Reply to Current TJ Student answering questions

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "Current TJ Student answering questions"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, what is your demographic background? I ask because the experience at TJ can differ depending on your ethnicity. This could give the people asking questions some background.[/quote]

Hi OP, ignore the toxic responses to your post (including the one straight up requesting demographic without you volunteering to do that). It's unfortunate but anonymous forums can really bring out the sh*tty side of folks.

I'd personally be curious how your math experience in 9th and 10th have been, given that you took Algebra 1 in 8th. I know most TJ kids usually take it a year earlier. Did this hamper you at all, or do you feel that taking geometry at TJ gave you an advantage in terms of giving you really solid fundamentals to build on?[/quote]

Haha, nono I totally understand people's responses and I don't think they meant to be mean. I also understand how talk about TJ on this forum could seem a little overkill at some times, but I haven't clicked around enough to really know--and I really do apologize if this is not the right medium to answer questions on or that my thread adds unnecessary filler to the forum. I will try to be concise:

I am Filipino and both of my parents immigrated here from the Philippines a little before I was born. So I am Asian--but an underrepresented Asian, not East Asian (Chinese, Korean) or Indian. There are very very few Filipinos at TJ in comparison to this area, but I am privileged in that I have not experienced any uncomfortableness in the classroom due to my race.

I am a year (or two, or three, or four) behind most of my peers in math. I went to a Catholic middle school that did not offer Geometry and I was not eligible to take it over the summer, so I took it at TJ with about 18 other kids in my class. While I do feel this disadvantaged me as I will not be able to have an AP Calc score to send to colleges, I did feel significantly more prepared for the math courses I took after. This may be because I was older than when my peers took it, but the Geometry curriculum at TJ was more intense and rigorous than that at any middle school in the area but was still less stress during my freshman year than Math 3 would have been (Alg 2). To be honest, I would have liked to be able to take Multivariate Calculus/Linear Algebra at TJ like many do their senior year, but there's nothing I can do about my situation now--and TJ has great and advanced academics all-around, not just in math, so I don't feel that I'm missing out too too much. Plus, sometimes kids that rush themselves through math classes too early don't really end up doing as well. Of course this isn't the case for everyone, but I know some of my friends that took Alg 2/Precalc in middle school struggled early on in more advanced classes, and had to retake or drop a level. This is not to discredit them of course--it's just not always easy to transition to the rigor of TJ in comparison to middle school. I believe that taking Geometry at TJ was a good way to really develop and/or introduce concepts I will use later on in TJ Math, though there are detriments in being behind. I've never been seriously judged or ostracized for being in lower math or anything and the 18 of us were very good friends. Plus, I still am able to take advantage of TJ's course offerings in other subjects :)[/quote]

Thanks for the response! I'd add that you theoretically *could* try to skip Precalc by testing out in order do Calc next year, but I recall hearing that it's very hard (i.e you'd have to study quite intensely on your own to learn the concepts well enough to get a 90%+ for passing the test; I knew one kid who did that many years back). But that may not be a worthwhile just for the acceleration...

How is the current work life balance culture at TJ? Do you feel that there are more requirements for TJ graduation than at base high schools, or pretty much in line with the others?

Do you find that most kids can cope with the amount of rigor/work in a healthy way? Do most of the kids who manage their time well end up thriving? Are the kids who are having a difficult time and overloaded mainly because of 1) procrastination, 2) because they were unprepared for the school (and perhaps shouldn't have been admitted), 3) because they took too heavy set of classes, or 4) some combination of these?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics