Meine Erzeugnisse

Last Friday was the official last day of the first semester and, therefore, we received our mid-year grades. Mine were not too bad, with the exception of English, which is, personally, very embarrassing for me. But, on the bright side, we only had a half day of school on Friday and had today, Monday, off.

So, here are my grades and explanation: They score on a number based system from 1-6, with 1 being the best a student can receive and 6 being the worst. If I didn't receive a grade in a class, it is because the teacher couldn't give me a proper grade because I was either not there enough times or because I didn't participate* enough, and because of those two reasons, the grade would be so bad that it might be bad for my self-esteem and they don't want to hurt that. Keep in mind that they are only doing that because I am an exchange student.

Now let me explain just how they grade. A student's overall grade is based on two things: mundlich and schriftlich. *Mundlich, which makes up around 90% of the overall grade, is determined by how often a student answers or asks questions in class and whether or not those answers were correct. Schriftlich, which makes up 10% of the overall grade, is based on turned in assignments and tests. Because of this, exchange students have a hard time getting good grades, because of the lack of language.

The main reason for the absence of most of my grades are that I wasn't there. This is not because I skipped, it is because I was put into another German class instead of certain other classes. I also had an intensive German course, which lasted the entire day every Wednesday, as well as a weekly meeting with a teacher-liason on Tuesdays.

Finally, my grades:
German - --
History - --
Economics/Politics - --
Geography - --
English - 3
Math - 2
Physics - 4
Chemistry - 4
Biology - 4
Music - --
Art - 3
P.E. - 2

Yes, I know, English should've been a 1, but I really didn't answer many questions in that class. It was my personal opinion that the other students in the class were the ones learning the language and, therefore, I should be the one answering most of the questions. However, my teacher thought otherwise, apparently, and I will act next semester accordingly. Fortunately, these are just mid-year grades and are taken like progress reports. So I have until the end of the year to get them up. Here are my end of year goals gradewise:

German - 3
History - 4
Economics/Politics - 4
Geography - 3
English - 1
Math - 1
Physics - 4
Chemistry - 3
Biology - 3
Musik - 3
Art - 3
P.E. - 2

If I get better than that, I will be overjoyed. But just getting those as grades at the end of the year, I will be very satisfied.