How to Calculate Your College GPA Step by Step
Find your semester and cumulative GPA with a simple formula. See a worked example, why you should not average semester GPAs, and how credits matter.
Your college GPA is an average of your grades, but it is not a simple average. Each course counts in proportion to its credits, so a 4-credit class affects your GPA more than a 2-credit class.
The formula
GPA = total quality points ÷ total credits
Quality points are the grade points of a course multiplied by its credits. On the common 4.0 scale, A is 4.0, A− is 3.7, B+ is 3.3, B is 3.0, C+ is 2.3, C is 2.0, and F is 0.
A worked example
Here is one fall semester:
| Course | Grade | Grade points | Credits | Quality points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENG 101 | A | 4.0 | 3 | 12.0 |
| MATH 121 | B+ | 3.3 | 4 | 13.2 |
| PSY 201 | A− | 3.7 | 3 | 11.1 |
| BIO 110 | C+ | 2.3 | 2 | 4.6 |
| Total | 12 | 40.9 |
Divide 40.9 by 12 to get 3.408, which rounds to 3.41. If you simply averaged the four grade points you would get 3.33, which is wrong because it ignores the credits.
Cumulative GPA
To combine several semesters, add up the quality points and the credits from all of them, then divide. Do not average the semester GPAs.
Suppose a second semester has 6 credits and 14.0 quality points, which is a 2.33 GPA. The cumulative GPA is (40.9 + 14.0) ÷ (12 + 6) = 54.9 ÷ 18 = 3.05. Averaging 3.41 and 2.33 would wrongly give 2.87, because the smaller semester would count as much as the larger one.
If you already know your GPA
Your transcript shows your cumulative GPA and the GPA hours behind it. Multiply them to get your existing quality points, add your new quality points and credits, and divide. Be careful to use GPA hours rather than total earned credits, because pass/no-pass classes and some transfer credit do not count toward GPA.
What does not count
Policies vary by college, so check your catalog. Pass, no-pass, and withdrawn grades usually carry no grade points and are left out of the calculation. Repeated courses are handled differently from school to school, and some schools round while others cut off after two decimals.
Let the calculator do it
Our college GPA calculator handles several semesters, a previous GPA, and different grading scales. It can also tell you the average you need in your next classes to reach a target.
