Hey everyone! I overheard some senior talking about how he has an unweighted GPA higher than 4.0. Is that even possible? I thought unweighted GPAs were just out of 4.0. Could someone help me understand this better?
Sure thing! I can see how this might be a bit confusing. An unweighted GPA is typically on a scale of 4.0 and represents your raw academic performance without any "weight" or additional points for harder classes. This means that an A (regardless of whether it's in a regular, honors, or AP class) translates to a 4.0, a B to a 3.0, and so forth. So an unweighted GPA cannot exceed 4.0.
However, a weighted GPA takes into account the difficulty level of your courses. For example, many high schools will add additional grade points for honors, AP, or IB classes - perhaps .5 for an honors class and 1.0 for an AP/IB class. This means that if you receive an A in an AP class, it could be worth a 5.0 instead of a 4.0, and this would make it possible to have a GPA higher than 4.0 (though it'd be a weighted GPA, not an unweighted GPA).
So, it seems there could be a little miscommunication here. Maybe the senior was referring to his weighted GPA instead. I hope this clears up the confusion!
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