Does the author not know that GPAs are based on your entire time at school, not just senior year? Or maybe this is meant to show that the main character is an extremely bad student who somehow hasn't realized yet that senior year isn't the only year that matters.
The author is Australian, but the book is set in the US, so I’m guessing this is a difference in Australian and US schools based on Tannat’s explanation of Canadian schools below.
Um, here (in Canada) your last year of high school is the one used to apply for universities (or colleges). So, the only year that matters IS the last year, and really only the first semester of the last year (as long as your grades for the second semester don't fall below a certain point).
That’s interesting. I didn’t know that about Canada. This book is set in the US where colleges get your grades from all four years, but I just checked to see where the author is from. She’s from Australia, so I wonder if they are like Canada, and the author just didn’t realize US schools are different.
I suspect so. I never realized that US schools used all four years to calculate GPAs. I thought they mostly relied on SATs with grades being just the icing on the cake. Even when I had a GPA in university, I think it was calculated per semester.
Huh, I hadn't realized GPA was done like that in Canada. I wonder if I'd have been less stressed throughout high school if it were that way in the US?
As for whether GPA really mattered in the end, adult me says "eh, not that much compared to SATs," but it sure felt like it mattered a LOT when I was a teen.
In general we don't use GPAs much in Canada, although this may vary somewhat across the provinces and I have been out of school for a while. We always used percentage grades and averages of those.
Grades felt like they mattered because they reflected how well you were doing, but you never had the sense that it would haunt you later on other than psychologically if you got a bad grade.
As for whether GPA really mattered in the end, adult me says "eh, not that much compared to SATs," but it sure felt like it mattered a LOT when I was a teen.
Grades felt like they mattered because they reflected how well you were doing, but you never had the sense that it would haunt you later on other than psychologically if you got a bad grade.