Tell us something about yourself!

[Flathead770]

I've always enjoyed school, both primary and post secondary. Even with all the stress and anxiety with grades and financials during my physics degree it was still a lot of fun learning though and might end up going back to school here at some point.

[ImpracticalDino]

Hmm, I'm a bit curious though. Is the first two years of college is actually repeating/or similar to what you learned in high school? I heard something like that online somewhere. If so, shouldn't all years be dedicated to the career you choose?
Yeah, I do realize that some people still haven't chosen a career option when they're in college, so obviously they would need to take general classes.

[StardustSoldier]

That's what I did when I went to college. For my first year I just took General Studies, before going into Multimedia Production in the following years.

I never found any of my college years repetitive of what I learned in high school, but that may have depended on the classes I took. I do know that my college offers upgrading, which is specifically designed around high school-esque courses for those who never graduated from high school.

[Anagnos]

I kind of told one soul about this on Discord, but sharing it with everyone else doesn't really hurt and I would like to see if there are others who like this sort of thing. So, I like to spray very hot water on my skin while in the shower, and of course, that can be very damaging to the skin. I just can't help it, it feels so... good.

Does anyone else do this or am I just weird? 

[ImpracticalDino]

So, I like to spray very hot water on my skin while in the shower...

Spray...? Spray?! You're in the shower, so why not just blast yourself with a torrent of hot water? Don't you have a shower head to do that? Spray seems very underwhelming.

Also, you know how when you just turn on the shower, very cold water comes out of the shower head before turning to warm water a few seconds later? Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't, but I put my entire body under the torrent of freezing water. My reasoning is that the warm water would feel much more warm and therefore more comfortable and better if I subject myself to the cold at first.

[Flathead770]

Some things can be a bit of a repeat of high school, but not exactly, at least in terms of physics. First year, first semester calculus for example is fairly similar to a high school calculus course so if your high school offers the class I'd recommend you take it. Even if you don't do so great in it it's a great learning experience to help prepare for post secondary. First year physics courses can also cover the same topics as well but feel more problem solving in nature and may introduce some calculus as well. By 2nd year though it felt like it was all pretty much new.

[ImpracticalDino]

Thanks for all the input guys, I appreciate it.

I'm planning on taking some AP classes starting in 10th grade, and more AP classes in 11th and 12th grade. It'd give me a lot of college credit, save me a lot of money, and provide an overall challenge for me.

The thing that is also great is that there are some honors classes in my high school that give college credit too, as much as 6! For those classes, it operates like a normal class except you pay a fee at the end for the college credit! While those credits are offered by a certain college, they certainly can be transferred for other colleges I've heard.

As a matter of fact, my school has both Pre-Calculus and Calculus, both of which are offered as honor classes and give college credit.

I have a goal. An ambitious goal. At least 30 college credits before high school is done with. It's going to be a very difficult challenge, but I know I won't have to take ALL AP classes to obtain my objective.

[Anagnos]

Spray...? Spray?! You're in the shower, so why not just blast yourself with a torrent of hot water? Don't you have a shower head to do that? Spray seems very underwhelming.

Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to say either blast or pour the water on me. My bad. 

[StardustSoldier]

I have a step-brother who died a few years ago from a drug overdose.

[Flathead770]

I have a step-brother who died a few years ago from a drug overdose.

That's rough, sorry to hear that.

@ImpracticalDino
Sounds like a plan! What are you thinking about taking in post secondary? (Hint: Physics is the best! ) Great to see your school offers calculus as well! From looking at the context I guess I can already figure it out that the AP courses are the harder versions of the subjects (what does AP stand for? Advanced something? ). In Canada back when I was in high school we just used -1, -2 to specify. So  grade 10 english had either english 10-1, or english 10-2, with 1 being the better one to take (though for the more specific science courses like physics there was only the 1 course)

[ImpracticalDino]

Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to say either blast or pour the water on me. My bad. 

I can sort of sense that hint of sarcasm in the post you wrote, but that's perfectly fine!
Don't worry, I sort of knew what you meant at first, but it just seemed so weird.

I have a step-brother who died a few years ago from a drug overdose.

Well, that escalated quickly. Wow, my condolences.

@Flathead770
Actually, I haven't really thought about that yet. Also, the term "post secondary" is unheard of to me, but then again so is "primary" and "secondary," although I do live in America. I've never heard of people who refer to elementary, middle, or high school like that.

AP stands for Advanced Placement, and it's basically lets you do college work and curricula in high school in for the opportunity to earn college credit beforehand. At the end of every AP class, there's an AP exam. You are scored on a scale of 1-5. Getting a 3 or 4 would get you qualified for college credit by most colleges, but a 5 is the most optimal. Apparently the AP program is in both the United States and Canada according to Wikipedia, but you've never heard of it until now.

For more information, see this Wikipedia article about AP, and to visit the official website, click here.

By the way, could you tell me more about how school works in Canada?

[StardustSoldier]

It's okay. Sorry for dumping that onto you guys so suddenly. xP

[ImpracticalDino]

It's okay. Sorry for dumping that onto you guys so suddenly. xP

Don't worry about it. And besides, Anagnos did mention that he sprayed hot water on himself.

[Flathead770]

@ImpracticalDino
Ah ok, thanks for the info! I've heard AP be tossed around before and have always assumed it's the equivalent of a harder/better course to take. That's interesting that it is also in Canada. Never seen it here in Alberta at least.

As for primary and secondary I guess they usually don't get tossed around a lot. Post secondary is just a more generic term to refer to any further education above the mandatory amount, whether it is a college, university, trades and such.

I imagine school in Canada isn't all that different. For me in Alberta I had Elementary from grades 1-6, Jr. High for 7-9 and High School for 10-12. I've heard this varies for different provinces but French was mandatory for me in grades 4-6 (never bothered to continue after that though haha). I've mentioned that there's different levels for subjects you can take in my previous post, with the harder ones being the ones generally required for post secondary. Grade 10 science is consolidated into one course but branches out into Bio, Chem, and Physics for grade 11 and 12. The grading system is represented by a % instead of a letter grade and is scored on an absolute scale (unlike a relative scale like a bell curve common in university)

Another fun fact is that I've never really heard of what year you're in by freshman, sophomore, junior, senior. It's always just the year number (so I would just say I'm 1st year instead of a freshman)

Not sure if that's the answers you were looking for. Let me know if you had anything more specific then that!
Any oddities that stick out from your system?

[ImpracticalDino]

@Flathead770
In my school district for a very long time until four years ago, it would be split up into this: 1st to 4th grade for elementary, 5-6 and 7-8 for middle school (I really had no clue why it was like that), and 9-12 for high school. There are like four elementary school buildings (I think), two middle school buildings that are within walking and viewing distance of each other, and a high school in the district. Then, right in 4th grade, the same year I was supposed to be graduating, there was a slight change. Elementary school was now 1-5, and middle school was 6-8. Not sure how I felt about it then, but thinking about it now, I would be grateful for that. Fast forward to today, and my school district went into a great overhaul. Due to the huge amount of students joining the district, they've decided to make every elementary school building, including the kindergarten one, serve as K-6. So now, middle school would just be 7-8, and high school well, unaffected once again.

It seems that generally in the United States, elementary is K-6 (sometimes K-4, K-5, or K-8), and middle school is 7-8 (occasionally includes sixth, ninth, and fifth grades too). Paraphrased from Wikipedia.

During middle school starting 7th grade, there was this sort of Language Exploratory Class or Program thing going on. It was where you take both Spanish and French (respectively and in no given order) for one quarter. And so, you get to choose what language you want for next year and going into high school. If you got into honors french for your last middle school year, it would count as a high school credit given that you pass it. Speaking of honors, there was also Algebra and Earth Science that I took as well. Both of them give one high school credit each, given that you pass the class and the regents that go with it. Easy, I'll say.

As for 9th grade, you should at this point be taking Algebra and Earth Science, given that you weren't taking that the previous year because you weren't in honors. But since I'm ahead of the game, I'm currently enrolled in Living Environment (Biology) and Geometry. Of course, there are regents for those as well, which I'm studying for at the moment.

In 10th grade, I'll be taking Chemistry and Trigonometry/Algebra II. After that, I'm basically done because I would've met the criteria of 3 credits for the subjects of Math and Science required for graduation. English and Social Studies require all four years, and there are other miscellaneous classes and things needed for the earning of a high school diploma.

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading this unnecessarily long essay I wrote.

[Flathead770]

Haha no worries. It's pretty interesting! Our math courses were never so fancy with their titles. They were always just called math All the high school level math courses were called Pure Math 10, 20, 30 (for grade 10,11,12) and Math 31 for calculus. For those who just needed to take math to graduate took the Applied Math classes.

Seems a bit unfortunate that there was so much change with the grades while you were in school but you've seemed to have come out on top, though I'm not seeing any Physics in there unfortunately

[ImpracticalDino]

@Flathead770
Um, wow okay then. Do they tell you the specific type of math you'd be doing when you get in the classroom, because "Math" is vague. It could be any varieties of Math I specified in my previous post. And besides, the fancy titles are pretty cool and spices up things a bit. Also, that four lettered word denotes one thing to me: Mental Abuse To Humans, or M.A.T.H. I don't really despise math, it's just that it can be very frustrating at times, and I like to joke about it a lot.

The first change in the grades I honestly didn't mind, and it actually seemed to make sense. But now with every elementary school building including the kindergarten building being converted to K-6, I'm like, wow... okay then, that's a big change.

To address your concern with my school not having Physics...well don't you worry! It does have Physics, and there's an AP class for it too! If you're wondering how many AP classes my high school offers, here's the list for them.

AP In English Composition and Literature
AP in English Language and Composition
AP Spanish Language H
AP Computer Science
AP Chemistry & Lab
AP Biology & Lab
AP Physics B & Lab (Your favorite course!)
AP World History
AP US History And Government
AP US Government And Politics
AP Psychology
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Computer Science A

Of course, those are just the courses with AP in the title. There are many other classes that give college credit, like I've said in a previous post. Also, sorry about some of the weird course names again, just typing it how it says it. I know you didn't ask about it, but I thought it'd be interesting information to share with you. I can't believe just how many AP courses my high school provides, wow! I'm not so sure, but I think other schools are more fortunate than others when it comes to the amount of AP courses that are offered for a specific school.

[Flathead770]

Hmm they might! Can't remember honestly. But it was usually an assortment of things like algebra, trigonometry, factoring, logarithms based on whatever level it was. So there would be several units broken up within the course with a unit exam at the end of each. I mean, if you're planning on going to university for anything science related you would probably just take all the required math classes anyways so I never really had a problem with it. With that method there was only ever 1 math class per year (except if you wanted to take calculus as well. Funny enough, my last semester in high school was 3/4 math as we had a 4 block system. First block alternated between Orchestra and a spare, 2nd was Physics 30, 3rd was Pure Math 30, followed by Math 31 [both math courses were in the same room with the same teacher ])

Well I wasn't worried that your school didn't have Physics as much as the fact that you hadn't taken Physics yet

That's a fair amount of AP courses! I don't think any of them really sound all that weird and seem pretty standard to me.

[Anagnos]

And my deadline for my work is approaching. I've worked hard with this one, so I hope that I'll pass, but we'll see that tomorrow. Today I'll edit it a little more (time to finally be productive). Wish me luck! 

[ImpracticalDino]

Well I wasn't worried that your school didn't have Physics as much as the fact that you hadn't taken Physics yet

Physics... I would most likely oblige to that recommendation of Physics if I had room in my schedule, and I do actually, but most likely for my senior year of high school though. Oh, and it'd be AP Physics I would take. Is physics really the best course to take, like you said?

I am taking Pre-Calculus and Calculus by choice even if I didn't take anything science related. That college credit is tempting, ya know? But I do know it would help me with other science related topics, so it'd be a win-win for me. Also, the future career that I want to pursue is Marine Biology! In 11th grade I am planning to take AP Biology and then in 12th grade I am planning to take this "Project Advance Biology & Lab" course as part of the Syracuse Project Advance Program. Basically, qualified students get to enroll into this program and take introductory Syracuse University courses for college credit. That gives 8 college credits, which shocked me. Of course I'm taking those classes as it would further help me understand general biology and its concepts so I could be one step further to being a Marine Biologist.

And my deadline for my work is approaching. I've worked hard with this one, so I hope that I'll pass, but we'll see that tomorrow. Today I'll edit it a little more (time to finally be productive). Wish me luck! 

Oh no! My essay is due tomorrow!
Oh, and Good Luck on passing whatever you're trying to achieve!