@compmom – “The son got all A’s until junior year, when he got 4 B’s and a C. Ordinarily these are great grades, but it does show a change and I wonder why…harder class content, change in work habits?”
It could be both. In the Fall semester of our D’s sophomore year, the bad habits she had developed over the years finally caught up to her. She’s smart with a killer memory and the combination of the two let her skate through elementary and middle school with straight As. When she got to Accelerated Pre-Calc and AP Bio in 10th grade, where the material itself was much more difficult, her bad habits were exposed (and a bad attitude didn’t help). After the midterms and progress report, showing averages in the mid-80s, and many tears in Jan/Feb 2016, she finally woke up and started preparing for tests. She managed to get her overall averages to A’s for the year (barely!).