High School

• 1). Find out how much the semester's final exam is weighted. In many high schools, this grade accounts for 20 to 25 percent of the total grade.
  
  
• 2). Subtract the worth of the final exam from 100, then divide this number by 2. This is how much each quarter grade is worth.
  
  
• 3). Multiply each quarter grade and the final exam by its percentage of the final grade.
  
  For example, if a student earned an 86 percent the first quarter, an 88 percent the second quarter, and got a 92 on the final exam, which is worth 20 percent of his final grade, you would set up the following three equations:
  
  0.40 * 86 = 34.4
  
  0.40 * 88 = 35.2
  
  0.20 * 92 = 18.4
  
  
• 4). Add the totals. This is the semester grade.
  
  34.4 + 35.2 + 18.4 = 88. The student earned an 88 percent for the semester.
  
  

Colleges and Universities

• 1). Assign each quarter class the number of grade points appropriate to your letter grade in that class. If you are a transfer student, check with your academic adviser or the registrar's office to see if you need to use the new school's GPA scale.
  
  For example, a class in which you earned an A- and 4.00 grade points at College A may only transfer as an A- and 3.67 grade points at University B, which uses a different grading system.
  
  
• 2). Multiply the quarter units you earned in that class by the grade points.
  
  For instance, if you earned an A (4.00) in a four-quarter unit class, you earned 16 grade points.
  
  
• 3). Multiply this number by 0.667, keeping only the first two digits after the decimal point. Do not round. This is your adjusted "semester" GPA for that class.