<p>I always hear about the necessity of ‘good grades’ as the number one prerequisite to admission at any college, especially the Ivy League and top 25 schools. But what really are good grades? </p>
<p>For some, getting an 88+ is pretty good. For others, a 97, one point short of an A+, is death. I always keep hearing about the importance of good grades, and this year, my grades are kinda slumping (went from having all A’s to grades in the mid-to-high 80’s in 3 of my majors).
But the question remains, what are good grades? Anything above an 80? 85? 90? 95? Only 98-100’s?! I’m really referring to the top 30 schools in general with this (not just HYPS or something).</p>
<p>Although I’m kind of expecting the usual CC ‘anything under an A+/A is horrible’ thing with this thread…</p>
<p>Good grades are what you get when you put forth your best reasonable effort to doing well in the class and learning the material.</p>
<p>What is good for one person may not be good for another. This is a value judgement; I don’t speak for colleges and no one else here can offer you more than a guess.</p>
<p>I laugh at grades; grades merely measure your ability to finish assignments on time and being able to get less questions wrong on the test. The true measure of intelligence is how well you can apply that knowledge to the real world; if you just know equations and formulas, you are useless.</p>
<p>That’s what I believe as well. But still, I don’t think saying ‘I think grades are a poor representation of a person’s intelligence’ is a viable excuse to not get good grades. </p>
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<p>Exactly. There are two teachers in my school for Algebra II/Trig Hon. One of them (mine), is a great but very difficult teacher. Most people think he’s weird and whatnot, and most people also do poorly in his class. Those that learn from his class, end up in AP Calc AB/BC and/or some sort of other college math in high school. The other teacher is ridiculously easy, beyond belief almost. My class is 5 chapters ahead of that teacher’s class, and cheating is widespread in that class (my friend says that a few main people take turns actually studying for the test, and everyone else just cheats off him/her).
So I may bust my bum for a 90 (I AM busting my bum for a 90), while someone in the other class can pull off a 95 easy while having a basic free period.</p>
<p>All 'A’s no matter the class. An ‘A’ in art looks better to a college than a ‘B+’ in a difficult class. Don’t bother taking difficult classes, learn from me.</p>
<p>HONORLIONS, same thing happened to me in pre-calc. But now here I am kicking AP Calc BC’s butt while the kids who had the easy precalc teachers are struggling/dropped down to AB. It’s sort of frustrating though.</p>
<p>I’m lucky because at my school we don’t have +/-s on our report cards. So an A-=A=A+, B- = B = B+, etc. Takes a lot of the pressure off b/c you just need that 89.5% for an A, which is 4.00.</p>
<p>I seriously doubt this is true. A B+ in an AP/Honor’s class still requires a fair amount of work. I slept through a mandatory regular class and got a 97 (asked for EC and pulled it up to a 98).</p>
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<p>Yeah, this is what I presume as well. But our pre-calc teacher teaches ALL pre-calc classes, so regardless, we’re all going to get the same, really lousy, lazy, and non-teaching, teacher before AP Calc. </p>
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<p>Uggh… this year I fail to follow this standard, have a couple grades in the 80s…</p>