Hi, My son did his IGCSE (9th and 10th) and moved to US IB school and currently in 11th. Local school (Florida) is not ready to accept 10th board exam by CIE and give his GPA, they would like to consider his 9th grade local IGCSE school grading also and that brings his GPA drastically down. If we use his 10th grade board exam only his GPA is good at 4.00. WES also agreed and recommended that IGCSE is a 2 year course and his final GPA is 4. What best can I do, please guide us.
Anybody faced somewhat similar situation, please let me know!
That is the standard procedure for US schools; they count 9th grade GPA as well. This is not England, unfortunately.
When your son applies to college, he will need to submit his records for his previous high school. They will see the IGCSE scores, the grades earned in the classes, and his later grades from the US. So don’t worry about this.
But generally if a college sees you have done well 10-12th grade, they take it into account.
For 9th grade…did he have a low GPA because he did not do well on tests and such, or was it because “he does not know the material yet”… My daughter did IB in Germany…in 11th grade English she kept getting 3’s because the teacher said “she doesn’t know the material”…as in, if she took the IB test right now, she would get a 3 because she hasn’t learned everything yet…if you are in the English School mindset, this is fine because the only thing that counts is the final test grade. In the USA, what counts is the final grade for each year so this was most frustrating for us (she ended up with a 5 on the IB test).
When you say a bad GPA, what does that mean?
My daughter did 2 years of high school in USA and 2 (IB) in Germany. When my daughter applied to college, she got the first school to send a transcript and the second school as well…the colleges will figure out the GPA. The US HS had a 0-100 scale, and IB is 1-7…never knew what her 4.0-based GPA was.
THere was a case in our state flagship college that had scholarships based on GPA…but we could not enter her GPA so at first she didn’t get one. I sent an email to admissions/finance and asked if the only reason she did not get one is becasue we did not enter the 4.0 GPA…they looked into it and subsequently offered her the scholarship.
If you can’t get your Guidance Counselor to go along with what you want, then on the Common App explain what happened in the “extra information” type section at the end. Maybe suggest to the GC that they not do GPA and you just include transcripts from both schools…or email admissions counselors at colleges of choice and see what they suggest.
If he is applying to US colleges, he will be admitted to schools even before he ever gets the IB results back, unlike UK colleges. If he does well on the tests he can get college credit for courses so it is worth it.
Thank you all for the reply, appreciate it!
The local Florida high school has calculated (interpreted) the IGCSE 9 subject 2-year course and giving credits for only 7 subjects which were the max subjects allowed in Florida IB schools. Plus as I mentioned before they are not considering the IGCSE as 2-year course and not taking the WES report or score for both 9th and 10th
Bopper, as you suggested, is it possible for the Florida school GC not to do GPA for his foreign education (2 year IGCSE)? In other words, can I ask them not to do my son’s IGCSE GPA which he as not studied in their school or Florida schools?
Typically the GPA would either be
- igcse results + us
Or - starting from scratch in the US, GPA starts with us school and is created with the US transcripts, with colleges getting the full icgse results too
(is your gc trying to use year 9results on top of igcse 's?)
Let le put it this way, the IGCSE is a 2-year course where the students have the same subjects and book for 2 years and at the end of 2 year’s the examination board from Cambridge, UK conducts a board exam and grade the students. In my son’s case, he has scored all A’s on the board exam. We paid and confirmed with WES to evaluate his US GPA equivalent and they reported IGCSE is a 2-year course and his GPA for those 2 years is all ‘A’.
Now, the GC in local US school is not taking or considering the IGCSE as 2 year course or will not use his final board exam by Cambridge, UK result as final for both 9th and 10th… rather GC wnats to use his 9th grade class test resutls to calculate his 9th grade GPA and final board exam grade results for his 10th grade GPA calculations. Which we are not agreeing to and would like folks in this group to guide us the appropirate next steps. Our question now is, shall I ask GC (local US school) not to do my son’s IGCSE GPA which he as not studied in their school or Florida schools?
If I understand correctly your kid only has 9th grade transcript and IGCSE exam scores (no 10th grade transcript), right? If that is true then the GC does the right thing. IGCSE exam scores cannot be used for both years. The GPA indicates the annual progress, not the final exam.
^ In the British system, the “mock” grades don’t count. Only the IGCSE’s are valid to represent Year 10 and 11 (9th and 10th grade) since they cover all years with partial exams that are added into the ICGSE final grade. It REALLY is like a GPA since it includes final results for all 4 semesters. American colleges, for example, only request IGCSE results for Year 10 and 11 students enrolled in a British-patterned system.
@kaushi: explain that each IGCSE grade is cumulative, made of 4 semesters’ worth of exam grades and only those are valid. The others are the equivalent of Pass/fail “mock” grades. (I know it’s more complicated than that but a IGCSE grade is not like an SAT score, one score for one exam taken on one day. It’s cumulative.)
The two choices would be
- ICGSE + US GPA
or - ICGSE transcript provided to college, but GPA starts with American high school grades and IGCSE’s are not taken into account.
The US HS guidance office will follow any guidance from the school district and from the state’s department of education (if this is a public school), but the guidance counselors have a lot of discretion in how they handle things. Unless there is a pressing need for your child to have a certain GPA for guaranteed state scholarships or guaranteed admission to in-state public universities, or unless a specific interpretation of the transcript is absolutely necessary for the child to be able to take a specific class in HS, I’d advise that you just stop fretting about this.
When your kid applies to college, you will have the IGCSE results sent as well as the HS records from the current school. The college admissions offices will sort everything out.
Again, thanks everybody for taking some time and responding to my questions… this helps my son a lot to plan and take next steps. I don’t know the US IB school will be able to remove the IGCSE grades or GPA calculation and do only US GPA. Anyone had experience in successfully handling the same?
Each public school district sets its own policies with some guidance from that state’s department of education. Each private school sets its own policies. This means that the only experiences that are likely to be helpful for your child, are the experiences of other students at your son’s own school. You really do need to discuss this with the guidance office there.
While I know less than nothing about Florida schools or IB programs, I think you are right to worry about this now, especially since he is 6 months away from college applications.
If it all possible, unless it excludes him from certain honors in high school or scholarships in college (something you should find out now since he is close to deciding where he is applying) I would vote for letting the British grades come on their own transcript, separate from the Florida ones. Especially as from what I am reading, at the time he was in 9th grade if he continued in the British system he knew his grades did not count. Seems unfair to penalize him now.
For graduate school applications you generally send a separate one from each school you attended, one college does not take responsibility for what you did at your prior college even if they gave you credit.
Generally in our area (not Florida) if you transfer high school a separate transcript is sent from the first high school. However it is not as simple as I make it seem with regard to 8th grade courses.
In our state above grade kids (mostly everyone who applies to good colleges) takes 9th grade math and science in 8th. Some change schools (certain privates end in 8th) or move. Some public school districts count the 8th grade state test grade and the class grade in the overall average even if taken in private or a different district, some privates used to, ours stopped because it did not happen in their building so they can neither take credit or responsibility.
Bottom line, I doubt there are many British students in your school district. So figure out what works best for your kid and find data that backs it up showing how other places handled it and present it to the GC in a positive way (remember he also writes your kid’s evaluation for colleges).
I would also be familiar with the education laws in your state, perhaps there is something there about this situation.
@happymomof1 , thanks for your response… since we moved to Florida IB school only for 11th grade we do not have much connect with other fellow students and find the local prior practice. Our curious question is, why can’t the Florida school or education board got to evaluate for the grades (9th and 10th) where my son has studied in another country. Will the certified independent evaluation (WES, NY) result is not good enough?
@SeekingPam , Thanks for your detailed explanation. How do I find the education laws about utilizing or grading the IGCSE results by Florida education department? Even if they do, can I re-do it and support it with WES result and submit it to universities when we apply?
I really know nothing about IB results at all as I stated above so WES is not something I am familiar with. As a a general principle, if you have a transcript and test results from his first school you would arrange to send them to the colleges directly from that first school or testing agency, this assumes your Florida school does not take credit for his first two years and puts them on his Florida transcript at that point you would not need to send them but you could if it adds something.
If this is a Florida public school it is governed by the Florida Education Department (or whatever it is called in Florida, not from Florida). So there are regulations, I am not sure if they pertain to this but you can try googling. You could also try calling the high school division and asking. Obviously be friendly, maybe not even mention the school since you are not trying to get anyone into trouble or anything.
Also, ask the GC how would a regular transfer from a school in New York be treated? Would his first two years go on his Florida transcript or would they be sent separately from the school in New York (you could ask the education department the same question). You could also find out how that is generally treated in your area. I know I asked this question at my small private school in the Northeast and was told anything that happened at another school does not go on the transcript unless it is a state test and then it is only the state test grade itself not the class grade.
@kaushis - When your son applies to college, he certainly can submit the WES results. However, most of them will be perfectly happy to receive the official IGCSE scores instead of the WES evaluation.
In the US, there are no courses that take two years and that are graded solely on the basis of one final exam. The grades normally are recorded each semester, and reflect multiple factors (daily homework, classroom participation, unit exams, final exams, etc.) That is why the school district has asked for the subject-area course grades for both 9th and 10th grade. It is trying to fit your son into the system that is in place in that school district. From their perspective, recording the IGCSE results twice as grades for 9th and again for 10th grade is the equivalent of recording the better 10th grade grades of a student who had slacked off in 9th grade as the grades for both of those years.
You can contact the FL department of education and ask what guidelines they can give you for handling foreign records. Do not be surprised if they stipulate that the individual subject and course records for each year are necessary, not just the final exam results.
Very interesting discussion as I have a daughter currently doing her IGCSE and who will be going into IB at the same school. We are abroad so we don’t face the US school system’s attempt to interpret the results. However, it is very clear that the IGCSE is a TWO year program and that you get ONE set of final grades for those two years. All the other grades are not final and it would be unfair to the student to have them treated as such. It sounds like the GC really doesn’t have a good understanding of IGCSE - perhaps you can suggest they talk with someone at the Board?