Many first time A.P. students feel as if they’re drowning in the sea of homework that accompanies their choice to take those especially difficult classes. This becomes especially irritating when friends, who elected not to take an Advanced Placement class, are pulling off good grades in easier classes.

Well for the class of 2014 and onward this will no longer be the case. A new system for calculating grade point average, one in which A.P. classes are weighted by an additional three tenths of a point will be put into place.

For example, an A or an A-plus in an A.P. class will be awarded a 4.3, an A-minus a 4.0, and so on and so forth. The change is significant because it will affect class rankings that are used to determine the senior class’s valedictorian and salutatorian, and because many colleges consider GPAs when considering applicants.

Students and parents have voiced concerns more difficult classes were not being allotted a greater weight. This was especially apparent in class ranking, where perhaps the student ranked fourth in a class had taken no A.P. classes and finished with a 3.9, whereas the student ranked twentieth in the class had taken four A.P. classes and finished with a 3.7. Students taking A.P. classes, and their parents, have suggested A.P. classes should be weighted to reflect the increased difficulty. Some have said the students who take A.P. classes, deserve a better ranking. They challenged themselves in a way non-A.P. students did not. They say if class rank is really supposed to determine who the best students are, then weighting A.P. classes would make the system more accurate.

Not everyone agrees, some parents and students say this system will discriminate against those students who are perhaps less naturally able in academics but work to the best of their ability in regular grade level classes and earn a high grade. School officials say they’re trying to strike a fair balance, “it’s not a perfect system, no matter what,” said Mr. Thuma.

The new system could eliminate the multiple valedictorians and salutatorians that have become common in each graduating class. Thuma says this was not one of the administration’s goals, but the more sensitive the system, the less probable it becomes that there will be as many people at the top.

The goal here is to create a slightly more sensitive system that would make class rank more accurate. Thuma said, though it is true that colleges look at a student’s GPA they look at many other aspects of a student’s record as well.

Susan Wertheimer, at the University of Vermont said that UVM doesn’t have a preference as to what kind of system for determining GPA a school uses. The university is happy to work with whatever system a student’s school uses. While the school looks at a student’s GPA, other factors, such as class rank and how a student’s record compares to the rest of the school, are viewed as more important, she added.

Thuma said that a college’s admission process involves more than simply looking at a student’s GPA. Wertheimer took a similar stance, saying that while the university wants students to work for the best grades they can get, grades by themselves aren’t always the bottom line. For example, seeing a C in A.P. Calculus on the transcript of a student who wishes to be an engineering major could raise a red flag. But seeing that same grade on the transcript of a student who wishes to be an English major would not be as alarming, since it shows that the student was pushing himself or herself to take difficult classes outside of his or her specific interests.

The change won’t become visible for a few years because it affects this year’s ninth graders and all subsequent graduating classes.

This isn’t the first time the high school has tried to weight course grades to better reflect academic challenge and achievement. In 2009-2010, the school attempted to implement a new GPA system for the entire school, but they reversed course and dropped it because of the negative response from students and parents. The system didn’t include weighting A.P. classes; instead it awarded three tenths of a point more for an A-plus than an A. Some students called the change unfair, saying they would have put in extra effort to receive an A-plus if they had known it would have a greater weight. The school now treats an A and an A-plus the same when it comes to calculating GPA.

Other changes in grade weighting system could follow, as some students and parents push to make the system more accurate. Students who get an A for a Middlebury College course they take, for example, now boost their GPA by the same amount as a student who gets an A in one of the high school’s less-challenging classes. The same is true for students who take rigorous online classes through Virtual High School.

In both cases, the absence of weighting creates incentive for some grade conscientious students to avoid enrolling in challenging classes.