Guides
The calculators give you an answer. These three explain where it comes from, worked out in full so you can check any of it by hand — including the parts where the shortcut everyone reaches for gives a different number.
Method reviewed How we calculate
The guides
- How to calculate GPAQuality points, credit hours, and why averaging your grade points is the wrong method on most transcripts.
- How to raise your GPAWhat a term has to average to move a cumulative figure, why the same A is worth less later, and what a retake actually changes.
- How to calculate gradesA single course grade from weighted categories or points, and the difference between work not graded yet and weight you have not described.
A grade and a GPA are not the same number
A course grade is a percentage inside one course: your homework, quizzes and exams combined according to the weights on that course's syllabus. A GPA is an average across courses, where each course contributes one letter grade weighted by its credit hours. They are computed from different inputs by different arithmetic, and the two are connected only by the step where a percentage becomes a letter — which is set by your school, not by a universal rule.
So the first guide and the third are not two versions of the same page. If you are trying to work out what a syllabus adds up to, start with how to calculate grades. If you are working from a transcript of finished courses, start with how to calculate GPA. The GPA scale covers the conversion between them.