I have trying to figure out for some time how it was possible for students entering UCSB to average a 4.0 GPA or better.
Today I talked with a guy whose daughter is just finishing high school.
Turns out that in courses called Advanced Placement the grade scale does not run: A = 4; B = 3; C = 2 and so on. That’s the old 4 point scale, the one I grew up with.
No, they use a 5 point scale because the AP classes are supposedly so much tougher than regular courses of the same kind that it was considered “unfair” that an AP “A” should be equal to an “A” for the non-AP course.
Thus in an AP course, an A = 5; B = 4; C = 3 and so on.
OK…now I get it, why so many students enter with a 4.O; they all take AP courses and plenty of them.
I can’t say how this pisses me off.
Seems to me the educational system is doing the same thing as the insurance companies; they are cherry picking the best and leaving the rest to rot.
This strikes me as institutionalized elitism and inequality.
The guy said his daughter took a “regular” chemistry class and got an A; it was the easiest class she ever took, he said.
Just what kind of education are the non-AP students getting?
I am sure there’s more to this than meets my casual glance. I am probably over-reacting.
Still the more I learn…the less I want to know.
