Have you ever wanted to know how to calculate your GPA? The attached document will explain key terms and letter grade GPA points.
What is a GPA and how do you get one?
Grade Point Averages (GPA’s) are calculated at the end of every semester. Each letter grade has a quality point value assigned. Standard level courses are weighted differently than honors or DE courses. Honors level and Pre-AICE courses are given an additional .5 weight and AP, AICE and DE courses are given an additional 1.0 weight to the letter grade. The GPA quality points are as follows:
Standard Courses Honors Courses DE/AP/AICE Courses
A=4.0 A=4.5 A=5.0
B=3.0 B=3.5 B=4.0
C=2.0 C=2.5 C=3.0
D=1.0 D=1.5 D=2.0
Your cumulative GPA includes all high school courses taken with a grade assigned. This includes high school level courses you may have taken while in middle school, for example Algebra 1, Spanish 1, Geometry, and/or Digital Information Technology taken in 7th or 8th grades.
How to Calculate your GPA: Your cumulative GPA is calculated by adding up the total number of grade points for every class you have taken that has a grade and dividing it by the total number of classes taken. An example of how to calculate your GPA is listed below.
English Honors | B |
Algebra 2 | C |
Biology | C |
Geography | A |
AP Psychology | A |
Physical Education | D |
Auto Mechanics Honors | A |
Based on the above grades, you would add 3.5 points for English, 2.0 for algebra, 2.0 for biology, 4.0 for geography, 5.0 for AP psychology, 1.0 for PE, 4.5 for auto mechanics which equals 22. Then you would divide 22 by 7, the amount of courses taken. This weighted GPA is a 3.14.
If you wanted to find your unweighted GPA, you would calculate every grade with the standard level quality points (using the 4.0 scale). The unweighted GPA for the above example grades is 2.85.
Please remember when taking a year-long course (i.e. Algebra 1, Geometry, Biology, US History), you would have to wait to calculate your GPA with that course because you are only issued a yearly grade and not a semester grade. Most of the time this grade isn’t available on your 4th quarter report card because the EOC, which is worth 30% of your overall course grade, hasn’t been received and calculated in yet.