College Admissions Essay: AP Calculus

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

Has your body ever left your mind so far behind a thick, veil of the spider web you’ve woven, to escape the dreams that have become realities, when in fact, it is merely a dream and not actual fact…

Everyone has to make choices in their life. Some are everyday choices, like what to eat or drink. Others are more critical, like choosing a job. Important decisions take time to comprehend. Like with me, the decision to go to college was the most critical choice in my life and for my future, and I will never regret it. Going to college is important because it helps me find a job, it expands my knowledge, and it is a wonderful experience.

Coming into your Pre-Calculus class, I was under the impression that I had all the skills necessary to succeed. Having taken (regular) pre-calculus my junior year of high school and College Algebra the first semester of my senior year, I had studied the various functions, graphing concepts, and polynomials/factoring. I also studied an ample amount of angle properties, the trigonometry functions (and applications associated with them), and trigonometric graphs. Even with this background in algebra and trigonometry, dual credit pre-calculus has proved a formidable foe as I did not anticipate learning so many new concepts, such as conditional trigonometric functions or verifying identities. Most other concepts, like inverse trig functions and the various identities, had slipped my mind since my experience in regular pre-cal from the previous school year (this was probably due to the fact that I did not

1. DBQ: Discuss the changing ideals of American womanhood between the American Revolution (1770s) and the outbreak of the Civil War. What factors fostered the emergence of "republican motherhood" and the "cult of domesticity?" Assess the extent to which these ideals influenced the lives of women during this period. In your answer be sure to consider issues of race and class.

Based on your existing knowledge of American Indian–colonial relations in North America, write an argument to use as the basis of your research.

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

Given the AP class list at Charlestown High School, and my constant relocating between states during high school, I was only able to take one AP class- AP Language & composition. After coming back to Charlestown High, halfway into September of 2016, I was put into AP Lang and was required to complete all of the summer work in one week. Despite all of the readings and annotations, I was able to complete the requirements, along with a 1500 word essay before the deadline and received the highest grade. Regardless of the challenges that I face outside, and inside of school I’ve always been able to strive for academic excellence and push myself to partake in the creation of new knowledge. Throughout my time in high school when given work that I could not fully comprehend in class, I would spend hours after school teaching myself what I could not understand before. By pushing myself to learn more outside of school I always ended up being ahead of my class in the long run. If given the chance to be a part of the Program I feel that I will have a strong community to learn from, teach and help in order to better myself and others no matter the coursework. No matter the case I always have the motivation to strive for excellence in everything that I do whether

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.

The history of calculus falls into several distinct time periods, most notably the ancient, medieval, and modern periods. The ancient period introduced some of the ideas of integral calculus, but does not seem to have developed these ideas in a rigorous or systematic way. Calculating volumes and areas, the basic function of integral calculus, can be traced back to the Egyptian Moscow papyrus (c. 1800 BC), in which an Egyptian successfully calculated the volume of a pyramidal frustum.[1][2] From the school of Greek mathematics, Eudoxus (c. 408−355 BC) used the method of exhaustion, which prefigures the concept of the limit, to calculate areas and volumes while Archimedes (c. 287−212 BC) developed this idea

The second semester of this course made me question my passion for math. I understood concepts and the curriculum but I would never do well in the practice AP Tests my teacher gave us weekly. The tests would be curved tremendously and the grades I received were a lie. 9/45 does not equal a 70%. I felt true resentment.

Moreover, students need to understand the workload they’ll be getting. They need to understand that the choice should not be taken lightly: this comes as a discussion between them and their parents and counselors. The process in which students try for more AP classes should be a period for them to consider what the AP classes will entail.

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

Obstacles can easily change one’s journey in life. I believe I did have to overcome obstacles to succeed in AP Calculus, but they are quite different than those of the characters in the movie. In the movie, basically every character had a large obstacle to stop them from taking the class. For example, Angel was hindered by his activity within a gang. Ana had to deal with her father who wanted her to drop out of school and join the family business. Pancho had to choose between joining the workforce and his possible future as a student. Personally, the obstacles I faced were fundamentally different than those in the movie. For me, I had to overcome obstacles like not understanding the content that we learned in Honors Pre-Calculus the year

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.