<p>I attend a selective public high school, and I feel like I might be disadvantaged in college admissions. All of our classes are considered to be "honors", so there is no weighted GPA, which makes having a high UW GPA extremely difficult. (95-100 = A)</p>
<p>I just want to know how difficult it is to have an A in other high school classes.
For example, in my World Literature class, only one person has a low A(likely to drop) and two people have A-'s.</p>
<p>In my AP Calculus class, there are three low A's and one A-.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about not having weighted courses. Top schools (which I assume you’re applying to) only look at unweighted gpa (to standardize) and look at how you do in the context of your school (class rank). They understand that it his harder to get a higher gpa in different schools so that’s why class rank is an important measure for them.</p>
<p>Yeah our school technically doesn’t rank, but the counselors have the ranking list and only report exact rank if it’s an advantage, otherwise they report as top 5%, 10%, 20%, etc. Check to see if you can find your exact rank next time you’re with you counselor and see if he will report it. Otherwise, as you suggest, your high school is competitive. As such, big name schools should be familiar with your school and the regional rep who reads your app should know what kind of grades top school-caliber students have from your school.</p>
<p>Absurdly easy. My school is the joke of the district. 1% class rank + 5aps = 3 hours hw a week max for a smart kid. Everybody except me just fails the AP tests though.</p>
<p>I’m in all honors classes this year, including AP English Lang/Comp and APUSH. Our AP English class isn’t really hard if you have the time, but there is SO much work involved. APUSH isn’t hard at all, but is also time consuming because of the notes. </p>
<p>There are only about 100 people (in my class of 1200) that take both AP English and APUSH junior year. It’s funny because the reputations those classes get make people think we’re crazy for taking both classes, but they’re really not that hard.</p>
<p>This year I’m taking AP French Language and AP US History. Everything else is either high honors (trig/calc, english) or honors (physics). </p>
<p>I’d say APUSH is the hardest. :\ Physics is easy enough, since it’s just honors. French, English, and trig are all rigorous courses, but I enjoy them enough that I don’t mind the work.</p>
<p>Our school has weighted GPA- +1 for Honors/AP classes(I don’t know why they count them as the same?). I am currently taking Honors Algebra 2(other 9th graders may take Geometry or Algebra 1), Honors English, Honors Biology, Gym, Modern World History(will be Ancient next semester), and Spanish 2
I have a 97.something in Honors Algebra 2 and there are actually only around 5 A’s per class. A lot of people really struggle with this class, but it really doesn’t bother me. ENGLISH is EVIL. I think that there are only 3-5 A’s in all her classes. I barely am squeaking by with a 93. Regular English is 100000000x easier. Honors Bio…there should be a good number of A’s here, but some struggle. We do use a challenging textbook(Starr-Taggart…some schools use it for AP Bio) and tricky multiple-choice tests, but we get outlines and busy-work to boost our grades. Regular classes are all really easy, plenty of A’s for everyone in all the classes.</p>
<p>Hmm, I’ll go through my schedule…
AP Calc AB - Very very very very… tough. In my class of 18 about 4 or 5 have above A-, I have a B+ in the class. Our teacher is amazing though, and I hear 80% of the class gets 5s on the AP exam.
Spanish 4 - Easy. Probably 12/22 have above A-
Honors Physics - Easy IMO, but grades don’t show it. I have an A, but I am good at physics. The class average is an 85, so most people are getting Bs. I’d say in my class of 24ish 7 have A- or above.
Gov - Easiest class ever, but my class pretty dumb. 5/15 have A- or above.
APUSH - Fairly easy. I have an A-, but my class is full of geniuses. I have never been in a class with smarter kids. The class average is probably an A-, but that’s because there are so many smart kids in it. My teacher’s previous classes have done well on the AP exam too.
English - Really easy. If you put in an ounce of effort you get an A. The thing is, not many of the kids put in any effort, and they end up with bad grades. </p>
<p>I go to a pretty competitive public school, I think our average SAT is like an 1850.</p>
<p>Pre Calculus - Really a waste of time, and yet only 11 of the ~65 juniors who had Trig last year were brave enough to take it. We do nothing but piece wise functions and graphing.</p>
<p>Journalism - There’s so much work I want to die. Between doing the layout during and after school for a week and the rest of the classwork including book logs, advertisement searching, essays, articles, interviews, and more, it’s crazy I still get a 100 xD</p>
<p>Chemistry - Some topics are confusing for no reason but I still have ~99.</p>
<p>Japanese 3 - Such a joke. Now that the class has 30 kids in it we don’t move at all, and since 28 of the kids are Japanese impaired we move even slower than not moving at all. </p>
<p>APUSH - Ah, AP. The class itself is quite easy, we get no homework, not even classwork, but she bases basically our entire grade on one test per marking period. All multiple choice and deathly short with ambiguous questions and answers.</p>
<p>I have no honors courses this year. All my courses are AP level this year. The hardest is AP Chem. Chem is like a slap in the face with information. The lectures are so chock-full of information - most of which we have to memorize - like the freaking solubility rules :mad:.</p>
<p>English classes: A’s are fairly easy to obtain. I’d say maybe 1/3 of the class gets an A.
History: Same deal as English.
Math: A little bit harder, maybe a quarter.
Science: Same deal as math.
Foreign language courses: Same deal as English in regards to the lower levels. Higher levels it’s like math/science.</p>
<p>AP Physics B: b*tch… got my first C last quarter because of this class</p>
<p>AP Calc AB: ehh, you really have to study and try hard to get an A… managed to get one last quarter, but not sure about this quarter</p>
<p>AP Gov: joke, but didn’t go the work, therefore B… but right now it’s a solid A</p>
<p>AP Human Geo: really fun… and a joke, have a 98 in the class; I had a 100, but I got an 80 on the last test. Don’t ask how that only lowers my grade 2 points, but I like it haha.</p>
<p>Chemistry Honors: ehh, kind of difficult, but easy for the most part; my teacher sucks</p>
<p>Spanish II Honors: with my teacher, you’d have to actually be fluent in the language to get an A; got a B</p>
<p>Last quarter: 4 As, 2 Bs, 1 C
Shooting for (this quarter): 6 As, 1 B (physics)</p>
<p>My school’s English department is really difficult. Every class is considered as difficult as honors and honors is as my current teacher says “pretty much identical to a college class, minus the credit” (this year we’re reading pretty much exactly what most students read in AP Lang actually). She also told us though, that the adcoms know our school and look at the class as if it were actually an AP. If your school is known for sending kids to good schools and/or known at all, I’m sure they know how tough your school is.</p>
<p>As for my classes:</p>
<p>Honors American Literature - As I said, as hard as an AP. I don’t find it that difficult, but rather very fast. They also are much more harsh on the grading of essays and the like.</p>
<p>APUSH - My teacher got terrible AP scores last year so this year he’s determined to be really difficult so we do better in May. It is TERRIBLE.</p>
<p>AP Calc BC - I’m finding this really easy. It doesn’t feel like an AP, it just feels like my math classes have always felt. Many kids in my class aren’t doing as well as I am though, so it might just be that I’m good at Calculus and that my teacher is the best teacher I’ve ever had.</p>
<p>Spanish III - The easiest class ever. I never study and I get 97-100% on every test and quiz. It helps that I spent a month doing a homestay in Barcelona this summer, but it is still a joke of a class.</p>
<p>Honors Physics with Calculus - My teacher is really easy on this one. All homework is optional and class is mind-numbingly boring. The tests are fairly difficult just because we don’t really learn anything in class, but somehow we all end up with really good grades.</p>
<p>Japanese I - I’m not having much trouble with this although my teacher is kind of confusing. It’s her first language so sometimes she forgets to explain some things, but I love the language so much that I spend time trying to learn it myself so I’m finding it easy. The one other person in the class isn’t doing as well.</p>
<p>My school is really difficult, but I’ve been stuck with a few really easy teachers, and a class I love/am good at. I would appreciate if the other two got easier though. :)</p>