<p>I have a strong GPA after just finishing junior year, but it has gone down over my three years of high school. I hear colleges frown upon dropping grades, but maybe it's only in the extreme case. Is my GPA trend okay in terms of what colleges want to see? I took harder classes as the years went by. Also, I want to make sure my GPA is solid as my test scores are not as great so I'm relying on my grades a lot for college admissions.</p>
<p>9th grade: GPA 4.0
-not many challenging classes offered since in my district 9th grade is still in the junior high school.
-two advanced writing electives
-Spanish 2 (some kids in my grade were taking Spanish 1)
-Those are the only two difficult classes I took, but I suppose my high school will send the school profile so colleges will know I didn't have many options for hard classes</p>
<p>10th grade: GPA 3.91
-Honors Biology
- Spanish 3
- Honors English
- Geometry
- Algebra 2 (doubled up in math to get ahead)</p>
<p>11th grade: GPA 3.87
-AP World History
-Advanced English
-AP Language and Composition
-Pre Calculus
-Spanish 4</p>
<p>12th grade: hoping to have a year average of 3.9 +
-AP Calc AB
-AP Government
-Honors English
-AP Spanish
-Honors Physics
-Advanced elective</p>
<p>Overall GPA 9th-11th: 3.926</p>
<p>Is this what's expected in high school to have it gradually go down about the same as mine? Or is my too much of a downward trend? Thanks!!</p>
<p>*Note: I only listed the challenging classes I took. The rest were either regular (because non offered or in some cases because my scheudle didn't allow me to take the harder option) and I also took choir each year.</p>
<p>Your grades are good, but what’s your SAT score?</p>
<p>I’m not planning on taking SAT but my ACT is currently 24. I’m re taking it this Saturday after some quality tutoring and hoping for a 27. I got a 27 on a practice test recently so hopefully I get good results from Saturday’s test.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you! Because I think the ACT score is what matters the most, with your GPA, of course. Also, do you have any community service?</p>
<p>Yeah I have 100+ hours of service at a food shelf and will be getting more this summer.</p>
<p>That ACT score is not as good as your GPA. Have you tried the SAT? Some students do better on one exam than on the other. Pick up an SAT prep book at the library, and do a practice exam at home to get an idea about your possible score.</p>
<p>Have you always done relatively poorly on standardized exams? If so, pop by your guidance office and talk this over with your counselor. Three common reasons for test scores that are low in comparison to classroom grades are: poor test-taking strategies, test-induced anxiety, and un-diagnosed dyslexia-type processing issues. If anything like that applies in your case, you want to get a handle on it before you go off to college.</p>
<p>happymom, please don’t take this the wrong way, but it seems as though almost every post i’ve read of yours mentions the possiblity of dyslexia. </p>
<p>I’m one of those students that are not great std. test takers. I’m a junior with a 3.7 UW, will graduate with 7 or so AP classes etc. The SAT makes me nervous - simple as that. I scored in the low 700’s in reading/writing on my practice tests. 500 in math. I stink at math. Come test day, I got real nervous and pretty much bomed the test. about 100 points lower in reading/writing, math a bit lower. </p>
<p>So, based on what you’re saying, I could have dyslexia when taking the SAT, but perfectly fine when writing an essay in my AP lit class? I don’t think it works that way.</p>