<p>My school just does straight up A, B, C, D, E. And I’m so glad, because all of my A’s are so borderline (90-92%). But it does kind of such when you get an 88.5% and the kid with the 80.1% gets the same grade as you. Except how many kids really get A+'s? Like, how common is it for someone to get 100% in a real class, like chemistry or history? I don’t know anyone at my school who has above a 95 in a real class. Although I guess we don’t worry about it as much because a 89.5 and an 100 are the same thing.</p>
<p>This. An A+ in a ap calculus, ap chemistry or even ap history class at my school is basically impossible. I really don’t understand how some of you can have mostly A+ on your transcript. Oh wait, yes I can. Grade inflation.</p>
<p>“This. An A+ in a ap calculus, ap chemistry or even ap history class at my school is basically impossible. I really don’t understand how some of you can have mostly A+ on your transcript. Oh wait, yes I can. Grade inflation.”</p>
<p>Or perhaps very many sleepless nights. A+'s are VERY difficult to come by in our classes. In a few classes, they’re so rare that only a handful of students in the history of the school have received the grade. Some of us compromise many many hours of sleep to attain them, sadly. </p>
<p>That is not to say, however, that schools don’t have grade inflation. But, even if there was grade inflation, it wouldn’t matter because everyone else in your school would also receive the same grade inflation. Adcoms look at transcript AND rank, so if you have mostly A+'s and barely make the top 10%, they’ll know that your grades were due to inflation and not hard work.</p>
<p>“Adcoms look at transcript AND rank, so if you have mostly A+'s and barely make the top 10%, they’ll know that your grades were due to inflation and not hard work.”</p>
<p>I’ll give you that. Although 26 A+ in two years is a bit much. But hey, maybe you’re just that smart and dedicated, and if so, more power to you and congratulations on Stanford.</p>
<p>Haha, thanks. I sleep 2-4 hours per night (took 9 AP classes before applying, all 5’s). Believe me, there was NO inflation involved – just plenty of sleep deprivation.</p>
<p>At my school, an A+ is a 100% or above, so that automatically means it’s impossible to get one in any academic class, particularly since almost no teachers give extra credit. My high school is small (85 kids per grade), private, and sends 100% of all graduates to 4-year colleges. Also, over 20% of both the Classes of 2009 and 2010 were NMSF’s… so you can imagine how competitive it is. So to the OP, it is not a requirement for your son to get an A+ in almost every single class, especially if his high school’s as competitive as mine. </p>
<p>But to TheAscendancy: great work! Even if you attend a public high school that doesn’t send all its graduates to 4-year colleges (my previous high school was sort of like that), that is still a very impressive feat.</p>
<p>My school has A+, A, and A-, but my ap calculus teacher doesn’t give anyone A+. Not even to me, and I have a 99% in that class (not studying for finals, so it will drop, but still… one class I could have gotten an A+)</p>
<p>My school gives A+, A, A-. A+=98% or higher. A=92-97% and A-=90-91%. But teacher can “turn off” the +/- if they choose, but I’ve only had one science teacher who did that. I think since a lot of schools don’t have +/- or that they mean different percentages, most colleges just consider the actual letter grade.</p>
<p>amarkov…just fyi that the 3.67 is pretty standard for a high school A-. That is the mathematical definition of the average “4.0 scale”. I’d say a very large majority of high schools use this scale. Some have variations, some don’t use it at all, some are “way off”, but…this is the most standard. The BIG differences usually come with weighting (where there are SO many different formulas), and the move from the percentile grade to the letter grade (an earlier poster said a 100 and an 89.5 are the same thing…wow…how many valedictorians do you have?..how do you have enough to actually compare one student to another that way?..in my D’s school…a 100 average would of course put you in the top few places, but an 89.5 would know you into about the 3rd decile.)</p>
<p>A = 4.0
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.0
B- =2.67
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.0
C- - 1.67
D+ = 1.33
D = 1.0
etc</p>
<p>My school doesn’t even bother with A+/A/A-, we just get grades out of 100. Which I rather like.</p>
<p>And about getting a 95+ in an AP class… much to my delight, I received a 97 last year in AP Language for my last quarter grade. Understand that this teacher is a notoriously hard grader, and my first quarter grade was an 85. Needless to say, this teacher wrote a wonderful rec for me. =)</p>
<p>The BIG differences usually come with weighting (where there are SO many different formulas), and the move from the percentile grade to the letter grade (an earlier poster said a 100 and an 89.5 are the same thing…wow…how many valedictorians do you have?</p>
<p>I think what the poster was saying is that any kind of A, whether it be A-, A or A+, is weighted the same–4.0. This is how it is at my school. So if you managed to get any kind of A in all your classes, you’d have a 4.0.</p>
<p>I know, that’s what I’m saying. If someone has an average 100%, and everyone else all the way down to those that have a 89.5% ALL have 4.0…??? How do you rank? That would be a GREAT school to be at. SO many people would have 4.0, and they wouldn’t be ranked. So just a great standardized test score would make all those people “eligible” to be considered for top schools. Because getting an average 89.5 at most schools would be…what…a 3.33/B+? Not EVEN competitive for any top colleges! Colleges would be befuddled, unless you send in the percentage grades too.</p>