<p>If your student has a D in a core academic class, it can make it really hard to get into even the least selective schools. My son had a D first semester of Algebra II last year (junior year) and his football coach suggested he look into the BYU online courses. Low and behold, we found out that by taking that class, he could eliminate the D from his GPA and use whatever grade he got in the class as a replacement when calculating his GPA. The D remains on his transcript, but the B+ that he earned in the online class replaces the D when his GPA is calculated, which brought it up nearly .5%, a huge jump for him. I highly recommend looking into this and checking with your school to see if they approve of these courses for their curriculum. It really was a gift for us.</p>
<p>Good tip, but not all schools allow it. Many privates, like D’s school, will not allow ‘re-do’s’.</p>
<p>In our school system, you can retake a class (usually in summer school), but you only get credit for taking it once and both grades appear on your transcript. The two grades are averaged to determine the grade that contributes to your GPA.</p>
<p>S2 failed a Spanish class in h.s. He re-took it the next semster (at his h.s.) but the F still figured into his gpa.</p>
<p>I think allowing a student to re-take a class is fair, but that both grades should count in the GPA, in order to avoid penalizing those who did well in a single try. I’m interested in hearing from anyone who disagrees.</p>
<p>At least some magnet schools don’t allow this. If a student at my son’s school gets a D or F for the semester, he or she must return to his or her “home school” (the regular public school in his or her district).</p>
<p>I’m surprised that a school would allow this.<br>
I just checked the online handbook for our local district…All semester grades are included in the GPA. You are not allowed to drop a class that is required for graduation (like Algebra II) after the semester starts. Failed classes can (or, if required for graduation, must) be retaken but both grades are on the transcript and figure into the GPA. Classes that are passed may not be retaken for a higher grade. (There are no D grades in the state, it’s C or better or you fail)</p>
<p>Our school also uses the BYU online classes for credit recovery. Both grades show on the transcript and both are used to figure GPA.</p>
<p>“I think allowing a student to re-take a class is fair, but that both grades should count in the GPA, in order to avoid penalizing those who did well in a single try. I’m interested in hearing from anyone who disagrees”</p>
<p>I understand your point about those who did well in a single try, but I don’t understand how giving a student who struggled a second chance to succeed is “penalizing” another student. Isn’t the objective for the kids to learn, rather than beat each other out for class ranking and so on? I have one child who is a high-achieving, go-getting type of kid, and one (obviously the one who repeated the class), who has ADHD, is not a good test-taker, and has been often dismissed by his teachers as a “C” student not worth much effort on their part. It has been a lot of work for us to get him to the point where he feels confident in himself to go to college, and that has been our goal. By the way, interestingly when tested for IQ, the ADHD child beat out the academic superstar…</p>
<p>I guess my point is that at 16, it’s hard for me to tell a kid that there’s no way to redeem himself for a mistake when he wants the chance to fix it. As for the schools that are more hardcore…I guess that’s what we get for sending our kids to public school :)</p>
<p>“Isn’t the objective for the kids to learn, rather than beat each other out for class ranking and so on?”</p>
<p>I think that stopped a while ago (if it was ever actually like that)… If you look at a high school the top students in large part hate school (not that bad students don’t also hate school). </p>
<p>High school for college-bound students seems to be more about proving your smart than learning a lot. Sure you learn stuff, but if you are dumber or lazier than someone else, every college has to know it, because colleges want smart and hardworking students who do things right the first time. The redo deprives the college of that information.</p>
<p>elizabethh: I am so glad this helped your son. I make it a policy not to worry about what other families do, so I do not begrudge him this boost at all. Good for him. As for the “fairness” of it all, too many variables to worry about that either. One kid has a fabulous teacher; the other kid has a horrible teacher. No way to correct for that. It’s not a level playing field ever.</p>
<p>So I am happy that things are working out for your son.</p>
<p>My D did well enough in the last course of the math sequence before pre-Calc but choked up on the Regents because of personal things going on in her life. She got a 70, which would have kept her out of the Pre-Calc class by school policy. (Her year grade was still comfortably a high B, as in B+, so not an issue there.)</p>
<p>She was devastated. Her teacher called and told me her grade did not reflect her ability, and he encouraged her to retake the Regents in August. (For those who don’t know, the Regents are standardized NYS tests.) She did no study, no review and had no tutoring, but her mind set had improved. She scored a 96, thus restoring her faith in herself. She went on to pass the Calc AP. </p>
<p>Her teacher decided to replace the 70 with the 96. We didn’t ask him to. I don’t know if the 70 appeared on her transcript, but in September he went to the Guidance Department and saw to it that her average was recalculated. It made very little difference because it was like a fifth quarter and I don’t think it changed the overall GPA at all, or very, very little, but seeing that 96 on her report card and then transcript really helped her mental health.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is school policy, and I have no idea why Mr. Bermudez did this, but no one at her school applied to Barnard so she did not take anyone’s place, and her high school didn’t rank graduates.</p>
<p>She got B’s in her required math courses in college, one at Columbia.</p>
<p>So I guess some might think her experience unfair, but it was a wonderful save for her.</p>
<p>I don’t think reporting the grades earned on the transcript penalizes a student…it just accurately reflects what the student acheived at that time. The first time, the student didn’t do so well; the second time, he did better. Student gets brownie points for persevering. And the student who does better the second time around DOES redeem himself.</p>
<p>The student who did well the first time around should not have his acheivement diminished. As you said, it is about the learning, and , if learning is being measured, one student learned the material better the first time around. And the colleges also will recognize that your son did learn the material, too, as evidenced by the improved grade–so it is about the learning.</p>
<p>No, that’s not true, Qwerty, on the transcript is the original grade and the grade earned in the online class, so every school can see what he originally got and what he earned in summer school. I think this proves just the opposite, that, in my case, my son was regretful about the way he did in the class, felt he could do better, and spent a large amount of time over the summer taking the same class to prove that to college ad coms. I also don’t think every student who has to re-take a class is “dumb” or “lazy” as you so eloquently put it - in our case there were mitigating circumstances that have now been resolved, and our son is doing much better than he was last fall. I think from the tone of your message that you are probably a student, and I hope you never run into a difficult situation that makes you seem “dumb” or “lazy.”</p>
<p>In our district you can re-do a class but both grades stay on the transcript and are counted in the GPA. The re-do is for the benefit of the “kid” who might want to take the next class in the sequence but is precluded by the D. I think that is fair to allow re-dos but to include both grades on the transcript and in the GPA calculation.</p>
<p>I just read the post above. I find the end of the post unduly harsh and the tone of the post a bit odd.</p>
<p>My kids certainly did want to learn. And there is no indication that the OP’s son is lazy. </p>
<p>Math results are more subject to psychological factors than any other discipline. My S also has ADD and I know that on one day he might score a 75 and the next day a 100 on the same test, depending on what time the test was administered and what else was present in his life that day.</p>
<p>He earned a 4 on the Calc AP. Not a five, true, but fine with us. Because of harsh judgments like the above, he began to avoid math though he won numerous medals in math at the middle school level and is good enough at it, and scored 700+ on math SAT.</p>
<p>I think this is a much more complicated issue that some posters allow. Maybe you don’t have experience with kids with ADD.</p>
<p>At any rate, my S is at Williams excelling in Classics and easily mastering Classical Greek. I don’t think laziness is the issue.</p>
<p>However, he never received any preferential treatment or replaced any grade. In fact, when a doctor’s note indicated that he needed his meds increased and the first test of the quarter did not reflect his ability at all and was a medical issue, his teacher refused to change the grade.</p>
<p>We did not protest or get our backs up. It was her decision.</p>
<p>I already ran into the one that made me feel dumb…</p>
<p>I apologize, I wasn’t trying to offend you. I was attempting to throw it into the perspective of some cynical admissions officers. If I took a class once, did poorly, I’d still do better at it if I were to take it again putting the same effort under the same circumstances. </p>
<p>I did notice that the original grade on the transcript sticks, but for colleges which only look at what GPA the highschool reports (I’m not sure which do this, or how many though), they wouldn’t know the difference.</p>
<p>mythmom, I’m glad to hear that your D’s teacher helped her out in such a bold way. I think most good teachers will go out of their way for a student they believe in, whether at public or private school. My D always had the best of every teacher she had, because she knew how to “work the system”, and has used it to her advantage all her life. My S, because he doesn’t have that kind of personality, will not work as hard to get people to do things for him…but I think he’s learning how to take care of himself more and more.</p>
<p>On a related note, when i was a high school sophomore, I had a geometry teacher who was quite elderly and nearly deaf from flying jets all his life. He couldn’t hear a word I said, and never answered my questions. I got an F in the class 2nd semester. When it came time for me to apply to college, my guidance counselor took her bottle of whiteout and changed the F to a C, enabling me to get into college despite my struggles in that class. I will never forget that and I firmly believe she changed my life that day.</p>
<p>WOW Elizabethh! How fortunate. Could you imagine the outrage if that happened today?</p>
<p>S2 struggled with Spanish 3. He got a “D” first semester and flunked the second semester. At our school, he was allowed to re-take both semesters, but the original grades remained on his transcript and are included in GPA. When he re-took 1st semester, it had to be no-credit, since technically he passed the first time. He took it anyway to prepare for 2nd semester. He did get a real grade the second semester that is included in his GPA. (At our school, Spanish 3 is only an honors class, so it is weighted 1.1. But 1.1 x 0 still = 0, which has a huge impact on GPA. Sigh…</p>
<p>elizabethh - that is a very touching story, and she probably did change your life. Our kids probably don’t even know what white-out is anymore!</p>
<p>Thanks for some good options mentioned so far.</p>
<p>What about students whose school does not allow any retake for a D? Even if the student does well in other subjects and has a big upward trend, some colleges will not consider a D a passing grade for admission, and yet a high school will only let kids retake the class if they get an F. </p>
<p>So in a way, doesn’t that make getting a D worse than an F for those schools? If there is no chance to retake the class unless getting an F, the kid with a D gets locked out of any college that needs a C- or above, whereas the F kid can retake and achieve a higher grade. (And every school needs 4 years of English.)</p>
<p>I see that UOregon does not consider D passing. Anybody know other schools that also will not consider a D passing?</p>
<p>I know all of the Cal States don’t consider a D passing for admission. If you go to any school’s website, that’s usually explained in the freshman requirements area. I’ve had pretty good luck when calling the admissions offices at various schools for information - I’m sure there are ways to explain/excuse a D at some schools. I know Oregon is a holistic admissions school, so they might be open to explanations, etc if the other grades are fairly decent…there’s no harm in asking.</p>