How to Calculate Your BCPM
In preparing to submit applications to enter post-graduate work in the health professions, you will need to calculate your "science GPA." This figure is the cumulative GPA of all your classes in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics (BCPM).
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
Running the Numbers
-
1
Make a "working" copy of your college transcripts to date. Highlight all courses in biology, chemistry, physics and math. If you repeated a course to improve your grade, you'll need to find out the policy of the individual school to which you apply. You might be able to include only the higher or lower score. You might have to include scores from every time you took the class. Only rarely will a school allow you to drop the low score from your BCPM calculation.
-
2
Count the total number of instances of each grade that appear on your transcript in the highlighted classes. You will count an "A+," "A" and "A-" as three different grades.
-
-
3
Once you have total numbers of each BCPM grade, multiply each number by the following factors: "A+" = 4.0. "A" = 4.0. "A-" = 3.7. "B+" = 3.3. "B" = 3.0. "B-" = 2.7. "C+" = 2.3. "C" = 2.0. "C-" = 1.7. "D" = 1.0. "F" = 0.0. So if you made three B's, you would multiply 3 x 3.0 for a total of 9.
-
4
Total all the calculations from each grade and the number of classes.
-
5
Divide the total grade points by the number of classes for your BCPM grade point average. Round it two places to the right of the decimal point.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Medical schools might also want your overall GPA and an AO (all other) GPA. Your transcript will have your overall GPA score. To figure your AO GPA, total all the unhighlighted scores on your working transcript and use the above formula.
Make sure you follow the policy of the individual school to which you are applying when figuring your BCPM. Double check your work. You do not want to submit an incorrect score on your application to a school that values math skills.
