how can a 79.5 be a B?

<p>well, it's midterm exam week at my school and looking here i was seeing people posting things that they were afraid they were gonna get their acceptance rescinded, etc. and i saw some posts that said "just barely made a B in AP Calc, grade rounded to 79.5" and i was wondering why that is a B because it would be a low C at my school. is everyone's grading scale a 93-100 A, 85-92 B, 79-84 C, and so on? or do some high schools do it 90-100 is an A, etc? if a get an 84 for the midterm in AP stats that would be a C for me, but a B for some people? that just doesn't seem fair. will a college rescind my acceptance because I got a C, but at some schools it would be considered a B? or does the college look at your number grade?</p>

<p>ugh this is so confusing, when people say, if you get 2 C's the college will reject you, but how do they determine a C and what not? grades are so baised. can anyone explain?</p>

<p>wow...can't answer to the unfair part of the question, but I can say that I feel sorry for all of you on that scale. </p>

<p>Personally (and I think this is what these people are referring to), my school grades on this scale:</p>

<p>97-100 A+
93-96 A
90-92 A-
87-89 B+
83-86 B
80-82 B-</p>

<p>and so on for C's and D's, with many teachers rounding up if you get a score of (some grade).5 or above. If it were not for this scale, I would probably have a lot of B's instead of almost straight A's/A-'s :D</p>

<p>yea i know that is how colleges grade based on your grading scale because of some college classes i've taken. the thing is, I know colleges see the number, so I wonder if they convert that to their scale...</p>

<p>i just wish our grading scale was like that, if it was, I would have never gotten a B in my life, except for ap chem, which i got a C in last year, but it was an 83, technically a B-. blah. </p>

<p>and the thing i don't understand is that our grading scale is hard, but when we take AP's and stuff my school doesn't do well. i think we are just hard workers and not super smart :(</p>

<p>crazyhazel, that scale sux, like almostmidnight said, i would be getting a lot of B's on that scale...but take into account that colleges understand what system your highschool is doing and will adjust accordingly.</p>

<p>Geez, you guys have it easy. At my school its goes:</p>

<p>93-100 A
90-92 B+
85-89 B
81-85 C+
77-80 C
70-76 D</p>

<p>mine is:
90-100 A
80-89 B
70-79 C
60-69 D
-59 F</p>

<p>but depending on the teacher the grade can be slightly different. I had a 89.5 end up as an A as did several other people in my class.
a lot depends on the professor.</p>

<p>you guys realize that with 93-100 as a scale, the teacher wouldn't grade as hard as 90-100 = A.</p>

<p>crazyhazel, i think your admissions counsellor for your specific region will be familiar with your grading system, assuming most schools in your region use that scale or something quite similar.</p>

<p>fastMED that is terribly offensive.</p>

<p>you do not go to my school, you do not know how much i work my butt off to get my grades. i'm pretty sure there is not level of grading, you take a test, the questions all count the same?</p>

<p>i'm sure some schools are doing the 10 point scale to get students used to the college scale, but seriously do not say that teachers "grade easier" on the 93-100 scale because they definately do not.</p>

<p>My county is 94-100 for an A. </p>

<p>I agree with FastMED. Though I make nearly all As, it really isn't for me to say that it's any hard to get a 94 here than a 90 or 91 in the nearby county that uses 90-100 A. Most classes do generally operate on some sort of a bell curve function where the grades cluster at the middle. Meaning, the people working the hardest tend to get As no matter what the grading scale is because they have to grade in a way that's consistent with the class. </p>

<p>I don't find pointing out that there are many discrepancies and ways to view the situation terribly offensive. It's not really even that unfair because most colleges read regionally and the readers are familiar with the school systems. Plus you send counselor recommendations and school profiles explaining all of this. </p>

<p>I really don't bother complaining about it being unfair because there are advantages and disadvantages to everything. If you can't say they grade easier, you also can't say they grade the same, or harder. Basically all you can say is that you'll likely get an A if you rise to the top of the class, regardless of the grading scale.</p>

<p>fastmed: you just made an absolute with no way of proving it</p>

<p>pdpdrummer88 - just because a 90-92 is a B+ at your school d/n mean it's any harder - you may go to an easy school and they're tryng to compensate for grade inflation.... Though your school could just be anal...</p>

<p>In any case, the colleges should receive some sort of explanation on your grading scale when they get your transcript.</p>

<p>at my school/district, teachers have their own scale and the school only looks at letter grades. i remember my ap teacher use to make 65% = C, only cuz his class was super hard.</p>

<p>i go to one of the most competitive high schools in the nation where everyone is asian. (#57 newsweek 2005). and our grading scale is basically</p>

<p>89.5+ = A
79.5+ = B
69.5+ = C
59.5+ = D</p>

<p>some teachers choose not to round up the .5's but there are only a couple at the school who don't</p>

<p>i m international and go to a VERY competitive school. Infact, the most competitie in my country.</p>

<p>70+ = A
60+ = B</p>

<p>Believe me its not easy to get A's in my school</p>

<p>It's not easy to get a SEVENTY percent!!!!! School shouldn't be so hard that you can't master 2/3 of the material.... Clearly everyone at your school is missing half to 1/3 of the material.</p>

<p>^^ No, it is only possible to get full marks in math at my school. For other subjects like English or Economics, teachers NEVER give more than an 80%..even if everything is correct. i know it sounds strange but thats the way it is.</p>

<p>My school was 7-point scale the first 2 years, then changed to 10-point scale. The grading DID get harder.</p>

<p>This topic comes a bunch of times each year. Knowing the scale at one school for an A is 90-100 while another is 93-100 gives absolutely NO information about which grading scale is easier or harder. The two things you need to know are
1) How hard or easy are the tests? ... having a 90-100 range scale sounds better but what if the tests are brutal? Either scale can have the tough or easy tests
2) What is the distribution of the grades? ... on either scale the teacher can design a test shooting for 75% of the sudents receiving As ... or 5% receiving As. Either scale can have tough or lenient distribution of grades.
Trying to compare grading scales can not be done without additional info</p>