It's been a while, huh?
I don't actually remember how I did I these, and I don't particularly care to look back and copy it at this point because I'm lazy and tired and drained but I've been awol and I want to write something, so ta-da motherfuckers. Um. Apparently I'm a writer and I wrote stories and I totally forgot? I have fanfictions? I haven't even touched them in like a month or so? W h o o p s
Yeah, sorry about that, but if you yell at me to update I will literally just laugh at you bc it won't be happening anytime soon, not when I'm a stress mess that's more focused on school then literally anything else on the planet (@ friends sorry for neglect, I still love you I promise I just suck lol).
I mostly wanted to make this bc I wanted to talk about school, and how I've been doing, bc I haven't really done that in a while and I've been doing really, really good in school, and don't exactly have anyone irl to share that with (I'm the social equivalent of Castiel+Sheldon Cooper, so I haven't made any real friends in the two months I've been in school now) and I want to ramble bc talking to myself about it has been kind of purposeless.
The thing is, I've always had fantastic grades. Literally straighter grades than me, I've never had lower than an A- on a report card. But I went to private school my entire life up until I graduated eighth grade, and I've learned the hard way that private schools are not up to standard - particularly in Math. This was a hard ing to grasp, especially because math and English have always been my better subjects, and have quickly become my worst (English is still my worst. I love irony) and when I took the placement tests or incoming private school kids for those particular subjects, I (thankfully) got into Honest English, but bombed the math placement test. I had no idea what I was doing, I flat out wrote "I don't know" on the last ten questions, and inevitably scored a 38% on the assessment (that was generous tbh). As a result, I got placed in Algebra I, and by extent, Biology, because math and science are linked here (for getting into Honors English, I qualified for he only available AP course for freshmen, AP Human Geography, more on that later).
Come first week of school, and, no offense to the kids in my math class, but it was really obvious that they just were not smart. Most of them couldn't even add or subtract, they constantly needed help, and most of them didn't even try. That pissed me off, because here I was, categorized into the same place as them, and I'd always been good at math, usually without even trying. But, because I'd never learned what most kids my age knew, I didn't qualify for anything else.
My dad ended up asking my teacher if there was anything we could do, bc he knew I wasn't happy there at all, and she suggested that I could transfer to Honors Algebra I, which was never even presented to an option for us before. I had no idea that was even a thing. Eventually, a week after school started, I signed a waver basically saying,"I'm not qualified for this class at all, but I'm going to try it anyways. I have to keep at least a B, or I'll get put back in the other class." (My Biology didn't change but I know nothing about science so I didn't push it).
Right off the bat, when I transferred, I was convinced that I bit off more than I could chew. I'd only kissed a week, and thankfully my teacher didn't have me make anything up, but I didn't remember/recognize most of what I missed. On the first quiz, I got a 6/10 (a D) and was convinced that I was going to be put back in the other class as soon as Unit 1 was finished.
Then the first Unit test came around. I was the first one finished. That scared me, and I waited to see how long it would take for anyone else to finish. I waited about five minutes. Then, I waited for a few more people to turn in their test before finally handing mine in, convinced that I was going to bomb it bc if I got a D on the last quiz, and I finished really fast, there was just no hope (ha!) for me.
Next time we saw my math teacher, she said that while most of us did okay on the multiple choice portion of the test, a lot of people "crashed and burned" on the performance task, or what I guess could be considered the written part of the test.
The kids around me got their tests first (one D and two C's) and I'm just thinking I failed I failed I failed I failed and then she called me up and I got a fUCKING 93% and nearly cried bc the highest score I saw people showing each other was an 82% and I'm not supposed to be in that class and one of the points I missed was for not showing my work and I just what the fuck
So that was an experience. The next time we saw her, she said anyone not happy with their grade could retake the performance task, and everyone in the class besides except about 5/40 kids (some of which didn't bring their old test, which they had to do to retake it) retook it. Atm, thanks to some extra credit stuff I turned in, I have a 97% overall in Honors Algebra I, a class I'm not even supposed to be in.
And then English.
So we had a summer reading assignment for The Book Thief. I mentioned it in a few A/N's on my story, and I had fun with it, especially bc I'd read it before and it was one of my favorites. We were warned that we'd have a prompt during the first week of school for it, but I wasn't worried, bc it was The Book Thief. What could go wrong?
I got a fucking D-.
Just think about that for a second. A writer bombing an English assignment based on one of their favorite books. I deserve an award.
So I had a D in English for a while. Bringing it up was a slow and steady process, but thankfully, I'm not totally hopeless in English, and did good on the few quizzes and 2-chunk paragraphs she had us do. For someone who's never done Cornell notes and barely touched on outlines before this year, I'd say going up from a 60% in the class to a 93% overall in two months is pretty impressive. It's still my lowest grade in a class, and I'm pretty sure it's going to drop a lot after today's district assessment that no one told us about (we were supposed to finish a paragraph about Fourth of July using sensory details and dialogue and I wrote a paragraph about a dog before realizing I was about to run out of room+time so I panicked and wrote two shitty sentences about fireworks help) but it's definitely the biggest grade jump I've ever made in my life.
Anyways, now let's talk about AP Human Geography.
Ngl, I had no idea what the subject even was. I just signed up for it bc hello AP class college credit let's do it. Then I walked in on freshmen orientation, the teacher talked, I looked around the class, and I regret everything. Dear God, I wasn't prepared. Wow.
But then we actually started class with the introductory stuff, and getting used to his admittedly v anal rules when answering question (if the question involves the word evaluate, use four sentences, describe three, and like six other specific words I'm not even going to get into) I had fun with it. I wrote way more than everyone else and had fun with it, even though I'd spend three hours on homework just from his class sometimes. One day of homework from AP HUG is worth about a week of homework from all of my other classes combined, but it's my favorite class, so I don't mind so much.
First test comes around and I barely even studied. There was a multiple choice portion of 40 questions in 32 minutes, and a written portion for a question we'd get beforehand to prepare for, which needed to be answered in 25 minutes (several parts to the question). In the end, I got a 35/40, but since he grades from the highest score down, and the highest score in both of the two periods he teachers AP HUG was a 38/40, I managed to snag an A, albeit a low one (about 92%). I thought I was gonna suck ass on the written portion, but I actually got a 40/40, so that was nice.
Right after that, we had to make a "Geodiary", which is essentially a presentation of our activity space, or "those places we travel to routinely in our rounds of daily activity". My mom's coworker's daughter, whom I'd never seen nor interacted with before this school year, happened to live three streets away from me, and sit right in front of me in AP HUG, so when they introduced us, she proposed that we do the Geodiary together, since we could do partner projects as long as we gave a "Geodiary on steroids" (teacher's words not mine) or an extra good project. I went along with it, bc she said she knew how to make a video presentation, and that was one of the examples he gave us that we could do.
The plan was to take the bus home together after school one day. However, we missed it, and she suggested that we just walk home, to get more footage. It was over 90 degrees, we had to carry our AP HUG books around with us since we don't have a class set for those, I had a sunburn from the day before from PE, and we lived about three miles away.
So naturally I said,"Sure."
I regret everything, definitely including the hour and twenty minute walk home in the heat, but we got a 40/40 on the project so yano.
At the end of Unit 1, I had a 97% in an AP class. Could it get any better? The oblivious, small-minded Hope Marie thought.
Unit 2 test: way harder and more detailed than the first one, but I studied more, and I knew that particular chapter really well. Still, bc I'm v doubtful and have no self-confidence whatsoever, I was just shaking my head the whole time after turning it in (side note: on every test I was the first one to turn it in) and mouthing to myself I did bad.
My teacher can show us the multiple choice scores right away, which is what I was really worried about. He said that the highest score was a 36/40, there were a couple 35's, and then idk after that. Still, out of 80 or so kids, you have to figure that if those are the highest scores, and how few people even got that high, the test was really fucking hard.
My teacher, about to go to the desk to show us, casually mentions,"By the way, to the person shaking their head saying 'I did bad' you actually got the highest score just thought you should know."
I kinda just ???¿?¿¿?¿¿¿??
I was the first person he called up, and low and behold, I got the 36/40. Because it was the highest score, it was considered 100%. I think he cracked some joke, but I honestly couldn't hear bc what the fuck so naturally mumbled something that might've been "I'm going to eat my hand," walked back to my desk, and promptly cried. (A few days later I found out I got a 40/40 on the written part rip me). (I did an extra credit homework assignment that day so that combined with the high test scores shit my grade in AP Human Geography up to over 101%).
But that didn't even prepare me for the Unit 3 test.
Honestly, Unit 3 didn't stick with me at all. It was on migration, which is something I should know more about than fucking Population, which was Unit 2. I didn't think I'd do that good.
However, the teacher did us a favor, and outlined the multiple choice test for us, by telling us which pictures to look at and which sections of the chapter had how many questions on the test. Obviously, the chapter's pretty big, but I think it actually saved my ass.
For Unit 1, I barely glanced at vocabulary when studying. For Unit 2, I remembered it for the most part, but reread the first ten pages or so to jog my memory. For Unit 3, I reread the entire chapter, just to cover all of my bases, especially since without retaining most of it, I wasn't taking my chances.
Test comes around. I'm in Period 3, and his other class in Period 1 had just taken their test (we have block schedule, odd periods on Mondays/Wednesdays, even periods on Tuesdays/Thursdays, all periods on Fridays) and the highest on the multiple choice test was only a 32/40. On one hand, you think Oh, that's not bad, I can beat it. On the other hand, you think We'll, if the highest score was that low, then this test is going to be fucking hard.
I flew through the test in nine minutes. I checked the time once I finished. I felt pretty good, but I still didn't want to get my hopes up.
The teacher announces that in this class, only three people scored higher than a 32, and one scored a solid 32. Then:
"As for the high score. . .well, I HOPE this person isn't upset that they got a 39/40."
(For the sake of my pride, I got robbed on that last question. "Ravenstein's Law states that. . . And I could choose either b) Urban residents are less migratory than rural residents, or c) Rural residents are more migratory than urban residents. It's the same thing, just different wording, and I chose one of them bc how can it be wrong but apparently Ravenstein stated it in a particular way, so I got marked wrong even though I got the concept right.)
A 39/40 is the highest score anyone in AP Human Geography - in any of the classes, including the one other AP HUG teacher at our school and his classes - has gotten all year, beating out the 38 from Unit 1. It was my second time getting the highest score of the class in a row. The next day, kids in the other teacher's AP HUG class mentioned it, and I didn't even know their names. In PE, a girl in the other AP HUG class asked me what my last name was, and I told her, and she gaped at me and said,"You got a 39/40 on the test???" By that point, I had to ask how she knew, and she said,"Oh, my teacher, Mr. Newsome (btw totally guessing his name I know it has an N but Idek it lol) said that someone in Hendry's class got a 39, and someone who knew you said it was you." And I just ???¿?¿¿???¿? It sounds a lot like my teacher bragged about me to the other teacher who Idek, who told his entire class about me??? What the actual fuck??? I'm not even supposed to be up to state standard as a private school kid and I'm the top of my class??? An AP class??? I'm???
Wow this got way longer than elected and in about an hour I should be eating dinner but I really like talking about how well I'm doing and felt like rambling and I love AP HUG and I just wowwowowowowowowow what even has high school been so far wowwowowowowowowow okay I should go now I don't even remember how to sign these but fuck it whatever Idec lol bye