Anonymous wrote:Some kids in our public school system are choosing to take PE and Health over the summer so they can pack the school year with more weighted classes. I believe the administration has started to limit who can take these classes over the summer because there aren't enough slots and it's an excessively competitive move.

Where can they take PE, I thought not offered in summer. Anyway, my kid did take three required courses over the summer—to ensure enough open electives to take orchestra all four years. Trust me, they would have preferred not to otherwise!

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Anonymous wrote:I am new to this (kid is headed to MS next year so we haven't had to deal with this yet). Do schools give kids both the weighted and unweighted GPA? Do they report both to colleges?

Yes, both appear on the transcript. The transcript is also sent with a class profile, like the one posted for BCC. How colleges choose to use/not use the calculated GPA is of course a different issue, many just recalculate to there own specifications.

I'm hoping that colleges can see that my kid is in the top 10% in his school, even if his high school doesn't officially rank.

It doesn’t really matter, since they’ll compare him to any classmates who also apply.

This is true. Unfortunately most MCPS HS submit a school profile with GPA bands that do a disservice to top students. For example, at Blair/Poolseville/RM it is not uncommon for the top bands to have 50% of kids in them.

AOs aren’t dumb. They assess straight As in the context of rigor, and can see how the weighted grades compare (since specified in the common app).

They aren't?! Shocking

Anonymous wrote:Some kids in our public school system are choosing to take PE and Health over the summer so they can pack the school year with more weighted classes. I believe the administration has started to limit who can take these classes over the summer because there aren't enough slots and it's an excessively competitive move.

Health is a weighted class. Honors Health!!!

Some kids in our public school system are choosing to take PE and Health over the summer so they can pack the school year with more weighted classes. I believe the administration has started to limit who can take these classes over the summer because there aren't enough slots and it's an excessively competitive move.

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Anonymous wrote:I am new to this (kid is headed to MS next year so we haven't had to deal with this yet). Do schools give kids both the weighted and unweighted GPA? Do they report both to colleges?

Yes, both appear on the transcript. The transcript is also sent with a class profile, like the one posted for BCC. How colleges choose to use/not use the calculated GPA is of course a different issue, many just recalculate to there own specifications.

I'm hoping that colleges can see that my kid is in the top 10% in his school, even if his high school doesn't officially rank.

It doesn’t really matter, since they’ll compare him to any classmates who also apply.

This is true. Unfortunately most MCPS HS submit a school profile with GPA bands that do a disservice to top students. For example, at Blair/Poolseville/RM it is not uncommon for the top bands to have 50% of kids in them.

AOs aren’t dumb. They assess straight As in the context of rigor, and can see how the weighted grades compare (since specified in the common app).

+1

This discuss really shows why exact GPA/WGPA doesn’t really matter. It’s all about the actual courses taken and the program being applied to.

Anonymous wrote:Current theoretical max: 4.85 - 3 years math and FL in middle school, 7 classes in high school. Algebra, FL1, FL2, Art, PE only non-honors. 34 credits total.

You can squeak that up to 4.94 if you don't put middle school Algebra, FL1, FL2 on HS transcript.

Some MS offer other high school credit courses. Some kids take classes in summer school. At the SMCS magnets, some semester courses are 1 credit and kids can take an 8th period. Dual enrollment classes are 1 credit each. I think max credits is 40.

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Anonymous wrote:I am new to this (kid is headed to MS next year so we haven't had to deal with this yet). Do schools give kids both the weighted and unweighted GPA? Do they report both to colleges?

Yes, both appear on the transcript. The transcript is also sent with a class profile, like the one posted for BCC. How colleges choose to use/not use the calculated GPA is of course a different issue, many just recalculate to there own specifications.

I'm hoping that colleges can see that my kid is in the top 10% in his school, even if his high school doesn't officially rank.

It doesn’t really matter, since they’ll compare him to any classmates who also apply.

This is true. Unfortunately most MCPS HS submit a school profile with GPA bands that do a disservice to top students. For example, at Blair/Poolseville/RM it is not uncommon for the top bands to have 50% of kids in them.

AOs aren’t dumb. They assess straight As in the context of rigor, and can see how the weighted grades compare (since specified in the common app).

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Anonymous wrote:This question is to parents of High school seniors in Montgomery county, MD.

Do you know what is the highest weighted GPA attained by students in your high school ?

I would also be curious on how many students with unweighted 4.0 GPAs any particular school has.

Why? If it takes a 79.5 and an 89.5, and no final exam to get an A, it should be a lot of kids. Not to mentioned test retakes, curved grades, and extra credit for participation to get to that 79.5 and 89.5.

No curved grades, no participation credit, no extra credit

Grading on a curve typically means the median is a C.

Grading on a curve typically means giving a test that is hard enough that everyone's grade goes up once the curve is applied. The PP is right MCPS does not allow curved grades or extra credit. The flip side, is if a test is defective, e.g. turns out to test a concept that was never presented, there's no way to correct for that during grading--the median may well be lower than a C. So actually, when curved grading is forbidden, tests need to be written to be easier.

When I was in engineering school several decades ago, most exams were graded on a curve such that the mean was a C and higher or lower grades were based on the SD.

Nifty. MCPS does not grade on a curve.

My daughter's AP Physics teacher curved every single test.

And doesn't the 79.5 and 89.5 = A. Wouldn't that be a curve? Because really that equals 84.5 which is not even a B+

MCPS does not allow grading on a curve where the scores are forced into a distribution based on the performance of the students themselves. Translating scores using a rubric or set formula that applies to all scores and doesn’t set an arbitrary amount of As, Bs etc is allowed.

AP and IB teachers may use a process that mimics how actual AP & IB tests are scored to translate an AP 4/5 or IB 6/7 to an A, AP 3 = B, etc. For some AP courses if the teacher gives a fully AP style test, a common equivalence is 10*sqrt(% points earned). This may be the “curve” your teacher used, but it’s really a scaling, not a force fit curve to actual scores.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to this (kid is headed to MS next year so we haven't had to deal with this yet). Do schools give kids both the weighted and unweighted GPA? Do they report both to colleges?

Yes, both appear on the transcript. The transcript is also sent with a class profile, like the one posted for BCC. How colleges choose to use/not use the calculated GPA is of course a different issue, many just recalculate to there own specifications.

I'm hoping that colleges can see that my kid is in the top 10% in his school, even if his high school doesn't officially rank.

It doesn’t really matter, since they’ll compare him to any classmates who also apply.

This is true. Unfortunately most MCPS HS submit a school profile with GPA bands that do a disservice to top students. For example, at Blair/Poolseville/RM it is not uncommon for the top bands to have 50% of kids in them.

Anonymous wrote:My DS was top 10% at a W with a 4.68 (really difficult APs). But that was before the grading changes where you only needed one A paper quarter to get a semester A. Maybe it hasn’t changed all that much.

Definitely has. My rising senior has 6 Bs but yet a WGPA of 4.75.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to this (kid is headed to MS next year so we haven't had to deal with this yet). Do schools give kids both the weighted and unweighted GPA? Do they report both to colleges?

Yes, both appear on the transcript. The transcript is also sent with a class profile, like the one posted for BCC. How colleges choose to use/not use the calculated GPA is of course a different issue, many just recalculate to there own specifications.

I'm hoping that colleges can see that my kid is in the top 10% in his school, even if his high school doesn't officially rank.

It doesn’t really matter, since they’ll compare him to any classmates who also apply.

Anonymous wrote:This question is to parents of High school seniors in Montgomery county, MD.

Do you know what is the highest weighted GPA attained by students in your high school ?

You can tell from Naviance. Go to the HYP acceptance history and look there at weighted gpas.

My kid seemed to hit the ceiling with a 4.96 weighted (since a few required classes, including PE, aren’t weighted).

My DS was top 10% at a W with a 4.68 (really difficult APs). But that was before the grading changes where you only needed one A paper quarter to get a semester A. Maybe it hasn’t changed all that much.

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Anonymous wrote:This question is to parents of High school seniors in Montgomery county, MD.

Do you know what is the highest weighted GPA attained by students in your high school ?

I would also be curious on how many students with unweighted 4.0 GPAs any particular school has.

Why? If it takes a 79.5 and an 89.5, and no final exam to get an A, it should be a lot of kids. Not to mentioned test retakes, curved grades, and extra credit for participation to get to that 79.5 and 89.5.

No curved grades, no participation credit, no extra credit

Grading on a curve typically means the median is a C.

Grading on a curve typically means giving a test that is hard enough that everyone's grade goes up once the curve is applied. The PP is right MCPS does not allow curved grades or extra credit. The flip side, is if a test is defective, e.g. turns out to test a concept that was never presented, there's no way to correct for that during grading--the median may well be lower than a C. So actually, when curved grading is forbidden, tests need to be written to be easier.

When I was in engineering school several decades ago, most exams were graded on a curve such that the mean was a C and higher or lower grades were based on the SD.

Nifty. MCPS does not grade on a curve.

My daughter's AP Physics teacher curved every single test.

And doesn't the 79.5 and 89.5 = A. Wouldn't that be a curve? Because really that equals 84.5 which is not even a B+

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am new to this (kid is headed to MS next year so we haven't had to deal with this yet). Do schools give kids both the weighted and unweighted GPA? Do they report both to colleges?

Yes, both appear on the transcript. The transcript is also sent with a class profile, like the one posted for BCC. How colleges choose to use/not use the calculated GPA is of course a different issue, many just recalculate to there own specifications.

I'm hoping that colleges can see that my kid is in the top 10% in his school, even if his high school doesn't officially rank.

They'll know everything about how he compares to other students who apply from that high school to their college, which is what's more important to all involved. If nine better students apply, your DC is still the bottom even if he's rightfully in the top 10%.