Final Grades/GPA thread/School/University Discussion

[Deck Knight]

No? I'm an exceptionally good writer - especially essays and the like - and I have friends who will, no matter how much they practice, never be as good as me. My friend Craig, for example, grasps certain philosophical concepts easier than me (if I don't get something straight off I throw a strop with it) and works a lot harder than me yet he does worse than me in exams simply because he can't write that well, whereas I can bullshit my way through a lot of it.

I was reading simple shit by the age of two; I was onto roald dahl by three and I was reading thomas hardy and george eliot by five. Reading, writing, spelling and comprehension have always come naturally to me. To say it can just be learned is simplistic at best.

Basic Writing, like basic sports talent, is a skill. If you train, know the rules of the game, and are taught the basic strategies you can pick up almost any game.

Great Writing, like truly exceptional sports talent, is a gift.

Reading and writing have always been my strong suit, but I used an elective for a written communication class and it helped me refine it. Basic proficiency in nearly any area can be taught and learned, but to excel to something spectacular it takes either great genius or great willpower. Even though I was the political antipode of my Written Communications instructor (one of the reasons I took the class, actually), his most important lesson was conferred on day one: Writing is a skill.

 

[EspyJoel]

I find remembering statistics and writing essays in particular easy and I agree with Akuchi and Deck Knight that it comes down to being a gift rather than lots of work of course work helps but if you haven't got the gift then you won't be able to be as good as someone who has that natural gift.

 

[Polis4rule]

They changed it. It's not 150 hours of mandatory stuff anymore; it's more like you need proof that you do stuff outside of IB.

oh this year, I took:
IB English III
'Pre-IB' Pre Calc
IB US History
AP Art History
IB Spanish SL
AP Psychology
IB Physics SL

Next year:
IB English HL
IB Chemistry HL
IB History of Americas HL
IB Calculus SL
IB Theory of Knowledge
AP Physics-C

Haha, so Darkie is the same age as me? And that's weird, by me we do TOK Junior year. Hhhmmm, but looks like you have a pretty evenly balanced schedule.

And for CAS, it was only 50 serivce hours, with 100 creative and action hours as well. Darkie is right though, they've changed it so that you pretty much just have to show that you've done enough hours (pretty balanced) on your own. Whatever that means, I already have over 60 hours in each area of CAS. Doesn't affect me :)

 

[Famine]

Lol...I'm going to University of Arizona in the Fall...My GPA is 3.2/3.3.....Even though i'm still trying to walk on and play basketball i go to the orientation Tommarow and will finally get to talk to a coach, Then Begins the Slave work all summer...Just so they can make me into a even bigger slave while there...And IF i don't make the team i'm already considering Transferring to Northwestern (where i really wanted to go) it's too bad i couldn't get in there with a 3.3 though :(

Also i didn't get into northwestern because my sister was supposed to handle part of the application and she never did it since i applied to so many schools...

I mean people go to college for a different reason and I think they should look at what your trying to do and your grades in that Area of field not just your cumulative GPA.

 

[Chaos669]

So far my grades are (before exams):

Geography - 89
Physical Education - 94
French - 97
Music - 96

I live in Canada so we don't use GPA, just standard percentage system. I'm hoping to pull my Geography mark up with exams =/.

 

[Eraddd]

They changed it. It's not 150 hours of mandatory stuff anymore; it's more like you need proof that you do stuff outside of IB.

oh this year, I took:
IB English III
'Pre-IB' Pre Calc
IB US History
AP Art History
IB Spanish SL
AP Psychology
IB Physics SL

Next year:
IB English HL
IB Chemistry HL
IB History of Americas HL
IB Calculus SL
IB Theory of Knowledge
AP Physics-C

Guess who's failing CAS? That's right, this motherfucker (me) for missing one gay deadline. Also for procrastinating and then putting evidence on my CAS manager on the last week. Got to go to this failure session to discuss my plans for the summer.

And are you allowed to do AP physics after IB physics SL? Confused here. Our coordinator wont let us take AP tests for some reason so yeah.

Edit: and what's with all the IBers taking American History? I find world history alot easier.

Lol, CAS is so easy! All you need to do is do the shit, and then bs your "evidence." It's a lot of work, but it's easy.

Anyway, I should have picked Chem or Bio as my IB elective, instead of taking ITGS. Pobre :'(

But since I'm part of the first graduating class, they wouldn't allow me to take more than 3 HL's, so I couldn't take HL English or HL History (they're both joke classes as higher level). Oh well. I assume that you're a Junior?

Yeah Junior. Getting raped by my TOK essay currently.

English is my weak point. I'm praying for a 5 in that course.
And i'll probably drop Math HL to SL when I realize that the horror stories are true (our math teacher is top in B.C. and apparently likes to go to 3rd year calculus before he realizes that majority of the class is getting raped. And then during the IB HL exam, almost everyone lol'd except for the people who actually took HL without any recommendations at all.

 

[Polis4rule]

Edit: and what's with all the IBers taking American History? I find world history alot easier.

At my school, that's just how it goes. We do half a year (one semester) each of World History and American Government in 9th grade, AP Euro in 10th, AP US in 11th, and then IB History of the America's "specialties" for 12th grade. That's just the way how we roll, I guess.

Also, you only need an average of 4's in your HL levels to get the diploma.

 

[Eraddd]

At my school, that's just how it goes. We do half a year (one semester) each of World History and American Government in 9th grade, AP Euro in 10th, AP US in 11th, and then IB History of the America's "specialties" for 12th grade. That's just the way how we roll, I guess.

Also, you only need an average of 4's in your HL levels to get the diploma.

Hmm, trying for a 5 cause I'm applying ED to John Hopkins. I'm hoping to have at least 38 w/ my 3 extra points from EE and TOK essay.

 

[FinnRagetti]

I just finished the IB Diploma course and the English test isn't that bad truthfully. One example essay for paper one (the unseen commentary) included the following: "Oxygen is very important on the moon." And the writer got a 4. No freaking joke. Include a lot of literary terms and tell what they do for the paper and you got an 4-5 easy.

By the way, I took Math HL. Unless you truly believe you are good at math, don't take it.
1. There are tons of alternatives instead of dealing with Math HL.
2. Math HL will rape you. You have to go beyond memorizing stupid formulas. It sucks. I think I got at least a 4, but it hurt. Really hurt.

 

[Gir!]

I have to say, I am a little bothered by some of these posts... Not so much the large percentage of relatively great report cards being posted but by the fact that so many people in here seem so anxious to get in to some classy, ivy league college.

I was a relatively good student in high school and took mostly honors classes, but unlike most of my fellow classmates, I wasn't striving to get the highest grade, join the most student organizations, or get admitted into a highly selective private school.

While on the subject of the college application process, let me tell you a funny story. In my AP Statistics class, we started the year off with a survey as to how many colleges each of the students were applying to. When everyone turned them in, the teacher went on about how in past years, there would be typically one outlier in the survey results. Most of the students in my class applied to at least 5 colleges. Some applied to as many as 12! But me? I was the outlier the teacher was talking about. I applied to just 1 college (University of Illinois), and got admitted too. And despite the fact that my family members were critical of my methods, I don't regret it in the slightest.

I honestly could not stand it when everyone else in my AP classes would complain about getting "3 hours of sleep" or "skipping dinner" because they had too much work. And, despite all of that, an astoundingly small percentage of them got into their first choice school, even though most of them had nearly flawless resumes.

Even if you did manage to get into a school like, say, Yale, do you really think the education you are gonna get there is light-years ahead of what you can find elsewhere? Of course not. All you are really getting is an overpriced school with a pretty campus full of rich snobs.

Yeah, I am starting to rant a little too much. But I want to make a point in that being such a large overachiever isn't really worth it in the end. Of course you should at least put some degree of effort into your course work, but stressing yourself out so much is unnecessary.

As much as I would LOVE to agree with you, I cant. You see, we live in a world where people base their judgements upon names (In videogames,music, clothing, literature, education etc). You are right, in most universities, the classes you´ll receive will be really similar, however, if you go to request a job, you´ll find that people who went to Yale, Harvard, University of Salamanca (where I want to go, by the way) have a much higher chance of getting the position, even if their knowledge isnt as high as other´s applicants.

Personally, my grades are incredibly high in cultural things (specially literature and history) and quite regular on things involving numbers (call it Maths, Physic and Chemistry). Right now Im about to enter whats next to highschool (sorry, I have a bit of a limited vocabulary in English) with a relatively low average (8.0 out of 10) but some of my friends say Im amongst the smartest people they know (did I just sound as the biggest self-centered son of a b***h ever?) and thats because when I find something that really interests me, I try to research everything about it, for example, WWII. I think thats what is important when it comes to education: finding something you really love and focus to be the best on that.

 

[sora13]

As much as I would LOVE to agree with you, I cant. You see, we live in a world where people base their judgements upon names (In videogames,music, clothing, literature, education etc). You are right, in most universities, the classes you´ll receive will be really similar, however, if you go to request a job, you´ll find that people who went to Yale, Harvard, University of Salamanca (where I want to go, by the way) have a much higher chance of getting the position, even if their knowledge isnt as high as other´s applicants.

Gir hit the nail on the head here.

 

[akuchi]

If said company is going to ignore the quality of my degree (hopefully a first, the highest) in favour of the fact another candidate went to Oxbridge - unis I rejected because I just would not enjoy them - then I'd rather not sell my labour to them anyway, thanks. Simple as that.

 

[macle]

I don't know what my exact grades are but i got on the high honor role so i am very happy. :D

 

[chenman333]

If said company is going to ignore the quality of my degree (hopefully a first, the highest) in favour of the fact another candidate went to Oxbridge - unis I rejected because I just would not enjoy them - then I'd rather not sell my labour to them anyway, thanks. Simple as that.

You can look at it that way if you want if it comforts you...but the unfortunate reality is that most companies are going to take that brand name factor into account.

 

[Obamasnow]

You can look at it that way if you want if it comforts you...but the unfortunate reality is that most companies are going to take that brand name factor into account.

This is utter non-sense. Why would a company hire someone on where they studied? Surely the most logical thing to do would be to hire them on their individual merit? I have friends from your bog-standard redbricks in the UK working in magic circle law firms, where the competition is probably as high as anywhere. Yes there's a certain prestige with going to an 'elite' University but it is not the be all and end all I'm afraid (Sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth here). A first at a decent University, (Bristol, Warwick, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds etc) is still better than a 2:1 from Oxford or Cambridge.

Not to sound offensive, but you sound as though you're still in University, yet to even apply for a job (is this true?).

 

[Polis4rule]

This is utter non-sense. Why would a company hire someone on where they studied? Surely the most logical thing to do would be to hire them on their individual merit? I have friends from your bog-standard redbricks in the UK working in magic circle law firms, where the competition is probably as high as anywhere. Yes there's a certain prestige with going to an 'elite' University but it is not the be all and end all I'm afraid (Sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth here). A first at a decent University, (Bristol, Warwick, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds etc) is still better than a 2:1 from Oxford or Cambridge.

Not to sound offensive, but you sound as though you're still in University, yet to even apply for a job (is this true?).

You're right. Unfortunately, when a company is hiring a person fresh out of college, they have no way to judge the merits of said person. In that instance, a company will hire the person with the "better" degree (degree from a top notch college). Going to a top notch college can give you opportunities to have a much better research opportunity, or co-op/internship available. Even if you slack off and don't do any of that, the professors chosen to teach are guaranteed to be top notch, the labs are top notch and often funded from companies, etc.

At your second job, no one cares where you went to college, but at your first job, that is all they know of you. After that, it's up to you to make it for yourself and promote yourself.

 

[akuchi]

It's not 'how I want to look at it' or because I want to be comforted, it's how I am living my life - I could have gone to Oxbridge (intellectually, I'm capable enough; my tutor suggested it before she knew me personally) but decided both the work and the time I actually spend there would be far too much a pain in the ass for me to want to go - it was not a trade-off that works in my favour. I'm genuinely not motivated by money, I just want to spend my life enjoyably.

I don't want to go and be one of those poncy students at a super-posh uni; I also don't want to go anywhere particularly big and I want to go somewhere that has personal significance to me, hence my applying for Manchester, Cardiff and Swansea and accepting Swansea as my firm despite it being the 'worst' of the three.
I want to have the best possible time at university - that's where I'll have it, so that's where I'm going. :3

P.S. I'm doing Classical Civilisation at uni so it's not like I'm going to go and work for a big company anyway - I will most probably end up either doing a doctorate and lecturing in my turn, or going to teach schoolkids.

 

[EspyJoel]

It's not 'how I want to look at it' or because I want to be comforted, it's how I am living my life - I could have gone to Oxbridge (intellectually, I'm capable enough; my tutor suggested it before she knew me personally) but decided both the work and the time I actually spend there would be far too much a pain in the ass for me to want to go - it was not a trade-off that works in my favour. I'm genuinely not motivated by money, I just want to spend my life enjoyably.

I don't want to go and be one of those poncy students at a super-posh uni; I also don't want to go anywhere particularly big and I want to go somewhere that has personal significance to me, hence my applying for Manchester, Cardiff and Swansea and accepting Swansea as my firm despite it being the 'worst' of the three.
I want to have the best possible time at university - that's where I'll have it, so that's where I'm going. :3

P.S. I'm doing Classical Civilisation at uni so it's not like I'm going to go and work for a big company anyway - I will most probably end up either doing a doctorate and lecturing in my turn, or going to teach schoolkids.

I could not have gone to Oxbridge :)
I like your attitude, I hate all these "poncy" students, sadly I have many at my school and its annoying having to listen all day long about how amazing they are. The main thing is the experience which is why I'm looking at places like Sheffield, UEA and Birmingham where yes the unis are very god but you can also go and enjoy yourself rather than just being drained like you would at Oxbridge, LSE, etc.

The main reason I want to do History and Politics or just History is because I have a massive interest in them and have for a long time. No idea what I want to be when I'm older though. All I'm concerned about at the moment is that I like the course and uni, and luckily it happens I'm very good at the subjects too.

 

[akuchi]

aye - that is genuinely the only important thing.
'The majority of people spend their lives doing something they hate in order to buy something they don't need'.. I have no intention of being one of those people.

I went to a private school on an assisted place, so I'm far too familiar with being on the receiving end of snobbery to bother with that again.
I probably would have gone to Manchester, which was supposed to be pretty good; but my boyfriend is in Swansea, so I chose there, cos it's now about building some sort of life together.

tl;dr life is (sort of) what you make of it

 

[B-Lulz]

Just so you know...intelligence shouldn't be measured by school grades...hence don't judge me for such shitty grades lol (I am the laziest and most idle person you will probably ever meet, so yeah)

Geology: B
Chemistry: C overall (A in coursework E in module test ~_~)
Physics: D
Maths: fail

These are my grades from January so i'm hoping for a drastic improvement come August, though I've definitely failed Maths. Currently in my first year of college and hoping to go to university studying Chemistry. (Yes I know my grades look horrible, i'm working on it lol)

 

[husk]

It's ok, B-Lulz I finished my freshman year with a 1.66 and lost both of my scholarships. But my mom still tells me I'm a genius.

 

[Darkartisan]

High school alright?

Geography honors- B
Spanish 2- A
Biology Honors- B
Health Occupations/PE- A

Overall 4.0 :)
i'm smart

 

[B-Lulz]

It's ok, B-Lulz I finished my freshman year with a 1.66 and lost both of my scholarships. But my mom still tells me I'm a genius.

<_< god I hope thats a joke. I guess i'm just a dumbass for not trying but whatever, lol.

 

[Mentlegen]

I really, really hate my school. Utah sucks.

2 Questions:
Are you Mormon?
What grade are you in?

Finished Freshman year.

Algebra 2: A
English 9 (H): A
Biology: A
World Geography (H): A
Newspaper: A
Spanish II: A
P.E.: A

I did 0 studying this year. It was such a joke.

 

[Obamasnow]

You're right. Unfortunately, when a company is hiring a person fresh out of college, they have no way to judge the merits of said person. In that instance, a company will hire the person with the "better" degree (degree from a top notch college). Going to a top notch college can give you opportunities to have a much better research opportunity, or co-op/internship available. Even if you slack off and don't do any of that, the professors chosen to teach are guaranteed to be top notch, the labs are top notch and often funded from companies, etc.

At your second job, no one cares where you went to college, but at your first job, that is all they know of you. After that, it's up to you to make it for yourself and promote yourself.

I agree with you that on paper a 2:1 from Oxford or Cambridge is better than a 2:1 from anywhere else, and if it came down to only that, the candidate from Oxford or Cambridge would probably get the job. However, most companies couldn't care less which University you went to, and are far more interested in work experience. Example: My sister studied Law at Northumbria polytechnic as a mature student, and beat fresh Durham/Oxford graduates for a position at Irwin Mitchell. As long as you've got a 2:1 from a respectable Uni (not that Northumbria is respectable, mind you), that's all you need to get your foot in the door; all they cared for at IM at least, was work experience. The same is true for magic circle firms; as I've said, I have friends who work at Slaughter and May who graduated from Newcastle University.

The first thing they'll ask you at a company is how you spent your free time; most undergraduates will have had to have spent their summers doing work experience in firms, courts and whatnot in order to stand any chance at getting a training contract. Where you studied and how clever you are just doesn't cut it.

The main reason I want to do History and Politics or just History is because I have a massive interest in them and have for a long time. No idea what I want to be when I'm older though. All I'm concerned about at the moment is that I like the course and uni, and luckily it happens I'm very good at the subjects too.

I studied History, Politics and Economics too :) It's good fun having a bit of variety, though the Politics is a bit boring - you should check out Warwick and Newcastle, the modules they to offer are pretty good.