Subject: Guys guys guys!!! I got the high school course I wanted!
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Posted on: 2012-06-28 20:24:00 UTC

Due to various factors, I'm doing high school by correspondence courses. (This is really annoying when I'm procrastinating everything under the sun... yay, I'm 16 and still in grade 10 due to my own laziness.) When I was doing grade 9 courses I had a choice between applied, applied, or applied, so just for a change of pace with my maths I did applied. (The other option's academic, which is what I want if at all possible but it wasn't available then.) This didn't look like a problem until last December. Then I wanted to enroll in a new grade 10 course, specifically academic maths, and the gorram thing required specifically academic grade 9 maths where all the other academic grade 10 courses had a prerequisite of the grade 9 course but didn't care if it was academic or applied.

I was annoyed. This, for the unaware, is pronounced shriekingly furious.

Okay, a little backstory. I've been going to a monthly/weekly (depends on the level) enriched maths thing since I was 10, learning maths we wouldn't get taught at our grade level, or at all until university, and getting past contests as homework so we can do well on the yearly ones and impress people and get scholarships and whatnot. In November I did a contest for grade 9/10 called the Canadian Intermediate Mathematics Contest (CIMC) and got 41/60, which is apparently a really good score because I got a certificate of distinction.

Since I really, really didn't want to settle for grade 10 applied maths because I'd be in the same gorram boat with course-taking come grade 11, I went to the main instructor for the enriched maths, told him my problem, and asked if he'd write a letter saying I was good enough to do the grade 10 academic since I'd heard he did that sort of thing. He agreed, suggested sending a photocopy of my CIMC certificate would help make my case (The phrase 'definitely enough' was used. He was pretty emphatic about it.), and I sent off my request to enroll and the various things to make my case.

Cue a wait, and then a [BLEEP]ing boilerplate letter saying (paraphrased) "[Apology], [student name here]. [Course name here] is unavailable because: out of textbook copies." Yeah, I was back to being annoyed, because I didn't even know what level refusal this was so I had no idea if a second request would be met with 'you don't have the prerequisites' when the first request had been entirely 'Yes. Yes I do. I'm serious about this, too.'

I sighed, enrolled in grade 10 science, and went on my merry way until I sent off my first unit of science about a week ago and could enroll in another course. Grade 10 academic maths, you guess? You would be correct!

Guess what e-mail I got in my inbox today. Go on, guess. I'll give you a hint: I'm finally enrolled in grade 10 academic maths yes yes yes yes yesssss!!!!!

... that was five exclamation points, wasn't it. Oops. -takes the underpants off her head-

Anyway, I've already burst the eardrums of my nearest and dearest, so I've come to babble at you, oh PPCers. To make this more than a congratz party, I've a question: what sort of courses do you like to take, for whatever reason? Or liked to take, if you're no longer in any sort of schooling?

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