Most American high schools use a grading system to measure student achievement. The grades can be combines to create a grade point average, or GPA. Schools use GPAs to rank students, as in class rank. Colleges often want to know high school students' GPAs to determine admission. High school students can determine their own GPA through simple mathematics.
GPA and Honor Points
The first step to determine a GPA is to understand honor points. Honor points are numeric values provided to letter grades. The following is the typical breakdown of honor points for standard grades:
- 4.0 points for each A
- 3.7 points for each A-
- 3.3 points for each B+
- 3.0 points for each B
- 2.7 points for each B-
- 2.3 points for each C+
- 2.0 points for each C
- 1.7 points for each C-
- 1.3 points for each D+
- 1.0 points for each D
- 0.7 points for each D-
- 0.0 points for each F
Students receive a letter grade for each course they complete. Those grades are then awarded a value. Consider the following: a student takes six courses in one school term. The final grades include an A, and A-, a B, a B-, a C, and an F. In addition to earning letter grades, the student will also receive the following honor points: 4, 3.7, 3, 2.7, 2, and 0.
Term GPA Calculation
Once honor points have been awarded, the GPA can be calculated. Students add up all of the honor points for each class taken and then divide that number by the number of classes taken. This is the same as determining an average.
In the previous section an example of final grades and honor points were presented. Using this example a GPA can be calculate. Each of the honor points needs to be added together: 4+3.7+3+2.7+2+0 = 15.4 total honor points. The next step is to divide the total honor points by the number of classes. In this example the number of classes is six: 15.4 / 6 = 2.56. The GPA for this example is 2.56.
Cumulative GPA Calculation
A cumulative GPA is the overall average of all grades from all school terms. A student graduating from high school would have a cumulative GPA based on all final grades from ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade.
Calculation of a cumulative GPA is similar to a term GPA calculation. The only difference is that all grades on a transcript are used for honor points and the total number of classes taken are divided into the total honor point number.
Understanding how to calculate a GPA is important for high school students. Many colleges have a GPA range for admission, so students can research colleges that are a good match for them based on their high school GPA. Today, high schools have computer programs that configure GPA for students; however, students can benefit from a basic understanding of computing their own GPA.
Kerrie Troseth - Kerrie is a licensed school counselor who works exclusively with adolescents. As a school counselor she is trained in the areas of ...
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