[missminnie]

Hi guys,

I've always had 90's and high 80's in school. I love biology, and math has never been a struggle for me, until i met grade 11.

first semester was great, all my courses were at the grade 11 level, most of them advanced except for french. I finished with all 90's, except for adv physics but then again, who needs physics?

When second semester started, my grades weren't too bad at the start, but near midterm, they started plummeting. (btw, we don't write midterm exams at my school, so that cant be the reason) All my courses are advanced and 3/4 at the grade 12 level. it was a struggle to juggle them all with my extracurriculars.

When my adv chem 11 mark dropped, i put my all into it, raising it up to an 81. Then my adv math 12 mark dropped. but i'm a smart math student, all my quizzes and assignments were all 90's and high 80's, but my test marks brought me down bad. I finished the course with a 73 before the exam. At the exam, i calculated the highest my exam score could be: a 77. This leaves my math mark as approximately a 74. Thats even lower than my physics mark.

Long story short, my dream is to become a pharmacist, or even a marine biologist. i'm scared university wont accept me if my math mark is this low. The only courses they usually consider, are grade 12 level courses, but i still have another year left of high school.

What can i do? do you guys think they'll accept me? do you have any advice?

My grade 12 level course marks are as follows: (tentatively, because i still have 2 exams to write)

Advanced Math 12 - 74
Advanced Bio 12 - 90
Food Science 12 - 96

Any advice will help, i'm just so stressed out

Thank you

[missminnie]

P.S : i'm also taking pre-cal and calculus next year, if those marks are high, do you think they would override my math 12 mark?

[unaluna]

I would say, the more important issue is to figure out why you are getting these lower marks. What is different about the tests vs the homework, for instance? Try to duplicate those circumstances in doing your homework, like working alone or closed book.

[missminnie]

my homework is fine, my tests are the problem, some people say i must have a test phobia. but the point i'm trying to make is that i may have really messed up my chances of getting into university, and i'm looking for a way to solve that problem,

[unaluna]

I get it. I still think you would do better to put your efforts towards solving the test phobia problem. Those are big differences in marks. If you can show an improvement, you can explain it in your essay, how you solved the problem. That shows that you fixed the real problem, not just the cosmetics, the appearance of the problem. If you want to go into Public Relations like Edina Monsoon, then how you "spin" the problem is important. But if you want to really save the whales, I think you have to do the math. So to speak.

[missminnie]

thanks, i'm thinking about re-taking the course to get a higher mark

[spondiferous]

I would advise looking into the schools (colleges) you plan on applying to to find out what their prerequisites are. Takes out the guesswork.

[missminnie]

i did look it up, and to get in is purely competitive, highest marks get accepted.

On another note, i told my friend about it and she told me that if my pre-cal mark next year is higher than my math mark this year, the university will look at my pre-cal mark, and not my math 12 mark,

thank you all for your help