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Q: 16/f-

My guidence counselor tells me I don't live up to my potential. I guess it's because I don't work as hard in school as I should. I get A's and B's, but this year I've gotten a couple C's. However, I am in advanced classes, 2 of which are AP and I will get college credit for. But, she tells me that I should be getting better grades. I guess she knows this because I'm predicted to get about a 30 or 31 on my ACT scores (I got a 25 on the practice one as a freshman, and they figure you gain 2 points every year, but I gained 3, so it could be either). And, I just took the PSAT and I'm in the 92 percentile.

So my question is, Will my really good test scores make up at all for my lax grades? And which matters more to *most* universities?

Thanks in advance =)

It depends on what you want to do and how competitive you want to be. Test scores will not "make up" for lax grades, colleges look at both scores about evenly. A lot of scholarships I applied for said you had to have, say, a 27 on the ACT and 3.4 GPA. If you got a 34 on the ACT and had a 3.0 GPA, you missed the cutoff and can't apply.

So do your best on the grades. Of course it's your councelor's job to tell you to do better no matter who you are, if she can get you to work harder by telling you that those Cs will ruin your future she will, but if you really are working hard and can't get better grades don't freak out.

Rating: 5

Thanks =)

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I've been in the advice column over five years now so I think I've pretty much heard it all... the love, the hate, the random insanity. I don't take it too seriously, so I'm not always giving the best advice, but my column is fun to read!

I am a 23 year old electrical engineer, a feminist, a Christian. I don't know everything but I can sure pretend to.

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