<p>I apologize if this isn’t in the right section!</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore in high school right now, meaning I have lots of time to shape up and whore out my college apps, but I’m not sure how to go about this @_@ Last year, I took the maximum course load offered at my school, English I, Spanish, Bio, World Geography, Geometry (all Pre-AP = 5.0 classes), and am required to take one year of PE, a dumb course called “Study Skills”, and Health Science (and they aren’t offered in a 5.0 version = magnet = 4.0 classes). First semester, I got a B in Spanish (which I expected, since I’m not very good at it), and I got a B again in Spanish, but also one in World Geography (which, aside from the shitton of homework we get, is one of the easiest classes). </p>
<p>In the summer, some people got to take Algebra II if their Geometry scores were high enough, and I qualified. We had to learn all of Algebra II in six weeks (one semester = three weeks), but I got a B in the next six weeks because the teacher thought I was cheating. We had the calculator part of the final first, and then we would put our calculator away and start on the non-calculator part (which was lying face-down on our desks). Me being the clueless person I am, finished the calculator part, and then proceeded to the non-calculator part with it (where it gave us a rational function and we had to write the asymptotic etc) and graphed the one and only problem. When I realized my mistake, I panicked and put the calculator away, but the teacher came over and thought I put it away because I saw him coming (basically he thought I was cheating on purpose). He embarrassed me around everyone and told me to put my pencil down and to not work on test anymore. He took up my calculator and took and looked to see if the graph was still there (and it was), and he went back to his seat while I was crying (what was I suppose to do ?_?). He told me to come outside after a while and told me that he wasn’t going to tell the dean about this because he didn’t want to ruin my life and told me to continue working on the test; I thanked him and went back to my seat, but I put down all the wrong answers because I didn’t feel right about having an advantage. After the class finished, I told him to give me a zero on the non-calculator part because it wasn’t fair for everyone that I would have an advantage, but he told me it was fine and said that he understood that I wasn’t cheating (but I think he was just saying that to get out of the awkward conversation). This teacher is also my Homeroom teacher and my AP stats teacher this year / future Calc teacher to make things worse :/.</p>
<p>At this point, I have four B’s, making my average a solid 4.44, which my parent think is absolutely horrible. They always compare me to my friends etc etc, I’m sure most of you all go through this too from time to time. I do agree with them though, I fallen pretty far behind most of my friends, landing myself somewhere in the top 30s (I want to be in the top 10, but heh).</p>
<p>So anyway, I took up a really ambitious course load this year to make up for Freshman year, including AP Stats (which starts before school at 7:00 AM) and AP Comp Sci. (I have Pre-AP other courses besides WHAP (which is AP), Health Science (required), and SAT prep (required)). I’m not doing so hot, but I’ve definitely improved from last year and have around the same grades as my friends. The only thing really scaring me right now is Comp Sci because the teacher made me take the quiz the day I switched into class, meaning I have a 62 in the class :[ (he hasn’t put in any other grade).</p>
<p>I’m really interested in Comp Sci though, and I want to major in it in college, but my parents want me to be a doctor (I can convince them later though lol). I want to really go to MIT, but I realize it’s really far out of my reach. Since my grades at this point require a lot of effort to salvage, I’m focusing more on my SAT/PSAT scores. I’m scoring in the 2000-2100 range, but I want to bump it up into the 2250-2350 range. I joined this SAT prep place called Testmasters and am going to their Exam Club Program where they administer previously released (and real) SAT tests. My membership lasts until I graduate so yay!
I’ve been learning Java, JavaScript, and Ruby lately from Codecademy and my Comp Sci class, and I’m really enjoying it. I’m also in the process of getting an internship from the local University’s Comp Sci department (after emailing about 150 professors!) and will hopefully be able to compete in Science Fair and make it to ISEF.</p>
<p>So, what should I do to help myself? Will that cheating thing hurt me in the future? Is what I have planned good enough?</p>
<p>Hope I didn’t come off as needy or pretentious or something like that!</p>