My mother is set on the fact that I’m meant to be some human rights advocate and be a political person. Don’t get me wrong, that is ONE of my career interests, but it certainly isn’t the ONLY career interest I have in mind. I am interested in being a politician but I also really wanna be a cardiovascular surgeon or a biomedical engineer… My high school requires 3 years of science and 3 years of math, I’ve taken 4 years of science ( including AP biology my junior year) and did ok but not super great and as for math… I must say those were a pitiful three years of my life. But I feel like a lot of my struggles were centered around the anxiety I was given by being in the classes- my teachers weren’t exactly nice to me and I could never ask for help because they were never willing to help whenever I did ask, and Junior year I had severely declined in my mental health and I never got help for that despite asking my parents and the school counselor and so my grades that year plummeted overall; I ended up having to retake second semester geometry and the entire algebra 2 course because of this. So for senior year, I decided to take a break and take classes that either came naturally or were blow offs in order to clear my mind and worry more about the important things like my college applications and have time to self study a few AP courses as well. One of my courses in mind was Calc BC, now I know this sounds incredibly stupid considering what my history with high school math is, but if I’m going to be pre-med I have to keep up with my math skills somehow and putting them to the test can be a tool to evaluate my own skills and BC calc has an AB subscore anyways ( I’m also on free lunch so my exams cost about 10$ each )… but my mom won’t even let me look at a pre-calc textbook and told me to stop ruining my own life. In fact, she said I was " going off track of my career" as if she planned this whole trail out for me or something. Is she right in doing this? What are some good alternatives?
I do not think you should jump to Calc BC (which is equivalent to TWO college calculus courses) if you haven’t taken precalc.
If you want to self-study something, study precalc. Tell your mom that you will be at a disadvantage in college if you don’t prepare yourself with a good foundation in all subjects now. Many schools have general education requirements, which may include things like math and science, even if you were to major in the humanities.
Do you see a therapist of psychiatrist?
Hmmm okay so if I don’t take the BC exam then should I maybe take one of the SAT math subject tests if I self study precalc?
and no. My mother claims all the therapists she went to have a four month waiting list and she refuses to take me to a psychiatrist because she does not believe I have any sort of mental illness.
It is very important to understand the pyramidal structure of mathematics. If the more basic levels of math are weak, the upper stories are very difficult to support. A student who was not VERY solid in algebra II preparation (talking simultaneous equations here) will be like a snowball in the desert during calculus class. It makes no difference what caused the weak math performance, the necessary foundation has not been set.
There is an answer for the highly motivated. Go back and knock the stuffing out of an algebra II course. :bz
Bad plan to try to take an AP exam in math with no pre-calc and Some struggles with high school math in your background. You probably should have taken pre-calc this year, but that ship has sailed. Could you take pre-calc at a community college next semester, so you are ready for Calc in college?
Can’t help as much with your mom and her career goals for you. Maybe you can talk to your GC to provide help convincing your mom to lay off a bit and let you explore your own career interests. But I will also say that sometimes moms are right about where your strengths lie.
@bookishbec - Listen to your mom.
@intparent My GC is " too busy" and often won’t take any appointment requests which is why I posted a thread here, I usually get much better outside opinions. I guess I could take pre-calc at a CC this summer before college, or at the university. That’s actually a good idea. Thanks
@retiredfarmer Thank you