When you say “Phi Beta Kappa” do you mean this as a catch all for similar societies as well? (For example, Tau Beta Pi is the equivalent for engineering students.)
Don’t most foreign languages have some kind of standardized system for reporting levels? (For example CEFR levels for European languages.)
Yes, similar but only the nationally known ones. I see resumes of senior professionals who were part of the “Clown College Accounting Honor Society” in 1993 and it’s a little cringey. That might have impressed someone in 1995 but it’s behind you now!
I’m so surprised that y’all are seeing the essays on ACT and SAT – I thought those had gone the way of the dodo?!
My D22 took both tests, in school, in fall 2020 – and the essay wasn’t included. And D26 took the SAT last June (not in school) and didn’t have the essay, either.
When D26 signed up for the ACT this week, it had an option you could select to take the essay portion or not. Maybe the ones done by schools automatically enter you into taking the essay?
I did that with both my older kids. They all took the SAT before/during early Junior year and had a score they were happy with. Then we used the 4 free score sends for the April school day test to send the scores to colleges. I made a list of potential colleges that require official scores and went from there. Many colleges allow self-reporting and only want the official once you’re committed to going there, so we haven’t had to spend too much on score sends.
In our state, spring in-school standardized testing (whether ACT, SAT, PSAT, Pre-ACT, or elementary IAR) is used for more than an individual student’s college admissions. Score averages appear on the school/district “report card” issued by the State, and are used by school admin/teachers to track student progress and drive academic decisions. For example, if students at high school X are getting low essay scores across the board, then the X admin should theoretically look into their writing curriculum and make changes.
Switching topics for a moment, how much do your schools weight classes? Just asking out of curiosity.
D26’s school calculates GPA out of 100 (no conversion to a 4.0 scale). 90 is the lowest A. Honors classes are weighted 4 points, and AP classes are weighted 8 points.
(There are two non-AP classes that are also weighted 8 points – Multivariable Calculus and Senior STEM Seminar, which is a year-long research/project class.)
Our county’s public schools also do GPA out of 100, with 90 as the lowest A. Both honors and AP classes are weighted 7 points.
D26’s goal is to finish with an unweighted A in every class. As of right now she’s there, but it’s very touch and go with AP Physics and honors English – her AP Physics grade just came up because the teacher curved the last test a lot (thank goodness, lol). And the honors English teacher is one of our favorite people ever, but dang, he’s a ridiculously hard grader. D26 struggles to keep a minimum unweighted 90 in there. (And she got an 800 on the SAT English section!)
Ours uses a 4.0 scale (called quality points here). An A is 96-100, A- is 90-95, and so on. An A- is a 3.5 here, so a straight “A” student is pretty hard to find. My D26’s English teacher, for example, tends to grade most things as a 95, so an A-. It’s hard to get that A in that class and the teacher noted “there’s always room for improvement in writing”, so GPA will suffer.
Then, we scale with a multiplier of 1.1x for honors classes and a 1.3x for AP classes. We have relatively few AP offerings and restrict who can take them, so the typical highest GPA a student might get by the end of junior year is around a 4.4, and that’s by maxing out the APs AND by purposefully not taking electives that don’t have an AP equivalent.
I know that our HS weights AP and I think Honors classes, too, but I don’t know by how much.
** edited to add **
Our HS uses a 4.0 GPA scale.
Grading of AP classes is handled differently than just about anywhere else I’ve seen. for example:
if you’re in an AP class but don’t take the AP exam in May, you take an “AP alternative” exam and that’s worth 40% of your final grade in the class for the school year.
if you get a 3, 4, or 5 on the AP exam, it brings your grade up in the class for the entire school year. For example, if you have a B- going into the exam, and you get a 3 on the AP exam, then you get an A- in the class. And yes, those grades get updated/recalculated on the transcript over the summer after AP exams are officially released.
If you get a 1 or a 2 on the AP exam, then it brings your grade DOWN. For example, you have a B- going into the exam and if you get a 2, then your grade for the year is a C+. A “B” going into the exam with a 2 on the AP exam results in a B-, etc.
D26 has 6 AP classes:
AP USH
AP Human Geography
AP English Lit
AP Psychology
AP Calculus AB
AP Spanish
She’s going to take the AP exams for all of them except AP Spanish. She has a B in Calculus right now, but on the practice AP exam a month ago (which she purposely didn’t study for so she’d see how she would score if she took it ‘cold’), she got a 2.
So for the next month, it’s crunch time for math. She’s doing more practice problems, using Khan Academy stuff, and the Modern States’ Calculus course online in order to prep for the AP exam.
Taking the AP exam in that class IS required, however.
She got 3’s and a couple of 4’s in all the other practice AP exams for the other subjects (except for Spanish…she got a 2 on that one), so we’re pretty sure she’s in good shape for those.
Psychology was a rough start with a low grade in Trimester 1. But I think she’ll end up with an A in the class at the end of the year.
Spanish has been a bit of a train wreck and waste of time this entire school year and she has learned nothing new. Graduation requirements don’t require students to take an AP foreign language exam, which is why she’s not taking that AP test. But since the “AP alternative exam” is probably going to AP-like, she’s using Modern States’ Spanish course online to help prepare, study for it, and the bonus is that when she’s done with the Modern States class, she’ll be able to take the College Board’s CLEP exam in that subject…and if she gets a passing score on that, it’ll fill the foreign language requirement at all the colleges which are currently on “The List.”
Meanwhile, in Honors Physics, she’s had a C all year. I’m hoping that by some sort of magic, she can end up with a B- at the end of the year. It’ll entirely depend on how she does on the final exam.
thankfully, she’s not going to major in anything that requires physics.
I think most colleges re-weigh grades based on their own system. Otherwise, it’s apples and oranges.
We are on a 4.0 scale with no -/+ grades (no A-, B+, etc.). So it’s a straight A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0 scale. Honors and high honors classes are weighted by 1 point, and AP classes are weighted by 2 points. IMO that 2 pt bump for AP classes is overly generous (not that it matters if colleges recalculate GPA anyway). Oh, and students must take the AP exam to get the AP weight.