Is St. Albans Grading Fair? I Heard NCS Isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that NCS grading is brutal. Is St. Albans grading fair for the boys? Are there teachers at STA that refuse to give A's or only give one A for the entire English/history department?

My STA kids all got As in their NCS English classes. Not sure what the fuss is about.

If you look online at the long list of English courses offered at NCS, I think you could admit that perhaps your son did not take the class/es that are being referenced by those above?

Your son must be in in 11 or 12 grade because that's when taking English classes at the other school becomes allowed. Grading by that point gets less brutal (or perhaps students become better writers). But in 9-10th grades, no matter how hard you try, hardly anyone will get above 90 for anything. For science / math, only very few select have As.

Grading is brutal. And yes, some colleges know the low grading scale but many don't, and with the test optional trend the grading is hurting college admissions. And often you need to show GPA not only for college admissions but for other competitive applications. I have one graduate and one current Upper School student, so speaking from experience.

How does NCS deal with this parent?! Soooo difficult.

I have news for you - STA students also had difficult grading in 9th and 10th grade! Guess how I know? Because my straight A student couldn’t get better than a C or B in English in ninth grade at STA. It was brutal and ruined his GPA! This is how life goes!

At a certain point, parents have to ask whether it is worth it. I'd much rather have my DS attend Gonzaga and graduate with a 4.4 GPA than attend STA and graduate with a 3.4 because of massive deflation.

Colleges don't give prep school kids a break on GPA anymore, and they don't care that your fancy school deflates grades. Schools tout their matriculation, but fail to disclose that the majority of the Top 20 admits are legacies, athletes, URMs, or Questbridge applicants. In a test-optional world, the deflation the Cathedral Schools do only hurts the kids.

Cathedral school and Sidwell kids did quite well last year in college admissions.

.

Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well.

Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point?

Walls is free?

True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education.

The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination?

Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them.

Both NCS and STA put numerical grades on report cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Albans has better college admissions than NCS

Yes. And the boys have access to the teachers and the fields. This is a school dedicated to women getting the dregs. I walked out of the open house it was so disturbing.

You probably would not have gotten it anyway so no reason to get your hopes up.

Lol! There was no doubt my child could get in. But I would never send her to a school that makes it clear that men deserve more than women. It was a non-starter.

Who does what? You clearly have no clue about NCS air STA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that NCS grading is brutal. Is St. Albans grading fair for the boys? Are there teachers at STA that refuse to give A's or only give one A for the entire English/history department?

My STA kids all got As in their NCS English classes. Not sure what the fuss is about.

If you look online at the long list of English courses offered at NCS, I think you could admit that perhaps your son did not take the class/es that are being referenced by those above?

Your son must be in in 11 or 12 grade because that's when taking English classes at the other school becomes allowed. Grading by that point gets less brutal (or perhaps students become better writers). But in 9-10th grades, no matter how hard you try, hardly anyone will get above 90 for anything. For science / math, only very few select have As.

Grading is brutal. And yes, some colleges know the low grading scale but many don't, and with the test optional trend the grading is hurting college admissions. And often you need to show GPA not only for college admissions but for other competitive applications. I have one graduate and one current Upper School student, so speaking from experience.

How does NCS deal with this parent?! Soooo difficult.

I have news for you - STA students also had difficult grading in 9th and 10th grade! Guess how I know? Because my straight A student couldn’t get better than a C or B in English in ninth grade at STA. It was brutal and ruined his GPA! This is how life goes!

At a certain point, parents have to ask whether it is worth it. I'd much rather have my DS attend Gonzaga and graduate with a 4.4 GPA than attend STA and graduate with a 3.4 because of massive deflation.

Colleges don't give prep school kids a break on GPA anymore, and they don't care that your fancy school deflates grades. Schools tout their matriculation, but fail to disclose that the majority of the Top 20 admits are legacies, athletes, URMs, or Questbridge applicants. In a test-optional world, the deflation the Cathedral Schools do only hurts the kids.

Cathedral school and Sidwell kids did quite well last year in college admissions.

.

Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well.

Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point?

Walls is free?

True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education.

The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination?

Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them.

Both NCS and STA put numerical grades on report cards.

Transcripts for both schools only include letter grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that NCS grading is brutal. Is St. Albans grading fair for the boys? Are there teachers at STA that refuse to give A's or only give one A for the entire English/history department?

My STA kids all got As in their NCS English classes. Not sure what the fuss is about.

If you look online at the long list of English courses offered at NCS, I think you could admit that perhaps your son did not take the class/es that are being referenced by those above?

Your son must be in in 11 or 12 grade because that's when taking English classes at the other school becomes allowed. Grading by that point gets less brutal (or perhaps students become better writers). But in 9-10th grades, no matter how hard you try, hardly anyone will get above 90 for anything. For science / math, only very few select have As.

Grading is brutal. And yes, some colleges know the low grading scale but many don't, and with the test optional trend the grading is hurting college admissions. And often you need to show GPA not only for college admissions but for other competitive applications. I have one graduate and one current Upper School student, so speaking from experience.

How does NCS deal with this parent?! Soooo difficult.

I have news for you - STA students also had difficult grading in 9th and 10th grade! Guess how I know? Because my straight A student couldn’t get better than a C or B in English in ninth grade at STA. It was brutal and ruined his GPA! This is how life goes!

At a certain point, parents have to ask whether it is worth it. I'd much rather have my DS attend Gonzaga and graduate with a 4.4 GPA than attend STA and graduate with a 3.4 because of massive deflation.

Colleges don't give prep school kids a break on GPA anymore, and they don't care that your fancy school deflates grades. Schools tout their matriculation, but fail to disclose that the majority of the Top 20 admits are legacies, athletes, URMs, or Questbridge applicants. In a test-optional world, the deflation the Cathedral Schools do only hurts the kids.

Cathedral school and Sidwell kids did quite well last year in college admissions.

.

Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well.

Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point?

Walls is free?

True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education.

The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination?

Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them.

Both NCS and STA put numerical grades on report cards.

Transcripts for both schools only include letter grades.

I know that NCS only puts down letter grades.
Does STA put the cumulative GPA on the transcript?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that NCS grading is brutal. Is St. Albans grading fair for the boys? Are there teachers at STA that refuse to give A's or only give one A for the entire English/history department?

My STA kids all got As in their NCS English classes. Not sure what the fuss is about.

If you look online at the long list of English courses offered at NCS, I think you could admit that perhaps your son did not take the class/es that are being referenced by those above?

Your son must be in in 11 or 12 grade because that's when taking English classes at the other school becomes allowed. Grading by that point gets less brutal (or perhaps students become better writers). But in 9-10th grades, no matter how hard you try, hardly anyone will get above 90 for anything. For science / math, only very few select have As.

Grading is brutal. And yes, some colleges know the low grading scale but many don't, and with the test optional trend the grading is hurting college admissions. And often you need to show GPA not only for college admissions but for other competitive applications. I have one graduate and one current Upper School student, so speaking from experience.

How does NCS deal with this parent?! Soooo difficult.

I have news for you - STA students also had difficult grading in 9th and 10th grade! Guess how I know? Because my straight A student couldn’t get better than a C or B in English in ninth grade at STA. It was brutal and ruined his GPA! This is how life goes!

At a certain point, parents have to ask whether it is worth it. I'd much rather have my DS attend Gonzaga and graduate with a 4.4 GPA than attend STA and graduate with a 3.4 because of massive deflation.

Colleges don't give prep school kids a break on GPA anymore, and they don't care that your fancy school deflates grades. Schools tout their matriculation, but fail to disclose that the majority of the Top 20 admits are legacies, athletes, URMs, or Questbridge applicants. In a test-optional world, the deflation the Cathedral Schools do only hurts the kids.

Cathedral school and Sidwell kids did quite well last year in college admissions.

.

Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well.

Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point?

Walls is free?

True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education.

The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination?

Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them.

Both NCS and STA put numerical grades on report cards.

Transcripts for both schools only include letter grades.

I know that NCS only puts down letter grades.
Does STA put the cumulative GPA on the transcript?

NCS used to enter only letter grades, but that changed a handful of years ago. Now a numerical grade appears on the report card.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

There you go again. Showing your idiocy. STA parents have a front row seat to what goes on at NCS. Siblings. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard that NCS grading is brutal. Is St. Albans grading fair for the boys? Are there teachers at STA that refuse to give A's or only give one A for the entire English/history department?

My STA kids all got As in their NCS English classes. Not sure what the fuss is about.

If you look online at the long list of English courses offered at NCS, I think you could admit that perhaps your son did not take the class/es that are being referenced by those above?

Your son must be in in 11 or 12 grade because that's when taking English classes at the other school becomes allowed. Grading by that point gets less brutal (or perhaps students become better writers). But in 9-10th grades, no matter how hard you try, hardly anyone will get above 90 for anything. For science / math, only very few select have As.

Grading is brutal. And yes, some colleges know the low grading scale but many don't, and with the test optional trend the grading is hurting college admissions. And often you need to show GPA not only for college admissions but for other competitive applications. I have one graduate and one current Upper School student, so speaking from experience.

How does NCS deal with this parent?! Soooo difficult.

I have news for you - STA students also had difficult grading in 9th and 10th grade! Guess how I know? Because my straight A student couldn’t get better than a C or B in English in ninth grade at STA. It was brutal and ruined his GPA! This is how life goes!

At a certain point, parents have to ask whether it is worth it. I'd much rather have my DS attend Gonzaga and graduate with a 4.4 GPA than attend STA and graduate with a 3.4 because of massive deflation.

Colleges don't give prep school kids a break on GPA anymore, and they don't care that your fancy school deflates grades. Schools tout their matriculation, but fail to disclose that the majority of the Top 20 admits are legacies, athletes, URMs, or Questbridge applicants. In a test-optional world, the deflation the Cathedral Schools do only hurts the kids.

Cathedral school and Sidwell kids did quite well last year in college admissions.

.

Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well.

Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point?

Walls is free?

True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education.

The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination?

Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them.

Both NCS and STA put numerical grades on report cards.

Transcripts for both schools only include letter grades.

I know that NCS only puts down letter grades.
Does STA put the cumulative GPA on the transcript?

NCS used to enter only letter grades, but that changed a handful of years ago. Now a numerical grade appears on the report card.

Number grades on report cards. Transcript only shows letter grade and GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

There you go again. Showing your idiocy. STA parents have a front row seat to what goes on at NCS. Siblings. Duh.

NP but confused. Up until your last couple “gotcha, you idiot” posts, all your posts (or ones you seemed to be responding to *as if* you wrote them) say “my daughter”. (“my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90” and “my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one”). So either you are the poster with the daughter whose teacher supposedly caps at 90 or you are a parent who doesn’t have a child at NCS (but does have a “sibling” of…some other girl?…at STA?) but who claims to know exactly what teacher is being discussed and can assure us that said teacher does in fact cap at 90 on a whim. Which is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

There you go again. Showing your idiocy. STA parents have a front row seat to what goes on at NCS. Siblings. Duh.

NP but confused. Up until your last couple “gotcha, you idiot” posts, all your posts (or ones you seemed to be responding to *as if* you wrote them) say “my daughter”. (“my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90” and “my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one”). So either you are the poster with the daughter whose teacher supposedly caps at 90 or you are a parent who doesn’t have a child at NCS (but does have a “sibling” of…some other girl?…at STA?) but who claims to know exactly what teacher is being discussed and can assure us that said teacher does in fact cap at 90 on a whim. Which is it?

I’m the 90 cap on the assignment poster and I’m not the person you’re addressing here. This is my fifth post on this thread. You all must realize there are more than two or three people posting here. My daughter definitely goes to NCS, can’t speak to the other poster’s children!

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

There you go again. Showing your idiocy. STA parents have a front row seat to what goes on at NCS. Siblings. Duh.

NP but confused. Up until your last couple “gotcha, you idiot” posts, all your posts (or ones you seemed to be responding to *as if* you wrote them) say “my daughter”. (“my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90” and “my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one”). So either you are the poster with the daughter whose teacher supposedly caps at 90 or you are a parent who doesn’t have a child at NCS (but does have a “sibling” of…some other girl?…at STA?) but who claims to know exactly what teacher is being discussed and can assure us that said teacher does in fact cap at 90 on a whim. Which is it?

Just ignore this troll. They can’t keep track of their lies and are making no sense!

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Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

There you go again. Showing your idiocy. STA parents have a front row seat to what goes on at NCS. Siblings. Duh.

NP but confused. Up until your last couple “gotcha, you idiot” posts, all your posts (or ones you seemed to be responding to *as if* you wrote them) say “my daughter”. (“my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90” and “my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one”). So either you are the poster with the daughter whose teacher supposedly caps at 90 or you are a parent who doesn’t have a child at NCS (but does have a “sibling” of…some other girl?…at STA?) but who claims to know exactly what teacher is being discussed and can assure us that said teacher does in fact cap at 90 on a whim. Which is it?

Just ignore this troll. They can’t keep track of their lies and are making no sense!

To clarify I meant the troll is the poster you are responding to - the non-parent parent that doesn’t have a daughter but a sibling rather but still refers to themself as a parent? Maybe the parent had a sibling at NCS?

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Anonymous wrote:The grading at NCS US can be very tough, my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90. You could not get a higher grade, period. Also grading is very teacher dependent and some teachers definitely have reputations for being very harsh graders.
Both schools are hard. If you have kids at both, seems like STA comes out ahead in terms of admin and day to day operations.

My daughter is at NCS and I have never heard of this happening. What class and grade? I have a hard time believing this.

in such a small school, i’m not going to out myself or my daughter. i’m not lying and we will be discussing with school. my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one. maybe there is a further explanation but on its face it’s crazy.

What do you mean "capped at a 90?" You mean that the highest grade in the class was a 90 on this assignment? If so, that is totally reasonable. I'm a college professor, and especially in a small class you will find on occasion that nobody in the class does a good job on an assignment. That doesn't mean I should hand out an A "just because."

When you say "capped at a 90" people think you are trying to say that the teacher won't give out an A, no matter how good your work is. I highly doubt this is true.

You have no knowledge on which to make your judgment, which makes you a pompous windbag. Yes, the grade is capped at a 90 because the teacher will not give out grades above that… just because.

And you sound delusional. No teacher does this. I'm sorry your snowflake didn't get an A just because you believe she should have.

Your statement that no teacher does this proves my point that you’re an idiot. You’d have to be pretty asinine to make a statement about a school which you very obviously know nothing about. As for my snowflake, I don’t have one at NCS so there goes your stupid theory.

Wait you don’t even have a daughter at NCS and you have been commenting this entire thread on the grading and whatnot?! Point proven!

There you go again. Showing your idiocy. STA parents have a front row seat to what goes on at NCS. Siblings. Duh.

NP but confused. Up until your last couple “gotcha, you idiot” posts, all your posts (or ones you seemed to be responding to *as if* you wrote them) say “my daughter”. (“my daughter just had a writing assignment where the grade was capped at 90” and “my daughter was not the only student who was told this and so i tend to believe multiple girls on this one”). So either you are the poster with the daughter whose teacher supposedly caps at 90 or you are a parent who doesn’t have a child at NCS (but does have a “sibling” of…some other girl?…at STA?) but who claims to know exactly what teacher is being discussed and can assure us that said teacher does in fact cap at 90 on a whim. Which is it?

I’m the 90 cap on the assignment poster and I’m not the person you’re addressing here. This is my fifth post on this thread. You all must realize there are more than two or three people posting here. My daughter definitely goes to NCS, can’t speak to the other poster’s children!

Yeah it took me a while but there is the parent above who is not the troll, but there is also a troll with no child at NCS who responds to posts calling people idiots and pompous windbags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NCS sells itself as the second rate school for girls. You failed to have a boy, so your child can go to the other school that gets second dibs on everything. I don’t get how any parent would choose that for their child. Teach your child they aren’t second class for being female. That certainly won’t happen at NCS.

I don't even know where to start with this post. NCS "sells itself as a second are school for girls"? I'm curious. Where does your daughter attend school? I doubt you will reply because you are a troll.

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Anonymous wrote:I heard that NCS grading is brutal. Is St. Albans grading fair for the boys? Are there teachers at STA that refuse to give A's or only give one A for the entire English/history department?

My STA kids all got As in their NCS English classes. Not sure what the fuss is about.

If you look online at the long list of English courses offered at NCS, I think you could admit that perhaps your son did not take the class/es that are being referenced by those above?

Your son must be in in 11 or 12 grade because that's when taking English classes at the other school becomes allowed. Grading by that point gets less brutal (or perhaps students become better writers). But in 9-10th grades, no matter how hard you try, hardly anyone will get above 90 for anything. For science / math, only very few select have As.

Grading is brutal. And yes, some colleges know the low grading scale but many don't, and with the test optional trend the grading is hurting college admissions. And often you need to show GPA not only for college admissions but for other competitive applications. I have one graduate and one current Upper School student, so speaking from experience.

How does NCS deal with this parent?! Soooo difficult.

I have news for you - STA students also had difficult grading in 9th and 10th grade! Guess how I know? Because my straight A student couldn’t get better than a C or B in English in ninth grade at STA. It was brutal and ruined his GPA! This is how life goes!

At a certain point, parents have to ask whether it is worth it. I'd much rather have my DS attend Gonzaga and graduate with a 4.4 GPA than attend STA and graduate with a 3.4 because of massive deflation.

Colleges don't give prep school kids a break on GPA anymore, and they don't care that your fancy school deflates grades. Schools tout their matriculation, but fail to disclose that the majority of the Top 20 admits are legacies, athletes, URMs, or Questbridge applicants. In a test-optional world, the deflation the Cathedral Schools do only hurts the kids.

Cathedral school and Sidwell kids did quite well last year in college admissions.

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Mostly the top who are also legacies or athletic recruits. Those who weren’t didn’t do as well.

Most of the c/o 2023 grads at Walls who are attending Ivy+ colleges are legacies and URM (sometimes both). What is your point?

Walls is free?

True, and Walls’ facilities (or lack thereof) and limited resources make it very clear that students are receiving a free education.

The point is that many/most students, coming from public or private schools, aren’t getting into Ivy+ colleges without great grades, test scores AND a hook. So if your child is a talented Ivy legacy with great stats, their high school makes less of a difference than it used to (but elite privates still have an edge). It’s just a matter of how they’ll spend their 4 years of high school before arriving at their Ivy. Will it be economy class on Spirit Airlines (free, but relatively under resourced public schools), or first class on Emirates (elite private schools). If you can afford it, why not have your child travel comfortably and safely to their destination?

Have had kids at both schools. They BOTH had amazing teachers and chose the right HS that set them up to succeed in college. NCS does have intentionally tough grading b/c they have to - no weighted grades for AP so they need a way to differentiate between the students. My understanding is STA doesn’t do +/- grades. So it’s a bit disheartening to take a class and get an A- on the transcript if you are a girl and an A if you are a boy. IMHO NCS should adopt the same grading system as STA. FWIW my NCS DD knew which english teachers were the hardest graders and still took their courses. She was very happy she did even though it meant risking getting an A- instead of an A. Walls DC did the same. The tough grading teachers are usually the best. Both DCs became better writers b/c they had really great english teachers who set a very high bar for them.

Both NCS and STA put numerical grades on report cards.

Transcripts for both schools only include letter grades.

I know that NCS only puts down letter grades.
Does STA put the cumulative GPA on the transcript?

NCS used to enter only letter grades, but that changed a handful of years ago. Now a numerical grade appears on the report card.

Number grades on report cards. Transcript only shows letter grade and GPA.

That’s good. Wish Sidwell did the same instead of showing minus grades on transcripts.