GPA
WHAT IS A GPA AND WHAT DOES GPA MEAN?
Your Grade Point Average (GPA) is an important metric that summarizes your academic performance throughout high school. It considers all your grades and averages them together to arrive at a cumulative grade, then converts them into a numerical scale. The traditional GPA scale ranges from 0.0 to 4.0, but some schools use a weighted GPA scale that goes higher to account for more difficult classes like AP, dual credit, and IB. An A is worth more than in a standard class and could translate into a 5.0 or even a 6.0 GPA. It’s essential to understand the grading system at your school to calculate your GPA accurately.
Here’s a conversion chart that shows all the possible GPAs and their corresponding letter grades and percentages:
Your cumulative GPA is calculated by taking the average of all your semester GPAs throughout your high school or college career. This means it’s essentially an average of averages, combining all your semester GPAs into one representative GPA.
Your cumulative GPA provides an overall picture of your academic performance across all semesters.
Your school district’s GPA policy can be found by visiting their website and checking out their course guide. It should be clearly outlined as any other critical academic policies you need to know about. You will want to familiarize yourself with these policies to stay on track and prepare for your post-secondary plans.
WEIGHTED GPA vs UNWEIGHTED GPA
Weighted versus unweighted GPAs is a topic that often confuses students and their families. They ask which GPA is better; the answer is more complex than yes or no. Students often worry that colleges won’t understand their hard work in high school. However, colleges understand a student’s hard work regardless of their school’s grading policies. An unweighted GPA considers all classes equally, while a weighted GPA is a bonus for students who take more challenging courses like AP and honors classes. Different high schools have varying policies on how they weigh advanced courses, which affects how you calculate the weighted GPA. It’s crucial to remember that colleges look at more than just your GPA; they also consider the classes you took and your grades. Your involvement in your community, extracurricular activities, and relationships with classmates and teachers also matter. So, don’t focus on the pieces outside your control, and remember that colleges know you are more than just a number.
YES, YOUR FRESHMEN GPA MATTERS!
The first two years of high school are crucial for your GPA. Most classes you take during this time count towards your overall GPA. As you progress through high school, the number of courses contributing to your GPA decreases. Therefore, it is essential to prioritize your studies during your freshman and sophomore years to make sure you have a solid academic foundation and GPA.