Right, but if a kid gets a 2 or 3 and still got an A (I thought that’s what we were talking about?) doesn’t it say that the class was easily graded?
We see this a lot here. At our BS kids sweat to get an A. A- are a lot more common and often translate to a 5. At the local HS kids who have perfect GPAs end up with a 3 on the exam.
Yes. Agreed. S22 fought for a B+ in APUSH and easily got a 4 on the exam without studying. His teacher was tough, but outstanding. In fact all of his AP teachers were very strong and he got a 4 or better on everything just be doing the work for class. A public school, btw. I’m always surprised when I read about kids who have a raft of A’s in AP classes but don’t do well on the tests.
In our high school that is why they have detailed info on how many kids pass the test in each AP and what the avg score of the AP’s the who school takes in the school profile they share with everyone.
We have classes where getting a A is much harder than getting a 5 in the AP. We just went through this with AP Calc BC. I am eagerly waiting to see how he does in this test.
School has over 90% pass rate overall and 4.x as the avg score the kids get in all APs they take. I think this is one way of showing the strength of the school.
Our pass rate is around 80%. It definitely varies by course. AP Calc (both AB & BC) have a 100% pass rate - mostly with 5s, but it is a self-selecting group so . . .
Agree the pass % varies by course. Ranging from 99% pass rate for AP CAL BC with 200+ Kids taking and 70% for AP Japanese with only 20 kids taking it.
Ours is the same. This data is relevant and why the school profile is part of the GC submission.
This is why easier APs often have a lower passing rate. AP Physics 1 had a pass rate of 45% while AP Physics C pass rate was 68% (E&M) and 73%(Mech). AP Physics 1 routinely has the lowest pass rate of all APs, not because it is harder, but because there is little barrier to entry. APUSH - another one “everyone” takes, had the second lowest pass rate this year (48%). Similarly, Calc AB only 58% while AP Calc BC was 78%.
Those numbers are actually quite staggering. I can’t imagine that 50% of kids are getting Cs and Ds on their report cards.
As someone who has lived closet to the Newark Airpot for 21 years and done hundreds of flights to/from there, I would caution those who are saying this is not normal. I suspect it’s closer to “the new normal.” The biggest problem is that United absolutely dominates the airport since its merger with Continental years ago, giving flyers few alternatives there, and the latest United management is so laser focused on short term profits at any cost, that the company is structured in a way where they know their system will break down any time there’s any disruption. That’s why even their own unions are blaming United for much of the debacle this week. They have substantially reduced both staffing and planes relative to their demand. Everything is designed to work as long as their are absolutely no unexpected events with the knowledge that even though they are inevitable they will just tell customers there is nothing they can do. They don’t even try any more.
Evidence the most recent issue where a couple hours of severe weather Monday has resulted in people who were supposed to travel then or even after it still be stranded at other major United domestic hubs right now with no support from the airline and no flight options even up to a week or more after their scheduled flight. People are being canceled 5+ times in a row, United isn’t even honoring boarding passes as people are getting onto planes in some cases and they have stopped even offering to reschedule them on other flights. Even more insulting, United will refuse to reseat people on other planes while still holding seats back to sell at surge pricing rather than honor the same people they displaced.
If a couple hours of wind and thunder can do this when there are dozens of worse and more sustained weather events a year in Newark, nothing will get better until United management changes and invests money in upgrading their systems, staffing and equipment. And that’s not likely. Shareholders reward short term thinking. And there’s relatively little competition so bad behavior is rarely rewarded with customer defections.
Personally as someone who has had United status for over 20 years, my family never wants to fly with them again. But in some cases that may mean having to drive hours to the next viable airport paying more for flights and accepting risky connecting flights. And most of the airlines are similar – witness the comparable Southwest disaster months ago.
So anyone worried about unstable flights out of Newark is right to worry and consider it. Newark pretty consistently has one of the worst on time records in the country and we’re about to see that get massively worse. Air travel in the US is bordering on broken and likely won’t get better without regulation which has zero chance of happening.
I live in another United hub, Houston, and desperately miss Continental, which had great service here. But yes, we have been avoiding United lately too. For example, last year we flew Delta through Minneapolis to our vacation to avoid United and O’Hare, and this year we picked Air France even though we could have flown direct on United. We almost always fly a European airline (usually BA) for transatlantic flights, because I can always get better pricing and more convenient flights as well. We used to fly United all the time.
Agreed, Continental was far better before the merger with United.
My family just completed a 90 hour airport saga to get the 5 air hours from San Fran to Newark. In total they canceled 4 different flights we were on and massively delayed the 5th by twice giving away our plane to other flights (so we were in total associated with 8 planes for a non-stop flight). The second flight of those wasn’t actually canceled, just for us and a handful of other passengers when their system glitch wiped out our boarding passes while in line to board. Despite at least 3 forms of proof that we had valid boarding passes (email confirmation, the Apple Wallet copies of the passes and screen shots I always do in an abundance of caution of the United app boarding passes), the gate agent blew off all the affected passengers and gave the seats away to people on the standby list, sending us all to the customer service line that was 6-8 hours long (it wrapped around the entire length of the terminal), knowing it would cause us to miss the flight and that it would take days to get placed on a new one. So even having a valid boarding pass on a flight that isn’t canceled means nothing with United these days. On 2 of the 4 planes that were canceled, United played a slimy trick where they would cancel out flight then immediately create a new flight number at the exact same time to the same place with the same plane type but use it to place people from other flights and not offer seats to us. They also continued to sell typically $300 one-way economy seats for $1,600-2,000 while saying they could not rebook people on those seats. During all this, they refused a single meal voucher, credit or anything. Not to mention I initially paid double for our flight to get a good day-time option and and economy plus seats only to eventually be forced onto a red eye with far worse seats. We arrived at 8am. And the icing on the cake, they have billed my credit card an additional $8,450 for the 4 economy (not plus) red-eye one way seats for flights I had already paid for (at a much lower rate) months ago that they canceled (4 times). And now I have to dispute that.
Absolutely none of this can be blamed on the 2 hour weather threat Monday. That might have been responsible for the initial disruption but none of those other actions that resulted from it.
So this is the ethic of the company that controls almost all flights from Newark.
What an unforgivable ordeal! I don’t think it would have made a difference in your outcome, but did you ever tweet at United? I’ve found that people pile on the Tweets and sometimes it gets some sort of result. I am so sorry that you and your family went through this.
Thanks. I’ve heard that but don’t use Twitter. I guess I could set up an account just for this purpose.
Students can take AP classes for academics, yet never take the tests. Most colleges will not require AP scores to be submitted at application time.
If your student has all 5s and 4s, and the college offers the option to self-report, then those scores would “confirm” the A’s on the transcript, and it wouldn’t hurt to report all scores. If the results are mixed, then it might be better no to report any - otherwise leaving off some would just “message” that the course/grade might not have been true to the prescribed curriculum.
Yes, ultimately the AP scores matter after enrolling at a college, and then submitting them for potential credit.
Sorry to read about your travel issues. Air travel today is expensive and uncomfortable. Customer service is at the bottom of airline consideration. We had a 9 hour delay the last time we flew (this May) - just a horrible situation. I love to travel but I’ve gotten to hate flying.
Just saw S24 for a total of 10 minutes this weekend at his summer music program. Have to say that going away, removing himself from the rat race and being engrossed in something he loves with people who feels the same has been wonderful. He was happy, engaged, and totally forgot about college stuff! Guess it was the right decision!
D24 has been chilling for last week or so fully enjoying her break from the rat race and college stuff. Hanging out with friends, working on her dance moves and taking care of herself.
Planning for a few college visits this summer mid-atlantic region
Not sure how it suddenly came to be July. Our school year starts in a little over 5 weeks.
Four months until ED/EA deadlines.
I’ll send you my cardiologist bill.
Meanwhile my kids just finished their first week of summer break. They go back September 5th.
S24’s summer job as life guard so far is… ok. Apparently they over hired so there are more bodies to go around, leading to less shift being scheduled… means less work and money for S24.
So over the last week or so I slowly poked at him, checking if he would want to find a second part time job. Coincidentally we have a new McD opened up just 5 mins from us during our trip away from Texas.
Well, he has shot down the idea of getting a second job, because in less than a month his school will start again, that is just not enough time to start on another PT job.
What has he been spending his time during this summer break? (besides occasional life guard work, swim meets, writing his college essays)… playing Roblox! 
Very very productive…
YES!! I was just having a moment over the fact that summer break is almost over.
Thankfully D24 has finally kicked into gear on the college application process and now understands the insanity that is going to be her life for the next few months. Personal essay writing is not her jam, and some places require portfolios, all with differing content requirements and submission guidelines.
I am also thinking she needs a part time job, at least to finance the hanging out with friends that seems a lot more common now that she can drive at all hours.