4 ms·

Why is it unfair? The AP courses are more challenging, and therefore get more weight. Isn't the valedictorian (theoretically) the smartest kid in the school?

khyryk 12y ago
Somewhat unrelated, but AP courses can often be easier for brighter students as they generally keep disruptive clowns out and offer more engaging material instead of boring busywork. The classes are thus more like college classes and less like babysitting sessions.
Yhippa 12y ago
> and as few regular classes as possible I enjoyed band so I took it and they didn't have an honors or AP version. So for me to maximize my GPA would mean that I would have to forgo band all four years of my high school existence in order to min-max for GPA.
- recursive 12y ago
  How is this min-max? Isn't this just straight maximization?
  - Yhippa 12y ago
    You are minimizing anything that hurts your GPA. If the highest grade you could get in a course is a 4.0 for a regular course and say a 5.0 for AP or Honors and band is a regular course you wouldn't want to take the hit from band.
Dove 12y ago
If you have all your graduation requirements fulfilled, the system penalizes you for taking any further classes. You improve your GPA by taking a quarter of Nothing/Study Hall if you can't get another AP class. And indeed, I believe the valedictorian did exactly that, for exactly that reason.
- lotharbot 12y ago
  (Sorry I'm late to the party) That is indeed exactly what happened -- the valedictorian was in all of the same advanced/AP classes as the rest of the top 10 students. But while each of us had additional classes like band, choir, or drama, she simply took the minimum number of credits, and as a result ended up with a slightly higher GPA. I actually ended up dropping all the way to fifth because I was taking math at a local college (multivariable calculus, linear algebra) which was treated as an ordinary course for GPA.

khyryk 12y ago

Somewhat unrelated, but AP courses can often be easier for brighter students as they generally keep disruptive clowns out and offer more engaging material instead of boring busywork. The classes are thus more like college classes and less like babysitting sessions.

Yhippa 12y ago

> and as few regular classes as possible I enjoyed band so I took it and they didn't have an honors or AP version. So for me to maximize my GPA would mean that I would have to forgo band all four years of my high school existence in order to min-max for GPA.

recursive 12y ago
How is this min-max? Isn't this just straight maximization?
- Yhippa 12y ago
  You are minimizing anything that hurts your GPA. If the highest grade you could get in a course is a 4.0 for a regular course and say a 5.0 for AP or Honors and band is a regular course you wouldn't want to take the hit from band.

Dove 12y ago

If you have all your graduation requirements fulfilled, the system penalizes you for taking any further classes. You improve your GPA by taking a quarter of Nothing/Study Hall if you can't get another AP class. And indeed, I believe the valedictorian did exactly that, for exactly that reason.

lotharbot 12y ago
(Sorry I'm late to the party) That is indeed exactly what happened -- the valedictorian was in all of the same advanced/AP classes as the rest of the top 10 students. But while each of us had additional classes like band, choir, or drama, she simply took the minimum number of credits, and as a result ended up with a slightly higher GPA. I actually ended up dropping all the way to fifth because I was taking math at a local college (multivariable calculus, linear algebra) which was treated as an ordinary course for GPA.