<p>Why do colleges only give A's as the highest grades? Why isn't there A+?</p>
<p>It depends on the school. Some schools use A+, A, and A-. Others simply use the letter, but I don't know why some schools choose to use one system and not the other. I prefer just using letters. There may be a big difference between A+ and A-, but not between A and A-.</p>
<p>my school has A+, and it is calculated as 4.3 0_0, A is 4.0 and A- is 3.9 I think</p>
<p>wow. UC's do A-, and count them as 3.7. They give A+s, but don't count them in campus GPA. They help with law schools, though, and probalby a few other places.</p>
<p>Some schools have A+ noted on transcripts but still count as 4.0. I think Colgate does this.</p>
<p>A+ = 4.33? wow, I wished my school did that and say an A- is a 4.0/3.9.</p>
<p>UVA is also amongst the schools that have A+ count the same as A (4.0). Sentimental value if you will.</p>
<p>My son got an A+ at Indiana U, but it was just a 4.0, same as an A.</p>
<p>I think that having an A+ lowers the value of an A. A is supposed to mean academic excellence. It's supposed to be the best you can get, and it should be just that. You can't get more than a 100 in a class (or you shouldn't be able to in a college course), so you shouldn't be able to get above "excellent." That's just my opinion though.</p>
<p>I'm definitely not going to argue with the 4.3 for an A+...but I can understand those who are against it</p>
<p>If an A is excellence, what's wrong with an A+ being perfection? That sentimental A+ from U Va will be more than sentimental when it comes to some things, although I'm not sure if law schools compare people in such a way that it's marginalized, as in those who go to schools with 4.3 being the highest are compared against each other, 4.0, ect, at least to some degree, as in within the school itself is the greatest comparison, less to 4.0 only schools. <em>Continues to babble.</em></p>
<p>A lot of these in between grades - plusses, minuses, AB and BC grades - were introduced during the Vietnam war grade inflation years when Professors were afraid of giving bad grades as they might result in a guy ending up in a body bag.</p>
<p>beprepn</p>
<p>Cornell gives out 4.3's for A+'s, though A+ is hard to come by.</p>
<p>yea an A+ is usually reserved for those who have demonstrated something beyond what was expected of them entirely in the course - for ex, my writing prof. says that out of all the years he's been teaching here (12 or so), he's only given out 1 A+ and that was to someone who truly deserved it.</p>
<p>The thing that sucks the most is when ur school is on the A- = 3.7, B- = 2.7, etc... system. Common, an A is an A and its hard to get as it is, cut us some slack</p>
<p>If you can get an A- but get penalized by getting only 3.67 points an hour, then you should be able to get an A+ and 4.33 points per hour since you've done exceptional work. </p>
<p>I can understand with arts and humanities courses where the grades is entirely arbitrarily decided by the instructor that A+ are given only to the best of the best, but what about objectively-graded math, science, and engineering courses? If I make a 99 on ever one of my math tests, why should I be denied an A+? (That's in theory, of course. I haven't been able to manage that in any of my math classes, but I did get an A+ in gen chem last summer.)</p>
<p>my school has A+ on the transcripts but it doesn't affect GPA....kinda odd because a B+ and C+ and D+ are fatored in differently but A+ is factored in like an A (just 4.0).....odd.</p>
<p>It should take above a 100% to get an A+. if we think about it in a math way, it's on a 4.0 scale, so a 4.0/4.0=100% it should take a student getting above 100% in a class (EVERYTHING correct plus all extra credit offered) to get a 4.33/4.0. A 99 should just be a strong A, not an A+ becuase it isn't above 100%. While getting a 99 in a class is amazing, it isn't going beyond the potential of the class, it is simply meeting the whole of what the class offers, and so it should be an A. If, however, you get a 100% on every single assaignment, go out of your way to learn outside of the class, and get 100% of all extra credit offered, then that is a situation where you should be dstinguished by an A+.</p>
<p>I wonder how much of our opinions on this come from which high school we went to. My school stayed on a strict 4.0 scale. We didn't have A+'s. How many of you who think there should be an A+ had them (or a 5.0 scale with AP's or honors classes) in your high school??</p>
<p>A B+ isn't above a 90, it is a high B. Similarly, an A+ isn't above 100, it is a high A. The scale I've usually seen for grading in classes without curves (both HS/College):</p>
<p>80-82 - B-
83-87 - B
88-89 - B+
90-92 - A-
93-97 - A
98+ - A+</p>
<p>Well, my high school didn't have letter grades, just numerical. But in conversion to a GPA, we didn't have +/-. So a 99 and 91 were both 4.0. But since the numerical grade was what showed up on the transcript and all classes were weighted equally (except for AP classes), the GPA was a rather meaningless thing except for college applications.</p>
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the GPA was a rather meaningless thing except for college applications.
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<p>what else are GPAs good for?</p>
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If you can get an A- but get penalized by getting only 3.67 points an hour, then you should be able to get an A+ and 4.33 points per hour since you've done exceptional work.
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<p>I agree. </p>
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I can understand with arts and humanities courses where the grades is entirely arbitrarily decided by the instructor that A+ are given only to the best of the best, but what about objectively-graded math, science, and engineering courses? If I make a 99 on ever one of my math tests, why should I be denied an A+? (That's in theory, of course. I haven't been able to manage that in any of my math classes, but I did get an A+ in gen chem last summer.)
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<p>Alright, don't fool yourself. People are grading your tests. If you are required to show work, whether or not you showed enough is a subjective decision. How many points you should be given is a subjective decision. What percentage of points count as what grade is subjective. What the curve or step scale will be is subjective. Whether or not one has a good argument is subjective, too. Yes, the sciences seems more "objective," but it is not immune to subjectivity (although nothing is, really, seeing that humnas are all subjects perceiving things.)</p>
<p>equine, my school had AP and Honors classes, but it wasn't possible to take ONLY these, and I don't know of anywhere where it is.</p>