What Does a Grade Point Average Mean?

A grade point average (GPA) is a decimal number ranging from 0.00 to 4.00. It is a composite of the grades that a student receives. Educational institutions and even employers use the GPA to gauge a person's achievement level.

Grades to Numbers

Each letter grade is converted to a number. The highest grade, an A, is 4.00 and the lowest, an F, is 0.00.

Calculating GPA

The grades that you receive in one grading period are converted from letters to numbers. Those numbers are added together and divided by the total numbers of letter grades possible to get the grade point average.

Weighted Average GPA

Some schools use the weighted average GPA instead. The difference is that the GPA number equivalent of each grade is multiplied by the amount of credits earned per class, added and the sum divided by the total number of credits possible for the grading period.

Cumulative GPA

The GPA from each grading period is averaged using the same method (simple average or weighted average) that the grading period grades were averaged. Most colleges and high schools tend to use the weighted average method.

Grading Periods

A school's grading period may be called a semester, term, session, or simply a grading period.

References

• Princeton University: WordNet
• Penn State University: Grades and Grade Point Average
• Brevard Public Schools: Grades