Gather this term's courses
List every course you took this semester with the letter grade you earned and its credit hours. Ignore earlier semesters — that's for cumulative GPA.
Do the math
Convert each grade to grade points, multiply by credits, add them up, and divide by this term's total credits. For example: A (4.0) × 3, B (3.0) × 3, and A− (3.7) × 4 gives (12 + 9 + 14.8) ÷ 10 = 3.58 semester GPA.
Combine terms for cumulative GPA
Once you have each semester's GPA and credits, the cumulative GPA calculator combines them into your overall GPA, weighted by how many credits each term carried.
Averaging your semester GPAs directly only works if every term carried the same number of credits. A 4.0 across 6 credits and a 3.0 across 15 credits is not a 3.5 — it is (24 + 45) ÷ 21 = 3.29, because the heavier term dominates.
Which grades to leave out
Several common marks do not belong in the calculation at all. Pass/fail grades — P, S, or CR depending on your school — normally carry no grade points and are excluded entirely. Withdrawals post as W and stay out. Incompletes sit outside until the grade resolves.
The rule to remember is that a course only enters your GPA if it carries grade points. If it does not, leave the row out rather than entering a zero, because a zero is an F and an F is a very different thing from a withdrawal.
Check your school's scale before you trust the number
The grade point values matter as much as the arithmetic. Some schools set A− at 3.7 and others at 3.67; Rutgers sets B+ at 3.5 rather than the usual 3.3; Texas A&M awards no plus or minus grades at all; UW–Madison uses AB and BC half-steps instead of plus/minus.
Using the standard table when your school uses a different one produces an answer that looks right and is quietly wrong. Our per-university pages list the verified scale for each school with the registrar source cited.
When your number disagrees with the registrar's
A hand-calculated GPA that misses the official one usually has one of a few causes. Transfer credits often count toward your degree without their grades entering your institutional GPA. Repeated courses may be replaced, averaged, or excluded depending on the school's policy. Some institutions keep separate undergraduate and graduate GPAs that never combine.
If the gap is small, suspect the grade point scale. If it is large, suspect transfer credit or a repeat policy. Either way the registrar's calculation is the one that counts — use yours for planning, not for proof.