Depends on the teacher what they grade, how difficult the assignments are, and how lenient they are when they grade it. It is so teacher dependent that I can't believe colleges even consider grades when making admissions decisions.
I'd have to find the research but from what I understand grades are a better indication of college success than doing well on standardized tests. While there is a huge variation in what a grade means even within one school and certainly with others. I'm not quite sure why but I assume it based on kids who get good grades usually have good study habits.
Yes this doesn't really seem fair and it's why there are things like AP tests & standardized tests as well. It frustrating because for example the pass rates for AP varies at lot between schools. I know many a kid at DS's school got a B for classes they got 5's on the AP test. And I've heard students from other schools complain that that while they got A's in the class they barely passed (got a 3) on the AP's. Clearly these classes aren't the same class nor graded on the same scale.
