Best Subjects in School

[agentsteel53]

I thought my professors were excellent!  Then again I went to a technical university and studied electrical engineering, so there was little room for political expression - the professors taught to their research, certainly, but the only problem with that was really finding enough professors to teach the intro classes.  (Not much research going on in introductory mechanics or electricity and magnetism!) 

I think they did a competent job of that - finding enough professors who clearly loved to teach and assigning them to intro calculus and whatnot, and then letting the more research-oriented ones get away with teaching the esoteric grad classes, which were occasionally little more than fronts for their research.

[akotchi]

I did especially well in math, French (for the five years I took it) and English; respectable in the rest of the subjects.  I was the one who destroyed grade curves in Calculus.

[aswnl]

I was good in geography, economy, civics, history, English, French and German (except for grammar in French and German).

I absolutely flunked Dutch literature, physics, chemistry, computer science and math.

The funny thing is, I've read hundreds, if not more books at age 10 - 16. I read a 350 page book in 2 -3 days. Mostly thrillers like Tom Clancy, Ludlum etc (basically books that were intended for people far beyond my age at the time). After it was obligatory to read real Dutch literature, I lost all appetite to read books again. I believe I've read maybe 2 or 3 books ever since. A real shame.

I was quite good in math (algebra, geometry and computer science), geography, physics and history.
My worst grades were for French, English, German and chemistry.

I also lost appetite to reading literature after the obligatory booklists (Dutch, English).
Books about (rail)roads I still read although...

[golden eagle]

I was OK in anything that didn't have to do with math, though I did decent in geometry. Algebra kicked my ass.

[adventurernumber1]

*disclaimer* resurrecting yet another very old thread 

Social Studies no doubt. With the combination with Geography which of course I'm great at, and History which isn't too much of a brain-strainer for me, SS is definitely my best subject 

Math is decent. Most if the time I'm pretty good and then fairly often I'll flattout bomb a test 

Science and English, ehh...not so good. Being a very religious person (as some of you have definitely found out recently), I tend to be very "eye-rolling" in Science. And to prevent conflict I won't go any farther than to say I don't do too good in there...

Then in English I don't give a rat's tail what a helping verb is. I respect the enforcement of grammar, and I choose to use it as you can see, but I see no reason we are forced to learn what the parts of a sentence are. Also, if I'm not reading about roads or something very interesting, I honestly cannot concentrate on reading a book. It bores me out of my mind and it is so time consuming to read books all the time in school, but I just have to cope with it..

[agentsteel53]

Then in English I don't give a rat's tail what a helping verb is. I respect the enforcement of grammar, and I choose to use it as you can see, but I see no reason we are forced to learn what the parts of a sentence are. Also, if I'm not reading about roads or something very interesting, I honestly cannot concentrate on reading a book. It bores me out of my mind and it is so time consuming to read books all the time in school, but I just have to cope with it..

part of the problem is, you're learning at age 14 what you probably learned at age 6, then again at age 7, then age 8, age 9, etc...

but, dude, pay attention in science.  I've read the bible and can speak intelligently on it; it behooves you to have some basic idea of how God put the dinosaur bones into the ground 60 years ago when he created the heavens and the earth.

[Thing 342]

I tend to get good scores in all my classes (My lowest AP score was a 4 on the Human Geography exam, and I got a 1540/1600 on the SAT), however, I enjoy my Math, History, Government, Economics, and Programming classes much more than my English and Lab Science classes. A terrible teacher I had in sophmore year English completely soured me to any sort of Writing or Literature class.

This upcoming year (my senior year) I am taking:
AP Psychology
AP Government
AP English Literature and Composition
AP Environmental Science
Computer Science II
Multivariable Calculus
Linear Algebra

All but the Psychology and English classes are dual-enrolled with a local community college.

[agentsteel53]

nice!  I took multivar calculus just as a self-study course (since I had exhausted my school's math options by junior year) and apparently learned it well enough to test out of the college requirement.

(I also tried to test out of differential equations and linear algebra just by winging it ... I scored about 17% on the first and maybe 60% on the second exam, where an 80 would have been a test-out.)

[Doctor Whom]

My best subjects were the sciences (especially physics, in which I went on to get two degrees), math, and Spanish.  My worst was driver's ed, although I now have a spotless driving record.  My second worst was P.E.

[Zeffy]

Best (from top to bottom):

* English
* Science (As an atheist... this should be expected, however, I did not take physics or chemistry outright thanks to my shitty math grades)
* Physical Ed (Yes, I always managed to get an A despite NOT running on run days)
* Genocide / Holocaust (11th grade)
* Video & Film

Worst:
* Math
* Anything related to art
* Anything related to math
* Math again

[ET21]

English, History, and Earth Sciences mainly Meteorology (which is my current major)

Worst: Math

[hbelkins]

All of 'em, pretty much. Had a 3.8 GPA in high school (fourth in the class), a 3.9 in undergraduate (summa cum laude) and 3.9 in graduate school.

My worst subject in high school was whatever science class I had as a junior (I think it was chemistry). In college, literature classes bored me to tears and it showed in my grades. Also photojournalism, because my darkroom skills in printing pictures weren't great.

[Pete from Boston]

I found that in high school so much depends on circumstance: the luck of the draw can determine the teacher you get, whose particular teaching style might make or break your understanding and/or interest in that subject. 

Don't write off whole areas because you might have been taught them in ways that didn't click with you.  I realized this in college and felt a lot better about the subjects I struggled with in high school, whether or not I remedied this in college (some yes, some no). 

[sammi]

Best:
* Computer science - stuff I actually find interesting, also my major
* Science - my favorites were 2nd year biology and grade 11 chemistry
* Math - especially Calculus & Vectors

Worst:
* English - maybe because of the teachers I had in grades 10 and 12, and the fact that I dislike reading fiction and
* Phys. Ed. - I'm just into sports, or any kind of physical activity whatsoever.

Then in English I don't give a rat's tail what a helping verb is. I respect the enforcement of grammar, and I choose to use it as you can see, but I see no reason we are forced to learn what the parts of a sentence are.

While first-language speakers naturally acquire the language through their environment, second-language speakers have to be taught it from a linguistic perspective, i.e. phonetics, parts of speech, conjugation, syntactic rules, etc. These things don't get taught here (because the assumption is that you already know English), resulting in things like switching pronouns in subject and object positions (e.g. he and I vs. me and him), or misconjugating participles (e.g. should have went instead of should have gone), or not being able to tell the difference between e.g. and i.e.

[J N Winkler]

I found that in high school so much depends on circumstance: the luck of the draw can determine the teacher you get, whose particular teaching style might make or break your understanding and/or interest in that subject. 

Don't write off whole areas because you might have been taught them in ways that didn't click with you.  I realized this in college and felt a lot better about the subjects I struggled with in high school, whether or not I remedied this in college (some yes, some no).

Another thing to think about:  the classes you do the worst in at high school may very well be the ones that are the most useful in later life.  I think I took about seven AP courses in my high-school career (Calculus BC, US Government, US History, Physics A, Chemistry, Psychology, Computer Science) and took the AP exams for all of them.  One of my worst scores (a 3) was on the AP Computer Science exam, largely because the course was not scoped to match the test and did not "teach to the test" by exposing students to the types of questions asked on the exam.  In recent years, however, I have found this brief exposure to programming to be very useful in writing downloader scripts that essentially surveil various state DOTs and turnpike agencies and pull in signing plans that may be of interest.  "There's an app for everything" is not true for this particular use case, and for others where off-the-shelf code does exist that does part of what I need (e.g. tracking gas mileage for a 20-year-old car that has a broken odometer), being able to write code to integrate it into a completely automated process is helpful.

In high school I think I ranked 11th in a graduating class of about 350.  When I was admitted to KSU, I had about forty hours of test-out credit as a result of AP exams taken in high school, but the record-holder in this regard (who later went to Oxford on a Marshall scholarship and then returned to do a DVM degree) entered with sixty-plus credit-hours.

[Thing 342]

I found that in high school so much depends on circumstance: the luck of the draw can determine the teacher you get, whose particular teaching style might make or break your understanding and/or interest in that subject. 

Don't write off whole areas because you might have been taught them in ways that didn't click with you.  I realized this in college and felt a lot better about the subjects I struggled with in high school, whether or not I remedied this in college (some yes, some no).

Another thing to think about:  the classes you do the worst in at high school may very well be the ones that are the most useful in later life.  I think I took about seven AP courses in my high-school career (Calculus BC, US Government, US History, Physics A, Chemistry, Psychology, Computer Science) and took the AP exams for all of them.  One of my worst scores (a 3) was on the AP Computer Science exam, largely because the course was not scoped to match the test and did not "teach to the test" by exposing students to the types of questions asked on the exam.  In recent years, however, I have found this brief exposure to programming to be very useful in writing downloader scripts that essentially surveil various state DOTs and turnpike agencies and pull in signing plans that may be of interest.  "There's an app for everything" is not true for this particular use case, and for others where off-the-shelf code does exist that does part of what I need (e.g. tracking gas mileage for a 20-year-old car that has a broken odometer), being able to write code to integrate it into a completely automated process is helpful.

In high school I think I ranked 11th in a graduating class of about 350.  When I was admitted to KSU, I had about forty hours of test-out credit as a result of AP exams taken in high school, but the record-holder in this regard (who later went to Oxford on a Marshall scholarship and then returned to do a DVM degree) entered with sixty-plus credit-hours.

The AP Computer Science exam sucks. It's more about being able to do math in your head rather than actual programming knowledge. Thus, your score on it more or less corresponds to your SAT/ACT Math score rather than actual knowledge of the subject. Thus, most colleges I've looked at don't accept it unless you get a 5 on it.

[roadman]

I always did very well in English, History, and most of the Sciences - except high school Biology - which I couldn' t quite grasp (plus I broke one of the school's microscopes, which put me in a bad light with the instructor).  Was pretty good in basic math, but Freshman Algebra in high school really tripped me up.

[Brian556]

My best subject was not in school...it was driver's ed. Got a 99 on the driving test.

I also did well in science, reading, and spelling.
I was way above average in spelling in first grade...the other students couldn't spell "detour" no matter how hard they tried.

History was only slightly interesting to me back then...but now I find it very interesting.
I always hated English, where you have to read fictional stories and remember minute details. I always did poorly at this because I don't give a f*** about fiction.

Math is my worst subject...and still gives me problems. I just could never grasp algebra. I did good up to algebra.
I think part of the problem is the way it's taught.
Classes go way too fast.
They give you too many problems on homework, more quantity, worse quality.
The teachers are always female, and I tend to learn better from male teachers.
They give you problems with similar, but flipped numbers close together. This causes math dyslexia mistakes. I recently had a Cisco test with IP Addresses of 172.127......, and I kept dislexing them.
They don't tell you the reasoning for what you are doing, they just tell you how to do it.  If I can get the reasoning, I can grasp it very easy.

I am currently in college for Cisco networking, almost done, and doing well.

[vdeane]

In terms of grades:
-Worst: Phys. Ed
-Best: everything else

In terms of skill/interest:
-Best: liberal arts/social sciences
-Worst: still PE (I have no interest in sports whatsoever (though I might someday get into gymnastics... it was the only unit I liked until junior/senior year when things like archery were options) and have never been in shape in my life, and the gender factor was an issue with me too), foreign language, math (depending on how it's taught and what type)

[J N Winkler]

In terms of grades:

-Worst: Phys. Ed

In terms of skill/interest:

-Worst: still PE (I have no interest in sports whatsoever (though I might someday get into gymnastics... it was the only unit I liked until junior/senior year when things like archery were options) and have never been in shape in my life, and the gender factor was an issue with me too) . . .

I got an A in PE, but that was because grading was based largely on participation, and I always showed up and suited up.  The instructors were steeped in the philosophy of inclusivity, so the class itself was as far as it is possible to get from the ugly movie stereotype of a PE class from hell where the fat and slow are routinely humiliated.  In retrospect, however, I think there was a bit too much focus on cardio and not enough on strength-building exercises, and changing clothes in the locker room was a trial.  In high school students of either sex pretty much have body self-image issues unless they are jocks or cheerleaders, and I was no exception.

However, PE is another example of a high-school course one doesn't necessarily shine in where the subject matter becomes important in later life.  When I reached my late twenties, I prevailed on a friend to teach me weight-lifting techniques, and I have been going to the gym three times a week for the past several years.  It has made a huge difference not just in strength and muscle definition, but also in mental focus.

[vdeane]

Grading was based on participation through middle school, but skill became more important in high school.  Some units even had written exams.  My grades did improve in my junior year when non-sports options opened up at least part of the year.  I've always been very out of shape... I think I was the only person to take over 10 minutes to run the mile in one year.

[roadman]

@Brian556 - Hadn't thought about Drivers Ed as a subject, probably because it was no longer offered at my high school when I took it.  As a result, I got my permit the day I turned 16, but didn't start Drivers Ed (which I took at a private school) until ten months later.  Because of this, I actually had to take the learner's permit test a second time, when the original permit expired while I was taking the road lessons.  However, even in the 1970s, the Massachusetts written test (you take the written test to get the permit - the license test is a road test only) was regarded as something of a joke and almost anyone who had enough intelligence to deposit a fare on an MBTA bus could get a passing grade.  Of course, I got 100% both times I took the test.

As I've stated in other threads, my two favorite memories of Drivers Ed both occurred during classroom sessions.

The first incident was when we were given sample Registry of Motor Vehicles (Massachusetts' fancy name for what other states call a DMV) permit tests that were from 1955.  One of the questions on the test was "What does a single white line mean?"  I was not only the only person in the class (of 30) who correctly answered "Do Not Pass", but was then asked by the instructor (who expressed shock and amazement that ANYONE in the class knew the correct answer) to explain to the class why the answer was correct.  I immediately replied "Because yellow dividing lines did not come into common use in Massachusetts until after 1961, when the Federal traffic standards changed.  This test is from 1955, before that happened."

The second incident occurred two days before the classroom sessions ended.  The instructor gave each of us a set of regional road maps (the AAA "Southeastern States" type maps), a random - but major - destination somewhere in the United States, and an instruction to plot a route from the driving school to that destination.  After plotting the route, we were each to describe our route to the class, identify major junctions and cities along the route, and why we chose that route.  We were given twenty minutes to complete the assignment - of the 30 students, I was one of only five students that completed the task on time.

Good times indeed.

[Doctor Whom]

I got an A in PE, but that was because grading was based largely on participation, and I always showed up and suited up.

One of the grading periods in which I got an A in PE was devoted to baseball.  I located the part of the field where nothing ever happened and chose that as my position.  I learned an important lesson, but not what the teachers had intended to teach.

[J N Winkler]

Grading was based on participation through middle school, but skill became more important in high school.  Some units even had written exams.  My grades did improve in my junior year when non-sports options opened up at least part of the year.  I've always been very out of shape... I think I was the only person to take over 10 minutes to run the mile in one year.

You had PE multiple years?  In my school district it was a requirement for only one semester.

I am not sure I have ever been able to run a ten-minute mile.  When I was in my early twenties, I had a girlfriend who was going through basic training at Fort Jackson, so I downloaded the Army's physical fitness manual (FM 21-20) and tried to see how hard it would be for me to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test.  The APFT has three elements (running, situps, and pushups), and at that time the passing standard depended on your age and sex.  I think I would have had to run two miles in 18 minutes to pass and I was never anywhere close to that--I started at two miles in 25 minutes and managed to shave that down to about 21 minutes.  I was not even overweight to begin with (current BMI is about 22, and back then I think it was 20).

[roadman]

My senior year of high school was a textbook (no pun intended) case of "luck of the draw".

The previous summer, the school hired a teacher who was very experienced in teaching college level math to teach Introduction to Probability and Statistics.  The administration realized that they may had made a mistake when, midway through the first quarter (our high school had four quarters instead of two semesters), the teacher submitted about 135 warning notices to the headmaster for mailing to parents - there were only 150 students in my senior class.  The warning notices were not sent out, and the teacher didn't return for the next quarter.

For the second quarter, the school brought in a teacher from the opposite end of the spectrum - a former elementary school teacher - to teach the same course.   When warning notice time came around, she was much more selective in sending out notices.  Using a student's current grade as the initial "yes/no" basis, her additional procedure when sending out the notices was to randomly select one of the four "standard" reasons for issuing the notice.  My grade at the time was borderline, so I probably should have gotten a warning notice anyway.  The problem was that, on the notice, the teacher decided to check off the box labeled "Does not complete homework assignments."  Luckily, I was able to convince my parents that the teacher was wrong, but there were some tense moments when my father first opened the notice.

This teacher did not return after the second quarter.  For the third and fourth quarters, they re-assigned a teacher who had been teaching Physics instead.  Took over half a year, but my classmates and I finally started learning something and getting decent grades.