High School GPA calculator

[Roadrunner]

Does anybody have an excel formula on how to do this?

I see most online calculators take into account +/- system, but locally neither our high school nor our CC had a plus and minus system. Does anybody have a simple GPA calculator they can share with me? 

[regentrude]

what do you mean?
How many grades do you have that it's worth it programming an excel formula instead of simply doing it by hand?

You'd have to set up an If formula that converts the letter grade into a numerical grade - isn't it simpler to just do that in your head, add the numerical grades, and divide by number of courses?

Edited October 24, 2020 by regentrude

[Roadrunner]

27 minutes ago, regentrude said:

what do you mean?
How many grades do you have that it's worth it programming an excel formula instead of simply doing it by hand?

You'd have to set up an If formula that converts the letter grade into a numerical grade - isn't it simpler to just do that in your head, add the numerical grades, and divide by number of courses?

Oh, by hand is OK. I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing. I just thought maybe somebody already had it excel. 

[Roadrunner]

Also, is everybody using plus and minus system? That’s all I see online. 

[EKS]

I just used Excel (and could have easily done it with a pocket calculator or even with paper and pencil).

For anyone who doesn't know how to do this:

Assign a numerical value for each grade.  I did 4.0 = A, 3.7 = A-, 3.3 = B+, 3.0 = B, and so on.  But it is not necessary to do pluses and minuses.  If you decide not to, I'd do 4 = A, 3 = B, and so on.

Multiply each number by the number of credits.  So, for example, if the student got an A in a 1 credit class, the value would be 4 x 1 = 4.  If it was a 0.5 credit class, it would be 4 x 0.5 = 2. 

Add up the resulting values.

Divide the result by the total number of credits.

Example: Say the student got an A in a 1 credit class, a B- in a 0.5 credit class, and a C+ in a 1 credit class.

4.0 x 1 = 4, 2.7 x 0.5 = 1.35, 2.3 x 1 = 2.3

4 + 1.35 + 2.3 = 7.65

7.65/2.5 = 3.06

Most schools report GPAs to three or even four decimal places.  I think this is idiotic especially in a homeschool setting, so I only reported my students' GPAs to two.

If you decide to do a weighted GPA, it gets a bit more complicated.

Edited October 24, 2020 by EKS

[Alice]

I did what EKS said, and used the simple system with no pluses or minuses. 

I did include a weighted GPA as all the schools around here do that. I know a lot of colleges then unweight it, but I figure at first glance it looks better to be similar to others. I added 0.5 for Honors classes and 1.0 for AP classes, that is also what the local school system does. 

So an A in an AP class becomes a 5, a A in an Honors class becomes a 4.5 

I put a brief explanation in my school profile about the system I used. 

[daijobu]

I did a weighted GPA with +/-.  I had a "table look up"  so that an A in a cell corresponded to 4.0 and a B+ corresponded to 3.3.  I had a column that indicated honors with an H.  So I had an if/then function that went something like: IF(honors = H, add one point to the grade).  I had a column that indicated "in progress", so I had another if function:  IF(the cell has "IP", don't count that row in the GPA).  Sum up the units, sum up the grade numbers, and divide.  

If you aren't sure if you have the formulas right, then try it with a small number of grades and see if you get expected results.  Here are some functions I used with google sheets.  (Excel is probably similar.)

=vlookup(D6,K$6:L$10,2,true) ...to look up the grade number

=if(and(E6<>0, or(C6="H",C6="AP")),E6+1,E6)  ...weighting

=if(or(D6="IP",D6="P"),0,B6) ...units not in progress

 

[almondbutterandjelly]

I didn't give pluses or minuses.  If it was 90-100, it was an A.  80-89 B and so on.

For GPA purposes: A = 4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.  

[RootAnn]

I've mostly seen homeschoolers use @perky's system with no +/-. I use a + only system like what my high school used.

I use Excel (well, the open source equivalent) but didn't program in the calculations. It is more work but doesn't take much time. Maybe one of these days I'll make time to set it up like @daijobu but I'll only be down to 3 kids by then.

[Roadrunner]

3 hours ago, RootAnn said:

I've mostly seen homeschoolers use @perky's system with no +/-. I use a + only system like what my high school used.

I use Excel (well, the open source equivalent) but didn't program in the calculations. It is more work but doesn't take much time. Maybe one of these days I'll make time to set it up like @daijobu but I'll only be down to 3 kids by then.

If you do, think of me too 😉