I hate FCPS A minuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids' school does the same not in FCPS. When I was growing up (NYC burbs), 3.5 was A- (90-94), 4.0 was A (95-100). It is a lot harder to get a 95+ than a 90 and shows mastery. At my kids' HS, A- is 90-93 (and it's considered a 3.7, not a 3.5); they have made it even easier nowadays. According to the school profile, 14 kids have a 4.0. 142 have a 3.67-3.99. Obviously those 14 kids are real superstars- the grades properly reflect that.

Anyway, colleges do not look at GPAs equally across schools. Any school can make up any grade structure they want. But colleges will evaluate the grades within the context of the school and recalculate them.

Yes, they recalculate, but based on the grades given, not necessarily the percentage. So an A gets a 4.0, whether it or not it's the highest grade given. Colleges can (and sometimes do!) reward students from schools that give A+ by recalculating it as a 4.3 for that subject when they recalculate GPAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

Guess what? The college your kid attends is going to have + and - and your kid can end up with a 3.7 GPA. That is how grading works.

It sounds like your child has been getting A-s on enough of their work that they have earned an A-, it is a good grade. Your child can ask their teacher what they need to do to raise their grade so that they have an A, it probably is not that much of a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

90-93 used to be a B. You will live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

Yes, I know that. And at DCs school, that only mattered for final quarter/semester/year grades. Individual assignments were graded on a 4.0 scale and you could not get an A-, B+, B-, etc. So as an example, if you took a 100 question test, got 92 of them (so 92%) correct, some teachers would record that in SIS as a 3.0 which is the equivalent of a B. But arguing that is not the point of this thread. There is nothing wrong, IMO, with an A- and no corresponding A+. I've had two kids go through the college admissions process (one of them right now, so my information is as recent as it gets) and I promise you that college AOs are familiar with the grading systems of the areas they oversee. Your child will be compared first to other students from FCPS and will not suffer because FCPS has no A+ but some other school system does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous[b wrote:]Colleges have A- themselves.[/b]

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? The college your kid attends is going to have + and - and your kid can end up with a 3.7 GPA. That is how grading works.

It sounds like your child has been getting A-s on enough of their work that they have earned an A-, it is a good grade. Your child can ask their teacher what they need to do to raise their grade so that they have an A, it probably is not that much of a difference.

Maybe most colleges do....but not always. DC is at a college that does not. A quick search found that most probably do (UVA, VT, UNC, Mich, UTK, UT, etc) but there are more than a few who don't at all (like Auburn or VCU) and some, like my alma mater/NCSU even gives A+ (now! neither +/- in engineering when I was there way-back-when).

If there's one thing I've learned from DCUM is that....you can't presume everyone does it like you do, especially when it comes to schools and school policies.

As for the actual OP, I'm kinda with ya. If you're gonna use the so-called 10-point scale. 90-100 is an A. Otherwise, it some flavor of a different scale.

As for a PP who suggested just reporting the scores, that's a whole other discussion. DC's roommate is from just a HS and to hear the stories of just how cut-throat grading was...is outright sad. If you think pressure to get a 4.0/A is bad....try having to get as close to 100 as possible. DC has spent this year convincing the roomie to concentrate on the classes where they're borderline and that a '93' or '94' (average) is more than good enough. Just make sure the 90/1 doesn't drift down to 80-something. Time/effort management at its best!

[Anonymous]

I agree.

My school system growing up had
A 90-100
B 80-89
C 75-79
D 70-74
F 69 and below

I thought it was fair. My college had similar grading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

A 92% was a B+ when I graduated from my FCPS high school. Should they just go back to that to make you feel better? Or if you just tell yourself an A- means your kid is no longer a straight A student?

I mean this is like saying calling a grade below D an "E" so that it's not "F" for failure matters. You're arguing with the school system about semantics! A 92% isn't a 4.0. That's how it's been for a long, long time.

Correct!

When I was in FCPS HS:

94-100 = A
90-93 = B+
84-89= B
80-83 = C+
74-79 = C
70-73 = D+
64-69 = D
0-63 = F

There were no retakes, no late work allowed, and no 50% minimum required.

Honors classes got a 0.0 boost (AKA "no GPA boost") and AP classes got a 0.5 GPA boost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree.

My school system growing up had
A 90-100
B 80-89
C 75-79
D 70-74
F 69 and below

I thought it was fair. My college had similar grading.

The majority of my classes in college (Engineering School at UVA) were graded on a bell curve. At least all the "hard" ones required for your major were, not necessarily the electives or anything you took outside of e-school.
As for the point of this thread, college admissions do a similar thing when looking at GPA. They comparing students on a curve by looking at one FCPS student compared with all the others from their high school and FCPS. As long as everyone at FCPS is graded with the same rules then it's valid. Comparisons against other school systems aren't done side by side. They have to scale them by looking at the difference in the top GPAs between the two school systems and comparing accordingly, or comparing SAT scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

A 92% was a B+ when I graduated from my FCPS high school. Should they just go back to that to make you feel better? Or if you just tell yourself an A- means your kid is no longer a straight A student?

I mean this is like saying calling a grade below D an "E" so that it's not "F" for failure matters. You're arguing with the school system about semantics! A 92% isn't a 4.0. That's how it's been for a long, long time.

Correct!

When I was in FCPS HS:

94-100 = A
90-93 = B+
84-89= B
80-83 = C+
74-79 = C
70-73 = D+
64-69 = D
0-63 = F

There were no retakes, no late work allowed, and no 50% minimum required.

Honors classes got a 0.0 boost (AKA "no GPA boost") and AP classes got a 0.5 GPA boost.

I’ve thought that’s pretty standard. We also had 94–100, but I seem to remember 82 was a C.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

Weird your focus on this. Especially given your kid would not get A+. Your kid doesn’t have straight As if they have 3.7. They have straight A-

As poster above said, + and - than get 92 and that’s a B and counts 3.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous[b wrote:]Colleges have A- themselves.[/b]

Anonymous wrote:Guess what? The college your kid attends is going to have + and - and your kid can end up with a 3.7 GPA. That is how grading works.

It sounds like your child has been getting A-s on enough of their work that they have earned an A-, it is a good grade. Your child can ask their teacher what they need to do to raise their grade so that they have an A, it probably is not that much of a difference.

Maybe most colleges do....but not always. DC is at a college that does not. A quick search found that most probably do (UVA, VT, UNC, Mich, UTK, UT, etc) but there are more than a few who don't at all (like Auburn or VCU) and some, like my alma mater/NCSU even gives A+ (now! neither +/- in engineering when I was there way-back-when).

If there's one thing I've learned from DCUM is that....you can't presume everyone does it like you do, especially when it comes to schools and school policies.

As for the actual OP, I'm kinda with ya. If you're gonna use the so-called 10-point scale. 90-100 is an A. Otherwise, it some flavor of a different scale.

As for a PP who suggested just reporting the scores, that's a whole other discussion. DC's roommate is from just a HS and to hear the stories of just how cut-throat grading was...is outright sad. If you think pressure to get a 4.0/A is bad....try having to get as close to 100 as possible. DC has spent this year convincing the roomie to concentrate on the classes where they're borderline and that a '93' or '94' (average) is more than good enough. Just make sure the 90/1 doesn't drift down to 80-something. Time/effort management at its best!

This is just a kid personality thing. My middle schooler and her best friend are like this and it has nothing to do with the grading scale and everything to do with their own internalized expectations (my other kids are fine with a 94).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d consider it a bonus that the A- didn’t go into SIS as a B (3) which has been the case in some of DCs classes when they were using a 4.0 scale and teachers wouldn’t “round up”.

Kids have enough to worry about. Extra points for an A+ is unnecessary pressure.

OP here.

An A- in Fairfax County is 90-93%. And it is counted as 3.7 instead of a 4.0. So even if your kid gets legit As, they only get a 3.7 if they are at 92%.

It should be counted as a 4.0. I am not obsessing about the GPA- I don’t I think it’s unfair that a legitimate A (say 92%) gets punished, whileas all of the other grades get pluses.

Get rid of it completely. It’s unfair. Your kid has no idea that their GPA is not a 4.0 even though they are getting a solid 92% in all of their grades. That should be an A. The whole plus and minus thing is BS. Colleges don’t adjust because everywhere else there are A plusses. So we end up having kids with grade deflation.

Either give the option to get an A+ or get rid of the minuses and the pluses. Or use a % number instead.

And yes: you would be obsessed if your straight A student has a 3.7 GPA. It’s bs.

A 92% was a B+ when I graduated from my FCPS high school. Should they just go back to that to make you feel better? Or if you just tell yourself an A- means your kid is no longer a straight A student?

I mean this is like saying calling a grade below D an "E" so that it's not "F" for failure matters. You're arguing with the school system about semantics! A 92% isn't a 4.0. That's how it's been for a long, long time.

Correct!

When I was in FCPS HS:

94-100 = A
90-93 = B+
84-89= B
80-83 = C+
74-79 = C
70-73 = D+
64-69 = D
0-63 = F

There were no retakes, no late work allowed, and no 50% minimum required.

Honors classes got a 0.0 boost (AKA "no GPA boost") and AP classes got a 0.5 GPA boost.

PP you quoted here. The last sentence was just TJ, right? Or did TJ just hang onto that scale longer than every other FCPS school?

[Anonymous]

I assume the have B+s? It evens out. In MCPS there are only straight grades. So if your kid gets all As and one B and the B is an 89.3, it's not great either. But some of the As are 91s, 92s, so it evens out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree.

My school system growing up had
A 90-100
B 80-89
C 75-79
D 70-74
F 69 and below

I thought it was fair. My college had similar grading.

As a teacher, I would hate this. The number of kids with 88/89 BEGGING me to round up and fighting me over missed points would multiply tenfold if it was the difference between a 3.0 and a 4.0. Right now it's the difference between a 3.4 and a 3.7 so it's not as horrific.

[Anonymous]

Last year I remember my DD got a 92.30 A-
we asked the teacher to round up she said NO.
Student had time to rise their grade doing the school year....