<p>So. I'm a junior in high school. My freshman year I had straight A+(es) for final grades. A few A grades sophomore year, but still no A-. This year I have one A- so far that I am clinging on to for dear life. I think I'll be able to keep an A- for the remainder of the year but I'm sure that it won't turn into anything better. Senior year I'm confident that I'll do well in the classes I have signed up for.</p>
<p>So my question is, even though I really plan on graduating without any B grades, will that one A- along with mostly A (as opposed to A+) grades my junior year be seen as a "downward trend" by admissions at highly selective LACs? I mean, the schools I want to get into are top notch. Not to make excuses, but you know how you can't always get a great teacher for everything? Yeah, well I'm learning that this year...</p>
<p>Clearly, it’s not to your benefit to have decreasing grades, but if you’re still maintaining them within a very acceptable range, which you are, it shouldn’t matter much.</p>
<p>It would have been better if you had the A- in 9th and A+ in 11th. :)</p>
<p>No worries though.</p>
<p>You have nothing to worry about. What you describe is not a downward trend. Congratulations on maintaining such high grades.</p>
<p>Oh, and it’s an AP class.</p>
<p>is it your first AP? i mean, no matter what that doesn’t count as a downward trend, it’s good no matter what, but especially if this is your first time in an AP class it makes sense that you’re not getting an A+. but yeah, an A- in an AP class is never going to be looked at as bad. great job! :)</p>
<p>I don’t mean to steal the thread, but I have a similar question. I’ve had straight A’s all of my life too, up until an A- in Honors English my first sophomore semester (I literally had THE WORST teacher, I’m lucky I got out with that). Now this year, I got an A- in Spanish 3 first semester, but straight A’s on the rest of my schedule. I also got frequent B’s on my progress reports (mid-quarter grades) but pulled them up to A’s for my final quarter and semester grades. </p>
<p>Do colleges look at progress report grades? I also have an unbelievably hard digital art class this year and am struggling with it indefinitely. I had B’s on it all year last year until my final grade, which was an A+. This semester is supposed to be really hard too and I’m worried I might not be able to get an A. Anyway, if I planned on taking the whole Math/Science route for my major in college and my GPA is still really high, would colleges care that much about an art grade? Art isn’t really my strong suit.</p>
<p>Sorry again for being irrelevant to the OP’s post.</p>
<p>This is my first year taking AP classes - I’m currently in three, with one A- and two As. Thanks for the encouragement :)</p>
<p>Colleges don’t look at progress report grades. And I think it depends on the college you want to go to. If you are looking at a strong math/science school, you should be fine with a B in art. </p>
<p>My infamous A- is in AP English Language by the way. Really bad teacher - he gives everyone an 85 on everything, regardless of whether it is an essay or free write or whatever. The only thing that is saving my grade is the 90 I get on every project and hundreds on vocab quizzes 
My two other APs are Calculus AB and US History.</p>
<p>Thank you Gracie! And I feel the SAME way about my current AP Language grade. I get 100% on all the vocab tests and most of the Essays we write, but the AP Practice Tests we take on our required reading, I fail. All of them. And I usually get one of the highest, if not the highest, grade on the tests. I don’t see why our teacher doesn’t curve those tests when the highest grade is usually a D-. It’s ridiculous. Well I hope the best of luck for you and that you get to do what you want to do in life! School is way too stressful and demanding to even think about being a teenager >.></p>