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This Christmas (or Holiday Season for anyone who doesn't celebrate Christmas) in my DD13's school, they had exams and next week, reports will come out with all their grades. My daughter this week has gotten some of her results before the report comes out and in Maths she received 20%, now, she is in the Highest level class of Maths for her Year and on the day of her test, her pencil case was stolen which had her calculator in it, and as the test was made up of sums which you had to use your calculator, she had to leave most of it. She knows that getting 20% is very bad and has requested her teacher about going down to a lower level of Maths, where 20% (as it is in Higher Level) would be 60% in the Lower Level, it is easier and I believe that she will do well in the lower level class. Most of the students in her class got 13% so she got more than average, but barely. I know it is hard to study for a maths test and I'm not sure whether she actually studied at all, apart from the hour and half she had in school before the test. If she was your child, what would you do? Would you punish her? I don;t know what to do, she seems very sorry but she needs to know that 20% is not good.
I don't understand how dropping down a math level will effect the grade she has already gotten.
Wouldn't the grade for that class be the grade for that class?
Going into a new class would just be a fresh start to that class, unless I'm missing something.
Is she struggling in the class over all, or doing well but just had this one bad grade? If so, then letting her go into an easier math just because of one bad grade is sending the wrong message in my opinion.
If she is having a really hard time in the class and she doesn't plan on a career that requires such a path, then she would be better off going down to an easier math, so that she truly can get the concepts.
I would talk to the teacher first to see what she considers a good grade for that exam. If the average is 13% and she got 20%, was the test designed to be that difficult that no one would pass? If so, then she did OK, but if the teacher expected passing grades and the class let her down, then of course she did not.
You mentioned she is not studying - obviously she needs to start doing that and a good start may be to set a schedule for her and require her to keep to it until her grades reach a certain level.
If she did better than most of the class, it does not seem logical that she should move to a lower Maths level - if it were my child, I would try studying more first.
For instance, my oldest was failing spelling tests b/c he was simply not studying for them and skimming through the homework. He is now getting much closer scrutiny on his spelling work and is required to study/pretest at home with us until he can pull them back up to a level we know he is capable of achieving.
If she needed a calculator (I assume a graphing calculator?), and hers was stolen, then why would you punish her for getting a bad grade? And why did the rest of the class only get 13%? The whole thing is very confusing. Obviously the teacher did not explain the concept well if most of the class failed the test so dismally... I hope she's planning on redoing the lesson!
If she needed a calculator (I assume a graphing calculator?), and hers was stolen, then why would you punish her for getting a bad grade? And why did the rest of the class only get 13%? The whole thing is very confusing. Obviously the teacher did not explain the concept well if most of the class failed the test so dismally... I hope she's planning on redoing the lesson!
My thoughts exactly!
I know here, if a whole class bombs a test, then generally retest because the teacher was obviously not getting the materials across.
My daughter is in a school that does not follow the American School System and the 20% will be recorded for future reference the school needs on her Maths grades. She has always struggled in maths class and taking a step down to an easier class was something I wanted her to do since the beginning of the school year as I knew, as a parent, she wasn;t capable of High Level maths.
She decided to stick it out but really has struggled so she has talked to me and her teacher about moving and the teacher feels that her moving would be a good idea.
She has no plans on having a mathematical career when she finishes school.
My daughter is in a school that does not follow the American School System and the 20% will be recorded for future reference the school needs on her Maths grades. She has always struggled in maths class and taking a step down to an easier class was something I wanted her to do since the beginning of the school year as I knew, as a parent, she wasn;t capable of High Level maths. She decided to stick it out but really has struggled so she has talked to me and her teacher about moving and the teacher feels that her moving would be a good idea. She has no plans on having a mathematical career when she finishes school.
Then I would let her move down to the lower level. There is too much emphasis nowadays on everyone being in A.P./honors classes.
If she won't need the high math for college acceptance or future career goals, then she should move down.
It doesn't sound like she's at fault for the grade. In fact, it seems like she did well under the circumstances. If anything, she should get credit from you for that.
My daughter is in a school that does not follow the American School System and the 20% will be recorded for future reference the school needs on her Maths grades. She has always struggled in maths class and taking a step down to an easier class was something I wanted her to do since the beginning of the school year as I knew, as a parent, she wasn;t capable of High Level maths.
She decided to stick it out but really has struggled so she has talked to me and her teacher about moving and the teacher feels that her moving would be a good idea.
She has no plans on having a mathematical career when she finishes school.
May I ask how she ended up in the high level class if she's always struggled with math? (or did you mean she's always struggled in THIS math class?) Was it the school's placement based on her grades in the previous year? Had she been amongst the top of the class of a lower level class?
She was still above average without the tools, I would not be punishing her for that. But I don't punish for bad grades, unless you consider being told to sit down and study under conditions good for studying in to be a punishment.
But it doesn't sound like she's happy with the class and if 13% is a common average for tests in the class then I'd think about moving her if only to get a teacher who might deliver the material more effectively.
...I'd also wonder a little bit if the teacher really didn't have any calculators lying around that she could borrow (that would have given an even more accurate result of where she is), forgetting or losing a calculator is one thing, having it stolen is another.
The reason she ended up in a high level class because class placement was sorted out by the previous years grades and she had another teacher last year, that teacher was very good although DD has never been very good at maths but that teacher gave alot of detailed notes so it was ok.
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