Personal Narrative: My First AP Calculus Test

I think it is safe to say math has always been a passion of mine. I remember learning to count to 1000 in first grade. When I was finally able to do it without any help, it was like swimming for the first time, eating the ripe tomatoes I grew myself, or putting together a new song on the guitar. The feeling of accomplishment cannot be recreated. As we get older, this feeling becomes more difficult to achieve. This only increases my motivation and determination to learn something new. AP calculus has been a roller coaster of learning. Despite the struggle and rigor, I learned valuable skills that will help me in my future aspirations. Taking the AP Calculus exam gave me a rush of accomplishment. I have built a knowledge base because I am constantly

On my first benchmark my first grade was an fifty-nine, this grade really disappointed me. I was determined to do better when I take it again, I worked hard getting myself prepared to test once again. After I took it I was nervous to see my grade but when I got it, and it said seventy-nine I was really happy I had improved by twenty percent.

I could only think of the worst and began to feel a bit sweaty. Either way I flipped over my paper and my heart sank, I was greeted by a big, red “F” that was circled on my test. Accompanying the “F” was 64% also in a red ink. “I don’t even want to to imagine how my parents are going to react to such a low grade!” At the end of the day I began to brace myself for the emotions of both my mother and father.

Coming into your Pre-Calculus class, I was under the impression that I had all the skills necessary to succeed. Having taken (regular) pre-calculus my junior year of high school and College Algebra the first semester of my senior year, I had studied the various functions, graphing concepts, and polynomials/factoring. I also studied an ample amount of angle properties, the trigonometry functions (and applications associated with them), and trigonometric graphs. Even with this background in algebra and trigonometry, dual credit pre-calculus has proved a formidable foe as I did not anticipate learning so many new concepts, such as conditional trigonometric functions or verifying identities. Most other concepts, like inverse trig functions and the various identities, had slipped my mind since my experience in regular pre-cal from the previous school year (this was probably due to the fact that I did not

This school year, I decided to join AP Calculus AB. It was tough for me to decide if I should join or not, especially since I'm going to be taking an AP course. I knew it will be more challenging than basic calculus, and instead of taking math for one semester only, I'll have AP Calc for the whole school year. After days of contemplating, I

I remembered dreading my very own existence at that moment, as were other students in that class. Mrs. Ulliman was always a difficult grader. Sometimes, she would even go as far as to measure our papers with a ruler to check to see if our margins were exactly on point. Every time you made a mistake, she would glare at you with a disappointed eye and tell you, “Well, that’s not right, is it? Let’s not do that again.”

In my writing, my goal was to portray my experiences with the online AP Calculus AB course I took last year (sophomore year), in order to demonstrate when I learned some of the most important lessons in my life. Furthermore, through the use of different parts of my personal experiences, I also wished to address the different lessons that I learned; hopefully using the contributions of all of these lessons to arrive at a “final” lesson. To do this, I decided to focus on three main parts: giving the reader context and information behind my initial character/mindset, demonstrating how the AP Calculus AB course influenced that character/mindset, and showing what I learned from the AP Calculus AB Exam. Moreover, I wanted to have a different tone in each of these parts, both demonstrating my different feelings as well as portraying very different “aspects” of myself . For the first part, I decided that I wanted to have a “lighter” tone and focus on how I was excelling at school with ease, because this would contrast clearly with the next part. For the second part, I decided that I wanted to have a deeper mood while seeming confused, because this would further show the contrast between the first and second parts, as well as demonstrating how this truly was the first time I truly learned that lesson. For the third part, I decided that I wanted to begin with a more positive tone, as I had just learned my lesson, but transition into the same tone as the previous

My AP Physics C classroom is filled with whiteboards. You can start writing a problem on one board, circle around the room, and find the answer right next to where you started. With a small class of just eight students, application of physics and calculus to real world scenarios is gripping. I remember contemplating during the MLB World Series fervor how long batters had to react to a pitch. My physics class and I were intrigued. We all grabbed Expo Markers and began solving for velocity, acceleration, impulse, all the while keeping in mind cross-sectional area of the ball, the stride of the pitcher, and other minor variables. I modified the problem by asking the class to use Aroldis Chapman (the fastest pitcher) as the pitcher. We spent hours

It’s ENC 1101, Not knowing what to expect I entered the room with absolute fear, after all it was my first year of college. Although I’ve never been quite fond of English in the past, I’ve always excelled in the subject. I had yet to work for my grade and no English course I had taken proved to be a challenge through my eyes. I am a huge procrastinator, if not one of the biggest when it comes to assignments. I most likely wrote papers the night before or the day of and still managed to average an “A” on all of them. This bad habit led me to believe that I was cheating myself. Throughout my scholastic years I always had the mentality of asking “what could this class possibly teach me that I didn’t already know?” I believed that my writing

As I walked up the stairs of my school to what would be the first ever AP course in my life, my mind raced with anxious thoughts of what lied ahead. I was a sophomore taking AP Spanish Lang, something that my previous Spanish teacher had told me should come naturally due to my Mexican heritage. If only I could believe her, I had spent years trying to Americanize*its a formal essay don't use slang shit like americanize* myself to fit in with those around me.

The science test you’ve been dreading has finally come to haunt you. You walk in, and the teacher routinely reminds you of the weight of the test on your grade, 80%. The teacher hands out the test and you blankly stare at the questions that can either build up, or destroy your grade. Unconformities?! What are they? Scrolling through the pages, you finally find some questions you know. The teacher announces that there are only 5 minutes left before you must turn your answers in. In a hurry, you halfheartedly guess most of the test, hoping that you get lucky. Days pass, and you receive your final grade for the test. Next to your score you see an F in bright red. Frantically, you race to the computers to check your overall grade. You log on only to see a perfectly stable B+ plummet down to a D. On the bus home, you are tense, assured that your parents have seen the obvious drop. Walking through the door, your mom asks “How’d the test go?” Stammering, you reply with “Er--well that's a long story”. Confused she asks for the test, and you wearily hand it over. You immediately see the disappointment in your mom’s face as she flips throughout the pages. Your punishment was groundation, and after your mom lectures you, she walks out. You think for a while, and realize that you could’ve prevented all of this if you simply studied instead of playing that game for longer.

Last year as a junior, my AP Calculus class and I received the opportunity to paint a mural on a wall to demonstrate our hard work throughout the year. The one catch, however, was we had to design and paint it all within fifteen days. My class and I were very motivated and began work as soon as possible. We brainstormed ideas for the design of the mural to incorporate as many calculus concepts as possible while also combining it with hidden messages that had special meaning to our class. At the same time, our goal was to make the mural fun and appealing to all by-passers. Now it was time to take our concepts, and begin the process of painting the mural. Initially, we had roughly seventeen students who could paint and help out but that number

After thought, I remembered my poor fifth grade math performance and thought about why I did better in the years after. I falsely concluded that I became more hardworking and proceeded to apply that solution to my present problem. I attended as many after-school study sessions as I could, and did every question in the book. On a few occasions I even found more online resources that could help me evaluate my knowledge and increase it. The culmination of my efforts succeeded, even though they were based on a false assumption. I had grown as a

There it was on my paper, a grade I had never seen before. It was like the concrete form of failure

When I arrived to school, the brisk air immediately shook me from my sleepy state as I strutted towards the school entrance. Once I stepped foot in Clover Hill, my mission became to find out the results of my latest calculus test with the hopes that I at least earned a B. The closer I came to my teacher’s Cav Morning classroom, the more anxious I became; my stomach twisted and turned like a cart on a roller coaster. Finally, I approached the classroom and timidly stepped into the room, capturing the attention of my calculus teacher, Mrs. Rose.