<p>smoda: </p>
<p>yeah, you’re right, I think it’s that I have a really “hands-on” adcom. I, like you, highly doubt that everyone is getting a letter for one B-. </p>
<p>Goodschoolhopefully: </p>
<p>that’s exactly how it is at our school! My AP Calc class has the top-ranking kids at our school, and we only have maybe a couple A’s. Everyone is freaking out! Actually, if you compare my B- to what most kids got, I was on the much higher end of the grade spectrum. Most kids got C’s, and a lot of kids got D’s or F’s. </p>
<p>The thing with my AP Calc teacher is he LOVES to push us to the ultimate limit; he basically believes that we’ve been babied, and that unless we get some F’s once in a while we’re just gonna be cocky little bastards for the rest of our lives. He thinks that if he tortures our GPA’s, we’ll realize we’re not so smart after all, and we will study really hard for the AP exam. This, in turn, will result in more passes. This will make him look better as a teacher (he always posts the percentage of his kids who pass the AP exam, and constantly gloats about how high above the national average he is.)</p>
<p>And yeah, I know what you mean about knocking off useless points. He is known for doing things such as, if a problem asks you to find a function and then sketch the graph (easy enough, right?) and then you do all the math and then just draw a quick sketch, he’ll knock off a bunch of points because “your graph wasn’t CURVY enough.” what?!?!? lol. I clearly had the right equation, and my graph WAS curvy. Okay maybe there was a slightly pointy spot where my hand naturally fidgeted as I was trying to draw a perfect curve. My BAD.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, he’s an EXCELLENT teacher. But he is still a jerk. And my B- is considered GOOD in his class (most kids got so mad when they hear me complain, and let me remind you again that these kids are the highest-ranking kids in the school who would normally be appalled by such a grade.) </p>
<p>I never explained any of this to my adcom though. I just told him that it was all my fault, and that I would do better. I didn’t want to come off as whiney or trying to blame someone else, even though my AP Calc teacher really IS psycho.</p>