Grade Point Average, commonly abbreviated as GPA, is a cumulative score representing one’s overall performance in a particular subject matter. It is a calculation mainly used in educational systems (in junior high, high school, and at the college and university level as well as for accredited online universities) to score a student’s overall mean of individual grades spanning across all classes they are enrolled in. For more information on education scholarships, visit Scholarship-Programs.net.
Grading systems greatly vary from country to country and this article and calculator is based around the most common grading scale used in the United States educational system. With this particular scale, the following letter grades are possibly values: A, B, C, D, and F. However, some American educational institutions have started to replace the letter grade F with the letter grade E, making a scale consisting of: A, B, C, D, and E. In both scales, the letter grade A represents the highest mark rewarded and the letter grade F or E represents the lowest mark rewarded. The F or E mark is considered a failing grade which is generally worth no credit.
Using this scale, the following point values are assigned to each individual letter grade: A+ = 4.0, A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C- = 1.7, D+ = 1.3, D = 1.0, D- = 0.7, and E/F = 0. Depending on your particular institution, you may or may not calculate different score variations between + and – modifiers. If your school just uses whole numbers for all grades, make sure to not select any + or – grade modifiers when using this calculator.
If you’d rather do the math yourself, it’s easy to learn how to calculate your own GPA. To determine your own grade point average you need a list of your grades and how many credit hours each individual course is worth. The formula consists of first multiplying the point value of each grade awarded times the amount of credit hours the class is worth. For example, a B in a 4 credit hour class would be 3 x 4 = 12 points. Total all of these individual point values for each class and then divide by your total number of credit hours taken to determine your actual grade point average.
