(READ THE POST BEFORE THIS TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING!)
Long story short, I had to take the same high school math class four times because I cheated. Lesson for the kids. The fourth time I went through it was in my senior year, and I passed easily with an A. The next class was the one I had failed with a D in it two years before, so I was pretty nervous. I passed that with a B.
Because I'm not going into a maths, sciences, or engineering major, I don't need to have very many college math classes. I actually only need one, College Algebra. So that was it this semester, my last math class EVER! All my teachers at the college psyched me out for it beforehand. The one dude was all like, "it's the hardest class they offer here, even harder than calculus because they teach you so much in so little time!" and "I know people that have had to retake it 5 times!!!". lol, he really was like that.
Well I took College Algebra this semester and passed with an A. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! An A in my last math class ever!!!!!!! I am so happy!!!!! A in College Alg, A in French 2, A in Eng Comp, and A in Ballet I/II.
And altogether in my last three semesters in college, I have only one B. The rest of my grades are all A's! Three A's my very first semester, two A's and a B the second semester, and four A's my first Freshman semester! woot woot :P I didn't even think I could get an A in college algebra. And now I'm done with math FOREVER!!!!! lol you must excuse my crazy happiness. Math and I have had an interesting, complicated relationship over the years.
Also this semester I completed all of my math and language cred that I'll need, as well as computer literacy. I think I have 27 college credits now! almost one "full" year.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
A little backstory
Finally finished with this semester - my first real semester in college! Meaning now I'm taking all college-level classes and I'm officially a high school graduate. For my senior year last year I took all of my classes at the community college, but I had one math class each semester that was high-school level and not college. So, this semester I was officially 100% a college student! yay for that!
I took four classes. College Algebra, French 2, English Comp 1, and Ballet I/II. I should have been in French 3 by now but the school didn't offer it at a good time last semester when I should have taken it. Anyway, I thought I'd sum up a little bit of my first Freshman year college semester for you, if you care to know at all!
First things first. When I was 15, I started cheating in school, particularly in math. I had a teacher, Capt Hook let's call him, who didn't take and grade your homework, so you didn't really have to do it. So I went through the first chapter of material and didn't really do the homework. Then came the first test, and wouldn't you know it, I got around 67%. Either way I didn't pass the test.
Now here comes the fun part. Not only did I fail the test, my teacher Capt Hook saw fit to tell THE WHOLE CLASS that I got the lowest score on the test and failed. There were other people that failed too, but my score was lowest so for some reason he thought it would humor people to see me humiliated or something. Nice guy, huh? I mean seriously?!?! Who does that?!?! Some people are not meant to teach. And by the way, I was the youngest person in the class. I decided after that class that I was going to drop out because I hated him for doing that. But I was also really scared that I was just stupid because I had failed and been humiliated for it. So, my mom decided to teach me the same math class, just at home.
Now, I've never been an outwardly rebellious or bad child. I've always been more sneaky. For example I'll use a cookie jar analogy: If there's a cookie jar on the counter, of course the kids want the cookies, but their parents have told them not to take any. However these children are exceptionally naughty, and they have both decided to sneak cookies anyway. Well, my brother would go into the kitchen and take the cookie from the jar right in front of my parents in order to get what he wanted and to show his defiance. Me on the other hand...I would wait until my mom was busy with my little sister, my brother was playing with legos, and my dad was mowing the lawn. Then I'd make my move. Stealthily I'd creep into the kitchen, silently open the jar, and use a pair of tongs or something to pull the cookie out. Once the cookie was in my possession, I'd creep back into my room, then sit in my closet with the door shut while I ate it so no one would be the wiser. Case in point: I'm just more of a silent-but-deadly type.
So, now that I had been frightened of the whole concept of failing math, I took it into my own hands to assure that I would get a good grade on every test. I cheated. That's the problem with being schooled at home if you're sneaky like me. You know where the answer book is, and you can't get expelled if you get caught. I never got caught, but cheating on two questions quickly turned into cheating on EVERY problem in my homework or on my test. And that soon expanded into other subjects I was working on.
Thanks to my cheating escapade, the next year my parents put me in highschool-level math classes at the community college, when I was 15/16ish. I passed the first class with a C but I failed the next one with a D. That shattered my confidence even more in the arena of mathematics, so the next year I did my math at home again. I started to do the problems on my own by that point, but I still struggled with the temptation of cheating.
Before my senior year, I took the college's placement test for math and was placed back in the same algebra class as before (the one I got a C in). Pretty frustrating considering that this would be my third or fourth time doing it.
In my next post I'll tell you why I wasted all of your time writing this backstory!
I took four classes. College Algebra, French 2, English Comp 1, and Ballet I/II. I should have been in French 3 by now but the school didn't offer it at a good time last semester when I should have taken it. Anyway, I thought I'd sum up a little bit of my first Freshman year college semester for you, if you care to know at all!
First things first. When I was 15, I started cheating in school, particularly in math. I had a teacher, Capt Hook let's call him, who didn't take and grade your homework, so you didn't really have to do it. So I went through the first chapter of material and didn't really do the homework. Then came the first test, and wouldn't you know it, I got around 67%. Either way I didn't pass the test.
Now here comes the fun part. Not only did I fail the test, my teacher Capt Hook saw fit to tell THE WHOLE CLASS that I got the lowest score on the test and failed. There were other people that failed too, but my score was lowest so for some reason he thought it would humor people to see me humiliated or something. Nice guy, huh? I mean seriously?!?! Who does that?!?! Some people are not meant to teach. And by the way, I was the youngest person in the class. I decided after that class that I was going to drop out because I hated him for doing that. But I was also really scared that I was just stupid because I had failed and been humiliated for it. So, my mom decided to teach me the same math class, just at home.
Now, I've never been an outwardly rebellious or bad child. I've always been more sneaky. For example I'll use a cookie jar analogy: If there's a cookie jar on the counter, of course the kids want the cookies, but their parents have told them not to take any. However these children are exceptionally naughty, and they have both decided to sneak cookies anyway. Well, my brother would go into the kitchen and take the cookie from the jar right in front of my parents in order to get what he wanted and to show his defiance. Me on the other hand...I would wait until my mom was busy with my little sister, my brother was playing with legos, and my dad was mowing the lawn. Then I'd make my move. Stealthily I'd creep into the kitchen, silently open the jar, and use a pair of tongs or something to pull the cookie out. Once the cookie was in my possession, I'd creep back into my room, then sit in my closet with the door shut while I ate it so no one would be the wiser. Case in point: I'm just more of a silent-but-deadly type.
So, now that I had been frightened of the whole concept of failing math, I took it into my own hands to assure that I would get a good grade on every test. I cheated. That's the problem with being schooled at home if you're sneaky like me. You know where the answer book is, and you can't get expelled if you get caught. I never got caught, but cheating on two questions quickly turned into cheating on EVERY problem in my homework or on my test. And that soon expanded into other subjects I was working on.
Thanks to my cheating escapade, the next year my parents put me in highschool-level math classes at the community college, when I was 15/16ish. I passed the first class with a C but I failed the next one with a D. That shattered my confidence even more in the arena of mathematics, so the next year I did my math at home again. I started to do the problems on my own by that point, but I still struggled with the temptation of cheating.
Before my senior year, I took the college's placement test for math and was placed back in the same algebra class as before (the one I got a C in). Pretty frustrating considering that this would be my third or fourth time doing it.
In my next post I'll tell you why I wasted all of your time writing this backstory!
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