James Decartes essays

James Decartes essays World War I left many families dead, creating large numbers of orphans. Jamaie (later to become James) Decartes was one of those orphans. His father died in the trenches in France, and his mother was stolen away, never to be seen again. James was 14 when this happened, he hid under floor boards when his mother was taken away. His humble french hometown village, was over run with german foot traffic, traveling to and from the front line. James decided this was no life for him, so he ran south, towards Switzerland, which he knew wasn't involved in the war, trying to seek asylum. He traveled by the cover of night, seeking charity from locals, and trying dodge the german military machine. James refused to be beaten by the germans, he would sabotage trucks, and other equipment, to do his part for his country. His spirit was undominatable, which is probably why his sire Sven Troile took notice of him. Sven had recently left Russia, due to the war, and the hardships with kindred p olitics there. Sven sought to establish a brujah presence in the toreador dominated france after the war. For this Sven would need help, taking notice of James, he watched over him and his travel, not letting himself be known. James may very well have died, if it werent for Sven, but James didn't know that. Eventually James made it to switzerland, being a neutral party in the war, the soilders would not let him enter the country. Confused as to what to do than, he started towards spain, but feared that he would find no security there. Along his way towards spain, he met up with a swiss farmer outside the country lines (through some persuasion down the road from sven), he was invited to be smuggled inside the country. This is when he first met Sven, whos very presence awed James. James, who was still young and impressionable, quickly latched onto Svens magnetic personality. James thought Sven was hiding for the war also, which gav...

How GPA Conversion Works, With Charts

How GPA Conversion Works, With Charts SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Because final class grades are usually given either as letters (A-, B+, etc.) or as percentiles (87, 92, and so on), you might be a little stuck onhow to convert them into the decimals used to calculate GPA. No worries - this article is here to help! Keep reading to see how to translate all your grades into GPA-ready numbers. What Is a GPA? GPA stands for "grade point average" and it is exactly that: an average of all the final class grades that you received during your high school career.The GPA scale converts the letter and percentile grades your school gives youinto a decimaltypically ranging from 0.0 to 4.0, and then uses those decimals to calculate one summary number. Your GPA is one of the most important pieces of your college application. It allows colleges to very quickly assess your intelligence, skills, work ethic, and willingness to challenge yourself. At the same time, it’s a way for them to see how you stack up againstother people who graduated from your school, and all of the other applicants. Think about it: for an admissions officer, it's easy to have one handy numberthat compares you with other applicants at a glance. It's way harder to have to round up eachof your grades, then compare them with each of the other person's grades, and so on and so forth for thousands and thousands of applicants. Sisyphus thinks about going through applicants one grade at a time and is all, "Uh, no thanks, I'll stick with the giant boulder." How Are Letters and Percentiles Converted Into GPA Scale? Different schools use different systems to convert your grades into your GPA. Sometimes, they take the difficulty level of your classes into account, and sometimes all classes are treated the same. Sure, they're both pumpkins - but a weighted comparison would be helpful. Unweighted GPA Conversion Most schoolsuse anunweighted GPA. This means that all of your final grades get equal treatment, sogrades earned in honors/AP courses get the same numerical value as grades earned in standard/college prep courses. In other words, if Matangets an A in AP Calculus and Camille gets an A in standard level Chemistry, they will both convert these A’s to 4.0. Here is the typical conversion scale for an unweighted GPA: Letter Grade Percentile GPA A+ 97-100 4.0 A 93-96 4.0 A- 90-92 3.7 B+ 87-89 3.3 B 83-86 3.0 B- 80-82 2.7 C+ 77-79 2.3 C 73-76 2.0 C- 70-72 1.7 D+ 67-69 1.3 D 65-66 1.0 F Below 65 0.0 Weighted GPA Conversion Some schools also calculate a weighted GPA. This grade point average takes into account how challenging each course actually is. So,final class grades in Honors-level courses have .5 added to them, while final grades in AP/IB courses have 1 added to them. For this reason, weighted GPA scales usually range from 0.0 to 5.0. In our previous example, since Matan's Acame from an AP class, it would convert to 5.0. Meanwhile Camille’s A, which came from a standard class, would become 4.0. The typical weighted GPA conversion scale looks like this: Letter Grade Percentile Honors GPA AP/IB GPA A+ 97-100 4.5 5.0 A 93-96 4.5 5.0 A- 90-92 4.2 4.7 B+ 87-89 3.8 4.3 B 83-86 3.5 4.0 B- 80-82 3.2 3.7 C+ 77-79 2.8 3.3 C 73-76 2.5 3.0 C- 70-72 2.2 2.7 D+ 67-69 1.8 2.3 D 65-66 1.5 2.0 F Below 65 0.0 0.0 Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Steps Let's work through a couple of examplesto seehow grade conversion works for a transcript that uses letter grades and one that uses percentile grades. How to Convert Letter Grades Into a GPA First, let's check outa transcript where final grades are given as letters by taking a look at the high school career of renowned secret operativeJohn Doe: Here's how its conversion works. Using the unweighted conversion table from before, we can see that, year-by-year, the grades John earned are: 9th Grade 10th Grade th Grade 12th Grade 2.7 2.3 3.0 4.0 2.7 4.0 3.3 3.0 2.3 3.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 2.7 2.7 3.3 3.7 3.0 3.3 4.0 3.3 3.3 3.7 2.3 2.0 4.0 2.0 2.0 4.0 3.0 4.0 3.0 Now, to figure out John'sGPA, first we have to add up his grades to get the sum. Then we have to count how many classes he took. Finally, we divide the sum by the number of classes and round to the nearest tenth: 9th Grade 10th Grade th Grade 12th Grade Total Grade Sum 28.0 25.3 27.0 21.6 101.9 Number of Classes 8 8 9 7 32 So: 101.9 / 32 = 3.1 (John's cumulative high school GPA) To figure out the GPA John would submit on college applications, we just leave off the senior year grades and repeat the same process: 28 + 25.3 + 27 = 80.3 (sum of final grades from 9th to th grade) 8 + 8 + 9 = 25 (number of classes taken from 9th to th grade) 80.3 / 25 = 3.2 (GPA sent on college applications) How to Convert Percentiles Into a GPA The process for converting percentiles into GPA is almost exactly the same. Let’s see it in detailby calculating the GPA of John’s archrival and spy nemesis, Jane Smith: First, we'll convert her grades into GPA scale, and then find the sum and the number of courses she took: 9th Grade 10th Grade th Grade 12th Grade Total 4.0 3.3 3.7 4.0 3.7 2.7 4.0 3.7 3.3 2.3 3.0 4.0 2.3 4.0 4.0 3.3 4.0 3.0 2.7 3.7 3.3 3.7 3.3 2.3 3.0 3.3 3.7 3.0 3.7 3.3 4.0 3.3 Sum 27.3 25.6 28.4 27.3 108.6 Number of Courses Taken 8 8 8 8 32 So: 108.6 / 32 = 3.4 (Jane's cumulative high school GPA) And, leaving off the senior year we see that: 81.3 /24 = 3.4 (the GPA shewill submit to colleges) What’s Next? Still confused about how weighted and unweighted GPA calculations work? Let us help you figure it all out with our comprehensive explanation. Worried about how your GPA will measure up? We explain what a good or bad GPA score is, and run the numbers on the average high school student. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: