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Yes, but that only applies to high school – if a kid is going to a public high school where admission is not competitive, then essentially the grades from 8th grade disappear. They aren’t part of the transcript.</p>
<p>My son was never a particularly good student until 10th grade -in California, the UC systems really look at grades in 10th & 11th grade, so my son had the idea that the grades didn’t count in 9th grade, except those that impacted on his ability to get into honors courses in 10th grade. So he worked where he had to, slacked off the rest of the time – then became quite the striver for A’s in his sophomore year. </p>
<p>Obviously that doesn’t mean that another kid will follow the same pattern – I just think my own son was acutely aware of exactly what it is in life he could get away with, and he acted accordingly.</p>