<p>@pianogeek, I agree with most of the responses that it isn’t a “downward trend,” but I would like to relate my son’s experience of receiving a grade lower than he thought he deserved as a sophomore. He’s mostly a math/science kind of kid, but nevertheless thought that his work in US history wasn’t being fairly graded by the teacher. He didn’t bring it up to the GC nor did he say the teacher was incompetent (although we all think there was something personal going on), but in addition to taking the AP test (5), he decided to take the US History SAT2 test which he originally had not intended to take, and got a 780. Most importantly, he then put the matter out of his thoughts, and went and did something productive. </p>
<p>I don’t know if his grade was noticed at all by the Adcoms, but it did NOT keep him out of his first choice school. </p>