Reference chart
GPA Scale Chart
By &Pixels, the studio that builds MyCalculator.to. The standard US scales. Your school handbook is the authority on the one your transcript uses.
Letters, percentages and grade points side by side, the weighted scale next to the unweighted one, and why the same transcript produces three different numbers.
What is the 4.0 GPA scale?
A grade point average converts letter grades into numbers, weights each by how many credits the course carried, and averages the result. On the standard scale an A is 4.0 and an F is 0.0, with a third of a point between each step, so a B+ is 3.3 and a B- is 2.7.
The figure only means something alongside the scale it came from. Unweighted stops at 4.0. Weighted adds points for harder courses and reaches 5.0. And a university will often ignore both and recalculate from the transcript. Three numbers, one student.
Letter grades to points
| Letter | Grade points | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| A+ | 4.0 | 97 to 100 |
| A | 4.0 | 93 to 96 |
| A- | 3.7 | 90 to 92 |
| B+ | 3.3 | 87 to 89 |
| B | 3.0 | 83 to 86 |
| B- | 2.7 | 80 to 82 |
| C+ | 2.3 | 77 to 79 |
| C | 2.0 | 73 to 76 |
| C- | 1.7 | 70 to 72 |
| D+ | 1.3 | 67 to 69 |
| D | 1.0 | 63 to 66 |
| D- | 0.7 | 60 to 62 |
| F | 0.0 | below 60 |
The percentage bands are the common ones and they are not universal. Plenty of schools set an A at 90 and above with no plus or minus at all, and some treat an A+ as 4.3 rather than capping it at 4.0. Where your handbook disagrees with this table, your handbook is right.
The calculators behind this
Weighted against unweighted
| Course and grade | Unweighted | Weighted |
|---|---|---|
| Standard, grade A | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Honors, grade A | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| AP or IB, grade A | 4.0 | 5.0 |
| AP or IB, grade B | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| AP or IB, grade C | 2.0 | 3.0 |
Note the third row. A B in an AP course is worth the same 4.0 as an A in a standard one, which is the entire point of weighting and also its most argued-over consequence. Many districts add only half a point for AP rather than a full one, so a weighted GPA is not comparable between schools even when both call it weighted.
How to calculate yours
- Convert each grade to points. Use the table above, or your school handbook if it publishes its own scale.
- Multiply each by the credit hours. A four credit course counts four times as much as a one credit course. This is the step that gets skipped.
- Add up the quality points. Quality points are the grade points multiplied by credits, summed across every course.
- Divide by total credits attempted. Attempted, not passed. A failed course still carries its credits in the denominator.
- Say which scale it is on. A GPA without its scale is not a number anybody can read. Quote 3.8 unweighted or 4.4 weighted, never just the figure.
For the arithmetic rather than the table, the GPA calculator handles the credit weighting, the weighted grade calculator does the same for a single course made of assignments worth different amounts, and the final grade calculator answers the more urgent question of what you need on the exam.
Formula & Methodology
Did you know? The denominator is credits attempted, not credits passed. A failed course contributes zero quality points and still adds its credits to the divisor, which is why one F pulls an average down considerably further than students expect from looking at the letter alone.
Sources
- College Board guidance on how secondary school GPA is reported and recalculated
- National Association for College Admission Counseling, on transcript evaluation practice
- Published university admissions recalculation policies