How GPA is actually calculated
GPA weights each course's letter grade by how many credit hours the course is worth, then averages across all courses — a 4-credit course counts twice as much toward your GPA as a 2-credit course with the same grade. Simply averaging the grade points without weighting by credits gives a subtly wrong answer for anyone whose courses aren't all the same size.
The standard 4.0 scale used here
| Letter | Points |
|---|---|
| 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 |
The formula: GPA = (sum of grade points × credit hours for each course) ÷ (total credit hours). Some schools use a slightly different scale (plus/minus grades worth different amounts, or a 5.0 scale for honors courses) — check your institution's own scale if this doesn't match your transcript exactly.