Can my guidance councler or teacher change a grade from last year?

Hi,
So I’m a junior in hs and really need my gpa to include by about .02 because it would make a huge difference to my college admissions. My school finalized grades as either an a,b,c,d, or f and doesn’t include the + or -. Because of this most teachers have a policy where they will round up 89.5 and above to an a. I just noticed I got an 89.94 in a class last year and my teacher left it as a B. I was wondering if although this was last year it could be possible for either my guidance councler or teacher to change it? Thanks!

I meant improve not include in first sentence

You should ask specifically to your GC and/or teacher, because IMO they should change it to an A. Good luck.

No it won’t. It’s akin to a pimple on an elephant’s butt. If a college rejects you, it will not be the result of a 0.02 GPA difference.

It is highly unlikely that a GC will change a grade; you need to talk to the teacher.

Can a teacher change a grade? Yes. Will s/he? Maybe, maybe not. You can ask.

So in other words, it is not a school policy and teachers have discretion. As I said, you can ask, but the teacher would then need to bump everyone that was on the border. You should probably have a valid reason to request. Reasons that are not valid are:
• It will impact college admissions (no it won’t, and if you really thought that you should have worked to get a natural A).
• Mrs. Smith bumps from an 89.5 (S/he’s not Mrs. Smith).

Good luck.

Right. The closest to a “valid reason” I can imagine is that you’ve redone the math and realized that the number was incorrect. Not that you would have liked a better grade, but that the teacher’s calculations were incorrect.

Your average is 89.94. It’s also possible that the teacher counted things like class participation or homework that aren’t part of that test/quiz average.

Many colleges want to see your first marking period grades. Why not simply improve your GPA? And spend this time increasing your SAT or ACT scores? Either of those involve you actually improving a score, not asking someone to give you additional points because you would like them.

The thing that I think I might be able to mention is that at my school for some reason only lit finals are standardized and basically all level lit classes take the same finals and they don’t relate to what was learned in the class and that is what brought me down from an a

But it’s a year later, right? Now you think you were given an unfair test?

And, for what it’s worth, EVERY final exam in my school is departmentalized. The same is true in my husband’s school.

Nope. That’s another invalid reason for the following:
• Their school, their rules. If they want to give common exams, they certainly can.
Every other student had the same opportunity to ace the final as you.

Blaming the teacher/department/curriculum/pedagogy will never get you far in high school, on college applications, anywhere.

When you say last year, do you mean that was a sophomore grade and you are now finishing your junior year? If that is the case, I think that ship has sailed. Certainly your GC cannot change the grade and I can’t imagine a teacher would change it at this late date. If the grade in question is for the year just ended then you can speak with the teacher but I still would not expect the grade to change.

You said in another thread that you got a lot of C’s and B’s your first two years of HS and did better junior year. At this point your best course of action is to forget about trying to change a year old grade and apply to colleges that make sense for your academic profile. Improved grades junior year will be a plus in your application.

Oh good point. Since my academic year just finished, I forget there are people still in school. So if the last academic year ended a week or so ago, you can pursue. If it was 11 or 12 months ago, I agree - that ship has sailed and you should move on.

The school likely has a policy. Our high school will let students appeal a grade for three months after it’s posted. Beyond the three months, the grade is locked forever, no exceptions. It’s a long standing written policy.

if the policy says it should be an A but your teacher forgot then yes, I do not see why they would refuse to change it. Our school system rounds up automatically by the teacher’s setting so this never happens. I do know though, usually counselors cannot change grades. Principals, school managements or IT can usually change it. I doubt your teacher still have access to old records though.

The OP said that “most teachers have a policy.” As I’m reading it, it’s not school policy.

It does not appear to be school policy.