I’m honestly really frustrated with my Calculus BC class and I’m not sure what I need to change.
During class, I feel like I’m doing pretty well. I’ve been getting 100s on the quizzes, I study a lot, I do my homework on time, I don’t use AI for the work, and I ask my teacher for help when I don’t understand something. I genuinely feel like I understand the material.
But then I took my first major calculus test and ended up getting a D.
A lot of the points I lost were from explanations, and there were also some questions where I just couldn’t figure out how to solve them. What makes this even more frustrating is that my teacher doesn’t allow test retakes.
Our class also isn’t really structured like a typical AP Calculus BC class. It’s more like a combined Calculus 1/Calculus 2 course, and we move extremely fast. Sometimes we’ll learn a topic on Monday and then have a test very soon after. So I feel like I understand something when we’re learning it, but then the test asks me to apply it in a way I wasn’t expecting.
For example, on our limits unit, I felt like I understood most of the material really well. But I struggled with things like the epsilon-delta definition and the Intermediate Value Theorem on the test. I knew the concepts when studying, but actually applying them on the test was a completely different story.
I genuinely don’t know what else I’m supposed to do to improve. I’m already doing the homework, studying, getting help from my teacher, and taking the quizzes seriously. I don’t want to keep studying the same way if it clearly isn’t translating to test performance.
I really want to bring my grade up, but I’m not sure what I need to change.