Classes for Next Year

Anything and everything.

Classes for Next Year

by Big Bad Bug » Tue Mar 14, 2017 11:19 pm

The school year for me will be starting soon, meaning that I'll have to pick classes for the next year. However, I have a lot of things to consider and was hoping to get some advice here about it.

To begin, some information: I'm going to be going into 12th grade, the last year of high school before college. My current year, Junior Year or 11th grade, is considered the most impoartant academic year because grades in classes are sen as the most "accurate" to one's capabilities, followed by 10th grade. 12th and 9th grade, the only other years of high school, are considered the least important, but I don't know to what extent they differ with other years.

At my school, most everyone takes 6 classes, except for me, as I've been doing an extra one early in the morning (I have to be ready for school at 5:15 AM to be on time) but I won't be next year since my sister is going to start her first year of high school when I'm in 12th grade, so there isn't time for me to go to school without her (we have to go by car; I won't make it on time if I walk since it's about a half hour drive there without traffic), which I don't mind anyways because it's impossible for me to get sufficient sleep under these conditions.

Anyways, of these 6 classes, there are some requirements to be filled. All 4 years of high school, students have to take an English class of some kind. This is unfortunate for me because there are only 2 advanced English classes available and I've already taken them both, meaning that I have to settle for a regular class that won't give me any additional credit for being advanced. Here, we have Advanced Placement, or AP classes, which gives students 1 extra point on their grade point average, or GPA. Normally, the best that can be earned is an average of 4, which means all A's, but AP classes can give 5 points to students who get an A, and when measured out of 6 classes, this adds an extra 0.16666... points to a GPA, up to 5 if someone has all A's in all AP classes. This is very auspicious to colleges. Unfortunately, because of English, I'm literally unable to get a 5 no matter what because there are no more AP English classes. There's nothing I can do about this.

For other classes, it's considered preferable that students have classes in biology, physics, and chemistry. I won't go into too much detail, but I got completely screwed over by my school counsellor when it comes to classes, so even after 3 years of high school I still haven't been able to get a chemistry class into my schedule. So, now, I've requested AP Chemistry that I'll have to get next year because it's a higher priorirty now for the school to care about it. Unfortunately, there's only 1 teacher for the class and I heard that he's so bad that students have to teach themselves the entire class and a lot of them don't even bother to pay for the final exam (all AP classes have a $100 fee just to take their final exam) because they know it's a waste.

I'm not too worried about math because I actually enjoy it when I can spend the time to appreciate it, which is basically whenever I don't have to spend all of my time on other classes. I've gotten lucky not to have any of the really horrible math teachers at the school and instead got all of the good ones, so I'm thankful for that good luck.

History is probably going to be a pain because the school's faculty of history teachers is so bad that I'd compare it to the terrible English department as well. I don't know much about the specific teachers for 12th grade history, which would be either Government or AP Government in my case. But, the school seems pretty consistent in its lack of quality with history, so I'm worried about taking this purely because of the experiences in the past that I've had. Some might remember my rant about the daily 4 hours of homework that was just taking notes on things that don't even show up in the tests that I endured throughout 10th grade.

Next is a foreign language class, that being AP Spanish for me. Once again, there's only 1 teacher for this class but I hear he's a cool person, so I know I'm going to take this for sure.

Finally, there needs to be a class that relates to the arts of some kind, and I chose Graphic Design because it's also available to 9th graders and I hope that I have it with my sister. Unfortunately, once AGAIN, there's a single teacher for the class and I heard from everybody that he doesn't teach the class at all, forcing everyone to learn on their own.

With all of that said, you can already see some of the issues I have with the school. I haven't even talked about the other problems present, but they aren't as relevant and I don't want to waste time with even more text. I'll suffice to say that there are few places I can turn to and not find misery and/or corruption there.

10th grade was the worst year of my life; I was unhappy every day and I feel like that entire year has just been taken from me because it was wasted trying to cope with my horrible schedule. I was so rarely happy and had to deal with the terrible counsellor who randomly put me in classes without telling me that there were other advanced ones I could take, merely filling in spaces with whatever. I remember her telling me, "AP Chemistry is full. You're taking physics." It was such a pain that it took months just to get one class switched, since she was not only never around to do her job (it took me multiple months coming in at various free moments throughout the day, before, during, and after school, just to get one meeting with her) but also LIED and acted like she was telling me not to change that class even though she NEVER communicated with me, even when I emailed her.

This year, I might have it even worse. Not only is the AP Computer Science teacher far worse than the history teacher I had last year, but I once again can't find solace in English, science, or history. I feel like every day of my life is just thrown in the garbage doing work and more work that amounts to nothing. Here on the forums, I barely have the time to post or read anything at all, and I consider myself a very fast and focused worker who doesn't procrastinate anything. Still, I barely have any time because of the hours of homework every day. In fact, there's so much that I've been forced to just not do some of it because I don't have the time; my health is out at enough risk with the drastic amount of hours of sleep per day that I've bene unavle to have. And my grades are suffering for it. Despite all of the AP classes I took, I only got a 4.17 last semester because most of my teachers aren't teaching and they give too much work for me to be able to completely finish with accuracy. The current status for this semester is looking significantly worse because the teachers somehow became even worse. Objectively worse.

At this moment, I don't know if I should even bother signing up for many AP classes. I feel like my effort amounts to very little or just nothing in these classes. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the problem and just not cut out for this, but the one thing I've managed to retain in all of this is my confidence in my own abilities; it's the garbage teachers, garbage counsellors, and overall garbage school that are ruining my last years being young as well as my future because I won't get into a better college under these conditions. To top it all off, I don't do well if I have to teach myself; I prefer to be taught the information so that I can use it as soon as possible and move on to the next work because I don't have time for anything more. The teachers for next year sound like they're going to be a nightmare for me.

Has anyone had a similar experience or have any advice for what to do? Even with good teachers, I can't make myself enjoy school. The thought of it saddens and enrages me because of how terribly it has effected my life.
BBB
User avatar
Moderator
 
Posts: 7815
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:22 pm
Location: Your worst nightmares

Re: Classes for Next Year

by NastyBird339 » Wed Mar 15, 2017 3:06 am

Unfortunately, i cant say i experience that. I dont have nay ap classes, just PAP and my all of my teachers are pretty damn good. My recommendation would be to cut down your workload, and tell the principal anout the terrible teachers you experience.
User avatar
User
 
Posts: 140
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2016 1:21 am
Location: Texas

Re: Classes for Next Year

by Big Bad Bug » Fri Mar 24, 2017 4:40 am

Alright, I've decided on not doing AP Chemistry. I've heard that it's an overly difficult class and chemistry doesn't interest me over other classes anyways. Instead, here's my schedule:

Graphic Design -> Art. I was originally going to take this class just so I could have 1 class with my sister, but she doesn't want to do Graphic Design, and like I already said, the teacher just doesn't teach anyways. So, we're going to do art together, which is hopefully going to go well. :)

ERWC. Nothing's changed here since it's still my only option besides regular English, which I don't want to take.

AP Chemistry -> AP Psychology. Why not? This is considered an easy class and most people just take it for the sake of getting AP credit, even if they don't really care about the subject. I'll probably find this more interesting than the majority of the students since I really like to understand how people think and to know why someone feels or acts the way they do.

AP Calculus BC. I am HYPED for this! While not on par with some members of this forum, many people at my school consider me to be one of the best students at math they've ever seen, and I personally really like math even if a lot of high school math is functionless once school ends. Plus, the only teacher for this math class at the school has graded the final AP exams before because he's been teaching the class for so long, so I think he'll be a good instructor. :D

AP Government. Like Psychology, this one is considered to be a relatively easy AP class, and since history is required, I may as well go all-out with it. I still don't know much about the teachers for this class but it has a good reputation. It'll probably be the first one I leave if I find that my coursework is excessively difficult, though.

AP Spanish. Once again, this one is regarded as an easy A, and the teacher barely gives any work. Hopefully, what I'm being told is true and people aren't just treating me like I'm smarter than I actually am, expecting me to have an easy time doing things that they personally find hard.

67% of my classes are advanced. I don't need them to be, as I looked up colleges and the one I want to attend, USC (for its game design programs), generally requires a 3.5 or above to admit students in, and I would have a 4.7 if I got all A's next year. Still, my motivation to do well in school stems from the other students. I admit that this is a personal problem with myself, but I really enjoy the praise I get from other people in my classes about how well I do, even though I feel very overworked at times. If my teachers are good, though, that shouldn't be so bad, and I'll pull through in order to get the praise. Maybe someday in the future I'll have the self-esteem to not be as driven by it, but for now, I'll try to use it to my advantage as much as I can.
BBB
User avatar
Moderator
 
Posts: 7815
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:22 pm
Location: Your worst nightmares


Who is online
Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 37 guests