Sooo... I've been trying to figure out how to calculate my GPA on a 4.0 scale and I'm kinda confused. Is anyone able to break down the process for me?
Sure, I'd be happy to explain how to calculate your GPA on a 4.0 scale!
Step 1: First, you need to assign each course grade a point value. Here is the general scale:
- A (90-100%): 4.0
- B (80-89%): 3.0
- C (70-79%): 2.0
- D (60-69%): 1.0
- F (below 60%): 0
Step 2: Next, multiply the point value of each grade by the number of credits that course was worth. For example, if you got a B (which equals 3.0 on the scale) in a 3-credit course, you would find that this contributes 9.0 "quality points" to your GPA (3.0 x 3).
Step 3: Add up the total number of credits. In this example, if you took five 3-credit courses, you would have a total of 15 credits.
Step 4: Do the same with the quality points. If those five courses yielded grades of A, B, B, C, and D, you would have quality point totals of 12 (4.0 x 3), 9 (3.0 x 3), 9 (3.0 x 3), 6 (2.0 x 3), and 3 (1.0 x 3), respectively, which totals up to 39 quality points (12+9+9+6+3).
Step 5: The final step is to divide your total quality points by your total credits. So if you have 39 quality points and 15 total credits, your GPA would be 2.6 (39 ¸ 15).
This is the basic way to calculate your GPA on a 4.0 scale. However, note that many high schools count honors, AP, or IB classes as more than 4.0 on the scale (“weighted GPA”), accounting for the increased difficulty of these classes. Make sure to consult your school policy to know if they use a weighted scale, in which case your calculation might be slightly different.
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