At the end of the first semester, grades are reported and report cards are sent home. Here's the way it works at a typical high school: Students get quarter grades and semester grades. Quarter grades are tabulated and sent home, but it's the semester grades that count. Once you get a semester grade on your record, it stays on your transcript. Semester grades are used to calculate your GPA and determine the credits you earn. These are also the grades that colleges will see when they look at your transcript.

Let's look a report card for Joe Bloggs, our sample student, for the 1st Semester of his 9th grade year. He finished his English class and although he did well on his last few assignments and his final exam, he got a zero on his first assignment because he failed to turn it in. He ended up with a B in the class for the semester as a result of that first missed assignment. His other grades are on his report card below.

The grades aren't all that bad… except for Art. Yikes! The F is really going to pull down his grade point average (GPA).

Here's How GPAs Work
Every school converts letter grades into grade points using a Grade Point Conversion Chart. At most high schools, an A gets 4 grade points, so if you have straight As, your Grade Point Average would be 4.0

Your high school might use a different chart, but it's probably something similar to the one below.

To calculate GPA, the letter grades are converted into grade points. Then those grade points are multiplied by the amount of credit that each class is worth. At this high school, each semester-long class is worth 0.5 credits (so a year-long class is worth 1.0 credit). When the grade points are multiplied by the credits, the result is the number of grade points earned. Then the grade points earned are added together and divided by the number of credits that were attempted that semester. The result is called the Grade Point Average. Sound confusing? Look at the table below and we'll lead you through it.

1st Semester Grade Calculations for Joe Bloggs

Class Percent Grade Grade Points Credits Attempted Grade Points Earned 9th Grade English 84% B 3.0 0.5 3.0 x 0.5 = 1.5 9th Grade Math 91% A- 3.75 0.5 3.75 x 0.5 = 1.875 9th Grade Science 76% C 2.0 0.5 2.0 x 0.5 = 1.0 9th Grade Am.History 93% A 4.0 0.5 4.0 x 0.5 = 2.0 Intro to Art 52% F 0.0 0.5 (unearned) 0.0 x 0.5 = 0.0 Physical Education 88% B+ 3.25 0.5 3.25 x 0.5 = 1.675 Totals 3.0 attempted (2.5 earned) 8.0 GPA 8.0/3.0 = 2.667

If you look at the calculations on Joe's record, each of his letter grades were turned into grade points according to the Grade Point Conversion Chart. The B in English became a 3.0, the A- in Math became a 3.75, etc. Then, the grade points were multiplied by the credits that were attempted (0.5 credits for each class, since each grade represents one semester or, in other words, half a credit). The multiplication of grade points times credits attempted gives the "grade points earned." Notice that for the A in History, Joe earned 2.0 grade points, but for his F in Intro to Art, Joe didn't earn any grade points.

When the school added up all of the grade points earned (8.0) and divided it by the total number of credits attempted (3.0), Joe received his grade point average: 2.667.

Since a 2.0 is a C average and a 3.0 is a B average, Joe's GPA of 2.667 is about a C+ average, which is a shame because he earned an A in History, an A- in Math, a B+ in P.E. and a B in English. His F in Intro to Art pulled his GPA way down.

That F in Intro to Art also hurt him in another big way. Joe attempted a total of 3.0 credits during the first semester, but he only earned 2.5 credits. He doesn't get credit for the class that he failed.

The Care and Feeding of Your GPA
The impact of doing just a little bit better in each class goes a long way to keeping your grades high. Here are some points to keep in mind.

• Always try to keep your GPA at 3.0 or higher. If you have a really difficult class, try as hard as you can.
• If you don't earn any As during a semester, it's hard to make honor roll, unless ALL of your grades are in the B-range.
• Not only will colleges see the classes you took during your freshman year and the grades you made in those classes, those grades will also impact your cumulative GPA, which will have a huge impact on the colleges you are admitted to and even some of the scholarships that you will qualify for.
• Every single class that you take in high school--and the grades that you earn in those classes--can be found on your transcript. You can get a copy of your transcript from your high school. We recommend that you get a copy of your full transcript at the end of each semester so that you can make sure everything is accurate, and so that you see your cumulative GPA (the average of all your semester grades since the beginning of 9th grade).