<p>Yep, I don’t know many schools who don’t penalize. At my school, for instance, an A in an AP or IB means a 5.0 GPA for the class; an A in any other class is a 4.0. That’s why I didn’t take choir this year–to raise my rank from 7 to 1. I’m now facing the dilemma of whether to attend choir next year, since I’m unsure how many students have tied with me. It would be one of the top 3 mixed HS choirs in my state, if not the best one, so it would look good as an extracurricular…but at the same time, I’d hate to wind up as salutatorian. Or #3…or who knows what rank. =P</p>