Stop Grade Padding

Re “Level the Playing Field for Applicants,” Commentary May 16: I concur with Norman Matloff. Adding an extra point to advanced placement courses skews the playing field unfairly for college applicants. Let me add to that the five points given for an honors class A. At least one private high school in the Los Angeles area gives freshman the choice of taking Spanish I or Spanish I honors, thus earning a five-point A.

When I went to high school 30 years ago, there was Spanish I through Spanish V. All courses gave four points to the A. The bonus was that the kids who made it to the higher levels fulfilled a foreign language requirement for college in high school. The same went for kids taking calculus or physics.

Shouldn’t college credit be enough reward for passing an AP class? This unfair weighting of the grades places more emphasis on SAT test scores, an issue being hotly debated by the University of California system as well.

Sarah Vinnedge

Pacific Palisades