Hello! I am currently a senior and entering 4th quarter of my senior year and right now I have a C- in AP Calc AB, will I get my letter rescinded? I am asking because some of my accepted college requires a C or higher and I have been struggling with this class since last semester. Most of my other grades are solid with As and Bs and one C in this class. I fear that if I dont bring it up somehow that I will get rescinded since I didn’t meet the req for most of these Colleges of maintaining a C or higher. Please letme know your thoughts!
no not at all just dont let it slip below that and try to get it up. talk to your teacher b4 its too late, try to aim for a B, but as long as its a C or above pretty sure your passing so no rescinding (very, very unlinkely that you would be rescinded but call the admission office just to confirm since some schools are veyr picky like t-10s, etc)
Get your grade up. None of us can answer. A C- is still a C but each school will handle differently. Tutoring, a study partner - whatever it takes!!
A school doesn’t want to rescind you - but hopefully you can learn the material.
If you need Calc in college, please repeat.
But don’t worry about being rescinded - focus on learning. And this will go away. A school may ask you to take in again in summer or something like that.
Try not to let this get to you - of course, we don’t know the school but you have this.
Best of luck.
If any of these colleges are UC/CSU, a C- (or C+) is the same as C since they don’t consider +/-. So if you get a C-, you’re OK.
However, if you go in with the mindset of a C- is fine, you could slack and wind up with a D, which will be an issue
2 Likes
Calculus is cumulative. Do whatever you have to do to keep your grade at the C level. If affordable, consider hiring a tutor who can go over concepts you didn’t fully grasp last quarter and keep you current. You can also see the teacher for extra help, utilize online resources (ex. Khan Academy), etc. to better your skills. Put in the work.
4 Likes
High school teacher here. Instead of spending time on this forum asking this question, I suggest you ask your math teacher for tutoring sessions. The first step is to find out which foundational knowledge and skill points are your weakness, then patch them up, likely with practices. If you don’t feel tutoring sessions with your current teacher is helpful, maybe try chatGPT study mode?
6 Likes
Take a breath. A C- is concerning if the school’s condition letter says “maintain a C or higher,” but it’s not an automatic rescind.
Here’s what actually happens in most cases: colleges don’t usually rescind for a single grade drop unless it’s an F or there’s a pattern of multiple grades falling. A C- in AP Calc AB, when the rest of your grades are A’s and B’s, is unlikely to result in a rescind on its own. What’s more likely is that you’d get a letter asking you to explain the grade drop.
That said, you should still try to bring it up. Here’s my advice:
-
Go talk to your teacher NOW. Explain that you’re struggling and ask what you can do to improve. Many teachers will offer extra credit, retakes on assignments, or additional help sessions. Even if they can’t change past grades, they can help you do better on remaining tests and the final.
-
If the grade stays a C- at semester end, be proactive. Contact the admissions offices of the schools you’ve been accepted to and explain the situation before they see your final transcript. Say something like “I struggled with AP Calc this semester but maintained strong grades in all my other courses. Here’s what I did to try to improve.” Being upfront looks much better than having them discover it on their own.
-
Check your schools’ specific wording carefully. Some say “C or higher in all courses” while others say something more general like “maintain your academic performance.” A single C- with everything else being A’s and B’s is a very different picture than multiple drops.
-
Look at whether your school does plus/minus grading on the transcript. Sometimes a C- shows up differently than you’d expect.
Realistically, rescissions for a single C- are rare unless the college is very strict or unless the course is directly related to your intended major. Focus on getting the best grade you can for the rest of the semester, and have a plan if you need to communicate with admissions.
As far as C- risk of rescission goes when the college wants to see C or higher, it depends on whether the college considers +/- on high school grades.
But C- is probably dangerously close to D+, which does carry a significant risk of rescission.
Break out that laptop and use Khan academy to learn anything you may have missed. Repeat repeat repeat the lessons.
It’s great that others have mentioned Khan Academy and talking to your teacher—those are definitely the right first steps.
One additional thing I’ll suggest is a workbook. There are several including the “Calculus Problem Solver” by the Editors of REA. It is like a SAT review book for Calculus; thousands of worked examples. You flip to the chapter matching what you are doing in class and start working problems, then check your solution against theirs. Rinse and repeat. The book is out of print but on Amazon I see used ones starting at $7. There are other books in the same vein but this is one I have seen and used.
Lastly, a comment about time. In college for math/science courses the experience of many students is it takes up to 10 hours each week doing outside work per class. This is reading the chapters, doing the homework, and doing extra practice problems.
2 Likes