<p>How do they weight? Do they take all your grades, average them, and then add the points or do they take the grades, add the points, and then average?</p>
<p>I imagine there are differences. I know there are differences in what the "weight" is. Some schools add a # of points to a class grade for H or AP (eg, 90 raw grade plus 5 "weight" points=95). Others multiply the grades by 1.xx to weight.</p>
<p>In our school, each grade is weighted, then the average is taken. H classes are weighted 1.3, AP are weighted 1.35. Once weighted, the grades are averaged. We are on a 100 point scale so, for example, S was a 94uw/122w.</p>
<p>Be aware that since there are so many variations, the School Profile which goes to colleges with the transcript usually explains what your particular school does. Also, since there are so many differences, the more selective colleges tend to take the raw grades and do their own weighting scheme in order to compare apples to apples.</p>
<p>jmmom,</p>
<p>We are having a discussion about uw versus weighted grades at our
public high school. Our school does not weight grades at all. More than
half of the kids in the top ten percent of the class are from special ed or kids who haven't taken any ap's, calculus etc.<br>
We are discussing whether we should start weighting grades or make a special
list ranking kids who have taken the hardest courses. As you said.
the high school does send out a sheet saying all classes are equally weighted.</p>
<p>Is it a worthwhile effort to pursue weighting or clarification on the class rank
issue? </p>
<p>I am gathering information to take to our council and would really appreciate
your feedback.</p>
<p>In our high school, honors and AP grades get an extra point. Thus a B=4 point and an A in honors or AP=5. A "C"=3. There are no points added for "D" or below.</p>
<p>I can say that with our high school, the honors and AP are MUCH harder than that of the regular courses. In fact, I am not sure that one point is enough in some cases to justify the difference.</p>
<p>That is not necessarily true taxguy. There are some honors classes that do absolutely the same thing as the regular class. The whole thing is very subjective.</p>
<p>jmac - I don't claim any expertise, but I do feel that the weighting system is the proper way to recognize the "top 10%", val, sal, etc. That is how it is done at our school. I have not heard any objections to this system in our community. Our school has worked hard to make the system fair, fine-tuning it as issues arose, so if you want to get into nuts and bolts detail, PM me. </p>
<p>Weights are not applied until Jr. and Sr. year, and in fact GPA's are not reported until second semester of Jr. year. The school does not rank, but does report deciles and does recognize the top 10% at graduation.</p>
<p>taxguy - that is an interesting and , to me, not very satisfying approach. If I am thinking it through correctly, a C in an Honors/AP course gets a 50% "bonus" (a 2 becomes a 3); a B gets at 33% bonus and an A gets a 20% bonuse (4 becomes a 5). Doesn't seem quite right, does it? I see where you're coming from.</p>
<p>our school follows the UC weighting system, i.e., 1 bonus point (on a 4.0 scale) for any AP/IB course, and any UC-approved honors course. Transcripts actually have three numbers: overall gpa (includes PE, auto shop and anything attached to a grade; academic gpa; and, UC-gpa for Soph and Jr years, (as best as the HS can keep up with thier methodology). Note, however, that a D in a course does not earn the bonus point. </p>
<p>But, no ranks, no deciles, no val, no sal = no arguing and no law suits, which is great, IMO.</p>
<p>English5 notes,"That is not necessarily true taxguy. There are some honors classes that do absolutely the same thing as the regular class. The whole thing is very subjective."</p>
<p>Response: I was talking about our high school!</p>
<p>We changed our weighting system about 3 years ago and I think it's very fair and more like what colleges use when they re-weight the grades. We use a four point system for regular classes with a 1/2 grade higher for honors classes and one point higher for AP's and students have to get higher then a C for them to get the extra weight. So if you get a B in APUSH, it would count as an A, get a B in honors history and it would be a B+ or a B in regular history and it would remain a B.</p>
<p>Katiep that is how our school does it. There is also no ranking, but in addition to the transcript the school provides a printout of how many As, Bs, etc. were in the class. We also have reg. classes that are tougher than the honors classes, depending on the teacher.</p>
<p>kathiep: So what happens if you get an A in APUSH? Does that just count the same as an A in regular history?</p>
<p>A friend of mine in the admissions office of one of those "prestige" institutions told me that they don't use the "weighted" averages at all. They look at the transcript for evidence of rigor in the program, but they have so many applicants who do well with difficult courses that comparing students on the basis of the weighted average tells them more about the weighting system and less about the applicant. And, as per the other thread, now they have hundreds of students getting A's and B's in AP courses who don't do well on the AP exam or, worse, don't even bother to take them. The only place that the weighted average really comes into play is class rank - which is matter for the high school to figure out.</p>
<p>Chevda- An A in APUSH says "A" on a report card but is weighted as a 5.</p>