Summer Stress

Zach Norman
Jul 20, 2017 · 2 min read

As I’ve shared many times, I am currently taking a summer Honors Chemistry course, which is a direct prerequisite for AP Chemistry and Honors Biology.

In case you haven’t assumed yet what I want to take in the future assuming I stay in high school, I would like to take those classes.

The problem? I need a recommendation.

My teacher was telling us what the possible recommendations were today- AP Chem/Honors Bio without conditions, AP Chem/Honors Bio with conditions, and Regular Bio. The AP Chem/Honors Bio without conditions basically means that he has no reservations about you taking the classes. The one with conditions basically means that he will recommend you depending on your schedule. The Regular Bio is exactly what it sounds like- regular biology, not at Honors or AP level.

My teacher was also telling us B+ means automatic admission to AP Chem/Honors Bio.

I have a B. An 83.6, or 84 in other words. I basically need to get my grade up to an 86.5 (which rounds to a 87, which is a B+) by next Friday, the 28th.

I have a horrible test grade which is bringing me down. That’s worth 50% of my grade and won’t get me anywhere. If I have to make a final test grade prediction, I’m going to say an 86.

My labs grade, which is worth 30%, is currently an 80, but that’s because I just turned in a bunch of labs today that haven’t been entered yet online. We’re also allowed to correct labs, which is what I’ve been doing, so let’s assume that lab grade turns into an 85.

This leaves homeworks, which is worth 20%. These are online and we can repeat them as many times as we want. Some of the ones though I’ve done horribly on, and I’m going to try to get as many as I can to 8/10. Currently my homework grade is like an 80.2. If I want my grade to be an 86.5, then I probably should aim for an 88 or 89. By next Friday.

So, let’s calculate my theoretical grade. If we calculated the grade average and take the weights into consideration, I end up with an 86.1%. .4% off of the threshold.

So, that means I either need to do really, really well on the next three tests we have, I correct every single lab we have ever done, or I try to get my homework grade to an 89 as that would probably do it (I calculated the average using the 88 as the homework grade).

And I have a week and a day to do this.

I’m stressed if you can’t tell.

Summer is supposed to be when you relax and forget school is even a thing, and here I am worrying about whether I’m going to be able to take AP and Honors science in the future.

So if I go off the grid a bit over the next week, now you know why. I’m trying to get that homework grade up 9%. Wish me luck.

)

Zach Norman

Written by

17, Trans, Writer, Musician, Graphic Designer, Filmmaker, Gamer, Opinion Holder, and Crappy List Maker. My resume is pretty extensive.

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