were happy about. The UW 4.0 isn’t everything, and you still have plenty of time to work hard, pursue your interests, and aim for whatever schools you decide are a good fit for you when the time comes.
Your first B came in perfect timing. Freshman grades do not count toward UC nor CSU GPA (except CPSLO) 
. Relax, learn from this mistake. Don’t rush to take make up exams if you are not ready for them. Good Luck
Free advice.
Please stop discussing your grades with your friends. And don’t compare yourself to others.
Be YOUR personal best. That’s what matters.
It’s highly likely you will see grades other than A grades either in high school or in college. And that’s fine. There will be plenty of colleges where you will be a welcomed student addition, and plenty of jobs where you will be a welcome addition…even with a few B or even a C grade.
Sorry…but my opinion is…a B grade is not a mistake. It’s a fine grade.
Really, there is no need for anyone to feel they MUST get all A grades.
You have more than one post comparing yourself to “friends.” Just stop. Now. Focus on being the best version of yourself possible.
Yes, I’m still glad I was able to visit family during these tough times, and I have been prioritizing my family and home life over grades (clearly.) The annoying part was that I really did know the material, so when I took those few tests and looked over them even just that night, I did far better than when I actually took them in class. Maybe I was just tired or stressed, or maybe I didn’t know it as well as I thought. Thank you anyways!
In the end, you got a B. It’s fine. Life goes on.
Math builds - so most important is that you understand it before progressing.
How you do in HS, even where you go to college, in most cases - is going to be a small blip on the long journey of life.
And a B is - above average.
You’re fine.
Best of luck.
Yes, thanks so much! The weird part is that I really do understand the content and concepts, so I don’t know if it was nerves or exhaustion or just brain fog, but I did still get a B. But thanks, everything does seems bigger than it actually is and it’s time I realize that
High school teacher here. If you must have a B, freshmen year is the best time. The more important thing is that you take time in the summer to fully grasp the knowledge points and solidify the foundation for the future math courses. Your goal is not a grade, nor an acceptance from a brand-named college, nor a certain amount of income. Your goal is to become a responsible and contributing member of the society, the path to which can certainly include several or many Bs and Cs even Fs.
I find the idea of “being/staying competitive” very toxic. One of my students this past year worked very hard to become the valedictorian but “only” earned 99 in my class (while the current valedictorian earned a 100). She cried. I talked to her for about 15 minutes, and will keep working on getting her mind off of this “competitive” thing when she’s in my class next year. It’s ridiculous.
Many colleges apply relatively little weight to freshman year GPA. For example, you mentioned UCs. UC GPA excludes freshmen year. Stanford also recalculates without freshman year. This doesn’t mean freshman year is ignored, but it is given less weight.
In any case, getting a single B among countless A/A+ grades is obviously not a good measure of how smart you are. It also does not mean highly selective colleges are out of reach. I’d suggest instead reviewing what went wrong and what you can do in the future to improve. For example, what types of questions did you get wrong on the exams? Why did you get those questions wrong, if you reviewed past exams/material? Do you not understand the material well? Would help from a friend/tutor/family be beneficial?
Many students face similar struggles with their first B grade. When I was a freshman at Stanford, they had psych counselors come to my dorm after the first quarter midterms because so many students were struggling with their first non-A grades. I only had a ~3.5 GPA in HS classes (had 4.0 GPA at university classes taken while in HS), so I was used to getting B’s and had no need for counselors.
My kid got a number of Bs and some A-s, and still attended a top liberal arts college on a scholarship, and will be starting her PhD at a very top program in her field.
She doesn’t even remember which classes she got Bs in, nor could she possibly care less than she does.
It is a blip, not a disaster, not a crisis, not the end of your high school career, a blip.
Interestingly, it doesn’t really work like that. My kid didn’t like how her pre-calc teacher taught, and ended up with Bs on pre-calc honors, while she got As on AP Calc BC, even though the teacher was a much harsher grader and the material was more difficult. So you may well find that you are getting better grades as a sophomore than you got as a freshman.
University of California campuses do not use freshman grades for calculating GPA. So this B doesn’t have any effect on your admissions to any UC.
Even if it did, when you look at admission rates for, say, UCI, you will see that the admission rate for applicants with a weighted capped GPA of over 4.0 was 46%. To have that GPA, you need 8 honors and AP classes, and an unweighted GPA of over roughly 3.83, who would mean four of five Bs between your Sophomore and Junior years. So even two Bs in your Sophomore year would not substantially reduce your admission chances at, say, UCI.
Colleges cannot factor race into admissions. So your applications are no more competitive than anybody else of your socio-economic class and the region in which you live.
Again, to repeat what I wrote above - this is a blip.
As for college? The point is to attend the college that is best for you. Not the college which your friends think is “a great college”, not a college which other people think is “prestigious”, but a college where you will thrive. Your grades are not for colleges. Your grades are there to inform you how well you are mastering the material. Colleges will use them to see whether your mastery of your academics make you a good match to the academics that are provided by the college.
Your grades will tell you what academic intensity is the best for you, and your high school GPA will help match you with colleges that are best for people at your academic intensity. You should not be struggling to match your GPA to some set of colleges that you imagine are objectively “the best”. You should be doing your best, and then looking at your GPA, at your interests, at how you like to spend your time, what career you will want, etc, and choosing a college based on these.
At this point in your life you should be doing your best in school, exploring your interests, figuring out how you like spending time, and starting to think about what you will want to do in Real Life.
BTW, calling yourself “stupid” because you received a B in a class is like being 6’ tall and calling yourself “short” because you know a few basketball players.
Freshman year is the best year to get Bs.
You could do the mature thing and do some introspection or go to therapy and develop a sense of self that doesn’t depend on being the smart kid… Or you could just put a bandaid on things by grinding for the PSAT or even the AMC and assuaging your bruised ego with a higher math score than the other 4.0 kids. That should hold you off until you meet a higher scorer.
The competitiveness of college doesn’t necessarily express itself by a 3.9 GPA student being rejected in favor of a 4.0 GPA student, but rather both being rejected in favor of a 3.8 GPA student with more interesting extracurriculars.
My daughter got a C in math freshman year of high school, and a B in bio.
She is now a rising junior at UC Berkeley, where she is a Regents’ scholar (awarded to the top 1-2% of all applicants).
So I do not think this B will not make or break your application.
(Edited to add: For her, these freshman year grades were a wake up call. Like you, she was disappointed in herself. But instead of giving in to despair, she stepped up, got to work, and improved her grades in subsequent classes. If you are determined, you can do the same. )