Reply to Was your education hampered because of tracking?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]I was tracked in the middle for math. It limited my science options in high school. For the same reasons, I gravitated towards the humanities in college. Calculus would have given me more options in college and grad school.[/quote]

This happened to me--I ended up taking AP stats in high school instead of calculus, because I was tracked for the non-honors precalc and got a C.  I gravitated to the humanities as well, and my science courses were also limited in high school.  I also had an undiagnosed LD that didn't get diagnosed until college, which explains why I typically scored worse on math exams.  However, biology was tracked by reading level, and I took AP biology, which I loved.  AP biology lead me to a lab internship the summer before college which made me think I wanted to major in the hard sciences.  I ended up taking calculus in college, getting a degree in biochemistry, and a PhD in chemistry--and throughout college and graduate school, people thought I had an exceptionally good intuition for chemistry.  I got a B- in high school chemistry, and my teacher thought I wasn't the brightest bulb, which pretty much means nothing.  If anything, being a strong writer has served me well in a STEM field.

My brother was tracked for the middle in math as well, and he's now a mechanical engineer.  Both of us have always been square peg trying to fit into round hole types throughout school, but somehow we've managed.  Being a little out of the norm isn't always bad once you are out of school.

The one thing I love about the united states is that the tracking isn't so intense that you can't take windy paths.  If we had been in a European country, neither my brother nor I would be in the career paths we are currently.[/quote]

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