AP class grade A+

[moki4]

Dd just finished her first AP class (PA Homeschoolers) and received an A+

 

How do I scale this? Would I give her 4.0 or 5.0 or 5.5?

 

Thanks in advance!:001_smile:

[regentrude]

I give a 4.0 for an A. Any class- home, AP, dual enrollment. I make it clear on the transcript that I only report an unweighted GPA.

The colleges can weight themselves if they choose to. From what I heard, they usually unweight anyway.

[moki4]

Thanks Regentrude;

I appreciate your thoughts. I am finishing up Dd's transcript and was taken aback with the grade. I wasn't aware that an AP class could even earn an A+. I new she had over 100%, but still was surprised. Apparently pahomeschoolers will send a transcript. So if your Dd earn an A+ in physics (an example!) would you still put an "A" on your homeschool generated transcript? I understand each option, but I am tempted to put "A+" since she worked so hard for the grade!

:)

[creekland]

Since it's an outside course, I'd let the A+ stand on your transcript, but like Regentrude, we didn't weigh our GPA (since most colleges unweigh them). Therefore, an A+ is still a 4.0 for us.

 

If you want to be like my school, an A+ is a 4.3. They do weigh Level 3 classes (supposedly more difficult) higher, but I never paid attention to exactly how they do it as it doesn't really matter to me.

 

A+ = 4.3

A = 4.0

A- = 3.7

B+ = 3.3 (and so on)

 

Then they adjust for the more difficult classes.

[snowbeltmom]

My two oldest have been taking some classes with outside providers. With the exception of our public school, all have had a grading scale of >97 = A+.

 

I would list the A+ on the transcript. I am not assigning grades to "homestudied" classes. As a result, I am not calculating an overall gpa. If I were calculating gpa, I would award 4 points for the A+.

 

Congratulations to your dd on her outstanding work!

[8filltheheart]

Dd just finished her first AP class (PA Homeschoolers) and received an A+

 

How do I scale this? Would I give her 4.0 or 5.0 or 5.5?

 

Thanks in advance!:001_smile:

 

My ds was in that class and also had over 100 as his final grade. I have already had to submit his transcript for a Young Scholars program at a university that he has applied to for math and science next yr.

 

I do not weigh grades, nor do I use use a +/- system. On his transcript it was a simple A. I think the score he earns on the AP as a homeschooled student is going to be what really matters in the long-term.

[MyThreeSons]

Here in SC, if her final percentage was 100, she would receive 5.875!

 

A 93 is the bottom of the A grades; in a CP class, that's worth 4.0, in an Honors class, it's worth 4.5, and in an AP/IB class, it's worth 5.0. Each additional 1 percent increases the grade points by .125. Here's a link to the chart:

 

http://cchsstaff.colleton.k12.sc.us/GPAConversionChart.htm

 

On my sons' transcripts, I do unweighted grades.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Are exam scores in yet?

 

I would hesitate to put an a+ on the transcript if it were a mismatch with the score.

Not a question of if she did the work required for the course but that an A+ and a low score might call other grades into question.

[Gwen in VA]

I had one kid who had all A's and A+'s from outside classes. I took the easy way and just listed everything as an A on our transcript (while sending in some of the outside transcripts, like from PAH), and the kid had a 4.0 GPA. Easy.

 

But I had one kid who had a few A-'s in the mix of grades. I'm not comfortable listing an outside class grade of A- as an A on our homeschool transcript. It's one thing to round an A+ down to an A, but it's something else to round an A- up to an A. So for that kid we listed all the +'s and -'s, counting A+ as 4.3 and A- as 3.7.

 

Some classes, like PAH's AP Chem, give a letter grade as well as a number one. That's always helpful -- I don't like deciding if a 98 is an A or an A+.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Gwen in VA

[moki4]

The instructor has forwarded final grades, and it is an A+. I think I will finish her transcript and put that letter grade down so there isn't any discrepancy between our transcript and the PAhomeschooler transcript. I'll give a few colleges a call tomorrow morning and inquire about weighted versus unweighted transcript. I'll report back to the hive if anyone else is interested!

Thanks again for ALL the responses (lots of variety!!)

[Candid]

Are exam scores in yet?

 

I would hesitate to put an a+ on the transcript if it were a mismatch with the score.

Not a question of if she did the work required for the course but that an A+ and a low score might call other grades into question.

 

This is a good point. If your child scores a 3 on the AP exam and gets an A+ in the class, then a college might get skeptical about classes taken from the same source.

[moki4]

I've learned a little since the last post...

Colleges are different, and they will manipulate your DC's GPA. Some will unweight, and some will unweight AND use core classes only.

They do like weighted grades, as it is a quick snap-shot of the applicant. What I have learned is whatever you do, be consistent.

I will weight the grade, and give her a 5.0 (nothing more for the (+)) but I will give her an A+ as that was her earned grade and this will appear on the transcript from PAHomeschoolers. I will be consistent!

Thanks for all the replies!

PS: Stanford isn't interested in the AP score! At least that is what they say. :confused:

[TranquilMind]

My two oldest have been taking some classes with outside providers. With the exception of our public school, all have had a grading scale of >97 = A+.

 

I would list the A+ on the transcript. I am not assigning grades to "homestudied" classes. As a result, I am not calculating an overall gpa. If I were calculating gpa, I would award 4 points for the A+.

 

Congratulations to your dd on her outstanding work!

Wow, that's awesome. You had to get a 99 or 100 to get an A+ at my daughter's school and my son's co-op doesn't even give them.

 

My daughter got an A+ in AP World History. She likes history.

[creekland]

PS: Stanford isn't interested in the AP score! At least that is what they say. :confused:

 

AP scores are self-reported until the final report is sent to the school your student will be attending. Some schools realize this and realize students might not be self-reporting accurately with every single score. It's sometimes better to "not care" than to go back and have to check every single score with everyone who was accepted. ;)

 

While this can (and probably does) happen, I, personally, would never want to report a score higher (or lower) than actually achieved.

 

That said, for homeschoolers, scores tend to be looked at a LOT more closely than with other students - mainly because they don't have much to go on otherwise. This is not just for homeschoolers, but also for students from high schools that don't often send applicants. If one is on the borderline of acceptance, scores can also tip the balance.

 

Generally though, students who do well do well on pretty much every test they take, so once they've passed that admissions hurdle with a couple of tests the decisions are based upon other things. One more score isn't going to mean diddly.

[moki4]

Oh yes, I agree. Just like when I read "SAT subject tests are no longer required"...I can read between the lines!

Thanks again!

Dd is aiming for a "5" and most likely she will get it:) It will certainly be on her transcript.

[creekland]

Oh yes, I agree. Just like when I read "SAT subject tests are no longer required"...I can read between the lines!

Thanks again!

Dd is aiming for a "5" and most likely she will get it:) It will certainly be on her transcript.

 

With SAT 2 tests... many schools are moving away from them. That's not just a saying... When I asked about it admissions told me that bit about top kids testing well and not needing more scores to prove it. Schools who are moving away from SAT 2 tests prefer to look at other things (and use other test scores to clear that admissions hurdle). Schools who specify exactly which SAT 2 test they want often use that particular test(s) as a benchmark across students.

 

In essence, what happens with top schools is that pretty much everyone has the test scores to be worthy. They MIGHT scratch 10 - 20% of applicants via scores - and those generally knew they had no hope. Therefore, it's not more scores they are looking for. Those just get you looked at. You need the "other" stuff (extra-curriculars, geographic diversity, campus diversity, etc).

[SCMommaof2]

I graduated from Palmetto Homeschool Assoc with 4.2 GPA. I took AP classes, but I came out of public school b/c I moved. I had enough credits to graduate after 11th, but decided to do the extra year anyways as a challenge. The honors scale in public schools here goes to 5.0.

 

Since it's an outside course, I'd let the A+ stand on your transcript, but like Regentrude, we didn't weigh our GPA (since most colleges unweigh them). Therefore, an A+ is still a 4.0 for us.

 

If you want to be like my school, an A+ is a 4.3. They do weigh Level 3 classes (supposedly more difficult) higher, but I never paid attention to exactly how they do it as it doesn't really matter to me.

 

A+ = 4.3

A = 4.0

A- = 3.7

B+ = 3.3 (and so on)

 

Then they adjust for the more difficult classes.

[Kareni]

I give a 4.0 for an A. Any class- home, AP, dual enrollment. I make it clear on the transcript that I only report an unweighted GPA.

 

 

I did this also. (I also stripped pluses and minuses from any outside grades.) We sent my daughter's community college transcript with each of her college applications. (We would have sent one from PA Homeschoolers; however, they did not provide such at the time my daughter took a class with them.)

 

Regards,

Kareni