I skipped a grade; can i use that as an "excuse" for leniency for colleges?

my gpa and extracurriculars have been kind of inconsistent over theyears; meaning i have mostly a's but they fluctuate in terms of imporvement and deimprovent; extracurriculars fairly modest; one officer postion. is there any way i can use my skipping a grade as a way to explain this? maybe as far as maturity and stuff goes?