Explaining GPA: What Does It Mean In School?

Hey everyone, I'm a little confused, to be honest. What does GPA actually measure? I mean I know it stands for Grade Point Average, but does it just reflect how well I'm doing in my classes or is there more to it than that? Any help would be so helpful. You're all the best!

Hi there! No doubt, GPA can be a tad puzzling initially. As you correctly mentioned, GPA stands for Grade Point Average. It's a measure of your academic performance throughout high school (and college, if you are there).

Each letter grade that you receive in a class corresponds to a certain point value. For instance, an A is typically worth 4 points, a B is worth 3, a C is 2, and so on. In some schools, they include the A+ as 4.3, and/or the A- as 3.7. It's always helpful to know how your school assigns these point values, as there may be slight variations.

Your GPA is calculated by weighting each of these point values by the 'credit hours' or workload of the course, adding them up, and then dividing by the total number of credit hours. As a result, a higher GPA indicates that you're achieving higher grades on average across your classes.

Of course, that's only the start. There's also the weighted GPA that takes into account the difficulty of the classes you're taking. For instance, an A in an AP or Honors class could be worth more than 4 points, like maybe 5 or even 6 points depending on your school's system. This means if you're taking challenging courses your GPA could be higher than 4.0!

Still, remember that while GPA is crucial, it's not the sole determining factor for college admissions. Colleges also consider things like extracurricular activities, personal essays, teacher recommendations, and for some schools, standardized test scores. Keep striving for a balance and you'll do great!