<p>I'm a high school student from Canada. Just wondering how students in US can get such a high unweighted GPA. Cause even a 3.8 would mean the average is around 95. There are so many quizzes and exams and labs and a lot of them are out of 10 ,which means even one mark off would get you a 90. Plus it's not possible for students to get all a hundred in English, right?</p>
<p>Anyone knows why?</p>
<p>In many high schools, an A=4, and A- = 3.5, B = 3. etc And in some schools a 95 can be an A, or even a 90 can be an A in some schools. So you don’t need a perfect 100% in all classes throughout high school to get a 4.0 average</p>
<p>Yeah what KK said, a 4.0 in the us is usually a 94/95 % and a 3.8 would be more like a 92%</p>
<p>I hope you’re not using this website as a reference to what the average high school american GPA is-most American HS students do not have 3.8 unweighted GPAs-in fact, most american high school students probably wished that they had a 3.8 WEIGHTED GPA.</p>
<p>You can’t convert directly from an GPA on a 4-point scale to a GPA on a 100-point scale. In the United States, usually someone who got 94% in every class would have the same GPA as someone who got 100% in every class. A lot of grading scales are even more lenient than that.</p>
<p>At my high school, we use a 4 point GPA and A’s are counted as 4s, B’s are counted as 3s, etc; we don’t use the + or - system.</p>
<p>I agree with the OP in that as a student studying internationally, it does seem really amazing that so many people here on CC get 3.8+ GPAs… even if the grade boundry for a 4.0 is “only” 94%.</p>
<p>For example, in the IB, the grade boundary at our school for a 7/7 is usually something around 85% or so. I realize that IB subjects are much harder than regular courses but it’s actually very easy to pull of an 85% in a few tests. However, it seems a lot more difficult to pull off a 95% even if the course is slightly easier. (I can’t say for sure because I never studied in an American high school)</p>
<p>Basically what i’m trying to say is that it’s pretty amazing that so many people here manage to get 3.8+ since they’d have to do really well in their subjects… whereas the IB student can just get 85% and still pull off a 7. (At our school we use IB subjects to calculate a GPA so it seems to be a lot easier to get a 4.0 than in the US where you have to get 94%+ or so in every subject)</p>
<p>
Exactly. I remember being flummoxed by the proliferation of 4.0’s on CC, until I realized what a loosey goosey concept it was compared to the old days when I went to high school. That’s one reason why class rank is a meaningful statistic to colleges.</p>
<p>so when you guys do the exams, are they out of 100?</p>
<p>What exams?</p>
<p>Any tests got recorded. 95% would be like the top 1% of the class in Canada since most of the tests in out school are out of around 20. Even a tiny mistake may results in a 90 or lower.</p>
<p>My son has an unweighted 4.0. That simply means that his final course grade in every course he has taken is an A. At his school, an A is 90 and up. He could have a 90 in every class and have a 4.0 or he could have a 100 in every class and have the same 4.0. </p>
<p>His high school class has about 900 students. Fewer than ten have an unweighted 4.0.</p>
<p>My kids’ hs grades this way for tests:</p>
<p>100% = A+
95-99.9% = A
90-94.9 = A-
87-89.9 = B+
84-86.9 = B
80-83.9 = B-</p>
<p>etc.</p>
<p>It is very very difficult to get an A+ in a class, but there are kids that can do it.<br>
But an A and an A+ both get you a 4.0, so you can get as low as 95% on all your assignments and still end up with that perfect gpa.</p>
<p>UCs consider A-'s the same as an A+. So for 4.0 uw UC GPA, all you need to do is scrape a 90% on all your assignments and you look the same as a solid A+ student! Also, most teachers will round up if you get a 89.5. Although some are real sticklers and won’t.</p>
<p>Oh, also quite a few teachers curve. So if a test was particularly hard, they disregard the top score(s) and those few kids basically earn extra credit. So that’s one way to get an A+ without actually getting 100% on each and every exam.</p>
<p>We had one teacher (IB English) who basically graded on the IB difficulty scale, but with the US grading system. As in, she would give you an 85%, which would be a 7/7 for IB, but still only a B in the class. (Meanwhile, in IB History, anything above a 5 counted as an A.) This was the reason very few IB diploma students had 4.0s.
I have also heard that the Canadian system has less inflation than in the US, too, so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>7/7 in Canada would be like a 98%</p>