Auditing a class is a way for students to take a class without receiving a grade or credit for the class. In education, it is not uncommon to find adults who audit college courses for multiple reasons. Gifted facilitator Sheri Sloan found herself auditing AP calculus for a more important reason instead of benefiting for herself.

“Last year I was frustrated that I couldn’t help any of my students that were in that class. Since I did really well in math in high school and college, I decided I would see if I could sit in and audit,” Sloan said.

Sloan said she excelled in math courses throughout high school and college, but without refreshing her knowledge from “about thirty years” prior to having taken AP calculus, she felt that she should take a step and better herself.

“As far as the actual class, a lot of [students] came to me and had problems with it. I thought I understood [students] had problems with it, I just couldn’t do anything about it. Although the teachers have study sessions and all of that I wanted to be able to help them,” Sloan said.

With the help of principal Lisa Moore, Sloan was given the opportunity to audit the class. Students were not aware of her participation in the class, because she “wanted to sit in the corner and not be noticed”, but senior Creighton LaRose had a positive view on her refreshing her knowledge.

“I didn’t really know at first, but the more I thought about it, it was really cool that she was actually trying to learn it so she can help students,” LaRose said.

Although Sloan does not speak up in the class, she does feel that she will be content to finish out the school year, even if it is difficult.

“If I make it through the entire year I will be very proud of myself. If it really is too tough I may go sit in a trigonometry class because I missed a lot of background,” Sloan said.