In my daughter's school class rank and valedictorian status was determined by GPA. However, in the case of multiple kids with the same GPA, they factored in AP/honors classes and possibly additional criteria if the tie was still not broken.

Extra curricular activities and such were a factor in being a member of honor society.

Having a 5.2 GPA in US is like being a B(at best) grade scholar on the world platform so the grading system is really not the biggest problem with the American education system :P Case in point: Most asian schools go up to only the 10th grade(I was in this system) and yet test far better than 12th graders in the US. I'm very tempted to send my 9 month old to an asian school once he comes of age. Even if he's MOP in school, he'd still graduate college by 20. I think in the US, you're considered "gifted" to be able to do that. It's called "normal" anywhere else in the modernized world.

Having a 5.2 GPA in US is like being a B(at best) grade scholar on the world platform so the grading system is really not the biggest problem with the American education system :P Case in point: Most asian schools go up to only the 10th grade(I was in this system) and yet test far better than 12th graders in the US. I'm very tempted to send my 9 month old to an asian school once he comes of age. Even if he's MOP in school, he'd still graduate college by 20. I think in the US, you're considered "gifted" to be able to do that. It's called "normal" anywhere else in the modernized world.

All of this arguing and not one person knows that a lot of schools no longer use a 4.0 gpa system.

I got an A in AP Calculus and in AP Physics my senior year in high school, and got 5.0 for each of them; that gave me a 4.0 for the term that was reported to colleges. That was 1975.

Fascinating that because you didn't experience this, it didn't happen and so America has dumbed down. Or maybe you are older than me and the dumbing down started three decades ago.

Why am I not surprised that your school got a jump start on the dumbing down of American education...

Really, what's the point of AP anything in high school? To put even more pressure on the little nits to be something most of them aren't even ready for -- because of biology/brain development -- anyway? Either we start 'em right from kindergarten the Asian (and most of the rest of the civilized world) way or lay off and bring 'em along gradually. And I wonder if that fenderhead James Holmes, the Aurora shooter, was an AP head? Probably. 'Course correlation doesn't prove causation but, so far, many of the folks I've known that have been AP whatevers, including here in the LR, have been royal A-holes. Pretty smart, of course, but sometimes deserving of a foot right up the ass, sad to say.

BK - your bost reminds me of a shirt we had in debate club in High School - "Laugh At Us Today, Work For Us Tomorrow." :)

Also reminds me of a conversation I had with a coworker of mine who, although I love the guy, he's dumber than a bag of hammers. He made a comment about how when he was in HS in some shithole in Oklahomabamexas somewhere, the only reason they had AP classes was so that "the kids who weren't any good at football or baseball had something to do." I then joked that I took AP classes in HS and he apologized and said he didn't mean to be insulting. His comment was insulting alright, just not to the person he thought.

This ^^^^.

I got straight As all the way through my junior year of high school and I'm a total fucking moran.

BK - your bost reminds me of a shirt we had in debate club in High School - "Laugh At Us Today, Work For Us Tomorrow." :)

Also reminds me of a conversation I had with a coworker of mine who, although I love the guy, he's dumber than a bag of hammers. He made a comment about how when he was in HS in some shithole in Oklahomabamexas somewhere, the only reason they had AP classes was so that "the kids who weren't any good at football or baseball had something to do." I then joked that I took AP classes in HS and he apologized and said he didn't mean to be insulting. His comment was insulting alright, just not to the person he thought.

When I was in high school, not only was it mathematically impossible to get a GPA higher than 4.0, but it was also very difficult for anyone other than the athletically gifted (not me!) to get As in PE classes (which were required) at all.

With regard to the PE classes, somehow the standards changed when I got to college, and I actually got a couple of As there. I'm happy to say that one of those was in a swimming class, which perhaps explains why I'm a Slowtwitch poster today. :)

I think the point is that we know they are using a point system that goes beyond 4.0. We are just laughing at that fact. It is a sign of the times, and not a good one.

a lot of that going on here in the lavender room, lol

We are screwed with this generation of "everybody gets a medal" pansy-ass, self-indulged little pricks.