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/sci/ - Science & Math

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5329973 No.5329973 [Reply] [Original]

What was high school like for /sci/? What sort of classes did you take, how was your life in general, how much did you focus on school, etc...

>> No.5329985

high school... drug dealers had pagers, what the fuck is the internet?

>> No.5329986

>>5329985
Is that seriously all you could think of

>> No.5329987

I took science classes, I was pretty apathetic, I slept through most of my classes except for physics.

>> No.5329991

>>5329986
no, it's what I bothered to write

>> No.5329992

Mandatory school was the worst part of my life(25). Between moving from country to country, the lack of knowledge on language made the transition super difficult. In a place like US, blacks/hispanics have given me the most trouble, but also whites (unintentionally). If I had a choice, I'd want myself to be self-educated. All those years wasted my potential and fucked up my socializing skills. I learned most of the physics/math/language/programming from reading books in the public library(city). I skipped school for months to learn from the library. For that, I value my experience in the library as more important than schools. School = shit.

>> No.5330010

>>5329992
What's with the (25)

>> No.5330014

>>5330010
The age?

>> No.5330018

>>5330014
School isn't mandatory past 16

>> No.5330020

High school was good. I come from a good country (Canada) so we weren't learning shit sitting on dirt floors.

Not sure what I took before, but I remember I took all the basic university prerequisite courses: English 4U, Adv. Functions (pre-calculus), Calculus and Vectors (calculus and analytic geometry, plane geometry, pre-linear algebra), Physics 4U, Chemistry 4U, Data Management (statistics, probability, discrete math)

>> No.5330025

>>5330018
But the value system placed in our society requires the school graduation for any sort of respect(higher education/work).

>> No.5330026

>>5330020
What does the 4U mean? Also, what major/ career are you currently pursuing

>> No.5330029

>>5330025
It's still a little baffling that it took 7 extra years

>> No.5330031

>>5330029
I think you're confused. I graduated at 17. 25 is the current age.

>> No.5330032

lots of spaghetti

>> No.5330036

>>5330018

I figure he meant that school has been the worst part of his life relative to how long he's lived (25). That is, he probably graduated at a regular age and that period has been the worst part of his life to this day.


I actually was terrible in high school. I cut class all the time, slept when I actually didn't cut, and just did drugs. I disliked the softer courses because of the subjectivity in how the teacher interpreted your work and I didn't realize until college that math and science was more than just following rules and applying memorized formulas.

>> No.5330037

>>5330026
Oh, I should explain.

There are two streams for Canadian high school - College and University. College course are college prep (think 2-year career-specific diplomas) and the University ones are university prep.

The 4 means 4th year, or grade 12. Physics 4U just means Grade 12 university-bound physics.

I am at university now as a math major. Career wise I'm looking more into finance.

>> No.5330039

>>5330020
>data management
Pleb.

>> No.5330041

>>5330037
Ah, thanks for clarifying

>> No.5330042

>>5330041
U essentially = AP

Grade 12 U courses are the equivalent of first year college courses.

>> No.5330044

>>5330037
I live in Canada and currently am in grade 12 taking
Eng 4U, Adv Functions, Bio 4U, Music M, Physics 4U, Chemistry 4U and Calculus

Just applied to Waterloo's Co op program in Life Physics, what school do you go to anon?

>> No.5330048

>>5330044
Is there any academic stratification other than university-bound and college-bound? Here in Massachusetts we go from remedial to college-prep, then honors, and finally A.P.

>> No.5330051

>>5330048
Yeah there is depending on the highschool you go too. I know that other highschools offer jacked up IB courses which are extremely demanding. Some high schools offer AP (Advanced Placement courses) which actually allow you to be exempted from 1st year whatever in university

Lets say you take AP Physics in Canada and then go to a university, you would already have that university physics credit and wouldn't have to take it first year.

My highschool offers U courses which bascially is university prep.

Also offers M courses (mixed) which can be factored into admissions to university of colloge

and C courses which are just directly aimed at college

>> No.5330054

>>5330042
That's not true at all. U courses are not AP courses. You can take AP courses at special schools here separately.

>>5330039
Why am I a pleb for taking Data Management? It's the only course that gives you an introduction to sets, induction, combinatorics, permutations, and probability... besides, there are no other good U courses to take.

>>5330044
Waterloo's Life Physics? Cool. I go to McMaster.

>>5330048
There are M level courses, which are "university or college" bound but they are few and far between.

There are also "OPEN" courses which do not require U or C prerequisites to take. But basically no, there are only U and C level high school courses.

>> No.5330055

>>5330051
Could you explain IB a little further

>> No.5330058

>>5330055
I don't know a lot about it
Look at http://www.bayview.ss.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/IB.htm

>> No.5330061

>be 11
>skipped 3 grades cuz I learned math too fast
>enter high school
>1st day, knew no one
>parents force me to use rolling backpack because they thought the weight of a normal backpack would stunt growth
>rolling that shit was awkward as fuck
>finally got normal backpack after ~5months
>even teacher mentioned something about my "rolling thing"
>occasionally talk to people in class
>no friends
>did nothing during lunch/breaks
>always went directly home after school
>reasonably good student
>A's in all classes but always B+ in english
>2nd yr high school
>take SATs, apply college (4 year)
>get in
>administration wouldn't let me graduate so I basically dropped out of high school
>no fucks were given
>leave high school
>still knew no one
>learned absolutely nothing except how to do well on multiple choice exams
basically 2 yrs life wasted
the multiple choice skills proved to be slightly useful when I took the GREs this year though.

>> No.5330064

>>5330061
This is most likely a lie. Even Ted Kaczynski didn't skip that many grades and he had a tested IQ of 170 in grade 5.

People rarely ever skip grades and being really good at one subject is definitely not grounds for that.

>> No.5330067

>>5330054
Tell me more about Mcmaster, isn't there a nuclear reactor and a hospital on campus or something like that?

>> No.5330068

>>5330061
So you were admitted into college at 12.

Ok.

>> No.5330070

>>5330067
Yes we have the number one health science facility and program in Canada. If you wanna do anything health related, here is the place to be!
We have a gigantic hospital there.

We DO have a nuclear research facility here, too. The school isn't as mathy or sciencey AS Waterloo, but the faculties aren't bad. For example, we have an entire just math building which I thought was kind of unique among schools.

Also a really great campus. Very university-y, if you get my meaning.

>> No.5330077

>>5330064
well after kindergarten i moved to a private school and my parents did some talking... then they put me in 2nd grade.
went back to pub school at 4th grade.

i finished elem school and originally i was going to go to middle school but then they wanted be to take geometry for math (I had learned calculus already)
family went to school district and showed them my scores on sat ii math iic (800), ap calc (5), and ap physics (5) and also the classes I had taken at community college (mostly math, 2 physics, 1 english)
something happened and they put me into highschool

>> No.5330079

>>5330077
Your lack of capitalization and other grammar mechanics are clearly indicative of your superior intellect.

>> No.5330084

>>5330070
Ah, thanks for explaining all that to me!

Along with Waterloo Life Physics, I also applied to Guelph for Biomed Eng and Mcmaster for Medical Physics.

Most likely going to end up going to Waterloo, but Mcmaster is a really good possibility too!

>> No.5330086

>>5330079
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.

>> No.5330087

>>5330077
Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.

>>5330084
Medical Physics at McMaster is amazing. If I could do it all over again, I'd have chosen that.

But yeah Waterloo is an amazing science university. Just having the name on your degree is great... and the coop there is amazing too.

>> No.5330090

>>5330079
indeed. capitalization is just one of the redundant features of the english language.

>> No.5330092

>>5330054
You can learn all of that shit on Khan Academy in 3-4 days, why waste an entire class on it when you could be taking history or sociology.

>> No.5330093

I enrolled in Advanced Placement for Biology and Chemistry. I wasn't able to enroll in the Physics courses, so I lack some theory practice.

Other than that, I enrolled in anatomy and physiology, as well as astronomy. It was fun, we didn't study mathematical concepts much behind astronomy, just Kepler and Newton.

I liked high school, I'm not really smart but at least I got into UC Merced and now I'm researching genomics and doing Quantitative systems for macromolecules in the body.

>> No.5330098

>>5330092
Because I can learn history at the public library in an afternoon, and I can learn sociology by either making it up or interacting in society. Those classes are useless. Learning it isn't the same thing as proof that I learned it, which is more important.

>> No.5330100

I was expelled for the first 2 years then came back and got easy A's in all my classes for the last 2.

>> No.5330103

>>5330026
>>5330029
>>5330010
>>5330055
What kind of retards come onto this board? Its like you lack any sort of basic skill in reading comprehension.

>> No.5330104

>>5330098
>Those classes are useless
As far as learning is concerned, I'm pretty sure most classes are useless in the sense that you could learn more effectively and rapidly by self-study
fucking degrees and shit.

>> No.5330106

>>5330104
History is objectively useless when I could be learning about mathematics, at least in my opinion.
Sociology is useless too. Boring and it's mostly just made up crap.

>> No.5330109

Some giant liberal hippie elitist became superintendent a year or two before I went to high school and slashed the fuck out of the math and science budget to add more english classes, which weren't even good english classes about learning how to read or write to communicate, they were just political propoganda classes about how men and white people always ruin everything

High school was a joke

>> No.5330111

>>5330106
The idea is to meet smart women, not learn.

>> No.5330114

>>5330111
>implying anyone taking such classes is smart

>> No.5330115

>>5330111
I meet smart women in math. I meet liberal transgender lesbians in classes like sociology and history.
In high school, finding premium trim was never a problem. College is even better no matter what classes I'm taking.

>> No.5330129

>>5330115
thought you meant finding "smart women" in sociology and history classes

never mind

>> No.5330131

I went to a very urban high school. Surrounded by black people, mexicans, and lots and lots of asians. I was probably the smartest person in my graduating class, but was only the 50th percentile or top half. Some of my closer friends ended up going to USC, MIT, Stanford. I probably could've, but it was all so boring. I like being taught, but I was raised too lazy to be an active searcher of knowledge. I'm a passive learner, kinda like a sponge. But yeah, high school was fun. Did a lot of drugs. Had a terrible girlfriend for half of it. Then it got better and I now have 3 close friends and an awesome girlfriend. Theyr're 1700 miles away right now, but meh.

>> No.5330133

>>5330131
She's cheating on you.

>> No.5330135

>>5330131
>I was probably the smartest person in my graduating class, but was only the 50th percentile or top half.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

>> No.5330144

>>5330103
what do you mean?

>> No.5330148

>>5330144
0/10

>> No.5330152

>>5330135
Nah. I know I'm smart. I just sucked at doing homework. I was really good at tests and I taught things to other students that the teachers weren't able to convey to them. Even the ones who now go to MIT, Stanford or USC.
>>5330133
and no she isn't. I know her. She wouldn't.

>> No.5330153

>>5330152
If you're so smart, then how come you're a fucking retard? Protip: you're not smart. You know a bit but then you slacked off. You're not smart. You overestimate your knowledge

>> No.5330161

>>5330153
Lel. Okay. If you say so mr. man who has never met me and knows nothing about me. I'm not going to entertain your trolling attempt.

>> No.5330165

My High School was wannabe central for everything. Teachers wanted to climb up the ladder quick, students wanted to jump straight into 6-digit jobs without the effort or work, it sucked just listening to people. Above all, people rationalised failure and kept that downward spiral going, multiple students in particular went from being straight A's to somehow almost failing the Australian educational system.

I picked English based subjects, got straight A's in English without studying so that freed up a lot of time for other subjects like Modern History, which was supposed to be the hardest subject under the system but I rarely studied and did almost perfectly. I kept screwing up in basic mathematics but did very well in law.

Primarily my time was learning about the types of people you can meet in such a diverse urban environment. Students which dedicated their life to study and "crashed and burned" in their final year, or students who left High School not knowing what to do next, all quite eye-opening.

>> No.5330169

>>5330161
Not the same guy but i think he is right. So many people think they are smart but then have nothing to back it. More than likely you are completely average. The only empirical evidence you have provided us is finishing at the %50 mark. What is more likely: You are a genius but didn't apply yourself and despite being a genius got a very average placement or You are average and got average grades finishing at an average place.

I agree with him, more than likely you are delusional and are trying to rationalize your less than stellar results.

>> No.5330183
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5330183

I went to a moderately sized highschool in a farm town, was never forced by parents into doing anything at all, had some fun experiences, and ultimately was consumed by playing EVE online for 4+ years until I got my shit together during senior year.

I never focused on school at all since there was neither any motive for getting good grades (until later when I decided on a dream career that required going to university) nor was the material in most classes much more than rote. Despite this, I always got A's in math & science. I did AP chem & calc AB in school and ended up self-studying both AP physics C exams; all of which I got a 5 on. I know it's a babby-tier achievement when graded by /sci/'s standards, but I felt really good about coming in late to the ballgame and still showing up the tryhards and outdoing them in a lot of ways.

Other than that, I did tennis and was well acquainted with a fair number of cute chicks, but had no gf. Looking back, I also think it was unfortunate that not a single school club or organization devoted to math, science, or engineering, but there was a huge emphasis on track, a shitty football team, and a farmers' association.

And, as with most public schools, plenty of fighting and drug use that I was lucky to have avoided under particular circumstances. Overall a 4/10 experience, would travel back in time and foster myself.

>> No.5330185
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5330185

>>5330169
If you saw all of my test scores and the homework I actually did, you wouldn't be saying that. If you saw how much I engaged the teacher, explained things to other students and asked questions that furthered the understanding for other students. Yeah, I sucked at school. The work didn't challenge me whatsoever. It's part of the reason I got into drugs. I was bored shitless. I've been reading since 3. I figured out derivatives and integrals on my own. I got a 6 on the physics HL. I'm by no means a super genious, but I'm smarter than the average bear. My mom just sucks and didn't raise me right. The best proof I can find right now is my ACT score. Other than that, I have no quantitative data to back up my claims. Believe me or not, your choice, but I'm not lying.

>> No.5330188

>>5330185
fuck. genius*. lol I can't even spell.

>> No.5330187

>>5330169
>likely
not certainly

>> No.5330196

>>5330185
>My mom just sucks and didn't raise me right

My mom made it clear to me from a young age that she'd prefer if I dropped out of high school and worked a minimum wage job, because it'd be more "fun".

Currently working on my PhD in behavioral neurosci at UCSD, don't blame your parents for your lost potential.

>> No.5330197

I spent my lunch hour and any other non-class time in the computer lab. For a while I was banned from the computer lab for hacking at which point I spent all my time in the library reading. I enjoyed the classes and teachers a lot more than middle school. Physics and art were my favorites. High school is when I started putting effort into my schoolwork and went from mediocre grades to straight As. In my spare time I tough myself programming and electronics. In my Senior year I was second in the Canadian National Science Fair and third in the Canadian Computing Competition. I entered these competitions on my own because my school had no interest in supporting extracurriculars beyond sports. I only found out about the computing competition accidentally after breaking into my math teachers email account.

I finished my bachelors in Computer Engineering three years ago. I own part of the little startup company I work for. The dream is to get it successful and bought up by a big corporation then live modestly without working again. I'd still program and design electronics every day if that happened, but more artistic fun projects for the lulz.

>> No.5330212

>>5330185
They'll never believe you. Same thing happened to me on a different thread a while back. You're lucky no one called you a fucking moron for your typo. 4chan sucks because of the people, ESPECIALLY /sci. Everyone tries too hard to be smarter than everyone else.

>> No.5330222

>>5330196
She didnt tell me things were impossible. I wish she had. But she was apathetic. I raised myself pretty much. She sent me to my room so she could go smoke weed and j watched tv and counted things. There was a whole bookshelf in my room i sat and looked at.

>> No.5330276

>>5330222
at the books.* fuck.