GPA Calculator: How to Calculate GPA?

A GPA calculator is used for computing Grade Point Average scores which are based on the academic performance of an applicant. The GPA calculator is a significant tool for international students and job seekers alike. There are different ways of calculating GPA - there are weighted and unweighted GPA, GPA calculation can happen through percentages or marks and they have been discussed in this article for reference.

Calculate GPA through GPA Calculator

Let's try the GPA calculator designed by Shiksha to calculate GPA scores from either percentage or CGPA scores for applicants. 

GPA To Percentage

The purpose of calculating GPA is to get admission abroad, for jobs and scholarships too. GPA can be calculated from percentages, grades and even credits. Each computation has a different formula in the GPA calculator. This article will discuss the percentage of GPA calculators and calculate GPA from grades and even CGPA to GPA. So check it out. 

What is GPA?

The GPA or Grade Point Average is a measure by which the academic performance of university students is accounted for. GPA is also reported for admissions to universities abroad. GPA is a scoring system which is consolidated based on performance across semesters.

Importance of GPA for International Students

Not just academically, the GPA is also useful for those applying for jobs as well. In the context of academics, GPA is important so that: 

• The applicants can prove how they have performed academically previously.
• Check if they can get admission to universities abroad based on the marks obtained.
• Also if they need to have more credits or pathway programs for higher education admissions.
• Prove the quality of education based on the previous institution attended. And submit credentials if at all required.
• Applicants can apply for scholarships or other financial aid while applying for admission abroad. 

Thus, it is essential to use the GPA calculator because admissions, scholarships and academic standing depend on a GPA.

How Does GPA Calculator Help Students?

GPA calculator can help students in many ways, let us check out how in the section below:

• A GPA calculator is essential for students to keep track of their GPAs. Using GPA calculators to calculate current GPA, semester-wise GPA (SGPA), or cumulative GPA (CGPA). 
• Also, a GPA calculator helps students understand how their Grade Point Average is calculated. 
• Regular use of a GPA calculator can also help students maintain their GPA based on their plans. 
• Because applicants can use a GPA calculator regularly, this can benefit them by raising their GPA as well. 
• When applying for admissions abroad, a GPA calculator can help students predict their final GPA if they have not received their final scores yet.

These are some of the important aspects of using a GPA calculator. Thus, we can now look at how a GPA calculator works, that is, how GPA is calculated. 

Different Grading Systems for Calculating GPA

Before understanding how a GPA calculator works, it is essential to understand the different grading systems. Various types of grading systems are used globally to assess the academic performances of applicants. From marks to grades and percentages, all of them form a part of the grading system. The grading scales are important for  GPA calculators because they are calculated either on a 10.0-point scale or on a 4.0-point scale. Check out the following table for more information:

Grading Systems	Read as	What do they look like?
Marks	Numbers	Marked out of a total score
Grades	Alphabets like A, A+, B, C+	Based on marks, grades are given to students
Percentage	A consolidated percentage score	Based on marks, a percentage is obtained
GPA	Numerical format out of 4.0 scale.	Given a 4.0 point based on marks/grades/percentage

So, whatever the grading system, they can be converted into a GPA score of 4.0. Each of these readings may vary per institution and calculation of GPA can be done accordingly. The first three are majorly used in high schools, while GPA is used for university admission purposes and university score results.

Also, Read: Consolidated Marksheet

How to Calculate Grade Point Average?

There are two types of GPA calculators, one is a weighted GPA and the other is an unweighted GPA. In the majority of the cases, an unweighted GPA is calculated on a 4.0-point scale which is used across institutions. 

• Since an unweighted GPA is an easy parameter to understand an applicant’s academic performance, in the majority of cases the unweighted GPA calculator is used. 
• Plus, for competitive levels of assessments between applications, an unweighted GPA calculation is the standard form of use. 
• Weighted GPA is used by high schools to add more value-based weightage to courses at the Honors, AP, and IB levels of study. Hence, each school is unique, the competitive level is moderate and distinct based on which, the GPA calculator is used. 
• But at a larger level of competition, an unweighted GPA calculator is more useful. 
• Grade point average GPA can be calculated using percentage scores or by using SGPA to CGPA calculator (with the cumulative GPA obtained, GPA can be computed), also GPA can be calculated using grades.

Calculating GPA can include different parameters like semester GPA, cumulative GPA, grades or credit points. An official GPA report will include the overall performance of the applicant. Applicants can look at using the grading scale for computing the GPA as well before manually using a GPA formula for calculation. Since weighted and unweighted GPA play a pivotal role in correct official GPA calculation, let us understand how significant they are in the following section. 

Types of GPA Calculators

There are two types of GPA calculators - weighted and unweighted. Some universities abroad either prefer a weighted GPA while others prefer an unweighted GPA. The unweighted GPA is a more popular scale for computing GPA. Let us understand how they differ in the section below.  

Difference Between Weighted and Unweighted GPA

Check out the difference between weighted and unweighted GPAs in the table below before getting on using a manual GPA calculator:

Weighted GPA	Unweighted GPA
Weighted GPAs consider courses based on their difficulty levels like AP, IB and other types of challenging courses.	An unweighted GPA does not consider any difficult courses, rather it just directly calculates the GPA of applicants based on all the courses taken.
The letter grades are converted to their corresponding weighted points, the points are then multiplied by the credit hours to get weighted grade points. All the points for all classes are first added and then divided by the total credit hours, hence, providing the weighted GPA.	Calculating the unweighted GPA includes converting the letter grades into equivalent numerical values, then adding them up, and finally dividing them by the total number of classes taken.
Here, the scale can extend beyond the 4.0 scale to consider the difficult courses taken for GPA calculation.	The unweighted GPA uses the standard 4.0 scale for calculating GPA.

There are GPA calculator components which should not be missed while calculating. Check out the next section. 

GPA Calculator Components

Various formulae are used to convert to GPA and there are different types of GPA calculators also. However, we will discuss in detail unweighted GPA calculation based on different components like grades and percentages. First, we will discuss percentage to GPA and then we’ll see how grades are converted into GPA. Let us get to the Grade Point Average calculator for students who would need it for application or job purposes.

How to Calculate GPA from Percentage?

How to calculate GPA from percentage is not a difficult task. Rather there is a formula that can be used by applicants for converting their percentage grades to GPA. based on the percentage of the applicant. Here's the GPA from the percentage formula below:

Percentage to GPA Calculator

The percentage to GPA calculator formula which is given below, can be used for calculating percentages on a 4.0-point GPA scale only: 

GPA = (Final percentage/100) x 4

For example:

If the Percentage Obtained = 89%

Conversion to GPA on a 4.0 point scale would be:

GPA= (Percentage Obtained/100) x 4

Thus, 

• GPA = (89/100) x 4
• GPA = (0.89) x 4
• GPA = 3.56 on a 4.0-point scale

This is how applicants whose institutions give final percentages at the end of the year, can calculate their Grade Point average scores using percentage to GPA calculators. Getting GPA from percentage can be used for Indian school students where percentage marks are calculated. GPA calculator from percentage is the easiest method of calculation, thus, if possible, applicants should ideally convert their scores to percentage and then use GPA calculator from percentage.

How to Calculate GPA from Marks?

Indian applicants who get marks or numbers on their subjects and in the end a percentage is given can also calculate their GPA from marks. So, how to calculate GPA from marks? Applicants can calculate GPA from marks, by converting the sum of marks and then converting them into percentages. Converting percentage to GPA is the easiest way to cater to the question of how to calculate GPA from marks. 

So for those looking out for answers to questions like - How to calculate GPA for class X or XII? Can do so by converting percentage to GPA through the above-given formula. Thus, this is one way to tackle the GPA calculator for those who get scores as a percentage in their finals and ease the use of GPA calculator from percentage. 

How to Calculate GPA by Grades?

Applicants whose grades are converted from marks, have to calculate GPA through grades. For those wondering, how to calculate GPA from marks, should convert to the grades first and then to GPA. The GPA calculator from grades is based on the numerical value assigned to each of the grades. Whichever is the highest grade - A or A+ is regarded as 4.0 on a 4.0 point scale of Grade Point Average.

Now how to find GPA from grades is the question. For this, applicants can check their grades, and see in which percentage category they fall into. Based on the percentage category, the GPA can be calculated. For instance:

• Grade ‘A+’ comes under 97% – 100% category
• The grade of ‘A’ comes under the 93% – 96% category
• Grade ‘A-’ comes under the 90% – 92% category
• ‘B+’ grade comes under the 87% – 89% category
• Grade of ‘B’ comes under 83% – 86% category
• Grade ‘B-’ comes under 80% – 82% category
• A grade of ‘C+’ comes under the 77% – 79% category
• Grade ‘C’ comes under 73% – 76% category
• A ‘C-’ grade comes under the 70% – 72% category
• ‘D+’ grade comes under the 67% – 69% category
• Grade ‘D’ comes under 65% – 66% category
• And, a grade of ‘D-’ comes under below 65% category 

Thus, the GPA calculator from grades can be computed based on the above-given percentage criteria and calculated accordingly. 

GPA Conversion Calculator: Grade vs Percentage

If calculating GPA on a 4.0 point scale, then the following GPA can be computed based on the formulae given above for reference: 

Grades	Percentage	Point value of letter grades (4.0 scale)
A+	97% - 100%	4.0
A	93% - 96%	4.0
A-	90% - 92%	3.7
B+	87% - 89%	3.5
B	83% - 86%	3.0
B-	80% - 82%	2.7
C+	77% - 79%	2.3
C	73% - 76%	2.0
C-	70% - 72%	1.7
D+	67% - 69%	1.3
D	65% - 66%	1.0
F	Below 65%	0

For reference, applicants can also check this table which already consists of the predefined values and eases the GPA calculations. The final GPA calculator is based on grades and/or percentage of marks value from which it is derived. 

Grade Point Average Calculator: Credit-Based

Finally, there is also a credit-based GPA calculator, for calculating GPA on a 4.0-point scale. For institutions which assess their students based on credits and hours, then cumulative or CGPA calculator is for those students. Check out the difference between GPA and CGPA. The formula used for computing CGPA based on credits is:

Total points Obtained / Total Credit Hours = CGPA

Let’s calculate CGPA now, based on the above given formula.

• Step 1:
  • A (4.0) x 3 credit hours = 12 points
  • A- (3.7) x 2 credit hours = 7.4 points
  • B+ (3.5) x 4 credit hours = 14 points
• Step 2:
  • Total points obtained = 33.4 (12+7.4+14)
• Step 3:
  • Total credit hours = 9 (3+2+4)
• Step 4:
  • 33.4/9 = 3.7 cumulative GPA

Those Indian applicants who get scores as CGPA at school or in college can convert CGPA to GPA to understand how they have scored. The CGPA to GPA can be calculated using the following formula:

GPA = (CGPA / Maximum CGPA) * Target GPA scale

For example, if your CGPA is 7.5:

GPA = (7.5 / 10) * 4.0 = 3.0

Check out the following related reads for CGPA:

CGPA Calculator Guide	CGPA to Percentage Calculator
How to Convert 10 Point CGPA to 4.0 Point GPA	How to Calculate SGPA (Semester Grade Point Average)

To conclude, we can say that GPA calculators are easy to use based on simple formulas. However, apart from manual GPA calculators, there are also GPA calculators available on university websites for applicants. Applicants can manually convert their GPA from marks, percentages and even CGPA.

The advanced GPA calculators are used by credential-evaluating agencies like WES, ECE and EP. There may be cases where credential evaluation will be necessary. Thus, this is when the use of GPA calculators comes into play. So here, the applicants need not calculate their GPA manually, but rather use a GPA calculator for exact scores.