<p>My high school recently gave me my GPA and I feel completely cheated. Could you guys tell me if what they did is what most high schools do? Is this justified?</p>
<p>My high school calculates GPAs on the 4.0 scale like this:
A/A+ - 4.0
A- - 3.7
B+ -3.33
B - 3.0
C - 2.0
D - 1.0
F and below - 0.0
(There are grades in between B and C etc... but I only put up the most common grades.)</p>
<p>I received these grades this year: A (94), A- (92) , A- (92), A- (92), A- (90), and B+ (87)
This equates to a ((4+3.7+3.7+3.7+3.7+3.33)/24) * 4 = 3.6883</p>
<p>I worked unbelievably hard this year, (it was Junior year) and I accumulated more percentage points than last year. However, my GPA was lower! My high school completely disregards the 6% surplus that I obtained with my A-'s. These A-'s occured in math and science-type courses, so there isn't a participation grade. Therefore, I get an A- in these classes. At my school, the difference between a 90 and and 92 is huge. In one of the cases, the 92 resulted from a 94% first semester grade, a 90% second semester grade, and a 91% final grade. That means that I could have gotten an 89.5% first semester, an 89.5% second semester, and an 89.5% on the final and still received the same grade! How is that fair? I could have worked so much less hard. I am completely distraught. Is that how most high schools calculate their grades? My college counselor tells me that colleges will have no idea of the extra percentage points that I accumulated. My friend who got an A- in the course I was talking about before in the first semester, a B in the second semester, and got 3 more questions correct on the final exam, received the same grade that I did! </p>
<p>Thanks for letting me rant :) Please tell me what you think of this issue.</p>
Not really… considering that an A- gets 3.7 points. That’s ridiculous. It’s even more ridiculous that your school is so nit-picky as to be concerned with the percentage; that’s just way too magnified, and doesn’t allow for flexibility in areas of slacking teachers, personal issues, etc.</p>
<p>My HS did not have ±. But my college does, with A+/A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, etc. So these numbers seem pretty standard, for a 4.0 scale with ± (actually slightly generous since your B+ = 3.33, which is kinda weird I think if A- is not 3.66).</p>
<p>I mean, would you rather had my scale (I suppose you’d have a 3.83), where a 79.5 (they rounded) is equivalent to an 89.4, or a 100 pt gpa scales, where every percentage point counts? While we could debate the merits of each, it’s not exactly unfair if you knew about the grading scale beforehand and everyone has to follow it (it’s only unfair if there’s differential treatment). I suppose it’s only unfair in the context of competing with other students for college admissions, but the differences will be highlighted in your class rank, counselor/teacher recs, and transcript.</p>
<p>In short. I think your gpa, based on your grades, is completely fair and you should just accept it, because you’ll have to in college. You missed the A, you deserve the A-.</p>
<p>Well the GPA grading system usually works in intervals like that. One if its many downfalls is its tendency to over-generalize grades. It’s something you have to live with. Last year I finished my core classes with 93, 92, 91, 91, 88. All the A’s were counted as A minuses when my school calculated weighted GPA. </p>
<p>What’s more important is the transcript though. If your school reports letter grades, then yes, you’re beat. But if it reports numbers, like mine, colleges will know your exact mark in the class, which is much more significant than GPA</p>
<p>I feel bad for all the people on this forum who go to HS’s where A- = 3.7. At my school, 90-100% = 4.0. On top of that, a ton of teachers automatically round 89.5-89.9 to A’s, so it’d come out to 4.0. I go to a public HS where everyone goes to decent/good schools.</p>
<p>My HS:
Regular class, 90 - 100, 4; 80 - 89, 3; etc.
Honor: 90 - 100: 4.5; 80 - 89: 4; etc…
AP, same with Honor but if you take the national ap exams, then: 90 - 100: 5, 80 - 89:4.5; etc.</p>