8.5 out 9 in Calculus

``I got 8.5 out of 9 in math,'' Tim texted during his Saturday night out with

friends. ``Thank GOD! I am so proud of you!'' dad replied. ``The secret was to

visualize the problems,'' Tim let on later.

 

Caculus AP had become an albatross since late last fall after a few

early-decision colleges, including his dream school, let Tim in. The good news,

after the initial exhiliration, worried the family sick, however: they could

rescind admissions in spring once they see the high-school senior's first term

academic results. The question ``Which engineering school is to take a student when

they see a D in math?'' was constantly gnawing at everyone.

 

Throwing money at the problem, mom's MO, by hiring a tutor, proved not working

by the end of the fall term. Tim was smart as careless and spent too much time

on robotics which his parents thought a mere sideshow. Next, dad sat down with

the kid and tried what had worked back in his own high-school days. Together,

they went through pages of basic integration problems dozens of times over the

winter break.

 

Since then, Tim felt good after each quiz but his scores stayed low. ``The teacher

docked points for the tiniest slips,'' he complained once. Worksheet solutions

Mr. Gonzalez sent in the small hours on the same day before the morning quiz

didn't help his students either.

 

Dad's view, however, was that the boy lacked, as young people often do,

attention to detail, a key to engineering. Caculus AP obviously challenged Tim

in more ways than one and if he gave up, he'd be better off pursuing other

fields. Born in the U.S., he had many options and dad did not fret as much about

the boy's future. To his son's question ``What if I had to go to a community

college as no uni's going to take me because of math?'' dad answered as if that

were what he actually wanted: ``Then I'll drive you two more years.'' Dropping

the boy off before Friday morning's quiz, dad's parting shot as if he were

commanding William Wallace's army was:``Just go and face it and you win.''

 

So Tim's hard work did pay off. More importantly, these days, dad doesn't even

sit with him through homework anymore. He has been completely on his own.

 

By mid March, the assurance from Mr. Romano, Tim's college counselor, when the

family panicked before Christmas break, started to make sense. None of the

early-admissions had walked out and regular admissions kept coming. Dad's

conclusion was that they turned a blind eye to the poor math score because of

Tim's leadership in robotics. It was a surprise to dad but there was no other

reason his Chinese engineering mind could think of.