Will you be able to get accepted to a four-year school if you did badly your freshman year of high school and your GPA was 1.14 but the next two years you did very well?
While keeping great grades is key, most colleges evaluate your JUNIOR year to determine admissions requirements. They often discount freshman year because of transition changes from middle school. Though your freshman year is not as imporotant, your overall GPA and class ranking will still suffer from your bad year. Basically, it is not as important by itself, but it still matters in the long run. You are currently in your senior year, so those records aren't always available at decision time. Good work in your Junior year will make you or break you.
Why do pupils perform badly in school?
I go to school myself, and from what I have seen, over 80% of the pupils, or students, that go to my school perform badly simply because either they don't pay any attention in class, or they skip class. And everyone knows that if you have no idea about what is being taught in class, when an assignment or test comes up, you will fail miserably.