<p>My son would have been thrilled to have the final count for 20-25% of the grade! At his high school, no final can count for more than 3.5% of the overall course grade…</p>
<p>Marian, at our house, we call the A/A or B/B status being “bulletproof.” Short of utter disaster on the final, it doesn’t really mean anything, and they have our blessing to focus on whatever else needs attention. (This includes other courses, girlfriends, sleep, brain-dead TV, IMing, etc.) </p>
<p>Deidre, S1 didn’t care for the 30-35% weight his junior year MV/DiffEq teacher placed on problem sets. He consistently made strong As on the weekly tests and low Bs on HW. OTOH, when he got to college, he was really meticulous with p-sets in his math and CS course. Guess he learned the hard way!</p>
<p>// Finals are even less important if you have a B in both marking periods. In that case, any grade from A to D on the final gets you a B in the course. Only an outright failure would bring you down to a C.//</p>
<p>My daughter’s school doesn’t even require seniors to take finals in any class they have an A-average going in to it. She ended up not taking one single final exam this week; only going to school to get attendance ‘credit’ for the day. She spent her time hanging out in the art rooms (she’s entering college as an art major)</p>
<p>I’m kind of amazed at the wide variance in public school grading policies! Our hs has 4 marking periods, each of which count for 20 percent of the final grade. The final makes up the remaining 20 percent. Though teachers have the freedom to decide whether or not to assign a final - some might do a paper instead, and use that grade as 20 percent of the overall average; some might give a test that counts as a final, but is on the most recent material instead of being cumulative. I’ve never heard of anyone being exempt from the final with an A going in. I think that some non-honors/AP classes may not include a final. Honors/AP classes do.</p>
<p>This is what I find to be so fascinating about CC - it’s a constant reminder that not every high school works the same way. I like our system because it seems similar to the grading procedures in most colleges, and so is good preparation for what kids can expect in the future.</p>
<p>mom4college, how is your d’s letter going?</p>
<p>frazzled1, my hs did the same thing - the final was like a 5th marking period, 20% of the grade. And only the final grade for the year showed up on official transcripts, no marking period grades or final exam grades.</p>
<p>DS & DD’s high school transcripts show their grades for all 4 marking periods but NOT for the final exam (thank heavens!) Finals in their school only count for 10% of their grade. Didn’t take D long to figure out that finals almost never bring your grade up but they can bring it down, and even a 50 has a relatively minor impact on the year-end grade for the class. The difference between a 75 and a 90 on a final exam won’t have much impact on her end of year grade… so she doesn’t worry too much about studying for them. I’ve tried to warn her that finals are usually 25 - 50% of the grade in college, though, so she’d better learn how to study for them!</p>
<p>I think you can use illness as an excuse while simultaneously accepting responsibility and learning an important lesson. It would go something like this:</p>
<p>“As many people do, I let my grades slip a bit. Call it senioritis if you wish. I reasoned that a slight dip in my grades was unlikely to affect my overall GPA much. This would have been true had I not contracted such-and-such illness at such-and-such time. What I failed to realize is that working hard during Senior year, or at any other time, is not just to guarantee high achievement. It is to provide a buffer, so that when adversity inevitably presents itself, you can slip a bit and still be at an acceptable level. By keeping myself merely at an acceptable level even when I was well, I left myself without a buffer, and my illness pulled me below an acceptable standard. Now I understand much better that working hard, even when working hard seems unnecessary, is not wasted effort. It is insurance.”</p>
<p>Assuming, of course, that you really have learned this lesson.</p>
<p>Our school told the kids in January that if they took an AP/IB exam, they’d be exempt from the course final. Week before exams (and after kids paid $$ for APs), the school system reversed itself.</p>
<p>Many unhappy campers.</p>
<p>At our school (on the semester system for reg./honors classes and year-long for AP’s):</p>
<p>For the semester classes, each nine week grading period counts 37.5% of the final grade with the final exam counting 25%. So the final exam really makes a diffference.</p>
<p>For AP’s it is an average of grades from the two semesters. There are generally no “final exams” in AP’s because all are required to take the AP exams…sch. system pays for AP exams. If a student does not take the AP exam,final grade is dropped by one letter grade. Lots of kids take the AP’s for gpa boosters (6 pts. for an A) and don’t worry about the exams at all. </p>
<p>Our transcripts show final grades only.</p>
<p>She left a message with the Dean’s secretary and was called back 15 mins later. Kid really did not have to launch into much confession or explanation; the man basically volunteered that the C grades were in AP classes and they recognized these were difficult, they hoped her summer was fun, and asked if she was excited about coming to college in the Fall.</p>
<p>I overheard the convo on speaker phone. </p>
<p>I think they may have an arbitrary system and after the kid calls or writes, they look at the file more closely. It may not have gone this way if the Cs were in a less rigorous class.</p>
<p>As an aside, I was impressed with my kid’s ability to accept responsibility for the slide. There was illness, but freely admitted the slide.</p>
<p>I assured kid that this was a lucky break and that I do think colleges can and do take back their acceptances. We just do not know anyone to whom this has happened.</p>
<p>mom - I’m happy for both you and your D. Let’s hope she’s learned her lesson. Just to be on the safe side I’d take a close look at her Fall mid-semester grades. JMHO.</p>
<p>Great news!!! Enjoy your summer :)</p>