Mine was doing great in math (all high A’s) until this past year when she tanked. I’m at a loss what to do. She did pass the class (with C’s and D’s) so they won’t let her retake it. I signed her up for a boot camp, but she was the only one who signed up so they canceled it. Now I’m afraid she won’t have enough of a background to continue with more math classes. She’s been self-studying SAT math subject test books - hoping that will help. Teachers don’t go back until a couple of days before school starts.
@tutumom2001 sounds like youre doing great in your forward action plans. D14 went through the same thing in sophomore year Math…got a D after high A’s to that point. She tried so hard…I usually side with the teacher but in this case it was the teacher who took excessive points off for everything. She would mark a multi tiered problem worth 20 points completely wrong if a student forgot a sign somewhere…even if they got the right answer. Got kicked out of honors math and slept through regular math the next year with an A. Went back up to honors precalc and recovered. Got into all but two direct nursing admits and just graduated with a job so it all worked out.
@tutumom2001 My D had a string of lousy math teachers for several years. Last summer I found a retired teacher to tutor her because she was bumped up to the accelerated class, but we were unsure if she had the fundamentals down pat. That teacher tutored her once a week (for a very reasonable rate) and brought her up to speed. Perhaps something like this could help?
@tutumom2001 Any way to get a math tutor? My S who is in middle school was struggling a little with math and we got him a weekly tutor for a few months which has helped tremendously to go from a C to an A.
If my d20 has any questions she spends a little time on Khan academy. Apparently Khan Academy has some really great tutorial videos and it really helps clarify things for her.
just getting back into lurking and posting after DD18 went through graduation and off to the US Naval Academy. DD20 is enjoying a moderately restful summer. Playing tennis and getting ready for tryouts in a couple weeks. She got a 5 on WHAP (higher than her older sisters) and was very happy with that. She did a PSAT cohort prep at the beginning of summer and will have some more prep as school kicks off in mid August. Hoping for the best but not counting on it. It will be very different for this one as she wants to pursue a BSN in nursing. less focused on the school and more on how it sets her up for admission to the Nursing School for the final 2 years. Her older sister is at UTD so she has been there, loves the dorm setup, but they dont have Nursing. After hearing about Plebe Summer she definitely wont be pursuing a service academy LOL. WIll be starting some visits to schools in Texas and possibly surrounding states that offer generous merit $. 4 APs next year plus double blocked Health sciences leading to her CNA. Add tennins/track and choir and she will be full on busy but looking forward to it all. Looking forward to reading more on this thread as the process moves on.
Ditto to what @socaldad2002 said -getting a math tutor was the best thing for our D, and though she most likely would have gotten an A- instead of a high A without a tutor, she would probably feel inferior and intimidated by all the math geniuses in her Pre-Calc Honors (well, actually, she probably would have stayed away from the honors class at all, and definitely wouldn’t go for Calc BC this coming year)
Any other parents concerned that junior year is make or break for our students. Like many students, my D will be taking the most APs she has ever had combined with studying for and taking the PSAT/SAT (and maybe ACT) plus AP exams over the next 10 months. A huge year in determining which colleges will be the best “fit” come next June. Fingers crossed…
I share the concern but I think the parents may be more concerned than the students. 5 AP exams and the PSAT/SAT/ACT? will be the make or break by next year at this time.
Thanks, guys. Her problem was a lousy algebra 2 teacher who has apparently been “dealt with” whatever that means. She was in honors precalculus when the grades sank. Algebra 2 is such a pivotal year.
Somewhat fortunate in that she really doesn’t have tippy top aspirations. Even with the horrid precal grade, she still has above an unweighted 3.5, and she’s taking three APs this year (including STAT - and, yes, the precal teacher recommended her for it).
Whoever started Khan Academy needs a medal. It’s genius.
We have problems with math, too. My D took Honors Pre Calc last year. The Honors Pre Calc teacher told the students that they weren’t prepared for Calc BC, so she recommended the whole class for Calc AB this year. The teacher had a lot of personal problems last year and she missed a lot of the school year (they had substitute teachers often), so the fault for the unpreparedness is all hers. My daughter got an A in the class - it’s ridiculous that her grade won’t merit a recommendation for BC.
@VickiSoCal Could you please expound on why taking AP Stat after Calc3/DiffEq is a bad idea? DS20 does not have any other Stat class offered at his HS. He’s said that he doesn’t want to have a year off of Calc so wants to follow up with Calc3 after BC last year. He wants to be a research scientist (for now) and will need the stat class based on the required curriculum of the schools on his list. Also, he’s required to have a math class all 4 years; not sure what else there is to take besides AP Stat.
AP stats is the equivalent to the stats class that colleges offer to social science and humanities students. It is not Calculus based. A student on a math major or minor track should take a theory based probability and stats class.
@txsparty Congratulations on getting your DD off to USNA. That is wonderful!! None of mine have an interest in the service academies, but I think it’s a great opportunity.
@VickiSoCal thanks so much for the detailed explanation. He’s pushing himself with the math cuz he enjoys it and he’s got a group of friends on the same track. Oddly enough I was a Math major but he’s about 3 years ahead of where I was. I truly don’t recall my sequence of classes tho. 
Ditto to all those about how great Khan Academy is. Also doing test prep at a local cc for an extra boost. DS doesn’t think he does well on standardized tests so really preparing this time.
@SoccaMomma At S20’s HS, AP Stat is not part the required math curriculum (must be 4 yr math). It only counts as an elective. For sophomore who took BC, the junior year has to be multi-var, and senior year has to be a data science class ( a calculus-based approach to probability and statistics).
S20 hasn’t done any summer homework preparing for the Junior year. Contrary to D17’s flexible ( no one really cares) HS (she took 5 APs Junior year and 6 APs senior year, all hard core APs in humanity and stem fields), S20’s school is a rigid ( almost a fixed curriculum) STEM school. He won’t be allowed to take APs in non-stem fields till senior year and that’s probably a very good thing. He won’t prep for PSAT as our state flagship doesn’t care about it. He is already done ACT/SAT and Math2. To save time and efforts, he will take a couple of more subject tests together with AP tests. We are hoping for a not so stressful Junior year!
School starts August 13th and daughter has not gotten schedule yet. She’s going nuts. Assuming she got what she signed up for. Freshman year they forgot to give her a science class. They usually put it on the portal. Nothing gets mailed out. The report card wasn’t even mailed out from last year. I guess there trying to save money.
Our kids get their proposed schedules at registration which is one week before school starts and then the final schedule on the morning of.
Our kids get their proposed schedules the Friday before school starts and then the final schedule that Monday. And, strangely, last year D20’s schedule changed significantly between Friday at 2 p.m. and Monday at 8 a.m. Even her homeroom changed, so she didn’t realize that her entire schedule had changed until third period when the teacher she thought she had for third period was actually her homeroom teacher who had her revised schedule. Even more strange, one of her friends had a class completely disappear off his schedule and didn’t have a second period class at all.
Registration for school starts July 1 and goes to August 5th.Generally most people do it online but the school(and the district) do have walk ins this week. Last year she got the schedule on line a month early. Athletes have already gotten their schedules. Her school does not have homeroom and “final” schedules are picked up the morning of.
our kids get schedules the week before at registration day. But, word has spread quickly how to see your schedule ahead of time through a back door in a typing program that’s supported by the district. It’s funny how they all know their schedules now! S20 got all the classes he wanted; i’m thankful. We are all in denial its starting soon. Dont want to talk about it!