Cumulative GPA from courses and credits
Enter all included courses in one worksheet. Credit weighting prevents a short term from counting the same as a longer term.
Calculate GPA from course evidence
The course GPA worksheet multiplies each grade-point value by its credit hours, then reports weighted and unweighted totals from the same rows.
Credits weightedDefault bonus: Honors adds 0.5; AP/IB adds 1.0; weighted points stop at 5.0. Don't treat the GPA result as official unless that policy matches the school.
Do not simply average term GPAs
A semester with 18 credits should contribute more than a semester with 9. To combine published term GPAs, multiply each term GPA by its attempted credits, add the quality points, and divide by the combined credits.
- Grade evidence
- Letter grade and its point value
- Weight evidence
- Credit hours for the course
- Rigor evidence
- Standard, Honors, AP, or IB level
Match the institution's inclusion policy
For GPA records, pass/fail courses, withdrawals, repeats and forgiven grades can be handled differently. The calculator includes only the rows you enter, so its accuracy depends on matching the intended policy.
Rounding comes last
Keep full precision during the calculation and round only the final GPA for display. Averaging pre-rounded semester GPAs can produce a small but avoidable difference. The final GPA note retains this method context.
Term credits control the cumulative result
Credits control the result.
A 3.8 GPA across 9 credits contributes 34.2 quality points, while a 3.2 GPA across 18 credits contributes 57.6. The combined GPA is 91.8 divided by 27, or 3.40—not the simple average of 3.50. The arithmetic stays visible. Credit weighting makes the cumulative GPA reproducible.
References used for this GPA method
These named references provide method evidence for the GPA terminology, calculation context, and policy boundary stated on this page. The method evidence remains visible beside every linked source.