How GPA is calculated
Your grade point average is a credit-weighted average of the grade points you earned. Each letter grade maps to a number of grade points on the 4.0 scale, and each course's grade points are weighted by how many credit hours it carries. The formula is:
The numerator — grade points times credits — is often called quality points. You total the quality points across every course, then divide by the total credit hours.
The standard 4.0 grade scale
| Grade | Points | Grade | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 4.0 | C | 2.0 |
| A− | 3.7 | C− | 1.7 |
| B+ | 3.3 | D+ | 1.3 |
| B | 3.0 | D | 1.0 |
| B− | 2.7 | F | 0.0 |
| C+ | 2.3 |
Worked example
Imagine a semester with three courses:
Notice the 4-credit Biology A pulls the average up more than the 3-credit courses — that's the “weighted” part working. A grade in a heavier course moves your GPA more than the same grade in a lighter one.
Semester vs cumulative GPA
A semester GPA uses only that term's courses. A cumulative GPA uses every course you've ever taken. To extend this calculator into a cumulative figure, simply add all of your past courses as additional rows, or weight your prior cumulative GPA by its total credits and combine it with the new semester.