our HS has Academic awards a couple nights before Graduation. includes top ten for each class, AP awards at each level and local scholarships. They also do any service awards for Academies, Prep schools or military institutes. They then move to awards for each class type (english, english AP, Math, Math AP etc.) Finally they run through all seniors with any awards,reported College attending and any scholarships that person reported. out of 700+ there were probably 250-300 seniors present and most of the top 10 from other classes. My Freshman DD skipped it for her straight A’s award. My Junior DD attended as she is top 10 and they all walk across and line up as a class. they get a card with any additional awards to hand to the announcer as they walk so they know in advance what awards they have earned but they do not know until they arrive that night.
This year the Gym was packed with attendees, last year it was about 2/3rds just depends. a little long but worthwhile if your student is being honored. My DD did the Top 10 deal then left before they got to AP awards for seniors and we were done in about 20 minutes.
it is always interesting to hear the top10 for the seniors as they announce the actual grade average for each (our HS does not use 4.0 system just a 100 point scale with 10 points bonus for pre-AP and AP level classes). This year the top 10 ranged from 105.3+ to 108.2+. almost 3 points higher than last years class. Not sure how they managed that as there are required classes that are non weighted and I thought the highest possible was about a 107.5.