:) Yay! Now I can't wait, either! ^^ I take it your greeting cards finally managed to show up? XD Anyway, I hope you like the ornament! I wound up using an old aquarium lightbulb for it, so it's long and thin instead of a normal lightbulb shape. It gave me a flatter surface to paint the image I chose.
Heehee, thanks! I'll explain the grades for you, too (yay, U.S. culture lessons!):
A 4.0 is something called a GPA (grade point average) - basically, it's a spinoff of the ABCDF system by which each of the letter grades are assigned a number value, and the grade numbers for each class are averaged together (weighted by the number of credits the course is worth; so an A in a 3-credit course is worth three times as much as an A in a 1-credit course) to get a picture of how your grades were cumulatively. The numbers assigned are as follows: A = 4.0 C+ = 2.4 D- = 0.7 A- = 3.7 C = 2.0 F = 0.0 B+ = 3.4 C- = 1.7 B = 3.0 D+ = 1.4 B- = 2.7 D = 1.0
So basically a 4.0 means I got an A in all 7 of the courses I took last semester.
A GPA (sometimes also referred to as a "cume" - short for "cumulative" and pronounced "kyoom") can look at a single semester or a transcript in its entirety - students who achieve above a certain GPA (the number varies from college to college) for the semester get onto something called the "Dean's List" which is basically the equivalent of a high school's Honor Roll (basically, just a list of students who did well... it serves no particular purpose, but it makes parents happy). I recall once my mother took one little course at a community college (= cheapest form of higher education around) and got an A; they put her on the Dean's List because she technically had a 4.0, but we were all laughing because it was just for one silly little class she took for no reason but sheer boredom. My mother is not happy unless she is working toward some new certification, degree, or title.
At graduation at a university (and some high schools), the student whose GPA over the course of their study for the degree is the valedictorian - they usually have him or her give a speech. Sometimes the saludatorian (student with the second higest GPA) also speaks.
For whatever reason, GPAs are only calculated for students studying for high school or college degrees. They don't bother with the younger students.
Apart from ranking studens, GPAs are often used in college admissions - different universities have different minimum GPAs required to get into the school (of course, just the GPA doesn't get you accepted, but it's a factor). The university I attend, Sacred Heart, is about a mid-level difficulty school to get into with a minimum 3.0 (B) GPA in high school to be accepted, almost all students with a 3.2 or higher get in, anything above a 3.5 and they practically beg you to come and throw thousands of dollars in merit scholarships at you to get you to pick them. Comparatively speaking, to get into a pre-med program or Ivy League school, the absolute minimum is a 3.7 (A-) and, actually, most Ivy League schools won't take even that unless every other part of your application is spotless (or you have friends in high places XD). Community colleges, on the other hand, will accept students with a 2.0 (C) in high school. I got out of high school with a 4.07 (the extra .07 was due to a weighted honors course), so I could have gotten into... basically wherever I felt like, I just didn't feel like straying too far from home and Sacred Heart has the best art program in the area. :P Not to mention its been gaining more and more attention in recent years and therefore may be considered a very prestigious school someday in the reasonably near future. XD we have the endorsement of some billionaire business executive and Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg already, who knows what next?
XD So, in a nutshell, that's sort of how a GPA (and much of the American college admissions process) works. If any of that didn't make sense, or if I used any terms in there that you're also unfamiliar with, please let me know and I'll explain. :)
Heehee, thanks! I'll explain the grades for you, too (yay, U.S. culture lessons!):
A 4.0 is something called a GPA (grade point average) - basically, it's a spinoff of the ABCDF system by which each of the letter grades are assigned a number value, and the grade numbers for each class are averaged together (weighted by the number of credits the course is worth; so an A in a 3-credit course is worth three times as much as an A in a 1-credit course) to get a picture of how your grades were cumulatively. The numbers assigned are as follows:
A = 4.0 C+ = 2.4 D- = 0.7
A- = 3.7 C = 2.0 F = 0.0
B+ = 3.4 C- = 1.7
B = 3.0 D+ = 1.4
B- = 2.7 D = 1.0
So basically a 4.0 means I got an A in all 7 of the courses I took last semester.
A GPA (sometimes also referred to as a "cume" - short for "cumulative" and pronounced "kyoom") can look at a single semester or a transcript in its entirety - students who achieve above a certain GPA (the number varies from college to college) for the semester get onto something called the "Dean's List" which is basically the equivalent of a high school's Honor Roll (basically, just a list of students who did well... it serves no particular purpose, but it makes parents happy). I recall once my mother took one little course at a community college (= cheapest form of higher education around) and got an A; they put her on the Dean's List because she technically had a 4.0, but we were all laughing because it was just for one silly little class she took for no reason but sheer boredom. My mother is not happy unless she is working toward some new certification, degree, or title.
At graduation at a university (and some high schools), the student whose GPA over the course of their study for the degree is the valedictorian - they usually have him or her give a speech. Sometimes the saludatorian (student with the second higest GPA) also speaks.
For whatever reason, GPAs are only calculated for students studying for high school or college degrees. They don't bother with the younger students.
Apart from ranking studens, GPAs are often used in college admissions - different universities have different minimum GPAs required to get into the school (of course, just the GPA doesn't get you accepted, but it's a factor). The university I attend, Sacred Heart, is about a mid-level difficulty school to get into with a minimum 3.0 (B) GPA in high school to be accepted, almost all students with a 3.2 or higher get in, anything above a 3.5 and they practically beg you to come and throw thousands of dollars in merit scholarships at you to get you to pick them. Comparatively speaking, to get into a pre-med program or Ivy League school, the absolute minimum is a 3.7 (A-) and, actually, most Ivy League schools won't take even that unless every other part of your application is spotless (or you have friends in high places XD). Community colleges, on the other hand, will accept students with a 2.0 (C) in high school. I got out of high school with a 4.07 (the extra .07 was due to a weighted honors course), so I could have gotten into... basically wherever I felt like, I just didn't feel like straying too far from home and Sacred Heart has the best art program in the area. :P Not to mention its been gaining more and more attention in recent years and therefore may be considered a very prestigious school someday in the reasonably near future. XD we have the endorsement of some billionaire business executive and Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg already, who knows what next?
XD So, in a nutshell, that's sort of how a GPA (and much of the American college admissions process) works. If any of that didn't make sense, or if I used any terms in there that you're also unfamiliar with, please let me know and I'll explain. :)
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