Ours uses a 4.0 scale. No differentiation between plus and minus so anything from 79.5 to 89.4 is a 3.0, for example (even though the transcript will show B-, B, B+ etc). Classes are either honors or AP, not both, so each gets a +1 bump to take it to a 5.0 weighted scale.
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Okay, yeah â that does seem a little wild, LOL, and really different from how most schools do it! What about seniors who take AP classes â are they sending transcripts to colleges in fall where the student has already enrolled and taking classes?!
No +/- grades at our HS, and grading can be tough in the AP and advanced classes, so itâs not unusual for good students to get a B grade⊠there is no softer landing on A-. The HS only lists an unweighted grade on its transcript, no weighted grades or class ranking. Approximately 850 in the graduating class each year. Two counselors for the whole school. My D hasnât had a single meeting yet with a counselor and at this rate she might not get a counselor meeting before she has to start submitting college applications.
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Ours is weighted. So an AP A is equivalent to an Honors A-.
D26 has a 4.0 but with weighted 4.96? Right now sheâs #1 in her class but everyone is very close. If the other person took PE last semester and you take PE this semester, the rankings could flip flop since PE is on the lowest weighted scale.
Physics is crazy hard and most kids hate it, including both mine.
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Most seniors are done with AP classes in 11th grade at our school. Seniorsâ classes involve the following for Trimester 1 and 2:
- 1 Humanities capstone class (in an english or history subject, there usually 2 to pick from)
- 1 Math capstone class. Next year thereâs 3 to choose from.
- 1 Science capstone class. 2 to choose from next year.
- 1 foreign language capstone class. You basically do it in the language you had in 11th grade.
- 1 College Counseling class
Then if youâre doing a senior project, you leave campus in Trimester 3 to do that. All in person stuff ends in early Feb. once in awhile, a senior will take an AP class, but that requires them to continue in person stuff through the end of Trimester 3 and the AP is usually for an elective.
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The seniorsâ transcripts get updated in 1st half of August with the adjustments from the prior springâs AP exams. So when the HS transcripts get sent out to colleges for studentsâ applications, it includes the adjustment.
D26âs school is wonky with GPAs, itâs on a 4.33 scale (A+ = 4.33), honors classes are unweighted, AP classes are weighted by 1.1, but only of the AP exam is taken. So, if you take the AP class but donât take the test, the grade will not be weighted.
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Ours lists a bunch! UW, W, academic W, CSU 10-12 W etc! Our school doesnât rank.
Our HS doesnât rank students, but they do have a valedictorianâŠwhich I donât quite understand. Those 2 things donât seem to blend well.
Just blowing off steam but, due to ACT technical issues district-wide (there are approx. 20,000 juniors in the district), students had difficulty logging in and/or staying logged into the ACT test. This caused delays. My D has extended time so the test + essay were already scheduled to last 6 hours with only two 10-min breaks. It has now been 8 hours and she is still testing. Honestly, I donât know how any kid could be expected to maintain focus on a high-stakes test for 8+ hours⊠Just hoping they at least added a longer break so kids could eat/drink (although we didnât pack a full lunch, just a snack). Frustrated that this is how the day went.
Okay, rant over ⊠Thanks!
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Our high school is very similar to yours, except that they list +/- on the grades but no differentiation between A-/A/A+ when calculating the GPA. And only unweighted listed on the transcript.
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Oh no! That sucks for your daughter! I canât even start to imagine the brain fatigue. Poor thing.
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DudeâŠthatâs a really long day. holy cow!
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So, it ended up lasting nearly 9 hours from arrival to departure. Awful. Two breaks (10 minutes and then a 20 minute âlunchâ break that began a 3:10 pm). Arrival was 7:45 a.m. No food was allowed except during breaks. The kids were a mess â spending their break time waiting in line to use the proctorâs phone to call parents, coaches, workplaces to let them know they were missing practices, games, work, etc. At one point, kids were told they could leave if they had to, which would void their test (several walked out).
Apparently the technical issue was the fault of ACTâŠ. Hopefully there is some kind of remedy offered (although my D says sheâll never take another ACT lol)
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This is exactly our schoolâs scale. The + or - doesnât factor into the GPA calculation; the honors and AP classes are each worth 1 extra point.
I think the reason they donât count + or - in the calculation is because itâs a CA public and they are aligned to the UC curriculum and ways of doing things. The UC system doesnât differentiate for + or - so our schools donât either.
I do think this may have affected D22, both in her own mental model of what she was aiming for and the results of her applications. She never fussed over the difference between an A or an A-. And she got a few A-s. I imagine her GPA didnât look as pristine as she understood it to be. It doesnât matterâsheâs happy and successful in college, but we were surprised that she didnât get into a few private schools where her stats were above their 75th percentile. Maybe it wasnât actually true once the grades were recalculated.
Anyway, recalculating for âA-â something I need to remember to do for S26 so that we can more realistically assess where he fits a schoolâs range.
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OMG thatâs a total nightmare!
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The 12th and final âproject weekâ sign up for D26 is done! She & her BFF ended up in the same group, so theyâre both pretty happy. Iâm glad that she picked one that doesnât cost anything. 
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My D26 is considering applying to the UCs and the whole UC GPA and capped GPA thing is so confusing to those from OOS. Her UC GPA seems so low because OOS students can only weight AP courses, not honors courses. Probably a long shot, but she had the wherewithal to get her 1 year art requirement done just in case.
When I was in high school, UCSD was my safety school. Now itâs no oneâs safety school. How times have changed!
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Seriously! Most of the UCs are nobodyâs safety school these days. Which ones is she looking at?