Semester v. quarter grades in HS

[Anonymous]

I'm confused about the quarter v. semester grades. Everyone keeps posting that only semester grades are sent to colleges but the MCPS report card format shows quarterly grades and then a final grade - no semester grades.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/info/grading/traditional-report-card-grade9-12-en.pdf

In looking at my child's report card from last year I see she had the following grades for one class B A B B and the final grade is listed as a B. What would show up in the college transcript? Is there a copy of what that looks like somewhere online?

[Anonymous]

A BA then BB would have a semester one grade of A and a semester two grade of B. Each semester grade would show on the transcript separately.

[Anonymous]

You can look for your student's SGGCR report from last year in Parentvue Documents to see how the HS classes are split into semesters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused about the quarter v. semester grades. Everyone keeps posting that only semester grades are sent to colleges but the MCPS report card format shows quarterly grades and then a final grade - no semester grades.

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/info/grading/traditional-report-card-grade9-12-en.pdf

In looking at my child's report card from last year I see she had the following grades for one class B A B B and the final grade is listed as a B. What would show up in the college transcript? Is there a copy of what that looks like somewhere online?

That PDF is out of date. It has a column for final exam grade, and those were eliminated years ago.

[Anonymous]

Just to be clear, a student could earn half As and half Bs on every report card (3.5 or so on each report card), however, as long as they always go A + B on each class, they will have all As for semester grades. The student will then have a 4.0 on their college transcript. This is even though they have never earned a 4.0 in their life on the report card.

Is this right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, a student could earn half As and half Bs on every report card (3.5 or so on each report card), however, as long as they always go A + B on each class, they will have all As for semester grades. The student will then have a 4.0 on their college transcript. This is even though they have never earned a 4.0 in their life on the report card.

Is this right?

Yes. The kids all know this hack. You can focus on 3 classes o e quarter and two the next (or vice versa) and only worry about getting A’s in those classes. DD and her friends all ascribe to some version of this plan. I can’t really argue against it since the system was set up this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, a student could earn half As and half Bs on every report card (3.5 or so on each report card), however, as long as they always go A + B on each class, they will have all As for semester grades. The student will then have a 4.0 on their college transcript. This is even though they have never earned a 4.0 in their life on the report card.

Is this right?

Yes. The kids all know this hack. You can focus on 3 classes o e quarter and two the next (or vice versa) and only worry about getting A’s in those classes. DD and her friends all ascribe to some version of this plan. I can’t really argue against it since the system was set up this way.

real world math!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, a student could earn half As and half Bs on every report card (3.5 or so on each report card), however, as long as they always go A + B on each class, they will have all As for semester grades. The student will then have a 4.0 on their college transcript. This is even though they have never earned a 4.0 in their life on the report card.

Is this right?

Yes. The kids all know this hack. You can focus on 3 classes o e quarter and two the next (or vice versa) and only worry about getting A’s in those classes. DD and her friends all ascribe to some version of this plan. I can’t really argue against it since the system was set up this way.

We do this every day in our work places, prioritizing one project over another - whether deciding what construction can happen with the current forecast or triaging in an Emergency Department. It's life-prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, a student could earn half As and half Bs on every report card (3.5 or so on each report card), however, as long as they always go A + B on each class, they will have all As for semester grades. The student will then have a 4.0 on their college transcript. This is even though they have never earned a 4.0 in their life on the report card.

Is this right?

Not right.

1. It's a High School transcript.
2. They have a 4.0 every semester, which is when GPAs are calculated.