|
So a ton of crap has happened in the time of my requested tempban...my studying didn't work very well.
BUT I'M FUCKING RAGING HOLY SHIT THIS IS RIDICULOUS
AP Euro was Friday in the afternoon, and on the multiple choice section, our proctor gave us 5 minutes too few (people brought watches and were timing themselves), and when she called time, literally half the room stood up and started raging and cursing so much that the overall AP coordinator or whatever had to come see what the commotion was...but the proctor told the coordinator that nothing had happened and we continued onto the free response section.
Guess what? She accidentally gave us 10 extra minutes, and because no one wanted to figure out whether or not the proctor had correctly written the time on the board (which, by the way, she neglected to do until about 10+ minutes into the test both times). Anyway, she didn't write the correct time, and it took until the final 15 minutes of the free response for her to say that she had mad a mistake and we had ~5 minutes left, whereupon everyone's pace was completely destroyed, and everyone was already on tilt from the MC failure.
So that was euro.
AP French is tomorrow, and I'm not particularly well-prepared...whatever. I'll probably bomb it...defeatism for the loss. I also sucked on the SAT II French subject test.
Anyway, now to what's really been pissing me off: my schedule (or what remains of it).
Having satisfied the fine arts requisite (band frosh year), physical education (frosh year, one semester=one season of independent PE with the track team this year, going to do it again next year), and language (skipped french 2 and honors 4), I wanted to take a third science, added onto AP Physics B and AP Chem. I've decided to skip Calc AB and go directly to BC, so AP Stat is saved for my senior year so that I have a math class at school.
When it came time for schedule choices, I thus signed up for 1: Honors Eng (no AP lang offered at my school), 2: APUSH, 3: AP Calc BC, 4: AP Physics B (no C offered so I was going to take that online or something), 5: AP chem, and 6: APES (environmental science; taken as a filler since I have nothing else really to take). Immediately after I turned it in and the counselors went around looking at our schedules, literally all six or so of the school counselors threw a hissy-fit at me, telling me I couldn't take three ap sciences while forming a menacing semicircle of death..... Eventually, I talked to the principal and managed to at least get my schedule request accepted.
...but now, about two months or so later, I was called into the counselor's office and told that I absolutely cannot take three sciences, and that I was dropped from AP chem. I actually would have been okay with having two sciences, granted that they were physics and chem, but I literally got punished for wanting to do more, so now I HAVE TO TAKE physics and apes, or nothing at all.
Fuck I am pissed off.
So I was wondering: is there anything at all I can do? Recommendations for any courses of action?
tl;dr: AP failure, SAT II failure, school says I cannot take 3 sciences and drops my "second" science in favor of my "third" (aka filler) science, what can I do?
Thanks, everyone! Fuck my school...it's been shifting more and more and more towards a "minimum pass" stance versus having a moderate number of people excel...they're spending extreme effort on getting everyone to scrape a passing on the CAHSEE (california exit exam) and STAR test (general standardized california test), but couldn't care less about APs, SATs, extracurriculars outside of sports, etc. The faculty seem to be telling me that they wouldn't mind if everyone passed but went to some crappy community college--as long as everyone at least passed. Christ.
 
|
Sue them.
Sue them so hard the money they get from the government flies out of their butts (along with their policies) and into your wallet (after being thoroughly cleaned by a brigade of magic elves)
In all seriousness though this is something you should go straight over their heads with. Talk to the highest-up person you think you can get away with, but also consider this:
Maybe you're overworking yourself?
|
Kind of hilarious to see what a high schooler considers worthy of rage. It's almost as if you believe life works out the way people say it should. All I can say is school is retardedly easy and not a single thing in K-12 is worthy of stress. If you are actually getting your panties in a knot over anything concerning lower level education, I feel sorry for you. Your twenties and thirties are going to be extremely stressful.
|
Was there any explanation given as to why you can't take 3 science classes?
If not, you can probably demand some sort of explanation from the counselor(s) and/or take it up with the principal. Or maybe you can get your parents to call them if they won't listen to you.
|
Just took the AP Physics C test today.... horribly dusty room + allergies 
It really sucks that you can't take all 3 sciences... is it a scheduling impossibility or just some esoteric nonsense? You should try to get your parents to talk to the school (and if they cant schedule 3 sciences, then at least have your parents bargain with the school to get you back into AP Chem).
|
On May 10 2011 08:29 Kaonis wrote:
Sue them.
Sue them so hard the money they get from the government flies out of their butts (along with their policies) and into your wallet (after being thoroughly cleaned by a brigade of magic elves)
In all seriousness though this is something you should go straight over their heads with. Talk to the highest-up person you think you can get away with, but also consider this:
Maybe you're overworking yourself?
It's definitely a distinct possibility that I'll put too much on my plate, but I think I can handle it, and at the same time, there really is no other class I can take. (not to mention I actually want to take chem over environmental science...not that I don't like apes, but chem is definitely the "essential" class)
I've finished art, I've finished physical education, and I've finished language.
The only reason I screwed myself over by taking AP french this is that I planned to take three sciences or some equivalent in utility. Otherwise, I would have taken honors this year and AP next year, and would have easily gotten away with a 5, etc.
On May 10 2011 08:32 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Kind of hilarious to see what a high schooler considers worthy of rage. It's almost as if you believe life works out the way people say it should. All I can say is school is retardedly easy and not a single thing in K-12 is worthy of stress. If you are actually getting your panties in a knot over anything concerning lower level education, I feel sorry for you. Your twenties and thirties are going to be extremely stressful.
Well, while it's somewhat implied, I'm not just raging that life isn't working out as it should like a spoiled brat (which I suppose I also am implying). School is mostly retardedly easy, yes, but it will not be retardedly easy if I have to take not only 5 APs and an honors class after skipping calc AB but also AP Chem and Physics C outside of class online or at a community college. I'm just extremely annoyed these classes, which are essential to remain competitive when I eventually will be competing with others class- and knowledge-wise for college entrance.
I want to take it because I am interested in chemistry, not because I want people to think I'm cool or intelligent. I do want to learn chem at this level, and while AP may be easy compared to college-level ochem or whatnot, I still wish to take this class, and have no other classes with which I can fill this gap in my education.
On May 10 2011 08:32 PJA wrote:
Was there any explanation given as to why you can't take 3 science classes?
If not, you can probably demand some sort of explanation from the counselor(s) and/or take it up with the principal. Or maybe you can get your parents to call them if they won't listen to you.
The explanation is that there is no space, and that it is unfair for those who wish to take chem in their senior year--except no seniors (fact, not hyperbole) take AP chem at our school.
I'm pretty sure that they want to trim the class down as much as possible (there is only one because our school does not have enough teachers/funding etc. I can only assume) and thus are forbidding me from taking AP chem. The parents idea seems worth a try, though my parents both do not speak English particularly well.
On May 10 2011 08:34 synapse wrote:Just took the AP Physics C test today.... horribly dusty room + allergies It really sucks that you can't take all 3 sciences... is it a scheduling impossibility or just some esoteric nonsense? You should try to get your parents to talk to the school (and if they cant schedule 3 sciences, then at least have your parents bargain with the school to get you back into AP Chem).
Ah okay...it seems to be a scheduling issue, but as far as I know, there is no direct conflict between class slots, only that they want to kick as many people as they can out of AP chem. Several other students who told me they managed to intimidate and/or talk their counselors into letting them take the class.
|
On May 10 2011 08:32 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Kind of hilarious to see what a high schooler considers worthy of rage. It's almost as if you believe life works out the way people say it should. All I can say is school is retardedly easy and not a single thing in K-12 is worthy of stress. If you are actually getting your panties in a knot over anything concerning lower level education, I feel sorry for you. Your twenties and thirties are going to be extremely stressful.
Fuck that, high school is a mediocre part of life at best.
Plus, do you really want to tolerate people who are not allowing him to take more AP classes for no apparent reason? He's basically being forced to take some mind-numbingly stupid and boring class rather than AP chem for no reason whatsoever. I guess if you put up with people just saying no to you and giving no reason, then just complacently accepting it, then sure, he's being whiny over nothing.
|
United States24495 Posts
On May 10 2011 08:32 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Kind of hilarious to see what a high schooler considers worthy of rage. It's almost as if you believe life works out the way people say it should. All I can say is school is retardedly easy and not a single thing in K-12 is worthy of stress. If you are actually getting your panties in a knot over anything concerning lower level education, I feel sorry for you. Your twenties and thirties are going to be extremely stressful.
OP I suggest you ignore this advice...
Certainly getting upset doesn't help but don't let people tell you your life is going to be a certain way after high school because of how you feel in this situation.
edit: are they still offering ap chem? Ask why they can't let you switch from envi sci into chem? I actually think that physics and chem would be brutal but assuming you still want to do it then yes, get your parents/guardians involved immediately.... they always have more pull than students.
|
I've told you this before and I'll tell you again: if you're skipping AB, and taking 3 sciences, I would recommend you not take chem or physics. You can't really stop the school from doing what they are doing, but I would talk to them. From their point of view they want kids to be able to get their one science course, and they would rather have somebody not get their third than not get their first.
And btw, the issue is chem is full (even discussed it with my counselor) AP Chemistry is currently full, and they won't make multiple classes, because they would need 50+ Right now I think they have 43 signed up, and seating for 38. So they dropped those with three sciences.
APES however has two classes of around 33. (same teacher) So they can fit another 5 per class. hence it's not a problem to shove him in there.
Although if you believe my mom's friend who is a college counselor, once you get to the point of 3 science courses, extracurriculars are mainly at play.
Although parents could get involved, my main thought on the matter is that administration will stand by the decision. Although it's possible he could take chem if people drop, I don't think those are compatible in any case.
|
Fight till your schedule gets approved. I had to do something similar for my junior year (8 classes plus 2 per semester at community college=9 classes per day, cc classes alternated, 7 APs) but I slipped by because I had a 4.0.
You just gotta keep going after it, get your parents involved if you have to
|
I had high school councilors pull that bullshit on me lol. I went to the principals and threw a fit, I went to the district administrations and threw a fit, I sent my parents to the school board meeting, and generally made such a huge commotion about it they were just like-- fine whatever. It helps if you can hammer them over the head with statements of support from past science teachers, and proof of your academic abilities that they can't argue with.
If you think you can handle it, do it. Just make sure you are truly confident in your abilities, because otherwise no one will feel sorry for you when you are struggling. If they still won't let you take the class, don't worry about it. It's not difficult to study for AP tests on your own and do well. Talk to the teachers of the classes you are not in and ask if you can somehow do the experiments for the class after school, or work with a group in the class (presumably you know some of the students) so that you are familiar with their lab work.
Then when you get a 5 on the test you can tell your counselors how shitty they are and blast the school for impeding education. (If you're really pissed about it, it's very satisfying.)
|
On May 10 2011 08:39 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On May 10 2011 08:32 StorkHwaiting wrote:
Kind of hilarious to see what a high schooler considers worthy of rage. It's almost as if you believe life works out the way people say it should. All I can say is school is retardedly easy and not a single thing in K-12 is worthy of stress. If you are actually getting your panties in a knot over anything concerning lower level education, I feel sorry for you. Your twenties and thirties are going to be extremely stressful. OP I suggest you ignore this advice... Certainly getting upset doesn't help but don't let people tell you your life is going to be a certain way after high school because of how you feel in this situation. edit: are they still offering ap chem? Ask why they can't let you switch from envi sci into chem? I actually think that physics and chem would be brutal but assuming you still want to do it then yes, get your parents/guardians involved immediately.... they always have more pull than students.
Okay, sounds good. For now, it seems that the general consensus is to pursue the issue myself and also get my parents to talk to the school, though as far as I can see, the school seems somewhat inflexible towards me, and my parents likely won't even be able to talk to anyone who might help--the language barrier cannot help, either
On May 10 2011 08:41 Froadac wrote:
I've told you this before and I'll tell you again: if you're skipping AB, and taking 3 sciences, I would recommend you not take chem or physics. You can't really stop the school from doing what they are doing, but I would talk to them. From their point of view they want kids to be able to get their one science course, and they would rather have somebody not get their third than not get their first.
And btw, the issue is chem is full (even discussed it with my counselor) AP Chemistry is currently full, and they won't make multiple classes, because they would need 50+ Right now I think they have 43 signed up, and seating for 38. So they dropped those with three sciences.
APES however has two classes of around 33. (same teacher) So they can fit another 5 per class. hence it's not a problem to shove him in there.
Although if you believe my mom's friend who is a college counselor, once you get to the point of 3 science courses, extracurriculars are mainly at play.
Although parents could get involved, my main thought on the matter is that administration will stand by the decision. Although it's possible he could take chem if people drop, I don't think those are compatible in any case.
I guess there's nothing I can do about it if there is only space for 38, then...my counselor told me I cannot exchange apes for chem, which is a massive issue, as if I were to exchange them, I wouldn't have 3 science classes. I'll think about it and consider it a bit more...apes is an "easy" class according to everyone with whom I've spoken (those who have taken the class, that is), though.
On May 10 2011 08:43 wherebugsgo wrote:
Fight till your schedule gets approved. I had to do something similar for my junior year (8 classes plus 2 per semester at community college=9 classes per day, cc classes alternated, 7 APs) but I slipped by because I had a 4.0.
You just gotta keep going after it, get your parents involved if you have to
All right, got it. I'm not sure how much my school cares--I also have a 4.0 unweighted GPA (4.66 weighted and 4.57 when I had a nonweighted extra period), but I think my counselors are aware of it and couldn't care less...
|
Well, at this point I'm just worried that my AP scores will influence their negatively come next year -___-
Liberal arts aren't exactly my strong point, though I could and should have studied more for a 5 in euro/french This schedule trainwreck isn't helping me prepare or boosting my mindset for the AP French test tomorrow, either. ;__;
Anyway, thanks for the help, everyone! I got all of that rage out of my system, and I know what I'll do for now. It just felt as if I could hear my future collapsing around me as my counselor said that I can't take chem...because I really will have to take something like computers 1... (herp derp MS office 2007)
|
lol @ high school, try writing 35 pages over the course of a week
plus you have a 4.0 but are stressed over nothing, get some perspective
|
United States24495 Posts
On May 10 2011 08:59 rift wrote:
lol @ high school, try writing 35 pages over the course of a week
lol at people making dumb posts that don't help
Are you so insecure that you need to make a post like that in this thread? (btw I'm up to 47 pages this week looool; work full time also btw)
|
On May 10 2011 08:59 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On May 10 2011 08:59 rift wrote:
lol @ high school, try writing 35 pages over the course of a week lol at people making dumb posts that don't help Are you so insecure that you need to make a post like that in this thread?
there's nothing to help, it's basically a venting blog 
|
United States24495 Posts
On May 10 2011 09:01 rift wrote:Show nested quote +On May 10 2011 08:59 micronesia wrote:On May 10 2011 08:59 rift wrote:
lol @ high school, try writing 35 pages over the course of a week lol at people making dumb posts that don't help Are you so insecure that you need to make a post like that in this thread? there's nothing to help
Then don't post.
There is something to help though. We can A) offer him advice; B) give him perspective in a more respectful manner; C) discuss various issues... it's not like high school legitimately doesn't matter at all... if you believe this you are deluding yourself.
And again if you don't agree then there's just no reason for you to post.
|
On May 10 2011 09:02 micronesia wrote:Show nested quote +On May 10 2011 09:01 rift wrote:On May 10 2011 08:59 micronesia wrote:On May 10 2011 08:59 rift wrote:
lol @ high school, try writing 35 pages over the course of a week lol at people making dumb posts that don't help Are you so insecure that you need to make a post like that in this thread? there's nothing to help Then don't post. There is something to help though. We can A) offer him advice; B) give him perspective in a more respectful manner; C) discuss various issues... it's not like high school legitimately doesn't matter at all... if you believe this you are deluding yourself. And again if you don't agree then there's just no reason for you to post.
Right, thanks for the perspective, objectivity, and advice! 
Time to study :S
Well, for language I suppose it's more like it's time to get "in the zone" in terms of French, i.e. get into a mindset for French.
=,,,_,,,=
|
OK op i will help you. You may possibly get less than desirable test scores; this is now in the past and cannot be changed, so forget about it. Part II: your inability to take 3 science classes is also out of your control, so don't worry about it, environ sci is chill and makes your schedule ezier. In sum, relax and play some bw.
|
The high school pretty much never got my schedule right. They had a weird priority system. One year I wanted to take a bunch of AP classes, but since some of the schedules conflicted with the "advanced" classes (lol advanced) they decided to give the "advanced" class the higher priority. I was like no, I'll take a regular english and get all the aps, thanks.
Pretty much had to do something like that every semester. They wouldn't let you know your schedule until the 1st day of class, so you'd never know if there was a conflict until the semester already began. And then they'd try to have this bogus policy where you couldn't change your schedule after the semester began.... it was a headache.
Honestly I bet american high schools would do so much better if they'd just adopt the college system of scheduling. You pick the class and the time and make the schedule fit yourself, after being advised by a counselor. This makes sense. The high school way: Tell them what classes you'd "like" to take, then they make the schedule at the last fucking minute right before the first day of school, and say "lol woops we couldn't fit all ur classes in so we decided for you what classes to drop and which ones to add"
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/N91zm.jpg)
