What's bugging you? (2013)

[fondybrewfan]

Yesterday my gym bag including my keys and wallet was stolen when I was working out. Upon finding out I immediately cancelled all my cards and changed all of the locks on my house. All the locks probably cost me about $100. I went to work out this morning and they told me they found my bag. Apparently the jerk grabbed by bag; looked for any cash, and when he didn't find any he just dumped it somewhere else at the gym. Eventually someone found it.

 

I am very thankful that everything was found; but man what a pain in the butt it was to cancel everything and buy and change all of those locks. I basically have no access to money for the next 3 days while I wait for my new cards to get here.

 

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Original Lead:

 

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[RightFieldCoder]

I got a phone call from head of HR. Being in IT, I have to help HR all the time. She asked me to come down and that my boss was already there. It turns out that they decided that they didn't need a programmer any more and have eliminated my position. I will receive 2 weeks of severance (as long as I sign the severance agreement within 7 days) and my 14 days of outstanding PTO.

 

I was just starting to feel confident I would have enough money for our wedding in October.

 

Life just sucks some times.

[TURBO]

Yesterday my gym bag including my keys and wallet was stolen when I was working out. Upon finding out I immediately cancelled all my cards and changed all of the locks on my house. All the locks probably cost me about $100. I went to work out this morning and they told me they found my bag. Apparently the jerk grabbed by bag; looked for any cash, and when he didn't find any he just dumped it somewhere else at the gym. Eventually someone found it.

 

I am very thankful that everything was found; but man what a pain in the butt it was to cancel everything and buy and change all of those locks. I basically have no access to money for the next 3 days while I wait for my new cards to get here.

 

 

 

I have to ask, did you have your bag locked up to begin with? If not, in a public place, you are just asking for problems. I know it's a pain to have to lock everything up, but that is the world we live in.

 

Your situation does suck... At least they didn't take and use your credit cards...

[fondybrewfan]

Normally I never take anything to the gym with me because I know they have had problems with people's stuff showing up missing. It is pretty sad; it is a brand new building but its not like you can put cameras in locker rooms.

 

Anyways yesterday I was a little different because I took my daughter swimming and without thinking I through my keys, wallet, etc into the bag with our extra clothes. It didn't even dawn on me at the time. I got back to the locker room, noticed my bad was missing and basically sprinted outside to make sure my car was still there. Fortunately it was. Bottom line is lesson learned and I will never forget to lock my valuables up if I bring them in again.

 

Some people are just horrible, the jerk was considerate enough though to take my daughters change of clothes out of the bag he stole and just lay them in the locker. How nice of him/her.

[RobDeer 45]

I got a phone call from head of HR. Being in IT, I have to help HR all the time. She asked me to come down and that my boss was already there. It turns out that they decided that they didn't need a programmer any more and have eliminated my position. I will receive 2 weeks of severance (as long as I sign the severance agreement within 7 days) and my 14 days of outstanding PTO.

 

I was just starting to feel confident I would have enough money for our wedding in October.

 

Life just sucks some times.

 

That sucks dude, sorry to hear that. Hopefully it leads you to something better! Life has an interesting way of working its self out.

[1992casey]

In locksmith's terms, "changing" a lock means to re-key the existing lock. By hiring a locksmith, you'd have paid for labor, but not paying for new hardware would have offset some or all of the labor charge. And of course, you'd have saved yourself some effort.

[fondybrewfan]

Yeah I didn't want to find out how much a locksmith was going to charge me to come out on a Sunday. Plus up until that point; my garage did not have a functioning lock so I took the opportunity to fix that myself.

 

If my stuff hadn't shown up; I was prepared to call alocksmith to have both of my cars rekeyed; god only knows how much that would have cost especially with one of the cars being a newer model with the electronic key.

[hawing]

The forecast for Sunday currently includes a chance of freezing rain, which means the S.O. won't want to drive to Milwaukee for Brewers On Deck. I'm OK with not landing in a ditch, but had really been looking forward to seeing Brewers pals and getting a Brewers fix. I need a whaaambulance.

[Patrick425]

Ok..I have something that is really bothering me and I'm hoping someone out there in the education field (or has had kids go through HS) explain this to me. Sorry about the length of this!

 

My son is a Freshman in HS in Waukesha. First semester grades and GPAs just came out. I was trying to understand his GPA calculation and then my son explained to me that each grade is given a set GPA to go towards you total GPA. So, for example...generally during the semester any grade between 2.75 and 2.99 is a B. However, if you get total grade of a B in a class for the semester you automatically get a 3.0 (regardless of whether you got a 2.75 or 2.99). In addition the scale is not uniformly applied for each grade. Here is the scale:

 

Normal range in parentheses

 

A+ (3.75-4) = 4.33   

A   (3.5-3.74) = 4.0   

A‐  (3.25-3.49) = 3.67   

B+ (3-3.24) = 3.33   

B   (2.75-2.99) = 3.0   

B‐  (2.5-2.74) = 2.67   

C+ (2.25-2.49) = 2.33   

C   (2-2.24) = 2.0   

C‐  (1.75-1.99) = 1.67   

D+ (1.5-1.74) = 1.33   

D   (1.25-1.49) = 1.0   

D‐  (1-1.24) = 0.67   

F   (<1) = 0 

 

The scale is set up so that you get "bonus points" for getting a B or better in a class. For example the normal scale for a B+ is 3 to 3.25. However, if you get a B+ as a final grade you get a 3.33. However, you can possibly get penalized for getting less than a B. For example the normal scale for a C+ is 2.25 to 2.49. So, you could get a 2.49 in a class and then get bumped to a 2.33, but another person could get 2.25 and get "bonus points" and the same GPA (2.33). Not sure how this makes any sense.

 

What is really annoying is that my son got B+ in two classes. In one class he got a 3.19 and in another a 3.20. So .06 and .05 away from A- in both classes. Based on the above scale, he received a final GPA of 3.33 in both classes. So, if had just boosted his grades by a combined total of.11 points in both classes (up to an A- in both classes) he could have received a 3.67 in both classes. If you take it to the extreme, someone who gets a 3.24 gets a .09 boost in GPA (3.33 - 3.24)and someone who gets a 3.25 gets a .42 boost (3.67-3.25) in GPA (for that class). What?!?

 

Does this make any sense to anyone? Why don't they just give the students the scores they earned. If you get a 3.21 in a class, then count the 3.21 towards the overall GPA. Why is there this need to make an adjustment up or down?

 

edit: I added the normal GPA ranges for comparison

[TURBO]

That is wacky to say the least...

 

I teach high school, and we don't do anything like that. The kids get what they earn, no adjusting. Also, even the A+ scale is kooky. We run a straight 4.0 scale, but there are some weird ideas about grade points out there...

[whizkid]

I don't get how they get the numbers in parentheses to begin with. Normally there might be 400 total points for the semester in a class and the kid earns 300 which is 75% and that is a C. And a C is 2 grade points. I don't get where the middle numbers come from. Some schools use + or - like down the right side of your chart, some give 3 grade points whether B-,B,B+. My kids school did the latter. I've never seen more than 4.0 for an A+ though. Do they weight honors and AP classes in addition to that mess you've posted?

 

But there's always cases where a kid misses the next highest grade by a small margin. My kid's school would round up so an 89.50% would be an A- worth 4 grade points while an 89.49% would be a B+ for 3 grade points.

[bensheeps]

The forecast for Sunday currently includes a chance of freezing rain, which means the S.O. won't want to drive to Milwaukee for Brewers On Deck. I'm OK with not landing in a ditch, but had really been looking forward to seeing Brewers pals and getting a Brewers fix. I need a whaaambulance.

 

We are feeling the same way. Was planning to head to Milwaukee tonight, spend the night and then off to On Deck for the day tomorrow. No definite decision made yet, but not excited about driving home in "freezing rain" & "wintry mix".

[Patrick425]

I don't get how they get the numbers in parentheses to begin with. Normally there might be 400 total points for the semester in a class and the kid earns 300 which is 75% and that is a C. And a C is 2 grade points. I don't get where the middle numbers come from. Some schools use + or - like down the right side of your chart, some give 3 grade points whether B-,B,B+. My kids school did the latter. I've never seen more than 4.0 for an A+ though. Do they weight honors and AP classes in addition to that mess you've posted?

 

But there's always cases where a kid misses the next highest grade by a small margin. My kid's school would round up so an 89.50% would be an A- worth 4 grade points while an 89.49% would be a B+ for 3 grade points.

 

 

My son is in four AP classes, but they are not weighted any more for freshmen. However, once you get into your sophmore, junior, and senior years there are 18 different AP courses that are given more weight. This is the scale for them:

 

A+ = 5.33

A   = 5.0

A‐  = 4.67

B+ = 4.33

B   = 4.0

B‐  = 3.67

C+ = 3.33

C   = 3.0

C‐  = 2.67

D+ = 1.33

D   = 1.0

D‐ =  0.67

F   =  0

[rwa12]

From a cynical perspective, maybe they are boosting GPAs to meet some kind of state standard? Perhaps there are too many kids now finishing with the same overall GPA, making a valedictorian difficult to select? I've seen the weighted scale for AP classes, but have not seen the bonus points before. That is odd, also surprised that they have an A+. It makes no sense to me, when it comes down to it...colleges calculate based on your unweighted GPA for admissions. My son's 5 point something GPA wound up being a 3.7 unweighted.

[hawing]

So, so much of what I read about education these days (both K-12 and higher) makes me frankly glad I went to school when I did.

[RightFieldCoder]

I was ridiculed for my GPA when I went to college in the late 90's. I would have to point out that we had an unweighted 4.0 scale. So your 5.0 weighted scale meant my GPA was better than yours, despite it being ".2 higher".

[bani1717]

Does this make any sense to anyone? Why don't they just give the students the scores they earned. If you get a 3.21 in a class, then count the 3.21 towards the overall GPA. Why is there this need to make an adjustment up or down?

 

I am not a teacher, but it kind of makes sense to me... You get "points" in a class, but your class points are not equivalent to GPA points. Your class points determine your letter grade, and each letter grade corresponds with a certain number of GPA points used in calculating your weighted average overall GPA. Think of it this way - if the class was based on 1000 possible points, then we still need to convert that to a letter grade to assign a GPA.

 

It seems as though the school probably assigns everyday homework/test grades on a scale of 0 to 4 instead of by assigning letter grades or percentages to each individual assignment/test for a class. (That seems to be the only explanation that doesn't involve artificially boosting GPAs.) I had one teacher who used a similar system when I was actually still in grade school - then he somehow converted these "everyday" scores into a letter grade, which corresponds to a number of GPA points.

 

I graduated in the mid-2000s from a high school where we didn't get "extra credit" for AP classes and where the max was a 4.0. My class was actually the very first one where they didn't offer a 4.3 for an A+. You could still get 3.7 for a A-, 3.4 for a B+, etc. (I think each score was actually rounded up to one decimal place, hence a 3.4 instead of 3.3 or 3.33 for a B+.) In my class there wound up being six people tied for a 4.0, but the school had a pre-set tiebreaker based on some combination of # of AP classes taken, ACT score, PSAT score, extracurriculars, etc. to determine who was the valedictorian and salutatorian.

 

Just out of curiosity - is your son actually in 4 AP classes that he can get college credit for taking a test at the end of the year? Granted, I went to a private school smaller than any of the Waukesha schools, but they didn't allow anyone below juniors to take AP classes, and even then they wouldn't let you take more than 2-3 at a time, just because of the added workload. Does "AP" still mean a college-level class that prepares you to take a test to earn college credit, or does it mean just any "advanced" class?

[Patrick425]

Think of it this way - if the class was based on 1000 possible points, then we still need to convert that to a letter grade to assign a GPA.

 

It seems as though the school probably assigns everyday homework/test grades on a scale of 0 to 4 instead of by assigning letter grades or percentages to each individual assignment/test for a class.

 

There is not a "total points possible" in a class system in place. There are assignments/tests in each class. There were anywhere from as few as 8 graded assigned/tests in social studies to as many as 37 in geometry in my son's first semester. On top of that some assignments are "formative" and some are "summative". Summative assignments are weighted more (anywhere from 67% to 90%). They compute two separate GPAs for summative and formative and then add them together based on their weights. For example is that a student may have the following summative grades:

 

3.5

2.5

3

3

3.75

2.25

3.25

 

Assuming none of these summative grades are weighted more than another (which can also happen), his/her summative grade would be 3.03 (the average of all of them). This would then by multiplied by the summative weight to produce his "summative GPA" and then added to his weighted "formative GPA" to produce his/her total GPA for the class. Not really as complicated as I may be making it sound.

 

Here is really what I'm having trouble wrapping my head around:

 

Example 1:

Math grade for Student A: 3.24

Math grade for Student B: 3.01

 

Example 2:

Math grade for Student A: 3.25

Math grade for Student B: 3.24

 

In example one, in Waukesha, both students get a final GPA for math of 3.33 (even though, in reality, one student achieved a grade .23 points higher than the other)

In example two, in Waukesha, Student A gets a final GPA in math of 3.67 and student B gets a 3.33 (even though only .01 separated the students in reality)

 

Again, does this make sense to anyone?

 

Just out of curiosity - is your son actually in 4 AP classes that he can get college credit for taking a test at the end of the year? Granted, I went to a private school smaller than any of the Waukesha schools, but they didn't allow anyone below juniors to take AP classes, and even then they wouldn't let you take more than 2-3 at a time, just because of the added workload. Does "AP" still mean a college-level class that prepares you to take a test to earn college credit, or does it mean just any "advanced" class?

 

Yes, is in 4 AP classes, but they do not earn college credits, nor are they weighted any differently at the Freshmen level. They are labled AP because they are more "advanced" than the "standard" classes that a freshmen is expected to take (example: AP prep English 9 vs. English 9). Teachers make recommendations as to who should take AP classes. There are 18 AP classes at the Soph, Junior, and Senior levels that are weighted more in regards to GPA. Whether or not any of these courses count towards college credit, I'm not sure.

[whizkid]

Officially the term AP means a class that meets the standards of the college board AP program. Students take standardized tests in the subjects in May which are scored on a 1 to 5 scale. Depending on the college scores of 3,4,5 may result in college credit. The term AP shouldn't really be used if the classes are something else. Taking 4 true AP classes as a freshman is highly unusual, it's hard to imagine a school allowing that.

 

Upon rereading though, you wrote AP prep which sounds like a class to prepare for a later actual AP class. Many schools would just refer to that as honors.

[Patrick425]

Wizkid, looking at the title of my son's classes, it appears you are correct. AP Prep Biology, AP Prep English, Intro to AP Social Studies, Honors Geometry. For whatever reason, people (parents, students) just refer to these classes as AP classes and not there real name of AP prep or Honors.

 

I'm assuming the 18 classes truly listed as AP (and get extra weight) meet the standards you mentioned.

[RightFieldCoder]

I have something that's nagging me. There is a new pop song called Thrift Shop. I can't find info on what song(s) it samples from. I know it does, because it sounds familiar. Both the lyrical melody and the sax line. Can anyone who is better with remembering pop songs/artists be able to help me?

[M Skjellyfetti]

Although the grading system seems a little bit wacky, I don't find it strange that two people with different scores could end up with the same GPA. This would be true in a more conventional system as well. For example, if two students ended with final grades of 86 and 84, both would receive a B even though they had different scores. They would likewise end up with the same GPA even though one student had a slightly better grade.

[M Skjellyfetti]

Although the grading system seems a little bit wacky, I don't find it strange that two people with different scores could end up with the same GPA. This would be true in a more conventional system as well. For example, if two students ended with final grades of 86 and 84, both would receive a B even though they had different scores. They would likewise end up with the same GPA even though one student had a slightly better grade.

[Patrick425]

Although the grading system seems a little bit wacky, I don't find it strange that two people with different scores could end up with the same GPA. This would be true in a more conventional system as well. For example, if two students ended with final grades of 86 and 84, both would receive a B even though they had different scores. They would likewise end up with the same GPA even though one student had a slightly better grade.

 

This has been brought to my attention by another person. I've been out of school for over 25 years and, to be honest, I really never gave a ton of thought to how GPA was calculated when I was in HS and College. It's not so much your example that bothers me. 86 and 84 are really not that far apart. It's when 86 and 84 are used to calculate pretty different GPA (see my "example 2" in one of my recent posts). Waukesha uses standardized grading for everything. Which means they grade everything on a four point scale. I don't mind this. In fact, I think it's good to correlate everything to the same scale used for GPA. However, Waukesha, like everyplace else I guess, has hung up over letter grades. So, if a student gets a 3.18 final GPA in a class, they feel the need to convert this to a letter grade and then back to a GPA grade. Why not just keep everyone's GPA for every class? Then take the average (I have no problem giving extra weight to AP classes) and the result is your final total GPA.

 

I don't get this obsession with letter grades. When you go to college web sites and look at their admission policies, it never list the letter grade that they are looking for in a student, it talks about GPA.

 

colleges calculate based on your unweighted GPA for admissions. My son's 5 point something GPA wound up being a 3.7 unweighted.

 

Really? So they view the student who took the minimal level courses and easy electives the same as the student who took several AP courses and more challenging electives? I really hope that's not the case, because I don't agree with that at all.

[whizkid]

The high school is interested in letter grades because your son's high school transcript will have a letter grade for each semester of the classes that he completed. The transcript will be sent to the colleges he applies to. Those letter grades are what is used to compute the overall GPA which is also on his transcript. Colleges expect to see letter grades.

 

UW schools generally use unweighted GPA. Some colleges will use weighted, some will have their own procedure for recalculating GPA, taking out Phy Ed, Health, maybe even art and music classes for an academic GPA. But all of them will look at the transcript and see what kind of classes they took, easy ones, lots of honors and APs etc. Often when your son's guidance counselor writes a letter or fills out a form for college admission his senior year they will make a statement or check a box indicating the academic rigor of the student's high school courses. Most rigorous, rigorous etc. which is in comparison to what other students at the high school generally take. Those letters or forms are sent to colleges as part of the admission process. That helps level the playing field for kids who attend small rural schools which may not offer a lot of honors or AP classes.