Fairfax Grading Tough -- 94% an A

mdoc
Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:38:45 +0000

At my Ds’ high school, there isn’t that level of uniformity. The teachers get to decide what an A is. For most, it’s a 93. For some, it might be higher or lower. Individual teachers decide what number equates to a letter grade, whether to round, whether to allow extra credit, whether to curve, what percentage the final will be, whether to count homework, etc. The only thing set in stone is the number of points toward the grade point that a letter grade carries once it’s given. So whether it required a 92 or a 93 or a 95 to earn the A, the A is worth 5.0 (5.5 in an honors/AP course). I don’t think it matters that much what the requirement at Fairfax is - the colleges get the school profiles and see what it takes to get an A. Even if all schools had a uniform grading system, not all schools (or all teachers) grade the same, so it’s still hard to evaluate a grade or a GPA, especially at a school that doesn’t rank.