I am currently a Junior taking 5 AP classes and 1 honor class, hoping to be accepted to a variety of UC Colleges.
Sophomore year, I only achieved a weighted GPA of 4.1 because I received a C for Spanish 2 during the first semester, and finished with a B- second semester. I completed all my other classes with A’s, except for Spanish 2…
If I retook Spanish 2 and received an A in it, it would cover up the biggest flaw on my transcript, raising my GPA dramatically. But there are many questions to consider when planning to retake a course.
1.) Is it smart to go BACK to a completed course just to raise GPA? The thing about retaking a class is that the transcript SHOWS that the student have retaken the course beforehand. So if I did manage to finish Spanish 2 with an A the second time around, it will show as “First attempt: C / Second attempt: A”. I have read some people in a different site say that the words “second attempt” looks bad on the transcript, because it means that the student went back to it with the sole purpose of raising his GPA… But… wouldn’t retaking a course also be beneficial, since it shows that the student went back to a bad course to prove that ultimately, he understood the material?
2.) Is it a better decision to start a whole new class to make my schedule appear more rigorous? For example. instead of taking Spanish 2 for the second time, should I just spend that valuable time for a whole different AP class? My GPA won’t go up as dramatically, but I have no other choice, if retaking a class is a bad idea.
So basically, the question I am asking is this - Is it worth to go back to a bad class to solely raise GPA? Or do colleges actually prefer NOT to see that? Should I just MOVE ON and focus on IMPROVEMENTS and FURTHER DEVELOPMENT rather than blocking other PREVIOUS flaws on my transcript?
Sorry for a long block of text, but this is extremely frustrating because one class is significantly lowering my acceptance chance.