Question What was your highschool academics like?

MJR

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For example, what were your grades, class rank, classes, and extracurricular. There are many smart people on here and that made me curious about how well they did in highschool.

For me, I am in ROTC, NHS, and Key Club. My freshman year I had pre-AP English, pre-AP Bio, Geometry Honors, OK History, Weight Training, and ROTC. My GPA was 4.17 with a class rank of 24 out of 300.

Now this year as a sophomore, I have Algebra 2 Honors, English 2, AP Bio, ROTC, World History, and German I. I have 5 As (one A+) and a B+. Weighted so far is 4.17 and unweighted is 3.86. I am also taking the ACT next month. Wish me luck!

I really take school seriously, but it is very hard. Wonder if anyone else stressed over High School.
 

statickid

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back in 1999 i was the valedictorian of my class, ASB treasurer, campaign manager for the winning ASB presidential candidate, also i was able to complete every available math and science course offered by my school with at least a 3.95-4.0 (on scale of 4.0). hahah so long ago :lol:
 

MJR

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back in 1999 i was the valedictorian of my class, ASB treasurer, campaign manager for the winning ASB presidential candidate, also i was able to complete every available math and science course offered by my school with at least a 3.95-4.0 (on scale of 4.0). hahah so long ago :lol:
That is great. Although, they no longer have valedictorian in our school anymore because they say it is too much pressure on the students and it is not really a competition.
 

JonnyBGoode

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My grades in HS were mediocre, B level. Mostly because I was attention deficit and never did homework; I was way above my peers and could easily have aced everything if I had applied myself. I excelled in math and english, however (I went to a State geometry competition), and loved band and computer science.
 
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tblaxland

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I really take school seriously, but it is very hard. Wonder if anyone else stressed over High School.
I worked hard but tried not to stress too much. I was fairly competitive though. When I graduated high school (1992) I got a Tertiary Entrance Rank of 92-point-something - about 10th percentile for the state and Prox Dux for the school. The main thing for me though was that I beat my archrival who got 92-point-something-smaller. Ross, if you happen to be out there reading this, I still hold that victory precious :p

Your grade numbers don't mean much to me, but the rank looks good. Keep up the hard work!
 

IgnoreThisBarrel

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Being a sophomoron in high school right now it is kind of hard to look back and reflect.

Freshman year I had Honors English and Honors History. Geometry first semester and Algebra II second semester (I skipped). Physical science. Religion (a required class). Spanish, and band.

This year I have AP Calculus AB (took precalc over the summer, was awesome), Spanish 3, Honors History and Honors English, Theology 250, Chemistry, and Band.

I am never really stressed. The most stress I ever get is when I have a project due soon.
 

Linguofreak

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Your grade numbers don't mean much to me, but the rank looks good. Keep up the hard work!

Basically your GPA is calculated by taking the grade in each class and assigning it a number: 4.0 for an A, 3.0 for a B, 2.0 for a C, 1.0 for a D, and 0 for an F. Then you weight each class by the number of credits you get for it and take an average. Some schools will add a point for Advanced Placement courses so that A = 5.0, B = 4.0, etc. (This is how MJR got a GPA over 4.0, which, in the original system, is impossible).
 

computerex

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I have AP Computer Science AB, AP Calculus AB, AP English and Composition, AP Literature and Composition, AP Calculus BC, AP Government, AP Statistics, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Biology under my belt. I have also gotten college credits for World Civics 1 and 2, Health Care delivery systems and management, Principles of Management, and U.S History since 1877 as college credits until my junior year of High School. For my senior year (this year) I am going to the local college as a Duel Enrolled student (free college for students still enrolled in High School). I am taking Chemistry, Art History, and Physics I and II with calculus.

I am planning to get my associates degree when graduating from High School. We don't have valedictorians anymore, but I have a weighted GPA of 4.6 and an unweighted GPA of 3.9 something, which places me somewhere in the top five students of my senior class. I was in NHS, but now have joined Phi Theta Kappa.

Despite that, I still fail when it comes to working on anything practical in real life :lol: (I mean that for instance the math courses I have taken taught me very little about the math involved for instance in making an Orbiter autopilot)
 

Izack

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Well, now I'm embarrassed to post my marks...

I really didn't care about my marks in high school, and just sort of coasted along without taking anything seriously, ending up with a 74% average. I remember having a high 80 something in biology, an 80 something in physics, and a 70 something in chemistry. Everything else (art, English, French, Math, etc.) was mediocre. The only thing I found remotely interesting was Physics.

I went on to do pretty much the same thing through one year of college. Only difference was that in college, you can't just coast along. My GPA was 0.67. I laughed my butt off when I found out.

The only thing I can say about my experience since then is that every day I kick myself for not taking school seriously, and will probably continue kicking myself as I work at a low end job for the rest of my life. :rofl:
 

Urwumpe

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Well, the German school system doesn't translate directly to the US High-school, but the subjects could maybe ^^.

Primary subjects for the final years (12-13) had been Math and Arts here, with an addition written exam in politics/social science and a oral exam in English language. additionally, there had been courses in Biology, Physics, History, Ethics, German literature (I only performed as good as necessary there to pass the classes) and Sports (year 12 had been Hockey, year 13 had Track and Field).

All together 64% of the total score in the end... my arts grades had been jumping between genius and insanity. In the end, the insanity had won.

No official extra subjects or post-school activities, though I had been still supporter of the environmental protected group. I even had to stop music school in the afternoons, because of the time that got sucked up by school and preparing for the exams.
 

Tommy

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I come from a small (< 3000 ppl) town in northern Wisconsin. If I could find a picture, I'd post it so you could see the the silo. Yes, I said silo, like on a farm. That should tell you much. OK, so it's actually used to store wood waste from the local paper mill (used for heating), but it looks just like a farm silo sticking up in the middle of the school.

I graduated in 1982, before "honors" programs. Our most advanced Math class could have been called "A drive-by introduction to Trigonometry". You were either in "normal" classes or rode the short bus. We had two computers (TRS-80 model 3 with no floppy, and an Apple 2c) which I was allowed to play with (non of the staff had any idea what to do with them other than "Oregon Trail".

My grades were mediocre at best (I was so bored - classes proceeded at the pace of the slowest student), and have ADHD (virtually unknown around here at the time). My S.A.T score still reigns as the highest this school has produced (98 percentile) which go me into college for a semester. After earning a 0.2 GPA (only class I passed was astronomy - with a D-) I wasn't invited back.

Our only claim to fame is a guy named (appropriately) John Smart, who was a consultant to a few U.S. Presidents and help create the Peace Corp.

Heck, we don't even make cheese here anymore.

The sad thing is that an even smaller town not that far away managed to produce this guy: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/williamsj.html

My nephews go to this school now, and I can't say things have improved much. The shop programs (the only area this school did well at) have been gutted. "Honors" classes are a joke. They brag about the computer education they offer, claiming they teach "both kinds of computers", meaning Windows and Mac. I asked the teacher about Linux and got "Well, I seem to remember hearing something about that". They don't teach comp sci, ore even programming at all - just how to use MS Office (even on the Mac that's all they offer - MS Office for Mac).

I truly envy many of you younger orbinauts - you get the kind of education I would have killed for.

Then again, I can make a bow and arrows from scratch, and use them to kill my own food. I can find, track, kill, skin, tan, and butcher a variety of game and farm animals. I can knapp flint tools, find and smelt iron ore, and start a fire with a couple sticks and a shoe lace.

More importantly, I can learn things without needing the education handed to me by someone else. I haven't had my common sense "educated" into non-existence. I'm not stuck inside a worldview force-fed to me by anyone else - I'm skeptical, but ready to change my beliefs if the evidence points that way.

A good education, and good grades, are good things. I wish I had them. But my life has taught me that the ability to teach yourself, make your own decisions, and transcend your preconceptions is far more valuable in the long run.
 

Moach

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hmm, let's see.... highschool in Brazil doesn't include being able to choose what you're gonna take... it's more force-feeding over-specifics on various subjects so you can later belch it out on the college exams (which are intentionally hard to such extent, it's become somewhat of an industry down here)


needless to say, i flunk'd big time... three times, really.... highschool was quite troublesome times - just ask my happily divorced parents :rolleyes:

i started skipping classes more and more - usually from oversleeping due to staying up all night playing on my PC...

in the end, i finished "school" over a GED, which me and my brother could do from home...

and a couple of years passed in which i had little to no clue on what college i'd pursue... i thought i'd go into music, since i played in a band back then, but that's a really ungrateful area to work in....

i always liked games.... many times it even got in the way of my music studies....

but the Probe does have strange ways.... and when i figured out that there WAS such a thing as game-design college, two weeks later, i was in :cheers:

it is ironic, now that i'm through with it (kinda... i'm posting this from a college classroom, where i still must attend a pending subject :uhh:) - that the very gaming addiction that caused my parents such grief during highschool, has now become a quite promising carreer, which gave me a good job, that's now proving to be enough for me to move out of my mom's place to go live with my girl :thumbup:


beeing a total geek is finally paying off :rofl:
 

jedidia

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Never been to highschool, nor to any equivalent institution, so I didn't have any trouble with it... :lol:
 

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"Spirit and pride forever mixed, we're the class of '86". I almost made it '85 1/2. If not for half an english credit I could have graduated in my junior year.

As it was I was a geek in HS, and could only describe myself as a "square peg". Mostly B student because I didn't study much, but really enjoyed drafting and computer science (ahhh, memories of the good ol' Apple ][e). I never kept track of my GPA because I just really didn't care. I graduated #99 in a class of 640 students, and then went to serve in the US NAVY, because I didn't know that college would have been paid for by my grandparents. So instead of being a mechanical engineer or something, I'm a lowly instrument mechanic foreman, who hasn't made less that $100K per year in a good long while.

Honestly I hated HS, but I had a few really, really good teachers. Both of whom now have travelled to "that undiscovered country". Their patience, trust and belief in me is what got me through it. Their work ethic and mannerisms I try to aspire to every day.
What I most remember about HS that the girls never paid me any mind at all. I was a gangly, pimply face geek who merely "existed". I've since met up with quite a few of them (one of which apologized for being so mean to me), and if I were single now, those same girls would be a little more receptive. Apparantly girls at 17 don't think the way of a woman at 40 (who knew?).

As one of the oldest college sophomores on campus (I'm a part-time perpetual student) I look back on it all with a tinge of jealousy. All I can do is sigh and think of the George Bernard Shaw quote "Youth is wasted on the young".

Nissan had a fantastic ad campaign years ago, and AFAIC it's one of the best of all time. It was "Life's a journey, enjoy the ride". If I could do it all again I would not, but I am doing my best to be less bitter about the whole thing (and to see one of the aforementioned jocks as a night-shift crew leader at McDonalds really does bring some sense of evil satisfaction).

So enjoy it, don't sweat it. All stressing out will get you is grey hair and wrinkles. However, be faithfull in your studies if that's what you want. The one club I was in (VICA) taught me "to become a worker whose services will recognized as honorable to my employer and fellow workers". That one line had gotten me further than I would have ever thought. But while you're doing that, don't forget to "enjoy the ride".
 
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Jarvitä

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There wasn't (and isn't) an entire culture associated with high school and universities here the way it is in the USA. You go to school, listen to professors, study and complete your assignments. Myself, I started out with a bunch of subjects I did poorly at and didn't like at all (chemistry, biology and theology), so my first two years the average was around 3 (out of 5), but after I could drop those in favour of more mathematics and physics, I had a solid 4.6 in the last two years, graduating with 85% scores on the final exams.
 

MJR

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"Spirit and pride forever mixed, we're the class of '86". I almost made it "F---ing teachers make me laugh, class of '85 1/2". If not for half an english credit I could have graduated in my junior year.

As it was I was a geek in HS, and could only describe myself as a "square peg". Mostly B student because I didn't study much, but really enjoyed drafting and computer science (ahhh, memories of the good ol' Apple ][e). I never kept track of my GPA because I just really didn't care. I graduated #99 in a class of 640 students, and then went to serve in the US NAVY, because I didn't know that college would have been paid for by my grandparents. So instead of being a mechanical engineer or something, I'm a lowly instrument mechanic foreman, who hasn't made less that $100K per year in a good long while.

Honestly I hated HS, but I had a few really, really good teachers. Both of whome now have travelled to "That undiscovered country". Their patience, trust and belief in me is what got me through it. Their work ethic and mannerisms I try to aspire to every day.
What I most remember about HS that the girls never paid me any mind at all. I was a gangly, pimply face geek who merely "existed". I've since met up with quite a few of them (one of which apologized for being so mean to me), and if I were single now, those same girls would be a little more receptive. Apparantly girls at 17 don't think the way of a woman at 40 (who knew?).

As one of the oldest college sophomores on campus (I'm a part-time perpetual student) I look back on it all with a tinge of jealousy. All I can do is sigh and think of the George Bernard Shaw quote "Youth is wasted on the young".

Nissan had a fantastic ad campaign years ago, and AFAIC it's one of the best of all time. It was "Life's a journey, enjoy the ride". If I could do it all again I would not, but I am doing my best to be less bitter about the whole thing (and to see one of the aforementioned jocks as a night-shift crew leader at McDonalds really does bring some sense of evil satisfaction).

So enjoy it, don't sweat it. Life isn't always easy, but I think if a person provides honourable service to their chosen vocation/profession, then things will work out fine.
I love how you think the way about HS girls as I do. They are so immature and delirious to what is needed for them/what is important. It is not as if they don't talk to me. Tons of girls, even older, talk to me, think I am cute, and all that jeezebus. I just don't really like the idea of "going out" because most of the time it goes no where or they find some insignificant problem and blow it to proportion to make it look like you did something wrong. It is apparently always the guys fault. Even so, it could be because they want like the "hottest" dude in school or the coolest guy, but the thing is, if they are together after highschool he will be a loser-she'll regret it-and I'll be an engineer at 22 making $90,000. :lol:
 

PhantomCruiser

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Attitude is everything dude. Sounds like you know what you want, and that's good.
 
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