Weird Grades, How Do I Explain Them to Colleges?

Hey everyone, high school sophomore and first time poster here (please let me know if I posted this in the wrong place!). I’n trying to get into a competitive college, but as of now I’m really worried about my grades. Normally, you see students struggling in their AP classes and doing well in their other classes, but I’m the opposite right now. I have a 98 in APUSH, but I have an 83 in Trig and an 85 in Chinese II. These are both honors courses, but my school only offers honors courses. I’m worried that I don’t have enough time to get these grades up, and how it would look to colleges. I also don’t know how I would explain it either. I also had an 89 in Chinese last semester, and besides an 89 in Java freshman year, I only have A’s. The problem is, this shows a downward trend regardless, and in honors (regular) classes nonetheless! If I can’t get my grades up in time, what do I do? Thank you for any advice!

If you can’t get your grade up you can’t get into selective colleges. Just because you did good in AP courses doesn’t mean you’ll do good in regular courses, especially different subjects. You should have studied more. Try and do well in your courses for the next 2 years. There’s no trick to get out of having bad grades- not that yours are bad, but you know what I mean.

You don’t.

Without knowing how your school grades, there is nothing we can tell you. Colleges will look at your GPA in the context of your peers. If, with a few B’s, you are still at the top of the class, then colleges know that the grading standards are more challenging than average at your school. If, however, there are others with higher GPA’s, then colleges will take that into consideration as well.