How GPA is calculated
Each letter grade converts to grade points on a 4.0 scale. Multiply each course's points by its credit hours to get quality points, add them all up, and divide by the total credits taken. That credit weighting is the part people forget: an A in a one-credit seminar moves your average far less than an A in a four-credit core course.
The standard conversion
| Letter | Points | Typical % |
|---|---|---|
| A / A+ | 4.0 | 93–100 |
| A− | 3.7 | 90–92 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 87–89 |
| B | 3.0 | 83–86 |
| B− | 2.7 | 80–82 |
| C+ | 2.3 | 77–79 |
| C | 2.0 | 73–76 |
| D | 1.0 | 63–66 |
| F | 0.0 | below 60 |
Some institutions award 4.3 for an A+ and some do not use plus and minus grades at all. Check your registrar's published scale, because the difference compounds across a degree.
Weighted and unweighted
Many US high schools add extra points for honours, AP or IB courses, so an A in an AP class scores 5.0 and a weighted GPA can exceed 4.0. College admissions offices often recalculate to their own unweighted scale, so both numbers are worth knowing.
Cumulative GPA
To combine this semester with previous work, enter your existing GPA and the credits it was earned across. The calculator re-weights everything together rather than averaging the two GPAs, which would be wrong whenever the credit loads differ. To turn a single grade into a percentage, the percentage calculator does it in one step.