Parents of the HS Class of 2017 - 3.0 to 3.4 GPA

Parents Forum
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@rosered55 - awww - thanks for thinking of us while passing the Beloit exit! I’m hoping that CoyoteSon likes it too, after the new and shiny part of the decision fades.

@curiositycat333 - oooh, watching those C+ grades must be nerve-wracking, the the shy-high CS grade is good! CoyoteSon’s Astrophysics grade just slipped to a C because the teacher is so annoyed that he doesn’t show his work even though she has been harping on it all year - so she gave him zeros on the latest problem set, even though all his answers were correct. Grrr, I can’t wait for CoyoteSon to be done with high school!

@eandesmom - fingers crossed for E1 to hit the magic 3.5.

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Congrats to sons of @curiositycat333, @techmom99, and @MSU88CHEng on earning various honors and awards…and so sorry Techson may be too busy to even attend the ceremony!

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@MSU88CHEng --“And S15 is so much more than his grades”–Love this!

I’ve read several references to Regents exams–what is that?

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WE ARE DONE! Graduation was yesterday and since son had to miss the Senior awards night due to track sectionals being the same night he was handed a bunch of medals/cords before the ceremony from the principal. It wasn’t until after the ceremony that we were able to find out what they were all for. He won the Technology Award (I was hoping he would) and had honors cords and a scholar medal (apparently for taking 4 years of math, science and english). Would anyone like some cake?!?!

Less than 3 weeks until his college registration weekend - WOW!

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@curiositycat333 S17 had me look over the curriculum requirements for his intended major because they’re kind of confusing. MSU credit for AP Calc is all or nothing–either he scores a 4+ on the AP exam and gets credit for calculus (not very likely), or he takes math–his major only requires through college algebra/trig. I’m assuming that since he’s had math through AP Calc AB (but he’s not a strong calculus student), he’ll place into the 1 course college algebra/trig class and/or the survey of calculus class. I’m not sure if the calculus is worth it for him, but I’ll leave it to him and his advisor. Calc might make sense for him if he decides to go with an economics minor. And he will need to take stats for his major, but that doesn’t count for the university math requirement.

@techmom99 I hope techson can go to the award ceremony, especially if it’s for his work on the tech crew. If my S17’s award is for his Regents scores, there’s a $500 per year scholarship that goes with it. Since it has to be used at a NYS college, I kind of hope that’s not it because it would be better for someone actually GOING to a NYS college…

@CoyoteMom Ugh on the astrophysics teacher. And yes, I think our kids are ALL just so done with high school by this point…

@Hankster1361 NYS has various high school diplomas–local is the most basic. If the student passes a certain # of NYS Regents exams in English, History, math, and science, they get a Regents diploma. If they pass more Regents exams in math and science, they can get an Advanced Regents diploma. If they have an average score >90% on the Regents exams, the graduate “with honors.” And on top of that, my S17 did the whole IB diploma programme thing, too… So that was the long answer, the short answer is that Regents exams are a NY thing…

Congrats @smakl70 on graduation and the awards! I bet it’s an awesome feeling for him to be done.

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@MSU88CHEng Unless he did bad on pre-calculus as well. If he doesn’t get a 4 have his take the Survey of Calc course. College Algebra/Trig is basically a review of H.S. math to prep you for Calc or Stats. (He would be going back two steps.) As a math major, the only true College Algebra is a upper division Abstract Algebra course. I’m surprised Stat’s doesn’t count as his math course. Probably best to leave it to his advisor.

We have 7 more days of classes, two days of finals, and a week of senior “fluff” left in school. I’m honestly not too worried about my son’s C+'s. I just would be easy for him to get his English grade back into the B or even B+ range, if he would just finish one of his English Essays. The teachers given him a huge extension. He’s not likely to fail or even get a D on any of these classes at this point unless he say blew off the final. (Physics is basically done.) Doesn’t even need to really study hard for them… just go and take the things seriously.

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Congratulations to everyone with kids who are already done! My D17 still has three more weeks left. Her crazy Calculus teacher covered ANOTHER chapter this week (more Calc BC my DD says) and they have a test on it, plus the third part of her final plus some kind of UW math placement exam which I think is also this week (or maybe next). My DD is now confused about exactly what the UW exam is all about, she now says it’s to place her OUT of Calc AB. She’s going to call the university today to figure out if she still needs to take the regular placement exam.

I logged onto the Iowa State website today and withdrew her application. While I am very happy she’s a Badger, I am still sad about ISU. I really loved the university and I really felt it was a really good fit for her. I also felt that they had a more personal touch when dealing with the students. They reached out to them, celebrated them and made them feel like part of the university. I felt like they were there to support the students. The only communication from the UW was a skinny little letter and a reminder to log into the website and make sure she doesn’t miss any deadlines. No framable acceptances, no stickers, no big welcome package. I think the UW is going to be a lot more of a “sink or swim” type of environment and I just hope that my DD has the maturity to keep up with things on her own. I still worry even though I have been pretty hands off her Senior year allowing her to make her own choices and knowing that she’s going off to college later this year.

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With 2 weeks of classes to go, TacoSon is currently rocking 3 Cs and 3 A’s. Two of the Cs could potentially be brought up to Bs by a student who cares. At this point in time, TacoSon is not that student. With grade weighting, he should be OK to wear the NHS stole at graduation. (Since I paid for said stole, I may have him wear it around the house for a few weeks after.)

We were all pleasantly surprised that he won one of the prestigious “name” band awards at the spring concert. So although his GPA may fizzle a tad prior to graduation, it can still be said he left his mark at TacoSchool.

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My D17 is deep in Senioritis. She handed in a bunch of things LATE to her Contemporary Lit class and the teacher is only giving her half credit for it. There goes her easy A. It pisses me off that she did the work and she screwed up by handing in FIVE assignments late. What a waste.

I don’t blame the teacher, it’s all D17 who has left 25 out of 117 points on the table.

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@MSU88CHEng I see I missed the fact that he has to take a math placement test. (I checked their web-site. I’ll admit it’s confusing the way they word things.) If he’s in Calc and not completely failing it I bet he can at least place above the “precalc” level courses. What I saw basic Statistics does count for his math requirement and he would just have to have a good enough score on the placement test.

My older D wasn’t a stellar math student, and she went to university studying art. She did her math requirement with a class titled “Math for Artists”. Even she found it easy.

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@tacocat333 – ha ha, would love to see TacoSon parading around your house in his Honors stole! I do have fingers crossed that he gets to wear it on the graduation stage!

CoyoteSon is flirting with two low As, two Bs, and 2 Cs (in the aforementioned Astrophysics and his required gym class, where he has skipped the indoor activities he doesn’t enjoy!).

Just counting down the days til graduation on June 17!

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I feel everyone’s pain!

Major senioritis here too. And dealing with all kinds of unexpected attendance issues!

Turns out, kids are allowed 8 absences a semester. Who knew? Not me.

Students who have nine (9) or more absences for the semester may lose credit in that class. Students may apply for credit restoration if they have no more than one (1) unexcused absence and/or extenuating circumstances and are passing the affected class.
A student will be considered as designated Absent if more than ten (10) minutes late.

So.

Because Jazz meets daily, he’s at 8 absences. 7 are excused (5 for college visits, one for scholarship and one for medical) and one is unexcused because he was more than 10 minutes late. If he doesn’t miss again he’s ok BUT that means no skipping jazz on senior skip day. Unless he can convince the teacher to change that unexcused to a tardy (unlikely) he will be at Jazz on senior skip day.

And…

He has NINETEEN tardies for the semester. Not all Jazz but a lot of them (15). He has to get under 10 tardies to go to prom so he’s at Tardy tank this week and next so he can buy a prom ticket. IF the jazz teacher changes that other absence to a tardy, he will have one more hour of tardy tank before he will be able to get his prom ticket.

I am annoyed at the policy but at the same time he shouldn’t have overslept and he shouldn’t be always late to class so consequences make sense. I do not agree with the absence consequences though, there should be a middle ground and a warning before going straight to no credit! S17was like, it’s not a big deal if I don’t get credit for jazz. Ok no, not to graduate but for your transcript, for your scholarship? Yah. BIG deal. He doesn’t think it would have impact and he is so so wrong. He knows it’s non negotiable but he is not a happy camper.

The reality (which I am not telling him) is that allegedly he would definitely be able to get credit restoration, this is designed for other kids missing for other reasons but I don’t want to even contemplate risking it or dealing with it.

He is fine in all his other classes as long as he doesn’t miss any more days of band except senior skip day. The other classes aren’t even close and band is only close to an issue as we were at the scholarship thing too long!

But hey, at the moment, the lowest grade is a B. However since it’s all still in half or more arabic who really knows! He’s on the cusp in most of his classes. 2 B+ (89.5), 2 A- (1 at 92.5), one A and the lone B. All the classes have piled on stuff so while I really hope things go up just a tad in the 3 on the cusp, I also pray nothing drops!

Suffice to say. I will NOT miss 7am jazz for this cat. Luckily E2 is a morning kid.

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@curiositycat333 Yeah, at this point, I’ll see where S17 places for math, and leave it to him & his advisor. He has a C in AP Calc AB and he had a B+ in pre-calc, so he should be ok with whatever. And for his major, one of the concentrations he’s interested in is either a research methods class plus a stats class or 2 stats classes, but it explicitly says that if he does that, he can’t use stats as his university math requirement–that’s part of what was confusing him about the curriculum…

@eandesmom Ugh on the attendance issues. S17 was tardy at least once a week on Feb & Mar–drove me CRAZY! He’s back on track now. I am annoyed with the PE coach, though. S17 and one other boys missed 2 PE sessions on a row for IB testing–PE is every 4th day for them. The coach gave them full credit for the 1st miss, but 0’s for the 2nd, so S has an 84 for PE for this quarter right now–he’ll still be in the A range for the year, but it’s annoying to my geek/jock.

As for grades, he’s got 3 A’s, (but 1 is PE) 2 A-'s, 1 B+, and the C in Calc. No worries from me if he can keep those on track. But the senioritis struggle is SO real!

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When I was in high school, PE was a state required course, and you needed 2 credits (1/2 credit per year, basically every other day). There were no misses allowed at all. For an excused absence, you made up the missed period hour-for-hour, but if it was an unexcused absence, it was three hours for the missed class. Now it was quite easy to make up the missed classes as you could go to the gym at any hour of the day or the first hour after school and just join in a class. Even if you broke your leg or were recovering from an operation, you had to make up the class. Excused to go visit colleges or to attend your grandmother’s funeral? Make up the missed classes.

At the end of the year, there were student who seemed to be in that gym from first period to last trying to get all their hours in to graduate.

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Techson17 will be attending the awards ceremony tomorrow night. It seems that the other parents whose students are involved in Hell Week also want to attend so the involved kids decided to rehearse for a couple of hours, take a break for awards night and then return to rehearsal. I think his award will be for auto tech. The school doesn’t have a theater or drama department but the club gives out a few awards. My D got one for spirit her year and she was peeved! She took it as an afterthought because I can’t do a lot to volunteer. I suspect Techson17 will be in the same position. It really doesn’t matter.

@MSU88CHEng - Our school doesn’t give awards for regents’ scores. My understanding is that the state award is income linked and there are relatively few kids here who both achieve the required scores and are low income enough to qualify for the scholarship.

Years ago, my sister in law didn’t graduate HS because of missed gym classes; she had to return the following semester for 3 gym classes a day for a semester. She confused the grade not counting in the gpa with the course not being necessary for graduation. I, myself, proudly rocked a D every semester in gym because it didn’t count and because I could get away with it. Techson has one gym class to make up, which he will do next week after this play is over. Last day of class for seniors is June 7 and he has one final and no regents exams.

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PE was an easy A in my life. Grade based on attendance, a written test (yes, written tests on the rules of bowling, volleyball, basketball) and ‘improvement’, so sandbag the initial assessment and improvement was a given. Easy A.

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To meet the state requirement for PE, kids at our HS take PE 2 days/week for all 4 years. But in senior year, you can request “Advanced PE,” which is 5 days/week for one semester, and then you get a free period the second half of the year. It’s pretty much non-stop sports with a daily participation grade.

S was thrilled to get into the class and loved it–until the last week or so, when he asked his teacher when they’d be taking the AP Exam. The teacher laughed, which is good because I’m pretty sure S was trying to be funny–but I do wonder if he might have actually believed that AP Gym is a thing.

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To graduate the requirement is PE for two years except there is this odd rule where you have to take PE freshman year and you have to take a physical fitness test. If you don’t pass the test you must keep taking PE. You don’t have to pass the test to graduate, but if you never pass you have to take PE all 4 years. I just figured out that you were forced to take PE all for years by the test you could probably fail that ‘senior’ year of PE and still graduate. (Mostly likely done with too many absences or refusing to change.)

Sports and marching band count as PE for our school. So my son basically did all his PE as marching band. PE is one regular class period. That means 4 days a week at our school. But one of those days is a double (block) period.

@LuckyCharms913 I hope that was a joke. Otherwise he doesn’t seem to have understood AP’s at all.

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PE is state required here as well, 1.5 total years. You can apply for a waiver under certain conditions and have up to 1 year waived, which S17 did.

Hence “walking/yoga” this semester. Which finally came up to an A- and may end at an A. Easy A except if you miss 3 sessions while on college tours there is no way to make them up and she didn’t excuse all 3 so he took a hit. Well that and his poses are either not turned in or in the B category. The kid needs to work on his tree pose (but printing a picture of him doing it was amusing!).

Big news here in musical theater land!

The spring production was submitted for the local state “tony” type awards and ended up nominated in 7 categories, with 3 honorable mentions. Not only is it nice exposure for the program and the 3 actresses nominated in different categories (all of whom I think intend to pursue in college) it means a big ceremony at the symphony hall. Which apparently includes a performance as one of the 8 nominated for best overall musical.

Both the ceremony and the rehearsal are on what was to be senior skip day. Bwah ha ha…Making him go to jazz may be less of an issue than expected. He did inform me that the credit appeal is not a big deal and he will qualify (sounds like this came direct from the teacher in question). Of course he has to now get that night off of work which is another story. We have to decide if we are going to attend or watch it stream live.

Grades are hanging on at one A, 3 A-, a B+ and a B. Lots of movement both ways still possible though.

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My DD’s senioritis is so bad, I don’t even want to look at her grades. She’s doing OK in most of her classes (A’s and B’s) but she’s sporting an “F” in French this quarter right now but says that the teacher has not entered a bunch of grades. Okie-dokie. She knows she needs a minimum of a “C” for the semester and it’s up to her to make sure that happens. If she does end up with a “D” the UW may revoke her acceptance and all be on her. I know someone whose son was accepted to Brown and ended up being revoked because of senior grades. She knows it can happen. If it does, it will be a very painful life lesson.