A strong GPA is a critical number to a high school student. It is not unlike a credit score for an adult. Most financially sound parents know many ways to improve or maintain a high credit store, but how many are helping their children keep another important personal number as high as possible?
The first step in maximizing a GPA is to understand how it is calculated. Unfortunately, there is no single formula for this. Schools often vary in the way they compute GPAs so it is important to understand a GPA in context. Information regarding how a school calculates GPA can usually be found in a student handbook, school profile, or district progression plan. A guidance counselor should always be able to explain the formula as well. Whatever the case, it’s wise to get a good grasp on this calculation as soon as your child begins to earn high school credits and keep in mind that often happens in late middle school.
There are two key things to pay the most attention to here. The first is the relationship between grading terms and the awarding of credits. The most common of these in high school is when a 1st term and 2nd term are averaged together to produce a grade at the end of a high school semester. This semester average is usually converted to a letter grade, and the letter grade is then typically converted back to a number on a 4-point scale to calculate GPA.
Thus, the other key element to understand is what those letter grades are converted back to in order to produce a GPA. The biggest difference you’ll find here from school to school is that some use pluses and minuses while others treat a high or low average within a given letter grade range as equal.
In action, the process is probably much simpler than I have made it sound here, but the bottom line in most cases is that you’re probably going to be averaging some numbers together that will convert to some other scales that will, in the end, produce a GPA. Therefore, after you get your school’s GPA formula down pat, the most important thing you can do is learn to play the numbers that go into your GPA to your advantage.
Let’s say you’re at school where a 90 equals an A and a first quarter grade is averaged with a second quarter grade to produce a semester average and award a credit. We’ll also assume a school rounds to the student’s advantage (something else you’ll need to ascertain). If your child’s 1st quarter grade is an 88, there is a huge difference in your child earning a 91 instead of a 90 for the second quarter. The average of an 88 and 91 will round up to A, an 88 and 90 won't. If your child is not at a school that deals with pluses and minuses, the difference between earning a 91 and 100 in this example is moot, but the difference between a 91 and 90 is gigantic.
Parent and student need to understand scenarios like these and look for opportunities to get those little bumps in their GPA. Doing so can make a big difference in the end as to which colleges they are accepted to and which scholarships they are competitive for. Just as establishing good credit early on in life can pay huge benefits down the road, establishing good GPA awareness early on can mean good things at graduation.
