GPA Calculator : How is the GPA Calculated?

A GPA calculator calculates grade point average scores based on an applicant's academic performance. The GPA calculator is significant for international students and job seekers. There are different ways of calculating GPAs. We have discussed everything here. Check it out now!

Use GPA Calculator to Calculate GPA

Let's try the GPA calculator designed by Shiksha to calculate GPA scores. 

Percentage To GPA

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 how to calculate GPA, how to calculate GPA from marks, GPA from grades, and how to calculate GPA from CGPA to GPA. 

What is GPA?

The GPA, or Grade Point Average, measures university students' academic performance and is also reported for admissions to universities abroad. It is a scoring system 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. In the context of academics, GPA is important so that: 

• The applicants can prove their academic performance; a manual GPA calculator can be used.
• Check if they can get admission to universities abroad based on their marks.
• They may also need more credits or pathway programs for higher education admissions. A GPA calculator will help them assess whether they are needed. 
• Prove the quality of education based on the previous institution attended. And submit credentials if at all required.
• According to the GPA calculator, applicants with competitive GPAs can apply for scholarships or other financial aid while applying for admission abroad. 

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

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. These calculators 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 based on marks, percentages, or even CGPA. 
• 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 grading systems are used globally to assess the academic performance of applicants. They all form a part of the grading system, from marks to grades and percentages. The grading scales are important for GPA calculators because they are calculated on a 10.0-point scale or 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. These readings may vary per institution, and GPA calculations can be made accordingly. The first three are used in high schools, while GPA is used for university admission and university score results.

How to Calculate Grade Point Average?

There are two types of GPA calculators: a weighted GPA and an unweighted GPA. An unweighted GPA is usually calculated using a 4.0-point scale used across institutions. 

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

Calculating GPA can include semester GPA, cumulative GPA, grades or credit points. An official GPA report will include the applicant's overall performance after using the GPA calculator. Applicants can use the grading scale to compute their GPA before manually calculating a GPA formula. Since weighted and unweighted GPAs play a pivotal role in correct official GPA calculation, let us understand their significance in the following section. 

Types of GPA Calculators

There are two types of GPA calculators - weighted and unweighted. Some universities abroad 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 difficulty levels like AP, IB and other 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, which 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, providing the weighted GPA.	Calculating the unweighted GPA includes converting the letter grades into equivalent numerical values, adding them up, and dividing them by the total number of classes taken.
Here, the scale can extend beyond 4.0 to consider the difficult courses taken for GPA calculation.	The unweighted GPA uses the standard 4.0 scale for calculating GPA.

There are GPA calculation 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 also different types of GPA calculators. However, we will discuss unweighted GPA calculations based on different components like grades and percentages. First, we will discuss the percentage to GPA and then see how grades are converted into GPA. Let us get to the Grade Point Average calculator for students needing it for application or job purposes.

How to Calculate GPA from Percentage?

How to calculate GPA from percentage is not a difficult task. Rather, applicants can use a formula to convert their percentage grades to GPA. Thus, using a GPA calculator based on percentages will be easier for calculation. 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, GPA calculator to percentage will be computed as:

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 a percentage and then use the GPA calculator from percentage.

How to Calculate GPA from Marks?

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

So, for those seeking answers to questions like, How do you calculate GPA for class X or XII? You can do so by converting the percentage to GPA using the formula given above. Thus, this is one way to tackle the GPA calculator for those who get scores as a percentage in their finals and ease using the GPA calculator from percentage. 

How to Calculate GPA by Grades?

Applicants whose grades are converted from marks have to calculate their GPA through grades. Those wondering how to calculate GPA from marks should convert to grades first and then to GPA. The GPA calculator from grades is based on the numerical value assigned to each grade. 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 which percentage category they fall into. Based on the percentage category, the GPA can be calculated. For instance:

Grades	Percentage Category
A+	97% – 100%
A	93% – 96%
A-	90% – 92%
B+	87% – 89%
B	83% – 86%
B-	80% – 82%
C+	77% – 79%
C	73% – 76%
C-	70% – 72%
D+	67% – 69%
D	65% – 66%
D-	Below 65%

 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 the percentage of mark value derived from it. 

Grade Point Average Calculator: Credit-Based

Finally, there is also a credit-based GPA calculator that calculates GPA on a 4.0-point scale. For institutions that assess their students based on credits and hours, the cumulative or CGPA calculator is used 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 formula given above.

• 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

Indian applicants who get scores such as CGPA at school or in college can convert their 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

Thus, a GPA calculator can be beneficial for calculating GPA from credit points. It is a one-stop solution for calculating marks, grades, or credits to GPA. 

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)

GPA Calculator SSC

When applicants apply to study abroad, they have to submit their HSC marks to the GPA calculator, which is for class XII. However, international applicants also have to submit their SSC marks to the GPA calculator, which is for class X. The GPA calculator SSC scores are based on a simple calculation. But before getting on to the GPA calculator SSC results, we need first to understand the SSC grading system.

SSC Grading System

Here is how the SSC grading system works. Check out the table below for reference:

Marks Obtained	Grade Points	Grades
80 – 100	5.00	A+
70 – 79	4.00	A
60 – 69	3.50	A-
50 – 59	3.00	B
40 – 49	2.00	C
33 – 39	1.00	D
0 – 32	0.00	F

How to Use the GPA Calculator SSC

Calculating SSC grades on a GPA calculator can be simplified by converting marks to percentage rather than use the grades. After applicants get the percentage score, conversion to GPA is simple. The formula for a percentage to GPA has already been discussed above. 

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.

Credential-evaluating agencies like WES, ECE, and EP use advanced GPA calculators. There may be cases where credential evaluation will be necessary. Thus, the use of GPA calculators comes into play. Applicants do not need to calculate their GPA manually; rather, they can use a GPA calculator to calculate their exact scores.