My S is a sophomore. His grade right now in English Honors is a D.
His teacher used to be a college professor with very high standards & expectations.
I’m aware that IF he ends up getting a D in English, then that doesn’t count for his A-G reqts. Then he can retake it as the exact same course and his new grade will count. But I just need help to understand this better.
English Honors class is not offered in his school nor in a charter school as summer course. Only regular English CP is available in summer. So if just in case he ends up with a D in this first sem, then if he retakes in summer as English CP, would that new grade for regular English CP count as replacement for his D grade in English Honors even though they’re not exactly the same class?
For Spring 2nd semester, most likely he will just take regular English CP
To replace a grade in an a-g course, it must be the exact same course repeated. If he takes English CP during the summer then he would report that grade along with the D in the English Honors course. Both grades will be calculated into his UC GPA.
I’m also waiting for reply from counselor on what’s the better option here. My understanding is if he moves now to regular English, he will start from ground zero and will have to do all the makeup work since school started 4 weeks ago. He has 5 other demanding subjects so this option may not be ok, I don’t know ??♀️
Looks like his options are 1) he will just have to work extra harder to get better grades, hopefully get it to a B or C 2) Drop the class or 3) if he still ends up with a D at the end, he’ll retake regular english in summer and the D will just have to absorbed in his gpa and hoping he keeps his other grades up.
His freshman unweighted gpa 3.93 (just 1 B), so this 1 D is an outlier.
Another question, what looks better/worse in transcript and for gpa, to take a grade of D or just completely dropping this English Honors class, and just take a full-year English regular course in summer?
I would try to drop the English Honors class. The UC’s continue to get more competitive each year, so even 1 D could be an issue since the UC’s only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation. I think it will be tough to do a full year English course during the summer. I cannot believe there would a huge amount of work to make up if he switches to Regular English but that is up to him.
My older son switched from Regular English to Honors English in 10th grade 3 weeks into the school year and only had to makeup 2 writing assignments and 1 test.
At most schools,10th grade English honors does not count for a UC honors bump. If that is the case, it would be weighted the same as the regular English class and, in my opinion, wouldn’t be worth the stress. Check to see if your school’s 10th grade English honors class is a UC weighted class by looking here: https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution?f=institutionTypeName%7CSchool;
@svlab112: The F was not used in the UC GPA calculation because the student retook the exact same class to replace the F.
OP’s issue is that the son is in “honors” English and wants to drop down to regular English 2nd semester if he gets a D in “honors’ English. UC’s state you can replace a grade in a class as long it is the exact same class. In this instance, the son is not planning to retake the “honors” class if the grade is a D, so the lower grade will still be used in the UC GPA calculation.
Yes. I understand why the F was not included in the GPA calculation in the scenario I presented. That was the point of my post.
In addition to changing English classes, OP’s issues included (1) concerns over GPA impact due to failing class and (2) an itemized list of alternatives OP was considering for her son.
My suggestion addresses the ladder two.
I offered an alternative to consider and a way to remove the D/F from UC GPA calculation if the student fails.
The current challenges the student faces this year may change (ie a new teacher, improved performance in subject).
As such, retaking the “exact” failed semester as a junior could be an option.
Gumbymom, the challenge that I had was “if” he ends up with D in English Honors in first sem, then my son can’t retake that in Summer cause Honors is not offered in summer. I didn’t say that there’s no plan to retake it if he ends with a D, but I was struggling to find an option how to retake that Honors 1st sem class if Honors is not offered in summer.
But the response from svlab112 was really helpful - I didn’t think of this option of retaking that English10 Honors 1st sem class in Fall of next year, retake it together with the Junior English11 class. While this may not be a really ideal option, at least it’s still an option to consider, which I will keep in mind, “if” in case he ends up with a D.
For now, it looks like he’s close to getting on his way to a C and hopefully to a B. I am aware that this English honors is not a 5.0 class. We will stick to English Honors for this sem, and will hope he can get a B. Online grades show already 22 items graded. So just my rough guess, if he moves now to regular English, it’s roughly 50% workload of current English honors (so estimate of 11 items graded, that he may need to catch up). I believe a B in this English Honors class is better than an A in regular English.
Thank you again! This forum is really so helpful, so many great ideas, and so many helpful people.