<p>That's an excellent system for modifiying the GPA system. In my high school, if you took an after-school class like Model UN or a music class, even if you received the highest possible grade, it would hurt your GPA. An A+ for an unweighted class will still drag down a 4.3 or 4.5 GPA. It's ridiculous.</p>
<p>The MIT application actually requires students to report their unweighted grades, subject by subject. So it wasn't her GPA that got her in.</p>
<p>Many IB schools grade out of 7 points, so that 8 would (I assume) reflect some college courses.</p>
<p>It's pretty rare for American IB schools to grade on the 7 scale, although in Canada and Europe, that's the general system. It would be heck to use that scale in America because it isn't widely recognized enough and people would have a cow with not knowing what it meant. Plus on the 7 scale pretty much no one actually achieves the full points, and it's curved so that not everyone can get the top grade regardless of performance, which tends to trip Americans out (just read the replies on threads to international students who are in the top % of their class - 'your GPA is so low, your school must be soooo easy'. No one gets 100% on a lot of international scales). </p>
<p>I think the 8 came from a crazy weighting system and extra classes that "tack" points onto the GPA. i.e. you have a 4.0 and you take a class that automatically adds .05 to the GPA, so now you have a 4.05, then a 4.1, etc.</p>
<p>Nah, it wasn't her GPA we know Marilee liked cheerleaders. ;)</p>