Straight As?

Every single subject, or very close to it.

"Straight As" technically means you got an A in every single class - no Bs, no Cs, nothing lower. But in casual conversation? People definitely stretch this. Someone might call themselves a "straight A student" if they got mostly As with maybe a couple Bs thrown in. It's one of those terms that gets exaggerated. If someone's putting it on a resume or application though, they better have the transcript to back it up. In formal contexts, it really does mean all As, no exceptions. The term comes from report cards listing all your grades in a row - when they're all As, that's a "straight" line of As. Some schools actually distinguish between A+, A, and A-, but "straight As" typically counts all of those as part of the streak. People love to remember their academic past a bit more gloriously than reality!

Yeah, it just means you're smart, a good student, and got top-level grades in all your classes.

Usually every subject, but it wouldn't be uncommon to say something like, "I had straight A's all through college, except for the B I got in Economics." If you don't add an exception, most people will assume you mean every single subject.

Straight A generally means a student with nearly perfect grades or simply a high-achieving one. It doesn't literally mean an A in every single subject, but certainly close to it.

I would only consider someone who got an A in EVERY subject to be a straight A student. I don't know where the idea that you could get a B in one or two subjects and still be straight A came from. You either got straight (all) As or you didn't. If you got 4 As and a B, you're still a good student. But you are not a Straight A student.

To my English brain, it can mean both. They are just trying to explain that they were very smart.

Straight As means all As. There's no ambiguity. If you are a straight A student you haven't received a grade under an A.

To get straight As means you got an A average in every subject. You can get lower grades on individual assignments as long as your average for the class is an A. In highschool we had "A honor roll" and "A/B honor roll" awards that were given out at the end of the year. If you successfully got Straight As, you would be granted the "A honor roll" award, and if you got only As and Bs, you would be granted the "A/B honor roll" award.

I was a straight "C" student other than a few "Ds" and a "B" in PE

every subject. (btw I'm a straight A student too) :)

It looks like there is a difference of opinion in the comments - to me a "straight A" student would have to have got top grades ("A" as it used to be years ago before A\*'s or other numbered grading systems) in \*every\* subject they took an exam in at a certain point in time. If they got a B in one out of 10 subjects they would not be a straight A student.

All of them. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/straight-a?q=straight-A

To me it implies an A in every class, or at least the vast majority of them.

It’s clearly an American phrase and means all As. Of course lots of people lie.

All As on any one report card would be the minimum achievement, but they'd need to specify that. "Straight A" as a general claim means they never got any letter grade other than an A for all grades and classes up to the point the claim is made. A- (minus) counts. I paid my son for his grades--that was his "allowance". I offered a $50 bonus if he got all As on any one report card. He never did, but he tried. Maybe I should have made it $100.

I think it's more likely to mean literally nothing but As if it's being used to describe the recent past--talking about someone's grades in the last term or right after graduation. If you're talking about someone who hasn't been in school for 10+ years it's more possible for it to mean "mostly As".

According to your profile, you're from Sweden. If your school system is anything like the Dutch system, it's incredibly rare to have the maximum score on everything. In the Netherlands, that's about 2 students per year in the whole country. In American schools, I feel like it's more like 5-10 students per school per year. I'm not sure whether my idea about American schools is correct, but I do know it's more common there than here.

All A's, straight in a single row.

For me, it depends on the length of time we are talking. For one term, I'd say you have to have all A's to be a straight A student. Over a longer period of time, it needs to be all or mostly all to be considered a straight A student. But it's somewhat subjective depending on who is talking about it and why.

It means all of them.

Also I usually see some punctuation on that. Straight A's or straight "A"s. Neither is technically correct but it disambiguates from "as." It's kind of irregular. I just checked Google and for the entry under the academic mark it lists A's as correct.