<p>Or is it just mine? I mean I consider myself an intelligent person, but no person, no matter how intelligent should make grades of 99 and 100 in most classes. The grades are heavily inflated and the classes aren't challenging. The most challenging class I have taken was creative writing during freshman year. I don't know about you guys but I think that's kind of sad. I've only had about 2 or 3 teachers that have ever taught me like a teacher should, most of my classes I just teach myself if I want to learn(not that you need to learn to do well). <em>Sigh</em> And people ask me why I take a majority of online and college classes instead of classes at school..</p>
<p>Oops sorry, *Are your school's academics a joke?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say academics at my school are a joke but most college prep courses are and certain disciplines (our English, social studies, and science areas are really good, while world language and mathematics are either way too easy or way too hard). The gap between regular and honors classes is absolutely insane at my school. On the whole, we’re not too bad academically but some classes definitely should be harder</p>
<p>None of my classes are very difficult, but they give a LOT of work, especially Journalism. I can expect like two hours a night just from that class.</p>
<p>No, my school’s academics is not a joke. I struggle with math and a little bit with English, mainly because my teachers give difficult course work that takes lots of time to do.</p>
<p>I think a lot of it is relative. To CC standards, it’s a piece of cake. Across our state for a public school, we’re pretty good and the best in our region of the state.</p>
<p>Pretty much.
For example, I had an honors math teacher who put smiley faces next to some of the correct answers on tests.<br>
Most of the kids don’t really try, though. I’ve heard people bragging about getting a 20 on the ACT. The teachers make their tests so almost everyone passes.</p>
<p>It really depends on teacher. At one extreme, answers were given out under testing conditions. At the other end, I’ve been tested on math that still scares me. </p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I go to a <em>good</em> public school.</p>
<p>It depends on what level you take at my school. The regular classes are a joke (I had 100 both semesters and 105 on the midterm/final because I got the extra credit questions right in my math class freshman year). That being said our honors/AP classes are very challenging, I never thought I would be happy to get a C on a test or a B in a class but that ended up being the case for honors chem.</p>
<p>In terms of perspective I got to a competitive magnet school that has the best test scores in the district.</p>
<p>Regular classes are a joke… I ended up with 99/100 in all my classes for Freshman and Sophomore year. Junior year, I took all Honors/AP and ended up getting two B’s (B in Honors Pre-calc and B+ in Honors Chem) and a lot of A-'s. Except I still had a 99.5 in Honors English, so that’s why I’m taking AP senior year. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My school is ranked the eighth or ninth worst in our state. My state’s average SAT score is the second lowest in the nation. But I wouldn’t say that my school is necessarily a joke: it really depends on how well you want to do. </p>
<p>If passing is your only goal, (I believe you can do this with straight Ds,) yeah, it kind of is a joke. As long as you show a little effort in a class and do 3/4 of your assignments, a D is almost guaranteed. Anyone can get a 3.5 average if they really want it enough. Even a 4.0 isn’t hard if you choose your courses wisely. Our grading system really works out in the student’s favor, as we have no +/-, and a 90+ is an A. Any “general” or “advanced” (below honors) class, the teacher will either give out easy assignments or frequently weigh tests. In these classes, if 100% of assignments are turned in, you can easily have a 97-115%. </p>
<p>However, to get an unweighted 4.0 while taking APs and honors classes is a different story. Although in some courses you are literally fed test answers, others, especially the English classes, are challenges to get As in if you’re in time-consuming ECs. (I think there might have been about 3 of us that got As from my English teacher this year.) An A in higher level maths (above Alg 2) requires about an 70-80% average on tests. An A in honors sciences requires almost all assignments to be turned in and/or at least a 75% test average. No one gets over 94 in English. </p>
<p>I really think that although our school has a lot of academically bad students, we also have a few of the state’s most well-rounded. Almost everyone with a 3.9+UW has good ECs.</p>
<p>@ dfree
Looking at my Honors Bio grades, If someone turned in ALL of their classwork and homework, and got 100% credit on it, took any and all extra credit opportunities, and got mid 70s on their tests, they’d have about a 90.0, which at my school, is an A. </p>
<p>In Chem, out tests were weighted to that of the highest scorer. (For example, if the highest scorer gets a raw 50%, they’d actually receive 100%. Note that sometimes, the test was extremely long and covered material that everyone was shaky on.) If someone had a 75% unweighted test average, I’d assume that their weighted test average would be about 83%. In the 4th quarter, tests were probably about 20% of the grade, and therefore a 75% unweighted average is quite enough to get an A, assuming all other work is done well.</p>
<p>I have the same EXACT problem at my school. Im an incoming sophomore at a private high school currently and enlisted in 4 honors classes and 2 other (Art and Religion b/c Catholic high school) I have a 95% or above in all classes and not because I study my butt off but because my teachers and the curriculum are not challenging enough. I consider myself decently intelligent and it infuriates me that my honors classes are really just a joke. Maybe sophomore year will be better :|</p>
<p>Yes and no. Depends on the teachers.
My French class has severe grade inflation. We get extra credit every little tasks.
There is a math teacher in my school who had 100% passing rate for Ap calculus exams last year, considering that my school is not some top tier high school. A few students who got 5 on the Ap exam had Cs in her class.</p>