<p>On my final exam take-home DBQ for AP US History, my teacher marked me off because my vocabulary seemed too advanced for the average high schooler. She didn't have any evidence of me plagiarizing, nonetheless, she gave me a C. This brought my grade down significantly.
Despite the fact that I never plagiarized, there's no way I can fix it. If she had proof, she would have given me a zero. By this argument, she tells me she was being generous.</p>
<p>I probably won't have a chance to explain this to college admissions, however.
Does this completely ruin my chances of getting into colleges like UC Berkeley, or top-tier schools like Ivy Leagues and Stanford?</p>
<p>I expect to get a 5 on the AP exam otherwise, so that may offset the poor grade...though that might just cause adcoms to think that I'm lazy.
Our class does have incredible grade deflation in general compared to other classes.</p>
<p>By the way, I have several B’s as well, so my GPA will probably turn out being 3.7-3.8</p>
<p>Ask another teacher to grade your essay and if they think you should have a much higher grade go talk to a school administrator! If you live in California and get a 5 it might not hurt you much.</p>
<p>I live in Washington.
There’s only one APUSH teacher in the building, so no one else can really grade the essay accurately. Grades are due by the end of today, so this is kind of how it’s going to be.</p>
<p>Then don’t stress about it. What’s done is done and if colleges know that grades are subjective so as long as you get a 4/5 you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Do colleges know that grades are subjective?
I don’t have amazing extracurriculars to back it up.</p>
<p>They definitely do and it’ll especially show if you get a 4/5 on the AP. It’s normal for some teachers to be easier on their favorite students and other things like that. Don’t worry about ECs. Just keep working hard and you’ll end up somewhere good!</p>