I was sorta roped into taking Calculus my senior year, and by the time I realized I wasn’t ready for it, it was too late to drop it. I skated by the first semester with some good luck and intuition, (ended with a B-) but my second semester isn’t going nearly as well, and I may end with an F. My teacher was never particularly good, and she seems more concerned with our AP Exam scores than actually teaching us anything. Regardless, I’m in a tough spot. I’ve done all that I can to get it up again, but like I said, it’s hard to teach yourself calculus while your teacher is flying through subjects without making sure anyone has retained the knowledge.
I’ve recently been accepted to West Virginia University on a few scholarships, and I’m deathly afraid a second semester F is going to scare them off and have the rescind my application. My other grades are all A’s (including another AP course) so my GPA is certainly going to be fine, but this would be a large blemish and I’m afraid of how it may look.
Does anyone have any idea how they may view it? I certainly hope they don’t take it that I’m lazy or anything. I’m doing exceptionally well in every other subject and I’m fairly confident I made at least a 4 on the AP Environmental Science exam I just took. I just wasn’t ready for Calculus and now I’m stuck liable for it.
I’m planning to major in Information system management in college if that’s any indicator of how WVU may make their decision.
All college acceptances are conditional on successfully completing the second semester/final quarter of high school with satisfactory grades. The F is a definite reason for rescinding your acceptance despite the As in other classes.
You will need to inform WVU as soon as possible about the grade (preferably the next working day). If you are lucky the school may just require you to make up the course as a freshman or through summer school at a community college.
I don’t understand. There’s kids who have only completed Algebra 2 who can waltz into college but since I failed Calculus (a class I wasn’t even ready for) suddenly I’m not ready for college anymore? That doesn’t make any sense.
Some kids will try to game the system for admission by taking a relatively weak classload.
If possible, try to see if you can somehow get that Calculus grade up to a C.
Whether it’s fair or not that kids get into college with less than a rigorous classload, the fact is that all college acceptances are conditional on maintaining a satisfactory GPA with NO D or F grades, no arrests/convictions, and nothing the college deems offensive. The F in Calculus, regardless of whether the teacher was bad or not, breaks the contract and is grounds for rescinding an acceptance.
Keep in your mind: it’s your year end average that matters, not necessarily your second semester average. Do whatever you can to ensure that your final average for the course-- not just the spring semester is passing… and preferably a C or higher.
^absolutely true-do not blame the teacher. You could have dropped the class without a W earlier in the semester. Most high schools will let you drop, even in second semester.
I see people say this a lot, but I think that depends on how your school district reports grades on the transcript. Our district gives you one letter grade (no plus/minus, no numbers) for each semester, and no overall year-end anything. Grades start fresh every semester, with the first semester’s grade having absolutely no relation to the second semester’s, and no way for anyone who doesn’t have access to all the individual assignment grades by category and the teacher’s weighting for each category to have any way of calculating any theoretical “final average for the course.”
Meet with your teacher. Find out what, if anything, you can do to pull the grade up to at least a D. Find out if it is possible to take an Incomplete, and do more catch-up work during the summer vacation.
And, don’t forget to find out what an F could do to your ability to graduate this spring. You might have to take an I and finish the work in the summer to get a D just for that reason alone.
The exam is Tuesday, so by all means study and try to get at least a passing AB subscore. Forget about series (the C part) for now. Just pass AB. Don’t waste time until then. It’s a marathon. It ends on Tuesday.
On Tuesday afternoon, or Wednesday, call the admissions office at West Virginia, explain the situation, and ask what would happen if you failed the course, but also ask what would happen if you failed the course but got a passing score on the AB subscore.
We don’t know the correct answer. Talk to the people that do. On the one hand, they expect you to successfully complete second semester. On the other hand, it is BC calculus and you are right, folks that don’t even try it can skate by.
Get names of people that you talk to. Be polite.
Also find out from your school if you need to pass 2nd semester to meet your graduation requirements. It’s likely that you don’t.
I think you’re putting too much emphasis on the exam. I’ve explained earlier that I had no business taking this class in the first place, so passing the exam is almost entirely out of the question. I’ve had no proper instruction this entire year. I’m not sending them to my school anyway, so it doesn’t matter.
Also, I’ve taken 4 math classes before my senior year ( Geometry and Algebra 2 my sophomore year) so I’m definitely graduating high school regardless of what happens in my calculus class.
All I’m asking is what you think will happen if I fail my second semester. You’re telling me that WVU is gonna see my one F in the hardest high school class offered and decide I’m not ready for college anymore? When most students coming out of high school haven’t even had 2 minutes of calculus yet? Doesn’t that seem a little unfair?
Does your HS allow you to switch to a pass/fail grade? I know a very good student at my D’s high school (ED admit to Northwestern) switched one of her APs to pass/fail this year. She’s taking it as online class through the state’s virtual high school and the teacher is lousy and she kinda lost interest so she made the switch. She has all As in her other classes. I would think if all your other grades are very high then a Pass wouldn’t be a big issue. But you’d need a pass for this semester. . .
I’ve explored every avenue with my counselor and my parents but my school doesn’t budge with that kind of stuff. We’re required to finish the course. I just can’t imagine any reasonable admissions officer rescinding my application without at least contacting me to ask for an explanation. It’d be one thing if the class I was failing was English 12 or something, but Calculus BC is practically an elective.
@Kscfle - In the instance I mentioned, the student is finishing the course – she’s just getting a pass instead of a grade
But that may not be an option in your high school – you could always check the district academic policies on their website.
I understand you feel strongly that this shouldn’t matter and you are right that students with less rigorous courses have an easier time. But your feelings and sense of fair or unfair are not the issue. I think it would be a mistake to submit your transcript with D or F without notifying the university first – esp. with scholarships at stake. You need to reach out to an admissions officer with a very professional and short email explaining the situation. Do not blame the teacher, but I think you can say something like “Due to a combination of factors, my AP Calculus BC course has been a challenge for me (and many of my classmates – only say this if true but if the teacher is that bad it prolly is) this semester, and I am concerned I may end up with a failing semester grade and a final grade below C (obviously , fix to make accurate – I don’t know what you think your final grade might be…). Can you please let me know how this would affect my admissions status?”
Keep it short and sweet. If they come back with a really dire response – then you know you need to pull out all the stops the next few weeks. And showing that response to your guidance counselor might get him/her to help with with the teacher in terms of providing any extra credit or re-test opportunities.
I think you’ll get ‘bonus points’ from the college for alerting them rather than them having to contact you.
Also, you don’t send your transcript: your school does, and if you read the fine print, I’m pretty sure that you will find that one of the conditions of your acceptance is satisfactorily completion of your HS program, as evidenced by the final transcript.
It is not unheard of for seniors to apply with pretty good grades and decide to put their feet up second semester. WVU has no way to know that you didn’t just check out early.
Moreover, it doesn’t matter what other students do: you applied saying ‘this is what I am doing’ and they said, ‘ok, we’ll take that’.
And: you need to own up to your own part in this (not to us here on CC: to yourself).
You were “sorta roped into taking Calculus”, you “skated by” with “good luck and intuition” and it’s your teacher’s fault that you not only couldn’t “teach yourself” but that she wasn’t “making sure” you had retained the learning. All so passive.
Where were you in this process? Did you look for help? Did you make a serious effort to use the online resources (of which there are lots)? Did you approach one of your previous teachers? You are obviously reasonably mathy (you did geometry + Alg II in one year, and you wouldn’t have qualified for Calc if your previous marks weren’t pretty good). I know homeschool students whose parents are not able for math who used the text + Khan academy to teach themselves BC with no teacher at all- but it took work and determination.
College is not HS, and one of the reasons that colleges rescind offers (and they do- see the thread on CC with that title) is that they want to know that you can follow through on what you set out to do… Assuming that it all works out with WVU, be prepared to take more ownership of your own learning.
I’m not telling you that, but I’m pretty sure University of California schools would do exactly that for even a D, even for BC Calculus.
It seems unfair, but you are using logic and fairness in a realm where such things generally do not apply It’s a touch lesson to learn and we all learn it eventually.
You need to know so you can take steps to move ahead. You can write a letter which will probably get ignored, or you can pick up the phone, call the school, and talk to someone who can probably advise you of exactly what will happen.