YOUR COURSES
Grade, level, credits, year
COURSEGRADELEVELCR.YEARAC
“AC” marks a core academic course. Untick PE, art electives and the like to see the admissions-style GPA.
UNWEIGHTED3.56capped at 4.0
WEIGHTED3.834 Honors/AP/IB courses boosted
Bonus rules (schools differ)
Honors
AP
IB HL
ADMISSIONS-STYLE RECALCULATION3.502 non-academic courses removed, bonuses stripped. Colleges' own methods vary; some re-weight AP courses their own way.
By year (unweighted · weighted)Downward trend of 0.13 since 9th grade.
3.62
9th
3.49
10th
–
11th
–
12th
THE FORMULAGrade points × credits ÷ creditsEach grade becomes points; multiply by credits to get quality points; divide the total by total credits. A heavier course pulls the average more.
ACROSS YEARSCumulative builds slowlyThe transcript GPA blends all four years, so a strong junior year lifts a weak freshman year only gradually. Colleges also notice the trend.
IN COLLEGENo bonuses, fresh startCollege GPA is almost always unweighted, starts from zero, and uses credit hours that vary from 1 to 4 or more. See the college calculator.
ADMISSIONSRigor is read alongside GPAA 3.8 with several AP courses is usually read more favourably than a 4.0 of standard classes. Rough benchmarks: 3.0 is solid, 3.5 competitive, the most selective see 3.8–4.0.
GRADE POINTS · WITH TYPICAL BONUSES
GRADEREGULARHONORSAP / IB
A+4.04.55.0
A4.04.55.0
A−3.74.24.7
B+3.33.84.3
B3.03.54.0
B−2.73.23.7
C+2.32.83.3
C2.02.53.0
C−1.72.22.7
D+1.31.82.3
D1.01.52.0
F0.00.00.0
GPA → LETTER → PERCENT (APPROXIMATE)
4.0A93–100
3.7A−90–92
3.3B+87–89
3.0B83–86
2.7B−80–82
2.3C+77–79
2.0C73–76
1.0D65–69
0.0Fbelow 65
FREQUENTLY ASKED
Convert each grade to points (A = 4.0, B = 3.0 and so on), multiply by the course's credits to get quality points, add them up, and divide by total credits. With plus/minus grades use values like A− = 3.7 and B+ = 3.3.