29 seniors graduate as valedictorian in Oregon

[ReallyFantastic]

<p>

@megz4252

This year my school introduced a new grading system that turned out to be a mess. 50% GPA (AP classes graded on a 4.5 scale and everything else 4.0) and 50% ACT score. 18 of us have GPAs of a 4.0 or above , but there were two girls in the top ten with 3.9s. The ACT thing made 4 years of hard work completely invalid and arranged us based on a controversial test.
I ended up valedictorian (I had both the highest ACT and GPA), but our salutatorian took the ACT six, yes six, times just for the sake of beating mine and becoming valedictorian. Had this happened, I would have gotten straight A’s all through high school while taking the hardest courses only to lose the valedictorian title to someone who cannot even turn in his coursework on time.
The worst part of the whole situation is that we should have had two valedictorians. I was tied with another girl GPA-wise, but she dropped out of the top 10 with ACT factored in. How awful is that? Perfect grades with a strenuous course load rewarded by being bumped by people with blow off classes and high ACT scores.

</p>

<p>I don’t quite understand what you’re saying. If the system is based 50% on GPA and 50% on ACT scores, why would an ACT score completely invalidate your GPA? Your GPA is still half of your grade. </p>

<p>If your rival salutatorian had blown off classes and can’t even turn in coursework on time, that implies that he has a pretty low GPA. With a 50/50 split, not even a perfect ACT score could make up for that.</p>