Calc Honors Blues

Many students in Mr. Schultz’s Honors Calculus class came to school this past Thursday in a relatively good mood. Some were jocular, others were confident, others were timid, but not daunted, about the test that faced them first period. Review bustled as normal, students comparing reference sheets, running through vital equations, quizzing themselves to ensure they’d be ready. Implicit differentiation and related rates—both topics were math-heavy—sometimes include compound fractions and equations with nearly a dozen terms, but it wasn’t anything the class wouldn’t be able to handle, having studied the material for weeks beforehand. However, as the test presented itself, the problems built and built. The students, who had come to expect the critical thinking questions that were a signature of Mr. Schultz’s tests, keeping them on their toes, were soon lost in the cryptic wording and downright abstruse mathematical deductions. Lines formed at the teacher’s desk for guidance longer than those of any test to precede. Stalled by the enigmatic questions, only one single student out of the full classroom managed to even field responses to every question; some of the 11th grade’s best minds found themselves pulling hair and shaking their heads in forlorn consignment. Now, mercy on the high 90s of past weeks will have to lie in the never-before-seen group grading system, which offers students generous rounding but highly suspenseful overall placement. Grades will finally be released once the second class completes their trials this Tuesday, and the students of Mr. Schultz’s Honors Calculus will be biting their nails until then.