GPA guides
Worked examples for the arithmetic on the GPACalcy calculator. Each guide uses the same letter-to-point tables as the tool, and each one shows the addition so you can redo it on paper.
Updated October 27, 2026
The calculator is enough when you already know your scale and you only need a number. These pages are for the step before that: which formula applies, which button matches your school's wording, and how to tell a planning figure from the GPA printed on a transcript.
Two limits apply to every guide. First, campuses do not share one chart. Plus and minus cutoffs, bonus points for advanced courses, and the treatment of repeats and pass/fail are local rules. Second, nothing here is an admissions prediction. A guide can show how a set of grades averages. It cannot say what a college will decide.
Start here
- How to calculate GPAQuality points, credits, and a five-course term that comes out to 3.26 on the 4.0 scale. Includes the mistakes that show up when people average letters or percentages instead of credits.
- Weighted vs unweighted GPAThe bonus-point method many high schools use, and the credit-weight method this calculator's Weighted button actually runs. Same courses, different results.
- Cumulative GPAHow to rebuild old quality points from a previous GPA and credit total, then fold in a new term. A strong term and a weak term, side by side.
- Scale conversion: 4.0, 5.0, 10.0, and percentWhy dividing a 10-point average by 2.5 is not a 4.0 GPA, and how to map marks course by course with an example percent chart.
- Raising your GPAThe credit formula for a target average, including a case where straight B's can never reach the goal, and a longer transcript that moves more slowly.
- What a "good" GPA means for collegeGood standing, honors, and admission are three different questions. How to read a number without turning it into a chance of admission.
How these pages relate to the calculator
Unweighted mode on the homepage is the formula in the first guide: grade points times credits, summed, divided by credits. Weighted mode multiplies both the quality points and the credits by the weight you pick (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0). The 5.0 scale is not that weight. It is a different letter chart, where an A is 5.0 for every course you enter and an F is still 0.0. Cumulative math appears only after you check "Include previous GPA" and fill in both previous fields.
Displayed results are rounded to two decimals and are capped at the top of the scale you selected. If you need the unrounded fraction, the guides keep the quality-point totals so you can divide them yourself. The short answers on the homepage match these rules; the guides are the long form.
Who publishes the site, and a compact statement of the formulas, is on About. Corrections and "this does not match my handbook" notes go to [email protected].