Final Grades/GPA thread/School/University Discussion

[Firestorm]

The Grading system doesn't look that simple to me, its pretty simple in England as its just A*, A, B, etc but people talking about getting 4.0, etc is confusing me, but probably just because I'm from England not USA.

I didn't mean understanding the grading system. GPA is just your grade point average. You get a 4 for an A, 3 for a B, etc. then you average the numbers out. Right now I have a 3.3 GPA which I'm fine with. Although I'd like to see if I can get it to a 3.5 before graduating.

I was more referring to how the US education system seems to be so dumbed down with grading that it's fairly possible to get straight As whereas in a school like the one I went to, the straight A list was usually about 1% - 2% of students. I blame parents. I think people stress here because straight As seem to be the bare minimum for good colleges as a result of this artificial grade inflation. So now they have to be at the 99th percentile too just to get into a good school.

 

[Deck Knight]

If I applied myself more I probably could have made Magna Cum Laude at my 4 year University like I did for my Associates. As it stands I graduated Cum Laude with a 3.37 GPA.

My worst class was Spanish II where I got a C. I should have just done one of the "Ethnic Studies" and regurgitated what I was told to say, but no, I wanted to pick up a practical skill.

Too bad I'm a horrible linguist, thus the C.

 

[Duckster]

I think people stress here because straight As seem to be the bare minimum for good colleges as a result of this artificial grade inflation. So now they have to be at the 99th percentile too just to get into a good school.

In Vancouver, really? I always thought it was much harder to get straight As in the states compared to anywhere in Canada because their grading system is so harsh. In Ontario, A=80-100, B=70-79, C=60-69, D=50-59, and F=<50. While in the States, <60 is an F and 90+ is an A.

Also, I never really hear of people not getting into their schools of choice around here. I got into UofT with mid 80s but my grades really aren't that great imo. Better than most kids I suppose, but definitely not top percentile or anywhere close. Then I see these Americans who post on message boards with grades in the 96-99% range stressing over getting into their top choices. I'll also note that Bs (~75%) are usually enough to get into top universities in this province, though you're not guaranteed a spot until you push 80%.

Then again, maybe it's just that much easier to get a 90 if you live on the other side of the boarder.

This all applies to highschools btw.

 

[Ripchord]

"States are confusing"

this

Yeah the six mandatory courses I need to submit for engineering at U of T are probably something like this (finals are out next week, I finished my last exam today).

Calculus and Vectors - 94 (95 before the Final)
Physics - 88 I hope (88 before the exam, but honestly I can't even say that with confidence, the teacher is a fucking unique one.)
Chem - 93 (95 before the Final)
Computers - 92 (88 before the Final)
English - 89 (87 before the Final, also I should mention that our school has a policy not to award anyone a final mark > 93% in this course. Seriously)
Advanced Functions - 92 (did it last year as my year up math course)

Yeah so not too stellar, as you can tell, I gave up after I was accepted, lol. Computers was an exception, I studied two hours for the exam, but I still think I got perfect. Bonus, I guess.

 

[Firestorm]

In Vancouver, really? I always thought it was much harder to get straight As in the states compared to anywhere in Canada because their grading system is so harsh. In Ontario, A=80-100, B=70-79, C=60-69, D=50-59, and F=<50. While in the States, <60 is an F and 90+ is an A.

Also, I never really hear of people not getting into their schools of choice around here. I got into UofT with mid 80s but my grades really aren't that great imo. Better than most kids I suppose, but definitely not top percentile or anywhere close. Then I see these Americans who post on message boards with grades in the 96-99% range stressing over getting into their top choices. I'll also note that Bs (~75%) are usually enough to get into top universities in this province, though you're not guaranteed a spot until you push 80%.

Then again, maybe it's just that much easier to get a 90 if you live on the other side of the boarder.

This all applies to highschools btw.

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's 86% to get an A here, but if you get like a 10% boost in the States, that's like 80% here! I'm obviously generalizing here and it's probably specific to certain areas. But I remember him saying the way they counted assignments was different. Like regular homework is weighed equally with tests and stuff. So say a homework assignment is out of 10 and a quiz is out of 10. They had the same weight in his school. Here, even if they're both out of 10, the quiz is going to make a larger impact on your grade.

Hehe, this is what I used for university entrance:
Journalism 12: 96%
Computer Programming 12: 87%
Math 12: 77%?
English 12/AP: 75% (FUCK YOU PROVINCIAL EXAM ;_;)
Biology 12: 74%?

Got in with a $2500 scholarship which paid for my first semester =P Got into the school I wanted in the program I wanted. Scholarship was sort of timing for me as it was to celebrate the opening of the campus which houses the program I'm in. 80% average required + extracurricular activity which I had a good amount of. Obviously seems like peanuts but our post-secondary education system isn't set up to put you into debt for life.

 

[yoshi!]

Is that what it's gonna be when it comes in, and are you sure you've got it the right way round? It's a lot easier to get 80% at AS than 90% at A2..

Yeah, I think it's so that it puts more emphasis on the harder stuff to find out who are the best students, I think...:G

 

[akuchi]

mental. would have got A* for politics AS though, got ninetysomething percent on that one. <3 politics :3

 

[Burn Jack]

Yeah, I think it's so that it puts more emphasis on the harder stuff to find out who are the best students, I think...:G

You're right. The plan was/is for the A* really to replace the AEA as a more encompassing way of determining the strongest candidates at the end of A-level study.

 

[sbc]

Well technically you need to average 90+ UMS at A2 to get A* anyway.

 

[zukirin]

1st Sem College
English - B
Public Speaking - A
Physical Geology - A
Pre-Cal - A <-- Ticked me off that I had to take Pre-Cal again...
Philosophy - A
=3.8 GPA

2nd Sem
World Civ History - C
Pre-Cal 2 - A
English - B
Psychology - B
College prep thingy - A
GPA = 3.2 <--I fucking slipped and am damn disappointed in myself....

Cum. GPA so far = 3.5 <--Found out my grades about a month ago and still am beating myself up for lowering my GPA like that....damn pissed.

 

[GB_Packers_Ftw]

Gym A+
Band A+
English B
AMC2 (Advanced math concepts 2 in our system its right below calc) B-

Lol Block FTW I basicly had 2 classes lol..Im a Junior

 

[Fabbles]

As I said before in the thread about what's wrong with the American schooling system, things appear to be very different at my school. Known for being one of the best science and math high school programs in Maryland, my school barely gets any kids with straight As, yet our AP scores are off the charts compared to the national average. Even when you look at Maryland as a whole, to get certain scholarships you might need 30 points higher on your PSAT to get the same scholarship that say, someone in Kentucky would get. I guess it is mostly just where I am, but I have never seen any problems with schooling systems in my area (excluding Baltimore City).

Exactly 3 people out of 251 in the Junior class received straight As, and only 2 of them were taking AP courses. Most of the people taking APs end up getting one or two Bs, myself included.

Grading scale: 92-100 A, 84-91 B, 77-83 C, 70-76 D, Below 70 F

AP US History - 94
AP Statistics - 93
AP Psychology - 97
Honors Calc Analysis - 89
Honors Physics - 95
Honors Spanish III - 96
Honors Brit Lit - 94
Religion (mandatory) - 96

As shown by the grades, I really don't try to go for grades that would be an A+ at other schools, merely enough to get the A. As for calculus, let's just say I have no intention of doing math for a living. However, AP BC next year along with AP Physics should be fun. Amazingly, I am now class rank 4, which is pretty good considering the only class I cared about was Psychology.

Unweighted, my GPA is about a 3.85. Weighted (my school does 6 for APs, 5 for Honors, 4 for regular), my GPA is 4.83, which I think is a bit ridiculous, but the class rank only matters really. As for colleges, I am looking at those like Boston College, Villanova, Wake Forest, St. Joseph's, Syracuse, Providence, U of Delaware, and Loyola (MD). Probably depends on my SAT scores for scholarships and admission.

 

[les gets]

I got all A's (most medium or low) except for a B+ in english cause my teacher is a retard

I also got A's on all my exams, except for retarded english

it's a dumb, irrelevant class, I already know how to speak english damn it

In Ontario, A=80-100, B=70-79, C=60-69, D=50-59, and F=<50. While in the States, <60 is an F and 90+ is an A.

I was not aware of this

edit: no dumb comments like "well apparently you can't speak english!!!" please

 

[Skull Duelist]

As I said before in the thread about what's wrong with the American schooling system, things appear to be very different at my school. Known for being one of the best science and math high school programs in Maryland, my school barely gets any kids with straight As, yet our AP scores are off the charts compared to the national average. Even when you look at Maryland as a whole, to get certain scholarships you might need 30 points higher on your PSAT to get the same scholarship that say, someone in Kentucky would get. I guess it is mostly just where I am, but I have never seen any problems with schooling systems in my area (excluding Baltimore City).

As a Kentuckian myself, I have to ask. What exactly do you mean by this?

 

[Eraddd]

I don't have a fun schedule for next year.

IB Spanish (equivalent to Spanish 5) SL
IB History of the Americas SL
ITGS HL (lol, biggest waste of a class ever; should have never taken it)
World Lit SL
Band Honors (lol again)
Calc BC HL
IB Physics HL

But w/e. Just hoping to get into Georgia Tech and get some money from them.

Lovely. Both IBs lol.

I finished my French SL this year. Think i got a 6.

Taking:
IB world history HL
IB math HL
IB english HL
IB physics HL
Theory of Knowledge
IB chemistry SL

fun fun fun. Failing CAS too, mainly cause I;m too lazy to put up evidence.

 

[Duckster]

I also got A's on all my exams, except for retarded english

it's a dumb, irrelevant class, I already know how to speak english damn it

I agree with this full heartedly. I think that after a certain point (maybe grade 9 or 10) English should not be mandatory. If I can write a solid social science paper and get an A+ on it, why am I only getting Bs on major English assignments? Seriously, it's one of the few classes where I actually try, but my marks seem to be that much lower. This goes for the math/science kids with 99% averages too, even they have trouble breaking the 90% range. It really sucks.

What also pisses me off is that everything you do in that class (once you pass the grade where you do grammar drills and stuff like that) is only pertinent to a particular piece of literature that has no practical applications outside of the class. Ugh. My teacher says it teaches students to read between the lines and gather information, but what really sucks is that I've had assignments with 30 pages of rough notes, a thesis rewritten 5 times, and only gotten a B+. In other classes I can hand in two drafts with no rough notes and get nearly perfect. I tried to read between the lines, and I apparently failed at it. English teachers tend to be really elitist too, and when you can't word something as eloquently as they'd like you to, you're going to be penalized severely for it.

That's like a gym teacher failing someone because they aren't good at sports.

 

[chenman333]

Math is objective; you are either right or wrong. English isn't, and some people can try to write well but simply can't, in the same way some people just suck at sports.

 

[Fabbles]

As a Kentuckian myself, I have to ask. What exactly do you mean by this?

Basically, (I am not sure if this is true for Kentucky, that's just what I have heard from my Director of Students), it is much harder to get scholarships in Maryland on the PSAT. For Example, you need around a 200 to be considered for commended and about a 220 for semi-finalist / finalist. In other states, say Kentucky (could be wrong), the commended is as low as 170.

My point is just that I really never see kids just breeze by with straight As in Maryland, even if they are Ivy League smart, which was talked about a bit in this thread and a different one about the American schooling system.

I don't mean to offend any Kentuckians!

 

[Duckster]

Or a math teacher failing someone because they aren't good at math? Are you saying that being able to write well is an innate ability that you either have or don't? And something like math and science isn't? It sounds to me like you just don't like English class because it is your hardest class.

I don't believe any skill is inherent. I do believe that, since no two people have an identical range of interest, people are going to be at a different levels of "natural" skill when they attempt something, and that only a solid interest in that particular area is going to differentiate between them sucking and not sucking. I don't like to read literature and never will, therefore my natural ability at literary essay writing is going to be much lower than someone who reads two novels per month. I suck at drawing, mostly because I don't really care about it. The thing is, I've still received great grades in Art for actually doing the work and putting reasonable time into it. Can't say the same about my 30 pages of roughwork.

The difference between this and math/science is that a teacher can't just arbitrarily decide what your mark is going to be. You get your grade/100, and that's directly relative to how much work you put in. It's trivia that (presumably) no one in the class is going to know going in, but you can learn it by doing the homework drills every night. To step up my English grades I need to be the kid that reads two novels per month, and I don't think that's fair.

To top this all off, English essay writing is more of an "art" than something like Sociology/History/Philosophy (whereby evaluating facts you can develop an argument based on a personal viewpoint). In English you can't always use facts in the novel to develop your thesis, you typically have to derive some sort of hidden meaning as to what all of these facts are representative of based on your own interpretations. When mine are right, my English essays are nearly as good as my other essays. When I'm "wrong" (yeah, my interpretation can be wrong) I get some of the worst grades I've ever seen.

I do agree that learning things that don't always have practical applications is not a bad thing, far from it. Hell, I plan on majoring in Linguistics next year. I just don't see why this course has to be compulsory and the single most important course for determining eligibility in University. I've got a couple of friends that didn't get into their program because their English grade fell below 70%. They're all on the honor roll too :/ Oh well, life isn't always fair. Thankfully this is the last time I have to take English.

 

[KingEmpoleon]

Sometimes around where I live certain classes are 93+ A, making it harder to get straight A's, and also makes it more common for C's.

 

[Skull Duelist]

Basically, (I am not sure if this is true for Kentucky, that's just what I have heard from my Director of Students), it is much harder to get scholarships in Maryland on the PSAT. For Example, you need around a 200 to be considered for commended and about a 220 for semi-finalist / finalist. In other states, say Kentucky (could be wrong), the commended is as low as 170.

My point is just that I really never see kids just breeze by with straight As in Maryland, even if they are Ivy League smart, which was talked about a bit in this thread and a different one about the American schooling system.

I don't mean to offend any Kentuckians!

I am certainly not offended by this, and I think you may be right.

 

[Polis4rule]

fun fun fun. Failing CAS too, mainly cause I;m too lazy to put up evidence.

Lol, CAS is so easy! All you need to do is do the shit, and then bs your "evidence." It's a lot of work, but it's easy.

Anyway, I should have picked Chem or Bio as my IB elective, instead of taking ITGS. Pobre :'(

But since I'm part of the first graduating class, they wouldn't allow me to take more than 3 HL's, so I couldn't take HL English or HL History (they're both joke classes as higher level). Oh well. I assume that you're a Junior?

 

[ivar]

Lol, CAS is so easy! All you need to do is do the shit, and then bs your "evidence." It's a lot of work, but it's easy.

Anyway, I should have picked Chem or Bio as my IB elective, instead of taking ITGS. Pobre :'(

But since I'm part of the first graduating class, they wouldn't allow me to take more than 3 HL's, so I couldn't take HL English or HL History (they're both joke classes as higher level). Oh well. I assume that you're a Junior?

Haha, oh boy. I remember the dreaded CAS. I'm not the kind of guy to volunteer, so I just made up a grand majority of my CAS hours and got adult friends (sometimes just high school friends) to sign off on it. According to my CAS forms, I've done some pro bono modeling, creative writing workshops, intramural basketball coaching, helping out at the YMCA (which I did for about 3 hours, but I put a 0 at the end of that 3...), photography apprenticeship and a bunch of other stuff. I did some stuff at school too in order to appear somewhat legit (i.e. establish the facade of being involved with extracurricular activities, as we had a CAS reviewer in our school; I also made sure to be friendly with her), but I rarely contributed to the organizations I was a part of. The thing is, it's so easy to get away with it on CAS. I think I had 200 made-up hours and maybe 40 legit hours :S

Can't say that I feel guilty, though. 150 hours of mandatory volunteer work? That's absurd; it's benefiting from essentially coerced labor.

 

[darkie]

They changed it. It's not 150 hours of mandatory stuff anymore; it's more like you need proof that you do stuff outside of IB.

oh this year, I took:
IB English III
'Pre-IB' Pre Calc
IB US History
AP Art History
IB Spanish SL
AP Psychology
IB Physics SL

Next year:
IB English HL
IB Chemistry HL
IB History of Americas HL
IB Calculus SL
IB Theory of Knowledge
AP Physics-C

 

[akuchi]

Sports require physical ability, which, while you can improve with training, has a lot to do with genetics and other things beyond your control. Writing on the other hand is a skill anybody can learn, just like being able to do math is a skill anybody can learn. You can actually be taught how to write well, and with practice and instruction anybody can become competent. Being a good writer is not some born inclination that you either have or you don't, and just because it is not objective does not mean it is impossible for some people to ever be good at it.

No? I'm an exceptionally good writer - especially essays and the like - and I have friends who will, no matter how much they practice, never be as good as me. My friend Craig, for example, grasps certain philosophical concepts easier than me (if I don't get something straight off I throw a strop with it) and works a lot harder than me yet he does worse than me in exams simply because he can't write that well, whereas I can bullshit my way through a lot of it.

I was reading simple shit by the age of two; I was onto roald dahl by three and I was reading thomas hardy and george eliot by five. Reading, writing, spelling and comprehension have always come naturally to me. To say it can just be learned is simplistic at best.