Improve Calculus Grade: Tips for Junior High Students

[DeputyFerg]

I just got my report card last week. My math class calculus is really difficult but I have been working really hard. I got a B+. I knew that my garde was going to be low but now I am really worried that I won't be able to be a physicist any more. Is a B+ going to stop be from getting into a college or getting good scholarships? I still have half of the year to try to get my grade up a little bit. I am a junior and am starting to think about college right now.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Absolutely do not sweat a B+. If the class was as tough as you claim, then you should be proud. Anytime someone tells me they get straight A's I wonder just what kind of fluff classes they are taking. What is your overall GPA at the moment?

 

[micromass]

You're asking the wrong questions. Ask yourself if you really do know the material. How come you did not get an A (not that it's a disaster by the way)? If you do know the material then you should be ok. Otherwise, you're in some problems.

 

[DeputyFerg]

Thank you Greg and MicroMass for writing back. My total GPA right now is a 3.8 out of a total of 4. It's nice of you to encourage me that the class might just be hard and that I should be proud/happy with what I did so far. I guess I don't have an A because my test grades weren't all high enough or something. It was really just one test that brought me down quite a bit. I hate related rates. Thank you both for your encouragement. I will look forward to applying to good schools and getting good scholarships.

 

[QuantumCurt]

No, most physicists don't even need to be taught calculus. They just instinctively know it.

That's sarcasm, of course.

You're fine. There are plenty of physicists that haven't always gotten straight A's. The vast majority of them actually. Straight A's, or a 4.0 is really kind of meaningless in the grand scheme of things. If a college denies you, you can be reasonably sure that your B+ in calculus had very little to do with it.

 

[Aren Racyil]

Fellow Student, mate.
Just Practice maybe!?
Buy a decent refresher and daily solve a dozen DIFFICULT problems. Then you might look back at Int( 2x Sin(x^2) dx) and be like ..."Meh!"

 

[playoff]

Personally, I would like to let you know that I graduated high school with a less than 3.0 GPA, and got into a state university that basically accepts almost everyone (not to say anything against our awesome physics program!). I currently have a 3.8+ GPA, and am doing great in upper division math and physics courses as a lower division student. Also, my mentor had a less than 2.0 GPA when he got in this school. This year, he got accepted to #1 graduate program in the nation for the field of research he is interested in.

Don't worry too much. I was panicking when I got a B+ in calculus too, and this was when I was an incoming college freshman. You seem to be a very bright student with a strong academic background, so there shouldn't be trouble in getting into a good university with a plentiful scholarship. There will be greater downfalls living the life of a physicist, and the only way is to toughen out and continue your path. Keep working hard, and I highly doubt that you'll walk out of that class with anything less than an A!

 

[Dale]

There are plenty of physicists that haven't always gotten straight A's. The vast majority of them actually.

To further emphasize this, one of my graduate advisors actually got irritated at his students for getting A's. In his opinion, if you were getting an A then you were spending too much time on classes and not spending enough time in the lab doing research. It may not be directly applicable since that was graduate school instead of high school, but the general idea is that there is some tolerance of B's, even to the point of some people favoring them over A's.

I won't say whether I was one of the ones that he got irritated at or not ;-)