<p>As I browsed through the various threads, I saw post after post of 4.0 UW GPA stats. If I extrapolate from what I read so far, there must be tens of thousands of high school seniors with 4.0 - A/A+ in all their classes for all three years of high school! How do we explain this? Are there really THAT many great students out there?</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I may have a bit of sour grape as none of my kids will be graduating with 4.0 UW GPA.</p>
<p>CC attracts the best (nerdiest) and brightest kids. They are an ORM on CC. In real life, probably only the top 5% of each high school have had straight As throughout their high school career.</p>
<p>Possibly hundreds of thousands. Even when I was in high school there were one or two kids with 4.0. Given there were probably 20K schools even then, that’s tens of thousands.</p>
<p>Sure seems a lot more prevalent now though. Maybe grade inflation, I don’t know.</p>
<p>When I was in school a C was average. Last year at our local HS, the average GPA of the graduating class was 3.0. Grade inflation.</p>
<p>When DD graduated from HS, her GPA WEIGHTED was 3.6.She was the 8th in a class of 190 or so students. NO ONE had a 4.0. No one. No grade inflation at her school.</p>
<p>It’s called grade inflation. No need to be bitter when you see people with 4.0 UW GPAs and a 2000 SAT.</p>
<p>The consensus so far seems to point to grade inflation, but are there other reasons? What is the point of grade inflation? Assuming no grade inflation to start with, if one school starts the pratice, does it put pressure on other schools to follow?</p>
<p>I know there are kids out there who take the not-quite-so rigorous classes and get a 4.0 and 2000 on the SAT, but there are also many who take the rigorous classes and get a 4.0 WEIGHTED, and 2300+ on the SAT. They got a few Bs, but in harder classes, and they know their stuff.</p>
<p>And more of the latter are on CC.</p>
<p>I think that technology has improved the time management and execution skills of many students along with greater access to resources that can improve education. I remember typing papers in high-school. Make a mistake and you had to use white-out or had to have had the forethought to use onion-skin paper. Fixing a typo or spelling error after the fact could be a real pain. Today you have word processors with spell and grammar check along with automated suggestions for correcting the error. If you have a tough physics problem from your textbook, just type in several words from the problem and there’s a decent chance that you can get hints or an explanation on how to do the problem on the web.</p>
<p>Many school districts have classroom management software that allows parents (and kids I assume) to keep track of grades and assignments. It makes it easier to keep on top of the kids to ensure that they’re taking care of their assignments.</p>
<p>I think that there is more use of private tutors today than in the past, especially in affluent and near-affluent households. This judging by the number of parents looking for private tutors for their high-school students at my son’s tutoring center.</p>
<p>Information technology has improved a lot of things in just about every area of business. I’d be surprised if it hasn’t improved results in school for those that can afford and learn to use the technologies.</p>
<p>D1 graduated with 4.1 UW, took most rigorous courses. Even though she only received one B+ from grade 9-12, she always felt there were always 1 or 2 more talented students in each of her class. But most of those students were more lopsided - great in math, but weak in English, or vice versa. D1 was consistent. She was weak in English, but she would spend twice as much time as other students to get that A. We don’t know what her ranking was, but she was one of few students who were admitted to cum laude her junior year (other were admitted senior year). She didn’t do as well as athletes in the college process.</p>
<p>Not to pat my daughter, but I do not believe it is easy to get A in every class for 4 years, if you took into consideration of different teaching methods, illness, personal issues…It’s not easy for us to consistently get “outstanding performance” rating at work due to many factors outside of our control sometimes.</p>
<p>Some of it is students are better educated than their parents (I know I never took APs). And there is definitely grade inflation. DD’s HS offers extra credit for most classes so many top students bump their grades up that way (DD frequently had above a 100 average).</p>
<p>Some students are diligent about fighting for every possible point in every class. Those children never lived at my house!</p>
<p>oldfort, How is it possible to get a 4.1 GPA, unweighted?? I’m confused.</p>
<p>But oldfort, how does one get a 4.1 UW. That is by definition impossible on a 4 point scale.</p>
<p>Our HS has a 4.0 scale, but an A+ (98-100) is worth 4.3. So in this case it is possible to have over 4.0 before weighting for AP & honors.</p>
<p>So it’s a 4.3 scale then.</p>
<p>I wonder whether it is time for schools to adopt the 100-point scale. There would be very few ties for top graduate and students who get the 96 percent average have a different grade than the student who has the 89.6 percent average.</p>
<p>Now, a student who gets a 90 percent in a school that uses a 4.0 system (and no pluses or minuses) has a 4.0 (or higher with weighting). A student in a school that uses a 100-point scale might have a 92 average, but it shows as an A- and looks as though it is a lower grade. For admissions, it probably isn’t a big deal if the high school is known, but it is a disadvantage to students applying for the private money (all those $500 and $1000 scholarships) where the committee doesn’t understand all the grading sales.</p>
<p>This is part of the reason that AP and SAT scores are part of the mix. Sorry if I got too far away from the OP.</p>
<p>Isn’t 90 percent a 3.5? Our school uses the percentile system, and I thought that this was the conversion, with 4.0 = 95%.</p>
<p>There is system wide pressure in Florida schools to inflate grades. Florida subsidizes tuition for students with a 3.5 GPA or better. There is no guarantee which Florida school will accept a student, so to get into UF a student needs a 4.0 or higher. 85% of admitted students at UF had a GPA of 4.0 or higher. The parents know this, the teachers, the administrators and the elected school board and lawmakers know this.
Every year there is a small exodus from our private school to the public high schools. To those with state universities on the radar in 4 years, it is an understood consideration that it will be much easier to get a 4.0 + at the local public high school.</p>
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<p>Yes, technically it is. But the school refers to it as a 4.0 scale. In truth A+'s are not that common.</p>