Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Accelerating a math grade

When I was in high school, GH stood for a soap opera called, 'General Hospital.' What does it stand for these days?

Cool thing about living in 2009 is that there are online communities and blogs on so many interesting topics. Don't be isolated even if you have to cyber-connect. Write down what your top 30 interests are and brainstorm ways to get connected to others who share them, especially locally if possible, and take baby-steps everyday towards that. You can start a new topic about anything you aren't sure how to find on your own.

If anything, a group of gifted kids is going to vary MORE than a group of ND kids. This can be a plus and a minus.

Have fun in Las Vegas. Too bad you can't do a side trip to Reno, where the Davidson Academy is...sigh

Smiles,
Grinity

Hope your math teacher can help you out. It might be helpful if your parents got involved as well.

Good luck!

Guitar Hero. If you value your eyes, you won't look at the graphics.

Well, it's time to stop putting off that email to my math teacher. I think I'm going to type it up now. :]

[teacher name here],

I hope you're enjoying the holidays, and sorry to bother you with school-related things, but I felt that it was a now-or-never kind of thing.

As you probably already know, I attempted a gradeskip early summer in math. To make things brief, I didn't do too well on the test and was denied a gradeskip. I approached the math chair again through my guidance counselor early second quarter asking if he could reconsider because of my 99 average in math, 100 on the first quarter exam, and just the fact that I finished my work way ahead of my peers and was, frankly, bored. He refused again. Apparently the decision is based solely on the seventh grade final examination I took during the summer. He also said that it was too late in the year for a skip.

Is skipping a math grade really about your knowledge or your ability? As far as I know, you don't skip a grade because you know everything that your teacher is going to teach you, you skip a grade because you learn faster than your classmates and aren't sufficiently challenged by the curriculum, which is the dilemma here.

I'm planning to try one more time. I have a full score on the midterm under my belt, and I'm pretty sure that I have a 99 average so far this quarter, but this isn't the real reason why I think he should reconsider. I took the SAT Reasoning Test earlier this December, and recieved my scores a week ago. Screenshot link.

CR: 710
Math: 670
Writing: 630

Of course, only math matters here. The reason I've emailed you is because I want to know whether you think the SAT matters to the math chair. Since it's generally taken by college-bound seniors, a seventh grader taking the SAT is somewhat unusual and you probably don't have a lot of data from kids my age to compare these scores to. So that's why I'm not going directly to the math chair.

Thanks for taking the time to read this email, and thanks in advance for your reply. ^^

Carolina

Meh. Sounds like I'm bragging about my scores. Better not include all that data about the average college-bound senior's scores, or it'll be even worse. :x

Lina, I like your letter. I would not take out anything, except:
"Hey, you may not have even heard of the SAT before this"

Because, your letter is beatifully written and from the heart. I think it is very impactual because of this. But that last statement sounds antagonistic even if it isn't meant to. The placement at the end of the letter leaves the last impression to be a bit antagonistic, which deflates the impact of the whole letter.

I sincerely recommend leaving the rest as is. Also, I recommend showing it and discussing it with your parents beforehand. As a parent, I wouldn't want to be blindsighted by a call from school without prior knowlege.

Also, if the letter is effective in getting the administration to revisit the issue, your parents can be prepared to handle that phone call.

I hope your parents are supportive of your efforts. It seems clear that this is very important to you.

Good luck.

Right. Maybe this is why my English teacher never liked me. o-o'"

I talked to my parents about it briefly before, but I'll show them this letter just in case. Thanks for your advice and support, 'neato. I'm itching to send this.

It's not about whether or not your teacher liked you, it's about being persuasive and compelling someone to come over to your line of thinking.

Trust me, Lina, I had plenty of teachers who couldn't STAND me!

I must be creating some sort of legacy because now some of my childrens' teachers can't stand me!



More power to you!!!!!!!!

Oh one more thing. The including the scores is not bragging. You are asking the school to make an exception, place you in a higher math grade based on ability, not age. Normally grade progression is determined by age progression.

Your SAT scores are important and persuasive evidence to support your assertion that it is reasonable for them to do this for you.

Not bragging.

Dottie,

I lied about my age. Shhhh. Otherwise, you get them after January 5th, since that's when they start mailing out your scores.

I looked it up on Collegeboard. Apparently, "average scores are based upon the most recent SAT scores of all students of a particular graduating class."

I'm actually not sure, as my mom did all of the registering, but I think online. I thought that if you had qualifying scores you would automatically be accepted, though?

"Pull my records, that I just read the other night"? o_o