Grades: First Trimester

The man on the back of my report card is apparently Mr. Fortuny, the guy who my school is named after. I'm pretty sure my principle came up to me one day, looked me straight in the eye and told me he was a scientist, but my mom thinks he's the Spanish artist. My principle and I could have been talking about bananas and I wouldn't have known. Who knows?

Here they are. My grades from the first of three trimesters in school. In the end, I only failed four, which is pretty good when you consider that these grades also reflect my level of Spanish from my first three months, which was basically "hello my name is Vivian I like to run." Also, I never got any special treatment. I took the same tests as everyone else did, even in Spanish grammar class, and the teachers didn't go easy on me. I was graded on what I did.

Now, let me explain how different the grading system here is. Your notes are based on a scale of 1-10, not A-F, and 10 is the highest. No one gets a ten. Literally, no one.

(Well, I did, but I'm fluent in English...)

If you get an 8-9 you're the happiest person in the world. It's like getting a 100 in the States. A 1-4 is failing, but failing is super common. When none of the exams are multiple choice and they count for basically 75 percent of your grade, I don't see how anyone can not fail, much less get a 10.

If you fail...you fail. There should be some things called 'recuperations' coming up, which may help you raise your grade, but at the end of the year the cumulative average is what's important. So there's still a chance for me.

Here's where the US system doesn't match up with the Spanish one. If you get a 5-7, you're happy. If I got a D or a C in the States, I would be upset. I would cry. My parents would disown me. My friend got a 6 here, jumped out of his seat, and did a victory lap around the classroom. I suppose that a 5 isn't failing, and if you're not failing...well, why strive for the near-impossible? I'm happy for a five, although of course we all prefer 10s.

Geology: 4 I might be able to pass this one in the recuperations.

History: 5 What??? I passed that??? Okay...

Greek Mythology: 7 Pretty easy for everyone.

P.E.: 7 I would like to point out that gym class here is not the case as gym class there. As my American friend pointed out, here you actually get tested on how high you can jump or how fast you can run. There's no plan to encourage improvement. If you can't do it, you fail. If you didn't understand the order you should do a handstand, cartwheel, and forward roll in, you get a 7.

Ethics: 8 This one, I think, is the product of my own cleverness. I was informed early on that you are graded on how deep and philosophical your answers are. So, for the whole trimester, I would rant about how the language barrier affected your everyday life. My teacher loved it. For example, we had an assignment to create a perfect Utopia. My Utopia was called Monotongue, and it was the law to always speak Monotonguese, because it was fair, no, it was just that every citizen was able to communicate and contribute to his community. Or, another time in a test, I forgot the three types of Liberty, so I wrote a few paragraphs about how Liberty is the ability to express what you're feeling, but how that liberty is weakened when you don't speak the language. Oh course this couldn't be applied to my specific case in that moment as I forgot the three types of Liberty, but I got the question right. (sarcasm)

Advanced Physics: technically a 0, but they can't but that on my report card, so a 1 We all saw this one coming. Girl who doesn't speak Spanish and has never taken Physics before jumps into a physics two class and tries to learn it in Spanish. Ha Ha, yeahhhh...she's gonna fail. Honestly, I worked really hard on this one. I paid a tutor 12 euros an hour, four hours a week to come to my house and try to explain Hooke to me. I studied for at least four hours everyday. It just didn't catch on. Now, I know for sure that I'm going to fail this class again. I'm done trying. I'm not giving up, I'm just prioritizing. If it means I spend hours and money on a subject that I don't like, will never use in life, and will not count for my American highschool, I'd rather study more for history or have time to go out for an icecream with my host sister instead of shutting myself in my room to try to comprehend the incomprehensible. I'll just keep doodling on my exam papers and maybe try to follow along when I'm fluent in Spanish. BY THE WAY, 'velocidad' is not 'velocity,' it's speed. That could really confuse things for you. Also, Newton's laws are a lot catchier in English.

Computer Class: 7 If you stuck me in front of a computer and asked me to make a special graph thing that we do in class, I probably couldn't do it. If you pair me up with a partner and she happens to be really nice and smart, I'll pass the class. The Spaniards who failed the final exam were mad with me because I got a 5, technically passing, even though I literally guessed on every question. Next time you have no idea what you're doing, answer all 'c' and you may just get a fifty percent. I do, however, have better powerpoint making skills. More on that later.

English: 10!!! I actually got an 8.5 on one exam, not the best in the class, but somehow I ended up with a 10. This class is so funny.

Spanish: 4 I was really close in this one. It was looking good up until the lexical graphic organizing exam, as I had previously sacked, Spanish verb sacar, (American English) scored a 6 on a test about a book I read in Spanish, and later a 10 (a TEN!!!!) on a different book. Darn Spanish Grammar test.

Math: 1 The movie Mean Girls has lied. Math is NOT the same in every country. Math... I could go on and on about how stupid math is here, but I'll hold myself back and say that I'll probably be failing this one again, too. Just imagine not understanding something in math. You ask your teacher, you ask your friends, you get a tutor, you understand. Now don't understand it in a different language. Okay, a little more complicated, but you still ask your teacher. Your teacher doesn't help you because you don't understand. Why don't you understand? Every method, formula, and explanation is different here. Besides the fact that we're not allowed to use calculators. Ever. Better memorize the 1-20 Logs. Or, better yet, memorize the whole text book, and you may pass.

Overall, I'm pretty proud of myself. I would love to be passing everything, but that's just not reasonable. This trimester I'm prioritizing by cutting out physics and focusing a lot on studying the language. Look for better grades in three months. I'm sure they'll be better.

Gotta go study. Bye!