Grade Point Average is found by converting each course's letter grade into grade points, multiplying those points by the course's credit hours to get quality points, then dividing the total quality points by the total credit hours. If you're combining this semester with previous work, your prior quality points and credit hours are added in before dividing, which gives your cumulative GPA.
GPA, or Grade Point Average, is a single number that summarizes how well a student has performed across their courses. Instead of listing dozens of individual letter grades, schools and universities convert every grade into a numeric value and average it, weighted by how many credit hours each course was worth. The result is one score, usually on a 0.0 to 4.0 scale, that admissions offices, scholarship committees, and employers can compare at a glance.
A strong GPA can open doors to scholarships, honors programs, graduate school admission, and certain job applications, which is why most students track it every semester rather than waiting until graduation to find out where they stand.
Where Quality Points for a single course = Grade Points × Credit Hours for that course.
| Course | Grade | Credits | Quality Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| English 101 | A (4.0) | 3 | 12.0 |
| Calculus I | B+ (3.3) | 4 | 13.2 |
| Chemistry | B (3.0) | 4 | 12.0 |
| History | A- (3.7) | 3 | 11.1 |
Your semester GPA only reflects the courses you took in one term. Your cumulative GPA reflects every credit hour and quality point you've earned across your entire academic record. A single strong or weak semester moves your cumulative GPA far less than it moves your semester GPA, especially once you've completed a large number of credit hours, since cumulative GPA is a weighted average of everything combined.
GPA is calculated by multiplying each course's grade points by its credit hours to get quality points, adding up all quality points, and dividing by the total number of credit hours.
A GPA of 3.0 or above on a 4.0 scale is generally considered good, 3.5 or above is very good, and 3.7 or above is excellent.
Cumulative GPA combines your prior earned quality points and credit hours with your current semester's quality points and credit hours, then divides the total quality points by the total credit hours.
Semester GPA reflects only the courses taken in a single term, while cumulative GPA reflects every course and credit hour completed across all terms combined.
Pass/fail, audit, and withdrawal grades typically do not carry grade points and are excluded from GPA calculations, since they have no quality point value to average in.
Because GPA is a weighted average, a low GPA rises slowly and requires several strong semesters in a row, especially once a large number of credit hours have already been completed.