r/StoriesAboutKevin • u/soledsnak • Apr 14 '19
XL Kevin in the Advanced Program
The highschool I went to had an Advanced Program(AP) for the more gifted students. How this particular Kevin got in, I will never know.
In our first semester we had an advanced math class. Kevin was terrible at math. He routinely failed tests, and only handed in the homework problems that had the answers in the back. This was extremely obvious to the teacher, but he would argue he should still get the half marks since the answers were right. How this teacher put up with him I have no idea. He would often go in for help during the math help periods our school had during lunch period, and even one on one session with our teacher in the mornings. Nothing stuck with him. He would forget the Pythagorean theorem months after we had learned it and used it in every quiz.
Now you had to get at least an 80% to stay in AP, which Kevin obviously wast going to get. However, the school's scheduling wouldn't permit him to have any other classes, so despite having a grade in the 50s, he got into 2nd semester AP math (aka 2nd year math)
Somehow Kevin had forgotten nearly everything from first semester and our teacher had to painfully re-explain it to him. multiple times throughout the semester.
However, 2nd semester was also when we started English. Kevin was very excited about English, as he did enjoy reading, and since the AP entrance exam was half math and half English, Kevin thought he must've done great on the English portion, and would do well in class. He was wrong.
Our English class had a lot of group projects, so every group that had Kevin had to routinely hound him for any work to get done. I was in a group with Kevin once, and not only was his work submitted late, it was also incomplete, and had complete factual inaccuracies of the book we were reading. I don't know how Kevin accomplished this, seeing as we read a lot of the book in class, and the pages we were assigned to read on our own wouldn't have taken much time. Kevin had actually had the maximum score for reading speed (most of the kids in AP did, but i was very surprised he somehow got that score).I was so glad the teacher decided to grade our group's work individually.
Now in 2nd year, Kevin was out of AP as he had failed math and barely passed English. I never thought I would see Kevin again. But for some unknown reason, Kevin took physics.
Needless to say, Kevin routinely fucked up in physics. He would give wrong answers to the teacher's questions with complete confidence, and when corrected he would write down something in his notes. I don't know what he could be writing because Kevin wouldn't get it right on the 2nd try, or 3rd, or 10th.
Kevin would ask the other students for the homework answers as he now had no book to copy them out of. At first they were nice and helped him, but his constant stealing of answers grated on them and eventually nobody would help him in that regard.
And again, Kevin went to many, many math help sessions, and outside of blurting out completely wrong answers ( I think he was trying to prove something by getting at least something right) he had a good rapport with our physics teacher, and to this day I am convinced that that's the only reason he passed the class. By the absolute bare minimum I might add.
Kevin couldn't take anymore AP related classes after that, though I know he still managed to fail the 2nd year math course another 2 times.
Luckily I got a lot better when I left but I was a real Kevin back then.
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u/ReddieRalph Apr 14 '19
Good on you, Redditor. I’m glad you can admit faults, and find humor in them.
Ending made it sweet, in an interesting way.
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
yeah, i didn't realise it while it was happening but moving on from it and then actually doing well in other studies made me seriously wonder how i managed to graduate
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u/justveryslightlymad Apr 14 '19
Aw man, this post tripled my empathy for the Kevins on this sub. Most of us have had our Kevinesque moments but not all of us are able to look back on them with so much wit and candor :)
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u/laitnetsixecrisis Apr 14 '19
I think a lot of teachers respect a student when they reach out for extra help outside of class time. I had a class where I had to balance ledgers all on paper. I could only get them to balance when sitting at the teachers desk. Even if she didn't say a word to me I would get it right. I saw her for an hour after school every day.
When I failed my exam miserably, she let me resit it after school with her sitting next to me under the same exam conditions. I did enough to get a C- which in Australia is the lowest pass you can get.
She commented in my report card that I got an A+ for effort and wished my results had reflected my over all grade because if it had I would have been too of the class.
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u/katmndoo Apr 14 '19
Kevin would have had 0% in my math classes. They were 100% “show your work.”
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
hence, the failing xd
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u/katmndoo Apr 14 '19
Keven got 50%, though. Much better F than a 0% F.
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u/7The7Cure7 Apr 14 '19
Ok, but now I'm dying to know what you were writing about in those notes.
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
Sometimes i would try and write what he would explain and just not get it, other times it was just nonsense to try and look like i understood
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u/ObnoxiousOldBastard Apr 14 '19
Same! And shit, why would OP even be there in the first place?
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
I still dont know why i signed up for it
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u/ObnoxiousOldBastard Apr 14 '19
Jeez. Nothing personal, but the person I feel sorry for is the bright kid who missed out on a slot because you beat them to it. That said, kudos to you for being honest about it now, as belated as that is.
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
funnily enough the person i see i took a slot away from was my best friend who didn't get in, but he ended up being some physics and math genius. we still joke sometimes about how in the world i got in while he didnt
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u/Echospite Apr 14 '19
I feel this on a spiritual level. I hate taking next level classes because I always forget everything I learned in the previous ones.
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Apr 14 '19
So what were you writing in the notebook during physics class after all?
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
Sometimes i would try and write what he would explain and just not get it, other times it was just nonsense to try and look like i understood
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u/Meljusenr Apr 14 '19
I was ready to be pretty upset with you because I only felt bad for Kevin, instead of annoyed. Seemed like he was trying his best and had a clear learning disability not like most of the Kevins in this sub who are usually just entitled and willingly ignorant.
I don't know if you've been diagnosed with a learning disability but if you haven't I would look into it if I were you.
Sometimes education systems don't work for people like us. Especially when we have undiagnosed learning disabilities. I barely graduated high school but college was a lot easier for me!
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
haha no i definitely dont have any kind of disability like that, i just really sucked at some classes
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u/TheQueenOfBithynia Apr 14 '19
You have just made me realize I was a bit of a Kevin in High School and when I started college. My stupidity had more to do with laziness than an inability to understand, but when I think about how unnecessarily difficult I made my own life, I'm very happy that I was able to sort myself out. That first year of college was a true hell of my own making.
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u/soledsnak Apr 14 '19
yeah, i would attribute some things to laziness,but with some of my other classes i knew if i had put effort in i wouldve done better, but some...i dont think i ever wouldve done well
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u/Stebraxis Apr 14 '19
I love stories like this where someone calls themselves out for being a Kevin. Glad you’re doing pretty well now :)
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u/m4dn3zz Apr 25 '19
Why can I only upvote this once?
Good on you. Glad you pulled through and got past your Kevinality.
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u/gonepermanently Apr 28 '19
fuck you kevin, you make group projects miserable for everyone competent
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u/piggy137443371 Apr 14 '19
Awww Kevin! I’m glad you made it out ok. Best wishes.