Grade Point Average Calculation
Every term on a student's record is filled with courses that have some type of grade attached to them. In calculating the GPA, only courses with letter grades of A, B, C, D, (including +'s and -'s) and F are used.
Calculating Term GPA
Every course carries with it a certain number of "quality points". Quality points are found by multiplying a course's credits by its grade.
To allow us to do the multiplication, we convert letter grades into numbers as follows:
Grades and Quality Points
Thus, a 4-credit class with a B is worth 4 credits x 3 quality points/credit = 12 quality points.
To obtain the GPA for a term, add up the quality points for the courses that term and divide by the total number of credits of those courses. The result will be a number between 0 and 4 which is usually carried out to two decimal places.
Calculating Cumulative GPA
The cumulative GPA is found in the same way, using all of the courses that have been taken. Transcripts have the GPA already calculated on them.
Increasing your GPA
There are basically only two ways to increase your GPA (besides taking more classes and getting better grades in them).
- Repeating Courses
- Taking a class in which you obtained a poor grade over again, subject to the University repeat policy, will allow you to have the earlier grade(s) taken out of your GPA calculations and the last grade used instead.
- Academic Forgiveness
- Academic Forgiveness for undergraduate students is a one-time opportunity to remove prior grades in order to establish a new Grade Point Average (GPA).
However, in neither of the above cases are any courses removed from a student's record. All Minnesota State Mankato courses taken are still shown on a transcript along with the original grades obtained.
