Last year, I took AP Calculus BC, and it was one of the most difficult subjects I’ve ever taken. In the past, I never had to work so hard to understand math. I never really had to do homework in my math classes, because math was second nature, and I thought that Calculus would be the same. I was extremely wrong. I was positive I aced that first test, but it was a near fail. I was devastated; sure, I’ve bombed tests before, but never in math, and I considered dropping the class. I kept putting off going to see my counselor, and finally, after a couple more failed tests, my teacher pulled me aside and asked me what was going on. I told him that I wasn’t getting the materials, that I was floundering in all of information, and that I was
I think it is safe to say math has always been a passion of mine. I remember learning to count to 1000 in first grade. When I was finally able to do it without any help, it was like swimming for the first time, eating the ripe tomatoes I grew myself, or putting together a new song on the guitar. The feeling of accomplishment cannot be recreated. As we get older, this feeling becomes more difficult to achieve. This only increases my motivation and determination to learn something new. AP calculus has been a roller coaster of learning. Despite the struggle and rigor, I learned valuable skills that will help me in my future aspirations. Taking the AP Calculus exam gave me a rush of accomplishment. I have built a knowledge base because I am constantly
The quizzes were a huge part of my grade, and I didn’t retake them. I was so close to 60% to a D, I stressed out for nothing. My grade was still an F, and in the final i did horrible. I didn’t pass the class and i had to accepted it. I failed and I couldn't do nothing about it. I went to my counselor to ask her if she could change my class to another teacher because i was having difficulty with my teacher. My teacher was the only teacher that would to a quiz every friday. I explained to my counselor and i even begged her to change my schedule. But, it didn’t work the counselor asked me if i retook the quizzes and well i told her no. So, she told me that she wasn’t gonna change my schedule because i didn’t “tried” to raise my grade. At first, i got a mad at the counselor for refusing to change my teacher. But, then after I realize that it was my fault because I never did my quiz corrections and i never signed up for retaking a quiz. After, the semester ended I received my report card for my final grades, and I got really upset because all my classes were A’s except my Algebra II was an F. I didn't get my 5 credits, so now I’m missing 5
Furthermore, I started working on Algebra 2 problems which were a little more tedious than the ones from the other class, yet, they still entertained me. After a couple of weeks in that class, the teacher approached me and asked me if I would like to try a more challenging class; AP Math. I saw it as a good challenge and gave it a chance. Now that didn’t turn out as I expected. The teacher was from a foreign country and had a terrible accent. As a result, I couldn’t understand anything. I felt lost from the moment she started talking to that end I couldn’t follow. I was trying to learn English and had enough with my other classes. I didn’t want my favorite class to become stressful, so I decided to go back to Algebra 2. The teacher welcomed
After all, math was one of my best subjects. I had never really had an experience where I just couldn't understand the concept of a math problem, of how it was solved and why. Our teachers has warned us back in elementary school, that one day we would hit an invisible wall and not ease through classes. That one day we would struggle with understanding a problem, a concept or even a subject. I had never believed them, thinking this would never happen to me, that I could somehow avoid this wall of confusion and just walk right through. But there I was, utterly confused and frustrated at a simple problem that everyone else could solve. Why was I not seeing it? Why couldn't I understand the solution? I asked myself. For the first time in my life I really struggled to get an A in a class. I had my sister tutor me almost every day, preparing for a quiz and then the next, and the next. I came in to my teacher for lunch and he helped me step by step. I studied for tests, and worked hard. And my work payed off. I got a high A in the course, and a lot of experience from it. It taught me how to work hard for something, to earn a good grade when you deserve it, and it gave me the skills I needed to get As in the high school classes I am taking this
In my last two years of highschool I duel enrolled St. Petersburg Community College, my local community college. In my senior year I decided to take online classes due to the very long drive to the nearest campus. I ended up taking Calculus with Analytic Geometry and two other classes online. My Calculus proffessor did not teach or provide any materiel to learn from other than the text book and homework questions. For the first quarter of the class I did well and completed all the assignments easily; however, the class got harder and the textbook no longer provided me with enough information to complete the assignments. I struggled through this part of the class and had a hard time mainting my grade which I wanted to keep as high as possible. After several trips to the campus for tutoring and spending hours trying to find other external resources I began to learn how to solve the problems and brought my grade back up and finally passed the class with an A.
for the entirety of your math career, youve never calculated a moment’s slope. you only use approximations based on numbers before and after the current moment. That is, of course, until you hit calculus, when everything becomes instantaneous. In calculus, you derive equations to find how things are changing in the now; no need to focus on anything that came before or after. A tendency toward instantaneous moments occurred multiple times junior year.
I admit, I had a very challenging time last semester, and as a result my grades suffered. I don’t mean to make excuses for my poor performance in school but I would like to explain my circumstance. During my second semester of college I treated my classes like I did in high school thinking I could coast by and pass my classes, but when I noticed how poorly I was doing in class everything was already headed downhill. I started the second
In my writing, my goal was to portray my experiences with the online AP Calculus AB course I took last year (sophomore year), in order to demonstrate when I learned some of the most important lessons in my life. Furthermore, through the use of different parts of my personal experiences, I also wished to address the different lessons that I learned; hopefully using the contributions of all of these lessons to arrive at a “final” lesson. To do this, I decided to focus on three main parts: giving the reader context and information behind my initial character/mindset, demonstrating how the AP Calculus AB course influenced that character/mindset, and showing what I learned from the AP Calculus AB Exam. Moreover, I wanted to have a different tone in each of these parts, both demonstrating my different feelings as well as portraying very different “aspects” of myself . For the first part, I decided that I wanted to have a “lighter” tone and focus on how I was excelling at school with ease, because this would contrast clearly with the next part. For the second part, I decided that I wanted to have a deeper mood while seeming confused, because this would further show the contrast between the first and second parts, as well as demonstrating how this truly was the first time I truly learned that lesson. For the third part, I decided that I wanted to begin with a more positive tone, as I had just learned my lesson, but transition into the same tone as the previous
Before the 6th grade, I really enjoyed math and I believed I was even good at it. Then to add to my excitement about math, I made a perfect score on my 6th grade Taks test. However, the next year (my 7th grade year) my teacher was a new teacher and you could tell she was struggling. She was a very nice teacher, and I loved her so much, I just struggled to understand what she was teaching. The next year, I transferred to a new school. Here, the teachers were not certified but they tried to help with everything they possibly could; however, their ability to help us was pretty limited. At my new school, we did all of our work on computers for half of the day and attended college classes at Panola and TSTC the rest of day. While I truly loved this
I experienced by middle and high school math classes not truly recognizing the intrinsic value of them and arrived at AP Calculus AB my junior year of high school holding the same apathy for them. The popular culture and ideology regarding mathematics is that unless a student is going to study engineering, s/he will never use trigonometry, algebra, or geometry. The actual subject matter didn’t matter, only the numerical stamp of progress and success did. I let myself get caught in that train of thinking, and quickly considered mathematics another obstacle I had to grudgingly hurdle to continue my studies.
So after talking to the teacher and realizing that this problem was not going to be resolved unless I took matters into my own hands I went to my guidance counselor a couple of times and we came to the conclusion to try Florida Virtual School’s math program. My counselor told me it would be hard because I basically lost a whole semester's worth of Geometry but hey I had nothing to lose. Turns out I really liked taking online math and was able to teach myself all of the math. I ended up getting a ninety-five percent in that class! I was also able to relearn many of the skills that I had once misunderstood in my first Geometry class. I was so happy and felt extremely accomplished, I also decided to study harder in my other classes and got straight A’s. Hard work does pay off! My semester GPA ended up being a 4.5. I was also able to take dual enrollment classes during my junior year which was very enjoyable because the class was in English which is one of my favorite subjects along with my Early Childhood Education class. although if I didn't decide to start becoming more independent and taking matters into my own hands none of those accomplishments
I won’t accept failure. 2% was how close I was from failing AP Calculus. Calculus class was the only class where I squandered time because I stopped caring. I was willing to accept a D because that was the easiest option. In the end I did not want to accept that because I had something to prove for myself. If I start giving up for a class then that could have an effect on other things that I deem “difficult.”
My mind searching for the answers. What did this mean? I thought to myself. Right now i’m taking my AP Calculus test which I completely forgot to study for. I’m in all AP classes and I honestly don’t understand anything in any of my classes. But if I fail this class, my mom will lose it on me again. Unfortunately this is a daily routine, I fail something, my mom gets on my about it and tells me to try harder, and then yells at my dad about me being so unintelligent. All my life I have been told to get good grades so I can get a scholarship to a good college. My mom wants be the successful one in my family because my father isn’t quite the right type for having success. After getting fired from a lawyer's office, my dad just gradually started
During my second semester at Southwest Mississippi Community College, I had finally gotten comfortable at the school: I had made friends, and I was doing well in all of my classes. Well, all except for college algebra. I have never been good at algebra; this class was no exception. I tried my very best to understand the material, but my mind just could not comprehend much of the material that we covered in class. Because of my own inability to understand the material, I never finished any of my homework, and I did not do well on any of the tests that I had taken. I had later come to realize that my inability to understand the material was not the fault of anyone but myself.
I have always been capable of grasping new ideas quickly, and so my academic career has been relatively smooth sailing for me. At least, until Calculus BC. This class is unlike any other I have taken; the level of difficulty I have found myself presented with is so unbelievably overwhelming for a person who has not felt truly challenged in years. For me to go from the comfort of the soft stars to the harsh reality of failing an exam was inconceivable. I have never felt more out of my comfort zone, and yet, at the same time, I have never felt more compelled to succeed.