While we were mostly a 4.0-based school (Greensboro, NC, 1983-85) the honors and AP students had the chance to pull a 5.0 if they got A's in their tougher classes. I don't know that it was to punish the shop/PE/remedial folks so much as to reward the students who took the tougher academic classes. Which may work out to the same thing. But a 4.0 still counted as an A.

I would have had such a better record if my school had done this, or what K-Bug's school did. And really, that's the argument: that when colleges are looking at GPAs, the traditional 4-point scale doesn't reflect that some classes (and some schools) are a lot tougher than others.

My high school (at least at the time) did not weight grades so an A was an A no matter where you earned it. We were a small graduating class and when other schools were starting to do away with Valedictorian and however you spell the second S placce, we didn't. The V and S were very good students who took the AP and other hard classes and that was fine. However, there was a girl who ranked 4 or 5 and she took regular classes, I think she was in my Algebra II class. She was a very nice girl who worked really hard for her grades, the girls who ranked just behind her were pissed off. I heard them bitch and moan and say vicious things about her because she was ruining their chances at a decent college education.

My HS did weighted GPAs too, but we were warned that colleges would also be seeing the raw grades, so we shouldn't depend on the AP credits to prop us up.

I took weighted classes too, and hustled hard for my Bs. Except that I took math with the slow kids and teen moms. Actually, in many ways that was better for my education.

Interesting, Jessica. At college night recently, a few of the college reps told K-Bug that the fact that she was taking two AP classes her sophomore year counted more than the actual grades she earns (well, she has to pass and all that). The higher the grade, the better, but still...

We didn't have AP classes at my high school, and when I applied to college no one could tell me what scores the colleges would see.

After I got to school, I spent one summer working in the Admissions office, recalculating GPAs from schools that used non-standard scales. So I think my school probably reported the weighted GPA.

I remember nothing of how my schools defined grading. I've been too busy being weirded out that I caught myself holding the copy of Newsweek at arm's length so I could read it better at lunch.

At college night recently, a few of the college reps told K-Bug that the fact that she was taking two AP classes her sophomore year counted more than the actual grades she earns (well, she has to pass and all that).

Likely true -- it's a lot less common for her to be doing advanced work this early than for a kid to be doing it at all in this era of everyone takes a zillion APs and all the schools know all about weighted averages.

(disclaimer: IANAadmissionsofficer. But I did temp for them.)

Interesting to know. I'm just glad to see her work hard, not matter the results.

Totally unrelated to anything, I heard back from my Computers and Humans' professor. He's willing to work with me. So, I'll be doing my presentation next Wednesday, and I'll be turning in my late assignments then as well. I'm very relieved.

ETA: This is good, because end of the withdrawal period was *yesterday*.