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Your GPA is a fundamental part of your high school resume. As a number, it attempts to quickly show how solid of a student you are. Many scholarships will ask for your GPA, as well as some college applications.

“GPA” stands for “Grade Point Average”, which means that it averages out all of your grades.

How to calculate it:

First, take a look at your current or most recent grades. Each letter corresponds to a number:

• A: 4 points
• B: 3 points
• C: 2 points
• D: 1 point
• F: 0 points

The pluses and minuses typically do not matter in high school GPAs, but they do for college ones. So if you have a B-, just round it off to a B and give yourself 3 points.

For each class, figure out how many points each one is worth and add them all up.

Then, you divide by the number of classes you’re taking.

A sample GPA calculation:

Suppose I had an A in PE, a B+ in English, a C- in math, a B- in science, an A- in history, and a B in photo. Here’s how I would calculate my GPA:

• PE: an A is worth 4 points. I’m at 4 so far.
• English: a B+ rounds to a B, which is 3 points. I have 7.
• Math: a C- rounds to a C, which is 2 points. I have 9.
• Science: A B- rounds to a B, which is 3 points. I have 12 now.
• History: An A- rounds to an A, which is 4 points. I’m at 16.
• Photo: A B is worth 3 points. I now have 19 points total.

Since I’m taking six classes, I would divide those 19 total points by 6 to get my GPA: 3.17.

What about honors and AP classes?

Although high schools differ about how they handle this, typically most honors and AP classes give you an extra point for that class when calculating your GPA, provided you’re at least passing the class (C or better).

So, if you’re taking an honors/AP class and get a B in it, you get to add one point to the three that the B already gives you, giving you 4.

From my earlier example, let’s suppose that my English class, math, and history classes were all honors classes. Here is how I would calculate my GPA now:

• PE: My A is still worth 4.
• English: My B+ is worth 3, but it’s an honors class so it counts for 4
• Math: My C is worth 2, but it’s honors and becomes 3.
• Science: My B- is worth 3.
• History: My A- is worth 4, but I add one for honors and it’s now worth 5.
• Photo: My B is still worth 3.

Added up, they all add to 22. I still divide  by six, and now my GPA is a 3.66! As you can see, honors classes and AP classes greatly help your GPA if you pass them.

In this way, it’s possible to get above a 4.0 if you’re doing well enough and taking honors/AP classes, and it’s even possible to have a 5.0 if you pull off straight A’s in all top-level classes.

Not all schools use the same GPA system. Some schools use entirely different methods of summarizing grades, but for most schools, this method will work just fine.