I know colleges pay attention to 10th and 11th grade of high school but do they calculate GPA with those courses or all of high school to be admitted? For example, if my weighted GPA is 4.2 (9-11th) but my GPA is actually 3.9 (10-11th)? Are they going to use the 3.9 to determine my admission?
Depends on the college.
The California public universities recalculate HS GPA with 10th-11th grade course grades, except CPSLO which uses 9th-11th grade course grades.
Each school determines its admissions standards, but there is considerable overlap. The admissions committees look at courses taken and grades earned in each. Although they look stall semester, they may more forgiving of slightly lower freshman year and may consider spring grades in senior year. Thinking you are already admitted so take a mentally/academic break may cost you admissions. General!y , they look at improving grades that stabilize when you start earning good grades in challenging classes. They will look at essays for information about you and your competency in organization, theme, grammar, spelling and so on. While essays may take a longtime to write, they are evaluated quickly. An inept essay is difficult to hide. So, how well and quickly write an essay that communicates. Writing is a big part of college. You will have time to write papers, but tests measure your knowledge of contently and how clearly and completely you convey essential information. Many, many colleges require standardized tests to compare your academic skill compared to applicants across the country. These tests are not intelligence. Tests! The range of information is broad and inc!ude questions filed in rote memory, lots of questions that evaluate specific to more difficult knowledge or applications. About half the students get any individual correct. The more of these you get correct, the higher your score will be. At the most difficult end, few students get many items correct. Test takers are ranged from those with the fewest items correct to those with the most items correct. The range of scores is organized along a normal curve.
Applicants are organized by the quality of their application materials. Some are put I a not admit pile and others go into the gatta admits. How may are a emitted depends on how many can be admitted and those who contribute best to the desired class.