so i am a junior in h.s. and i’ve been doing great my whole h.s. career. i graduated 8th grade with honors. i have amazing ECs and volunteering hours. i am basically an “over-achiever” except for my grades. i am taking two ap classes, apush and ap comp sci. I was basically forced into ap comp sci because i was put in the class (my school has majors) and i was not allowed to transfer out. I HATE THAT CLASS so much. and to make it worse there is one kid who is doing good in the class and he makes fun of others. he makes us feel like crap. i dont like him and i have told him off countless times. anyways, I knew i would not do good in that class but my gc still told me to take it. I had Cs the first and second marking period. today we had a test which was based on the picture lab thing and he did not teach us anything on 2D arrays. we basically had to learn it on our own. i had never been good with arrays. so i was in chicago for a baby shower the past weekend and missed the review and so i was on my own. i had no access to any resources there and he even knew it. he pushed the test one day later because two girls in my class weren’t ready but when i wasn’t i was given the test. i had to write out code for 5 questions. so anyways, i got a 2/100 the last time i checked and idk if its a mistake. i am now failing the class with a 50. its my junior year and it counts the most and i can’t afford to fail this class. ever since i took this class ive been basically depressed and i cant sleep at night. its the third marking period and idk what to do. im really really depressed that my gpa won’t be good enough and i wont get accepted to any colleges(community colleges arent an option). i’ve been depressed and i have also had suicidal thoughts. my life is so bad right now and i cried. idk what to do. please guys put yourself in my shoes before you answer. PLEASE HELP IDK WHAT TO DO! my family has also been addding alot of stress on me because of SATs and other reasons. the constantly keep screaming at me. my life is a horrible mess right now and if i don’t get it together, i am scared that something really horrible will happen.
and i never planned on taking the ap exam also
. i wanna go to rutgers (i live in nj) or purdue for engineering but my grades are making me depressingly pessimistic. i would be happy if i get into rutgers engineering without any scholarship.
Obviously a F is a big deal. Ask your teacher if it is a mistake first…
OK, deep breaths.
Know that no one course has the potential to keep you from attending college, or to limit your choices as severely as you think.
First thing: speak to your teacher. You don’t have to like his class, but you need to know what you can to to improve your performance This isn’t about grade-grubbing, it’s about asking what you’re missing in terms of your own preparation to succeed in his class.
Second: Speak to your parents. They don’t need to be blindsided, and are the best allies you have. But you need to be proactive. No “I’ll end up working at McDonalds forever” drama, no yelling, no “I can’t wait to go away to college” nonsense, . Just a sincere conversation about the trouble you’re having in this particular class.
Third stop is your guidance counselor. There’s still time to turn things around (my school has roughly 13 weeks of school left until summer. Depending on where you are in the country, it could be closer to 8 or 9). But you’ve got to do it now. My Catholic school doesn’t allow kids to drop courses, but is it a possibility in yours? What have other kids in your shoes done? (Don’t kid yourself; you’re NOT the fist kid to walk this particular path.)
Fourth, speak to the NHS moderator. Is there someone taking the class who could tutor you?
Nothing “horrible will happen.” You’re going to face this obstacle the way you’re going to face obstacles as an adult. You’re going to get to the root of the problem, talk to the people in a position to offer you guidance, and work your way through the problem.
You sound like a smart kid. It’s always hard when smart kids realize that they’re not invincible. EVERYONE finds a course or subject or area of life that gives them difficulty. OK, so this is yours. Work the problem. Minimize the drama, no finger pointing, no worrying about how bad the teacher is or about what the other kids in the class are doing. This is about you maximizing your grade in one of your classes… the other stuff is merely a deflection. Change what you can change: your performance in this class. You don’t have to have the top grade, but you do have to bring your grades up.
. Why not have that first conversation with your teacher this afternoon after school? Ask in class if he will be available after school, and arrive promptly after school ends.
Good luck! Let me know how it goes!
(Opps, sorry, I missed the post about Rutgers. So you’re in NJ-- great!! That means that, like us in NY, you still have ballpark 13 weeks to pull this together.)
And scholarships are an entirely different matter. Start now to hunt them down. Start a document in Word where you store any info you can find on any scholarship that offers a glimmer of hope. (You can narrow down the list over the summer.) Make special note of deadlines and of anything else you would need to do.
Instead of telling off the coding genius in the class who finds this easy and does well, you should have been buddying up to him to get help studying this material so you can master it. You still potentially have a chance to do that, or even pay him for tutoring. My daughter took AP Comp Sci and found it easy like that other kid although she didn’t make fun of others who found it difficult (and she spent lots of time learning on her own what was not fully explained in class). Another student asked for tutoring help, and even wanted to pay for it, so they got together and my daughter helped her understand the concepts. Computer software impacts almost every job imaginable, and learning to code is a very good thing. They teach coding in elementary school in some other countries, so you are certainly capable of mastering this if you stop resisting it and resenting people who get it. You will also need it for any degree in engineering.
If you can’t get help from a current or former student who understands the material well and can explain it, then try some online resources such as http://www.codecademy.com/. Definitely also make appeals to your teacher to see about retaking the test, doing extracurricular work, etc. Go all out to make the case for how you are a top-notch student (share your other grades and college ambitions) and how you really want and need to master this material, and then make an effort to do so. Coding is a new way of thinking so I understand it’s challenging, but you can do this and bring your grade up. Don’t give up. Your parents are upset because they are worried like you and only want to see you succeed.
My daughter suggests that you do Google searches for whatever you’re trying to write, like “Java code” so she could see what method other people used to make programs and get ideas.
My daughter says that Oracle has great Java tutorials at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/nutsandbolts/arrays.html and also the Oracle Complete Java book was helpful to her.
@mommyrocks I can’t buddy up because he only helps people he likes
Stop worrying about other people and worry about what you are doing.
Since you are in that class you had best get over your “hate” right now and look at it as an engineering problem. How do you get from (here) to over there (where you want to be)?
BTW, there is no such thing as an “overachiever” as that is someone who achieves more than he is capable of.
@1234PJ4321 There are lots of Java (or whatever coding language you’re learning) tutorials online. Programming is one of those things that is easy to teach yourself if you have the ambition, but may or may not be easy to learn in a classroom setting.
@MITer94 to have ambition you must have interest.I have no interest in computer science and I never plan on doing it in college or my life
^^ You mentioned engineering. If you can’t see programming as important enough to engineering to make this work, then good luck.
@1234PJ4321 I’m not sure what engineering you’re referring to, but you’ll likely need a basic knowledge of how to write programs.
If I recall 2D arrays aren’t too difficult to implement in Java, compared to 1D arrays (e.g. int [][] myArray = new int[5][5]; creates a 5x5 integer array).
@JustOneDad its not about programming. I’m good at C. Just not Java.
@MITer94 it’s not just that its about accessing variables in arrays and its really complicated
@1234PJ4321 don’t you just index into the array (starting at 0)?
Sorry, it’s been a while since I used Java, but I am starting a software development class at MIT which uses Java.
^^ LOL If you are going to fall back on an excuse, can’t you do better than that?
^^How am I falling back on an excuse? I am just saying that my Java knowledge is somewhat rusty.
@MITer94 @JustOneDad let’s not fight. And MITer, no the test wasn’t starting at zero