Hi, my daughter studies in New Zealand and schools here don’t calculate GPA. I am wondering how US high school calculate GPA. Are there internal school exams/assessment/ assignment (whatever you call it) in each subject and external state standard exam at the end of year? at the end of year, which results are used to report final grade in the subject, external standard test result only or both internal assessment and external standard test?
I want to know how grade of subject is reported in US high school and see how we should calculate my daughter’s GPA. Thank you.
You don’t need to worry about this. The international admissions officers at the colleges and universities she applies to in the US will be familiar with trading systems in NZ. If she has any specific questions, she can ask them. They will be able to tell her what they need her to send.
Except for some schools that just want gpa and test scores, Adcoms look at the transcript for grades. GPA isn’t everything. The letters of recommendation then offer a qualitative view.
However you need to indicate what % students in your school get each mark/score for each subject (per year for instance): the top 5% in your school get 90 and higher, the top 10% gets 85 and higher, the top 20% get 75 and higher, etc. (random examples with no basis in reality). And how does that compare to national exams: does a 90% at your school result in a 90% on a national exam? Or in a 93%? or in an 86%…? What % students at the school go to college, overall? What about % who go to “4-year colleges” (ie., selective or longer studies like nursing, sociology, engineering, history v.open admission or vocational/short certificates?)
If you need to know for an estimate, 3.5-3.6 is currently about median for college-going students, all levels included (ie., college prep, honors, “most rigorous”…) 3.8+ is truly excellent. 2.8-3.2 is okay but borderline. Below 2.8 suggests open-admission/community college.
@MYOS1634 She is ranked top 10 out of around 320 graduation class (public school). Here one course has about 5-6 modules and each module has different credits and is scored individually. It is difficult to receive A in every module of one subject.
Where to provide these types of information of peer performance?
You can work with the head teacher/guidance counselor to provide this information in a “school profile”. If the school is a prep school (= prepares for university, v. for the work place, for trades, etc) and it has a selection process, the profile should indicate it, too. If all students in the town can enroll in this school, indicate it, too.
Indicate which percentage get a grade of A for all modules, a grade of B for all modules, a mix of A/B for all modules…
[quote="MYOS1634;c-22427851If you need to know for an estimate, 3.5-3.6 is currently about median for college-going students, all levels included (ie., college prep, honors, “most rigorous”…) 3.8+ is truly excellent. 2.8-3.2 is okay but borderline. Below 2.8 suggests open-admission/community college.
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According to recent studies, the average GPA for graduating high school students who are looking to enroll in college is 3.38. Since, with a distribution of about 0 to 4.0, and a mean of over 3.0, the distribution is clearly left skewed, the median is lower than that, but likely it’s not by a lot.