Ok so I just found out about my final exam scores and they were absolutely terrible. I don’t know what happened to me because I got over a 95 on pretty much all my class quizzes and tests. Most of my final exam scores were C’s and B’s except regular English and French honors which I got an A in. Finals make up 20% of my final grade and all my grades pretty much dropped from A’s to A-'s and 2 B+'s, which left me with a gpa of 3.76. I think that final exam grades appear on the transcript along with quarter grades and final grades. I was also told that colleges only care about final grades and not quarter grades so much.
Do you think that colleges will have something against me for doing so poorly on finals because my quarter grades were all A’s and we never got any extra credit?
Also my elective classes were pretty tough(PTLW Intro to Engineering) so I got a B+ in that because I got a 75 on my final exam. I still barely got the college credit for the course from RIT.
Will colleges count consider the riger of such an elective and will this grade count against me even though it is an elective class?
Btw I am a freshman and I live in NY so I also had regents exams. My geometry regents doesn’t count in my grade but my biology one does even though it was an honors class. I got a 95 on the Living Environment/Biology regents but a 85 on my local honors final and my final grade balance out to an 88. I am in regents geometry and I got a 74 on my local final exam and haven’t taken to regents exam yet since it;s this Friday. My final grade dropped straight down from a 96 to a 92 and it’s a regents class. My teacher won’t let me see my mistakes on the final exam.
Will this low grade in a regents affect my chances of getting into a good college? I’m not too concerned about biology since it is an honors class.
I guess my major question here is that will colleges look at my low final exam grades and be concerned because my quarter grades were pretty good for the most part.
Get a copy of your transcript to see what is on it. I’ve never heard of final exam grades being on a transcript. But I suppose it’s possible.
Your transcript probably won’t have quarter grades on it either. Usually transcript have PNLY the final,grade in a course…and sometimes the midterm grades (particularly for seniors).
The only way to know is to request a copy of your transcript.
There are plenty of “good” colleges that will accept a student with a 3.7 GPA.
Your ACT or SAT score will matter as well.
But you are a HS FRESHMAN! Some kids do find that there is an “adjustment” to,how HSs grade.
The good thing is you are a freshman so you have a little leeway there. It sounds to me like you may have needed to study more of the older (earlier in the school year) material from many of these classes. Next year make sure to do that.
PLTW classes seem to be pretty easy classes (from my daughter’s perspective) but you have to study a lot for the final and it’s often material you didn’t directly learn in the class. Sometimes there are math questions on it that may be using math skills you won’t have until Algebra 2, so that would have also put you at a disadvantage for the final. My daughter would not have paid for the class to get the college credit if she had gotten a C. You haven’t yet paid have you? One advantage of the RIT credit is that you can wait to see the grade and if it is good, then pay to get credit andcoont it as a college class. Keep in mind that if you take the credit for a C, that may factor into your college GPA later. Also, keep in mind that these PLTW classes often don’t replace any required courses in college, try are usually considered electives. So there is no reason to take the credit for this one if the grade isn’t high, IMO.
Don’t panic about the regents exams too much. In our experience, in class finals tend to be harder but also, you can retake the regents if you don’t score as high as you would like. You can take them again in August, January, next June, etc. obviously, that wouldn’t be ideal because you would have to study again for them, but it helps in keeping you from being overly anxious about them.
Your grades as they stand may not have been what you hoped for, but they aren’t horrendous. Learn from this year and change the way you study a bit and I’m sure next year will be an improvement. There are tons of great colleges and very few terrible ones. You will do fine in finding a college that works for you.
–First, talk to your guidance counselor and ask what grades go on the transcript sent to colleges. At my HS only the year end grade for each class is sent.
–Second, you are a freshman and have time work on your exam taking skills – which will be important since many college courses just have a midterm and a final.
–Third, you can’t change it so just work to improve. going forward.
Since the RIT credit is based solely on the final, if you didn’t get an 8 or a 9 (scores are 1-9) then don’t pay and don’t take it.
The good news is that the high school grade of 89 isn’t terrible at all. If you take one of the PLTW classes next year, you will know you need to study beyond what was presented in class.
Does your school do number GPA? Your number GPA could actually be something around a 90 which isn’t bad for freshman year. As long as you step up your game and start studying for finals next year you can become a better student. Colleges look more at 10th and 11th so as long as you show improvement I think colleges will like the change and jump.
In our NY school, the Regents exam grades appeared on the transcript, but not any local exams. Some colleges don’t even look at freshman grades, and many will discount them if there’s an improvement. It seems like you may need some better study methods. Here’s what Scientific American reported.
Yes my school goes number GPA(mine is a 92). Also I checked with my school and they said that only the 2 final semester grades and regents scores appear on ones transcript.
Thanks for the articles on study habits.