<p>What are some of your school’s policies regarding classes?
For my school, for example, physical education is required all four years (unless you’re in a varsity sport), so it’s impossible to get a perfect 5.0 through high school.
Also, required stuff like speech, health, etc…make it impossible, too.</p>
<p>gym never counted in our gpa, but it does now for freshman</p>
<p>yeah, gym never counts in our gpa</p>
<p>P.E. is required for everyone at our school (i think the entire state of NY), varsity athlete or not. That being said, everyone gets a 100 so it really doesn’t hurt your average ever.</p>
<p>Our GPA is endless (we have add-on weighted as opposed to 5.0/4.0 weighted)… this year we’ve got some of the highest GPA’s in history… will break 6.0.</p>
<p>Poor kids who don’t take dual enrollment classes… so hard to break top 10.</p>
<p>I’m in Canada, and there are a lot of requirements for Freshmen and Sophomores, but it gets a lot more liberal for Juniors and Seniors. My school offers the IB, when people apply for it in their sophomore years, the IB coordinator only cares about their English, French (I got to a French language school, so the IB is entirely French), Science and Math classes. You need to have an average of at least 80% in these four subjects to be accepted.</p>
<p>Other than that, when people calculate their averages here, they take all of their marks into account. The system in Canada is entirely different. First of all, we don’t get markes on an A, B, C, D scale. We get percentages instead. Our report cards never mention our averages anywhere, and we are supposed to calculate them on our own.</p>
<p>There’s a huge “controversy” in my school right now because of GPA. Basically, you don’t have to be in the PE classes if you are in a varsity sport, but if you are in a varsity sport you have to take that class. So I’m on Varsity Swimming, and we practice in the morning and then it runs through first period and we all get a 4.0 (100 unweighted).</p>
<p>However, the kids who are in band get honors credit (5.0). I know that band is probably more intellectually challenging than a sport, but we practice as much or more than they do. Of the top 10 people in our class, 8 are in band. I asked my counselor to recalculate my GPA if I had 5.0s for band instead of 4.0s for swimming, and if so I would jump from spot 14 (where I am now) to probably 5 or 6.</p>
<p>So…that’s pretty ridiculous.</p>
<p>wow j07, that does suck =/</p>
<p>I think I might ask my counselor to include a little note about it in my midyear report…possibly. It’s just dumb…especially this semester. We swim 15 hours a week (not including meets) and the band kids (since marching season is over) only come once a week before school for 2 hours.</p>
<p>But music is “intellectual and challenging” and kids who play sports “don’t even need good grades.”</p>
<p>GPA is not a good indicator of academic success, especially when doing more work and getting A’s in non-AP/honors classes produces a lower GPA than just not taking the class and slacking off :(</p>
<p>Whoamg- doesn’t your school weight GPA? At ours, honors/AP/IB courses receive higher (4.1 instead of 3.1 for a 91, 4.2 instead of 3.2 for 92, etc.) in the GPA calculation.</p>
<p>However, that’s still dumb because honors is way easier than AP and IB, and even AP is easier in some subjects than IB.</p>
<p>hm…I wonder how many people I will fire up if I say that I don’t think band is intellectual and challenging.
I think music is–but I don’t think high school band level music is of that particular caliber</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing pleonasm! I was in band in middle school and I was 4th chair in the region and 1st chair All-City in my instrument and yeah, it required practice, but I didn’t practice half as much as I do for a sport. And given, it was middle school, which doesn’t count for anything, but still.</p>
<p>Anyway, I think (THINK) that I have the right to be mad because band kids are edging me out in class rank when all of them are just applying to UT-Austin anyway and I could actually benefit from it!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>That’s like the opposite of my school j07.
All AP/Honors classes are worth 6.0
But orchestra/band/choir/sports are all worth 5.0
Rather discouraging to people who actually have a talent.</p>
<p>Also, my district counts summer school credits toward your GPA.
Out of the top 5 people (I’m number 4) I’m the only one who hasn’t taken summer school (because I really don’t feel the need to spend an extra $700 per semester to boost my GPA) and who has taken a 5.0 music elective.</p>
<p>It’s too bad for me, but I have a 4.0 UW anyway so screw my district.
But I guess not for long after these semester exams.
ahhhh</p>
<p>@j07: We get 4.0 for an A (90~100%) for normal classes, and 5.0 for an A in AP or honors classes. At the end of the semester, kids are cramming to get 90s or, if the teacher is nice, 89.5s. Unfortunately, for some people who excel at certain subjects, their excellence is not recognized in the context of the GPA; they may be getting 99’s in calculus, but it’s ultimately the same grade as someone who got 90.1%.</p>
<p>My problem is that I have (well, had) a 4.0 unweighted GPA - all A’s. This means that because I took a non-weighted course (and got an A in it), it lowers my weighted GPA because I only get 4.0 out of 5.0 points for that course. Effectively, my GPA would be 0.04 points higher had I not taken the course at all. Stupid, but true.</p>