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Grade Calculation

Computing Your Grade Point Average

1) Credit Hours

Each course has a specific number of credit hours.

convocation

Example:

ENG 203 = 3 credits

MATH 111 = 4 credits
ECON 101 = 3 credits
DANCE 112 = 2 credits
BIO 205 = 4 credits
Total Number of Hours = 16 credit hours

2) Grade Value

Each letter grade is given a number equivalent

A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C- = 1.7, D+ = 1.3, D = 1.0, D- = .7, F = 0

3) Quality Points

Take the grade value from the chart below corresponding to the grade shown by this example and multiply it by the number of credit hours for the course to get your quality points.

Example:

A in ENG is 3 x 4 = 12 quality points
C- in MATH is 4 x 1.7 = 6.8 quality points
C+ in ECON is 3 x 2.3 = 6.9 quality points
A in DANCE is 2 x 4 = 8 quality points
B- in BIO is 4 x 2.7 = 10.8 quality points
The addition of quality points is your total quality points earned.

12 + 6.8 + 6.9 + 8 + 10.8 = 44.5 total quality points

Semester GPA

To obtain your grade point average for a specific semester, divide the total quality points earned for that semester by the number of hours attempted for that same semester. 

Example:

44.5 divided by 16 = 2.78 GPA for the semester

Cumulative GPA

To calculate your cumulative grade point average, you divide your total number of quality points earned by your total number of attempted credit hours for all semesters at William & Mary.

Note:

Fs have no quality points, but count in the credits attempted total. Courses that you receive a P (passing grade) in are not counted in the credits attempted total used to calculate your grade point average.