<p>“My counselor won’t help me with that because many of the kids in my class managed B’s (a couple even got A minuses). I had pretty much the second lowest grades in my class.” </p>
<p>Well, then you deserved the F.</p>
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<p>Well, yes but I had no idea of how harshly she grades, which obviously isn’t on the syllabus. I also didn’t realize her cutoffs were different from the other teachers until late in the first semester when my grade was updated online to as a D minus - this was the first indication she gave of our grades, and the first time she returned assignments. That’s another thing, she takes forever to grade assignments since she looks so hard for errors, while the other teacher just glances over the work and gives it an A if it’s halfway decent. So, I began asking kids in the other class how they were doing. Then, I uncovered all this information.</p>
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Our school doesn’t do that. I would have.</p>
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<p>Well, had I been put in the other class I would have been among the top half of students. These kids in my class, for the most part, were the smartest kids in the entire sophomore year. Also, it was very selective to even get into these classes. There are only 50 kids out of 1000 sophomores who got into AP World, despite the fact that 250 something applied.</p>
<p>I would transfer schools. There is no reason to do your schooling in such a capricious environment, especially when so much in terms of college decisions is riding on it. But your performance will have to be spot on in the new school if you want ad coms to discount these poor grades. Besides, since this is a private school hit them where it counts–in the pocket book. Your parents are probably paying so that you can get into goo colleges, not so that admission to them is ruled out.</p>
<p>Second, I would take the SAT subject test in world history at the earliest possible opportunity, and I would study my a** off to get as close to an 800 as possible. Then you have two objective and external measures of your grasp of the material and they would show that the D-/F+ is not a representation of your abilities.</p>
<p>But this is all predicated on you have been 100% forthcoming and that there is not another side to the story that indicates why in fact you deserved the marks you got.</p>
<p>“Also, it was very selective to even get into these classes. There are only 50 kids out of 1000 sophomores who got into AP World, despite the fact that 250 something applied.”</p>
<p>What private school has that many kids?</p>
<p>Also, why didn’t you request to switch teachers?</p>
<p>@UT8431: Thanks for the advice. I am considering switching schools, although I have done research regarding future classes so as not to make these same mistakes, and it is universally agreed that my AP World teacher for this year is the worst teacher in the school by far. Besides, I receive lots of financial aid so it’s not a big deal, otherwise my parents would have pulled me out immediately.</p>
<p>I hadn’t even thought about the World History SAT but now that you mention it, that’s a very good idea. Thanks, I will surely do that in September/October/whenever is the earliest possible.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I have provided all the relevant details.</p>
<p>@Extemp… I’d rather not mention the name of my school for privacy reasons. However, I just realized that I was wrong, 1000 sophomores is not the class size. It’s 500. I knew that only 1 in 10 students were in AP world and there were 50 kids total, but I somehow thought that 10 * 50 is 1000. So you see, that’s why I’m not in advanced math. Also, 250 was probably exaggerated, maybe only 200 kids applied for AP world.</p>
<p>Gee, I would have switched teachers at the earliest possible opportunity, but my school never allows requesting different teachers. That really would have been awesome though.</p>
<p>Like I said before, you don’t have the leverage to rectify this situation.</p>
<p>That changes when your parents start joining in.</p>
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<p>Yes, if my parents were competent they probably would be a great help. Unfortunately, they don’t speak good English and are pretty clueless about school stuff, just tell me “Get good grades!” I could try pulling them into it, but it’ll be tough. However, if it’s really the only option, I may have no choice. I just hope they are up to it… the principal is a hard man to convince.</p>
<p>you say you go to a private school?</p>
<p>“i’m paying good money and I expect my kid to be treated fairly. this is not fair and not right. fix it, now”</p>
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<p>I am on heavy financial aid, but nevertheless you make a good point. My mom can be rather pushy when she wants to, actually.</p>
<p>Should I wait until September and school starts to do this or should I try to arrange a meeting during the summer ASAP?</p>
<p>get this done ASAP</p>
<p>ASAP - Get your parents to write a letter tellign of the unreasonable things happening</p>
<p>Alright, I guess that I’ll do it then…
At least my dad is a big guy, and my mom can shout loud, lol.</p>
<p>Should I also try and see if some of my classmates would like to appeal their grades as well, or should I just forget it since they haven’t arranged it themselves? I would still feel kinda bad for them, even though I got worse grades, because I’m sure they were in similar situations…</p>
<p>If you have a friend who is in a similar situation who cares about his or her grade, ask them to do it as well. 2 > 1. However, if no such friend exists, then awkwardly ask others if they are interested in it as well.</p>
<p>Okay, I guess that’s that. I will call tomorrow morning to schedule the appointment.</p>
<p>To explain myself, I guess this was the obvious solution, but I wanted to try to find out if you guys thought there was any way I could avoid getting my parents into it, since I don’t like that idea very much. This is a generally useful forum and I go here sporadically for information, though this is the first time I have created an account.</p>
<p>Well then, until further notice, this thread is suspended… I will tell you guys what happens. Hoping for good news…</p>
<p>How can an A be 79% in one class and then 98% in the other? Something’s messed up there.</p>
<p>the above suggestions are all good ones, and I hope they help!</p>
<p>Another option may be to have the teacher write a note explaining the grade, so colleges understand the situation better.</p>
<p>That seriously sucks. Teachers/administrators can indeed be unreasonable. I also had a problem with my school’s administration early this year and got my parents involved. Basically, my school, against my county’s policy, would not let me switch out of a class on the first day of school. After being REALLY persistent, I finally got my administrator to budge.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend getting your parents to directly confront the school unless absolutely necessary. They may inadvertently convey your message the wrong way and exacerbate the situation. And DO NOT have your parents shout at them. That only makes matters worse and makes things awkward for you later on. My parents also don’t speak English all that well. I basically wrote emails using their account, assumed their voice, and sent the emails to my grade level administrator (who, by the way, was really stubborn and didn’t take my problem seriously). Be polite but firm. And be persistent. If that isn’t effective, have your parents call and insist that the school rectifies the situation. And if they shoot your demand down, have your parents go in and confront the involved parties. Again, I cannot stress the importance of being both adamant and polite in your request.</p>
<p>Make sure your problem doesn’t go ignored. As another poster mentioned, your parents are paying them so that you can get into a good college, and an F will be, as I’m sure you are well aware, potentially detrimental to you for admissions. Do make sure you don’t potentially anger your counselor, though. He/she will have to write you an evaluation come admissions season, and I don’t believe teachers/counselors are capable of being completely 100% unbiased when it comes to these things. He/she might hold whatever ill-feelings he/she has against you. That’s something that I had to consider when I tried to resolve my problem…it was early fall, and hence, right before I had to go ask for recommendations. Kind of made things a bit difficult.</p>
<p>Good luck. These things unfortunately do happen in schools. I’d also go *****slap the teacher, lol.</p>
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<p>Hmm… I haven’t made an appointment yet… I will try the email thing like you said, I didn’t think about that (with my parents’ permission of course). By the way, I was totally joking about my parents shouting at them in case you didn’t catch that, lol. I’m not that crazy. Anyway, I will try the email suggestion, and then have them call, and then if all else fails… I will have them talk to the principal. It’s probably him they’re going to talk to, not the counselor, as the principal is in charge of most of the stuff here.</p>
<p>@nith901… unfortunately, my teacher would be the least qualified to do such a thing, and my counselor and principal won’t either… although I could ask the vice principal to do that if nothing at all else works… he’s a really nice guy but doesn’t have much power, but i’m sure he could at least do that.</p>
<p>It’s a good thing I checked here first before calling!</p>
<p>^Hey, you never know. I had this friend…her mom went in and shouted at our English teacher when she got a D on this essay. And she deserved it, too…lol.</p>
<p>I have to agree with most of the commentary here about talking to officials.</p>
<p>Ideally, a high grade in an AP class should result in a high AP test grade. Sadly, this fails occur occasionally (as in your situation) for a lot of reasons.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to schedule a discussion with school officials and compare your AP scores and grades with your peers (from both classes). </p>
<p>If this doesn’t result in your grade being overturned, you should take as many standardized tests in World History as you can (SAT II comes to mind) to prove your potency and that the F was a fluke.</p>