<p>my school only sends our semester grades out on our transcripts, and they're very focused on semester grades: if you get an a in both semesters and a c on the exam, you get an a in the class, for example. i've always thought this was weird... do your schools do something similar?</p>
<p>We’re focused on semester grades as well.
How the semester grades are determined depends on the teacher. Some teachers decide to take an average of both the first quarter grade and the second quarter.
Some teachers just allow the grade to proceed and whatever you get at the end of the semester, combined second quarter and first quarter points, is your grade.
Some teachers only take what you got for second quarter.</p>
<p>Also, we don’t weight our grades, because some people think it’s unfair, and it hurts people’s feelings. We don’t have a class ranking system either. People do get an extra tassel or sash at graduation. if they were in the top 10% or top 5%.</p>
<p>We have block scheduling, which means we only have four classes every day. Each class is twice as long and lasts only one semester. We have half-semester grades and final grades on our report cards, and I think they’re weighted equally.
Grades in honors/AP classes are not weighted. You have to get 94% or above to get any kind of A.</p>
<p>Our semester grade is 40 percent our first quarter, 40 percent our second quarter, 20 percent our midterm (same for second semester but then it is the third and fourth quarters and the final). Personally I wish the final was worth less, but oh well…</p>
<p>My school is more quarter-based than semester-based. At the end of the year, the four averages from each quarter are averaged together for a final grade in the class.</p>
<p>The system at my school is similar to that of eoaynn. We have four quarters, but the average of our midterm and final count for a fifth.</p>
<p>Same with us. Our exams mean basically nothing. They basically are 25% but the numbers don’t matter its only the letter. So for instance if you get B’s in both the quarters and then a D on the exam, you still get a B even if you have 80’s and a 60. There’s a chart. Stupidest rule ever</p>
<p>Pet peeve: teachers who give almost no assignments the whole semester, so you’re getting into B levels even if you only missed two points on one assignment or something.</p>
<p>^Agreed.
My LA teacher is exactly the same.
We still have a lot of homework. We just have no idea what she’ll grade and what she won’t.</p>
<p>My english teacher hasn’t put in any grades basically. I have a 77.9. I have no idea if it will be a B because there are assignments from October not in yet.</p>
<p>My school does it the same way as yours. An A is an 89.5 or above, a B is a 79.5 or above, etc. Grades are weighted too. For schools that don’t weight grades, but rank, what happens if 2 people end up with the same GPA?</p>
<p>^
They put the people who took more honors classes first.
Two people can still have the same GPA in a weighted system.</p>
<p>wait, superstarlala, i’m in montgomery county too! :)</p>
<p>Report cards go out every quarter.
A 93-100
B 85-92
C 77-84
D 70-77
F anything below a 70</p>
<p>Mine is very weird. It’s called Mastery Learning. We have outcomes based on different aspects of the course (mostly derived from California standards). Over the year, we need to meet proficiency in 85% of the outcomes for an A in the class.</p>
<p>To meet proficiency, you must, over the year, submit assignments and grade yourself on outcomes that are addressed in that assignment. For English, a persuasive essay would meet the “use evidence and citations to back up arguments” outcome (just as an example). You grade yourself on a scale of 1-4. 3 is proficient, 4 is advanced (consistently independent achievement of outcome). Our teacher evaluates our self-grade, which also requires us to justify it. If we have 3s in 85% of the outcomes, we get an A. If we have 4s on 85% of the outcomes, we get an Honors A.</p>
<p>Pretty much, only final year grades actually matter, as far as transcripts go. 1st semester senior year is the exception to that rule, because of midyear reports and all.
I mean, you do get a “midyear” GPA, but if you get, say, a B 1st semester, an A 2nd semester, and an A for the year, they will just count that A for your overall GPA. However, the GPA you receive after midterms will be based on the B.
Semesters are also split into marking periods, which really only matter for two things: one, if you want principal’s list (As for all four marking periods), or, two, if you want to be exempt from a final senior year (you need As for all four marking periods, among other things). Otherwise, they don’t matter whatsoever.
As far as actual grades, there aren’t pluses and minuses, and 89.5+ is an A, 79.5-89.4 is a B, etc. Honestly, that probably hurts me, too. Other than freshman year and sophomore year English, I’ve consistently gotten what would be considered As or A+s. Oh well.</p>