By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed.
This blog post covers everything you need to know about your middle and high school GPA, including how to increase your GPA, how to calculate your GPA, and why it even matters in the first place.
What is a GPA?
GPA stands for Grade Point Average. This is a number that represents your cumulative average score (grade) across all your classes in high school and college.
Because your GPA depends on your grades, it can go up or down three or four times a year (depending on whether your school has terms or quarters).
Your GPA is finalized after graduation.
What is the difference between a 4.0 scale and a 5.0 GPA scale?
Most schools report a GPA on a scale of 0 to 4. Some schools report a GPA on a scale of 0 to 5. The 4-point GPA is also called a unweighted GPA, and that does not take into account the difficulty of your courses. On the other hand, a 5-point GPA, also called a weighted GPA, takes into account the level of difficulty of your courses. (AP courses and specialty courses have more “weight” and are worth more points.)
How to calculate your GPA
Your school calculates your GPA for you. If you cannot find it on your online academic portal, you can ask your guidance counselor for it. However, it is also possible to calculate your own GPA. If you’re in high school, you can use a GPA calculator like this. If you are in college, use this college GPA calculator (because college GPAs are calculated differently).
If you want to calculate your own GPA, or want to see how GPAs work in the background, follow these steps:
- Convert 4.0 scale letter grades (using conversion chart).
- Add together your 4.0 scale points.
- Divide the sum by the number of courses you take.
To use the GPA formula above, you need to know how many points each letter grade is worth. Below is a table of how many points you will earn based on your grade in a class. Note that this is an unweighted 4-point scale. For example, an A is worth 4 points and a C is worth 2 points.
Why your GPA is important
Your GPA is a standardized way to measure your academic performance and predict your future academic success. This is important for many reasons in high school and college.
Your high school GPA is important for several reasons:
- Having a certain GPA qualifies you for certain awards and recognitions, including the National Honor Society, your school’s honor roll, and even scholarships.
- Many high school sports teams and after-school clubs require students to maintain a certain GPA in order to participate.
- Having a solid GPA strengthens your college applications and increases your chances of being admitted to higher-level schools.
Your college GPA is important for several reasons:
- Having a certain GPA qualifies you for school-specific awards and recognition, including Latin honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude).
- A certain GPA is required for certain memberships in Greek life (fraternities and sororities).
- College sports and clubs require students to maintain a certain GPA to participate.
- A high GPA can strengthen your resume when applying for jobs after college.
How to increase your GPA
You came to this blog wondering how to increase your GPA. There are two main ways to increase your GPA:
- Get better grades (for everyone)
- Take honors and AP courses (not for everyone)
The most direct way to improve your GPA in high school and college is to get better grades. I’m not saying it’s easy to do, but I’m saying East the answer.
The following strategies will help you get better grades, which, in turn, will increase your GPA.
1. Attend all your classes
If you really want to increase your GPA, then the absolute less you can do is go to your classes. If you don’t go to class, you won’t learn the material, and if you don’t learn the material, you won’t get good grades on your assessments. Also, you will get low points for class participation and class work, which will directly affect your grade. Remember from the formula above that your class grade (whether you get an A, B, or C in the class) is one of the main factors in your GPA.
2. Study better
Notice I didn’t say study more. I’m not here for that (well, sometimes you have to study more… but you know what I mean). Studying better means you are using a combination of legitimate information active recall study methods even if it is painful to do so. Yes, I know passively flipping through your notes is easier, but say it with me now: it is not studying.
Here is 12 critical study tips for college students, 11 study tips for people with ADHDAnd 22 study tips for exams.
3. Get help
Getting good grades in tough classes is… tough. And sometimes that means you have to get instructions from someone or somewhere beyond your teacher. Of course, you can stay after class with your teacher – and I’ll honestly try first – but there are other things you can do too:
- get a tutor
- find a tutorial on youtube
- ask a friend
- create a study group
What is not in the list above? Stay confused.
4. Take a break from extracurricular activities
I don’t give this GPA booster tip lightly, because as a former extracurricular high achiever, I know the value of doing all the fun things after school. That said, if you’re getting nervous about your GPA because you’re a junior or senior, you might have to bite the bullet and wait a season so you can focus on your grades. This advice may not make me popular, but that’s not what I’m here for.
If you are not convinced that reducing extracurricular activities is worth it, you should read this.
5. Improve your time management
I know that “manage your time better” can be one of the most annoying pieces of advice in the world, especially for students who hear it all the time. But if we can put those feelings aside for a second, that’s such good advice.
The truth is that studying and learning takes time. You don’t hear something in class or watch a video once and poof! You know! Scientifically, that’s not how the learning process works. Just as it takes time for our bodies to process food, heal a cut, or build muscle, it also takes time to build the neural networks and mental patterns associated with learning. You may WANT to pull an all-nighter and learn your gear really quickly… but then again, that’s not how the process works.
Learning things well enough to get a good grade takes a significant amount of time, and that’s why you need to be better at time management. The following time management strategies are essential.
- Realize how much time you have and don’t have in a week by making your time visible. Do it by following my Google Calendar tutorial for students, or by taking a sheet of paper and making an hour-by-hour weekly schedule for an average week. Find the blocks of time you have available for schoolwork and study. Take this seriously.
- Do less. See tip above.
- Start being more disciplined on the weekends. Yes, students need the weekend to recuperate and rest, but if you’re on a GPA increase mission, you should start using at least one weekend day for school business. here are my tips for studying on weekends.
- Plan your study sessions using spaced repetition. If you haven’t already, start now.
6. Take the right classes
This tip for how to increase your GPA isn’t exactly a Hail Mary strategy, but if you’re early enough in the game (freshman, sophomore, or junior) it can help. Taking honors and AP courses in high school can either hurt or help your GPA, depending on a) whether your school weights your GPA by course difficulty, and b) how well you do in the course.
Work with your guidance counselor to determine the best level classes for you, because although AP Calculus looks great on your transcript, a C- in that class doesn’t look good at all. In some cases, it’s best to get an A in honors class and skip AP status if you don’t think you can get a B or higher. Have this conversation with your counselors before you enroll in next year’s courses.
Final Notes on Increasing Your GPA
Again, the real answer to how to increase your GPA is to get better grades. Freshmen and sophomores have more time and flexibility to improve their GPAs because time is on your side. But if you’re a junior or a senior, you only have a few semesters left to ride it. My intention is not to sow panic: it is to give you real information so that you can make good decisions.