<p>Hi, so I’m a sophomore in high school taking the most advanced math course available: Honors Trigonometry. Last year I had the same teacher and got an 85 average (I was always a straight A student before). This year, I got a 79 in the last 9 weeks and so far I have a 63 in my second 9 weeks (OUCH). I do have a tutor and right now we are on logarithms which, if memory serves correctly, I got a high grade on this last year. The problem is that our tests are long, substantially harder than the homework and graded assignments, and we only have assessments and graded assignments in our grade (NO homework). This class is causing my salutatorian title to slide and despite not getting the second-highest GPA last 9 weeks, I had the second-highest average GPA for all our marking periods in high school. </p>
<p>Our teacher’s goal is to make the SATs/ACTs easy for us, and I have to admit, the PSAT was easier than if I hadn’t had him as a teacher. I’m also improving in my Math Team competitions, but I’m wondering if my grades could be somewhat saved if I win awards in Math Team and get a decent (2200+) SAT score? I took a practice PSAT at Sylvan and got a 540 in math, which apparently isn’t horrible for a freshman. My worry is that I tried to guess on questions that I probably should have left blank.</p>
<p>The answer to your stated question is, No. Math competitions do not make up for poor grades in math. A high SAT score will be slightly less futile, but a test score does not compensate for years of academic records and improving from 540 to 750+ is difficult.</p>
<p>Now for the unsolicited advice. You are a sophomore and should not be worried about salutatorian status. Are you the only student in the class who struggles? Don’t blame the teacher - work to master the material. Real life does not generally award effort points and you will be evaluated based on your performance on tests (long ones that are much harder than any homework).</p>
<p>Do your grades in these math classes put you near the top of the class? If so, then this is a matter that your guidance counselor can address in the letter that he or she writes to go along with your college applications, when the time comes. If, on the other hand, there are other students in your math class scoring in the 80s and 90s while you’re scoring in the 70s or below, you have a problem that you really need to get to the root of.</p>
<p>Yes, please don’t blame the teacher. Of course tests are supposed to be more substantial and harder than homework. That’s how college is like…</p>
<p>Also, math competitions rarely compensate for poor math grades. For example, if you make USAMO, but get C’s and D’s in trig, something’s wrong. That might signal colleges that you’re very intelligent, but don’t put enough effort into schoolwork.</p>
<p>If you medal at USAMO, get a perfect score on the AIME (lol), or do something that’s extremely prestigious and impressive related to math (depending on the school, possibly more than the “I scored a 36 on the ACT Math and an 800 on Math II” case), then I’d say someone may overlook your math grades. If your grades in the class fall below the average, particularly if you’re STEM, then you may have a serious problem without some substantive replacement. If you’re one of the top students in the class, though, you may be able to ask for a rec from the teacher (provided he or she likes you) to compensate.</p>