With AP (advanced placement) classes, they are weighted so worth more. An A in an AP class is worth more than an A in a regular class because it is harder. The student also earns college credits. So it’s possible to have higher than a 4.0 GPA
Difficulty should be rewarded. Back in my day, we didn’t have AP classes so a 4.0 was as high as you got. Our valedictorian was smarter than the rest of us who were taking all the upper level math and science classes. She played the system and took DE which was a work study class for half a day. IOW, if you had a job at the local Dairy Queen and showed up on time, you got a 100 all year long. The rest of us not so smart kids got 95 studying out backsides off for real classes.
Yeah, I’m still holding a grudge over that even though I was no where near the top of the class. The Spanish language requirement bombed my GPA. So did the math teacher who couldn’t have anyone make a higher grade than his special little princess so when I asked why my grade was lower than what it should have been, he got out his grade book and dropped it another point.