What is Cumulative GPA? (Well Explained)

Most students go out of their way to make sure they graduate with a good cumulative GPA. Some go the extent of even doing illicit things like paying their lecturers so that they can get good results.

Why? Its because your Cumulative GPA is what people will look at after college.

You will find out that during college, your parents might not really know about your academic performance but they will surely want to know your Cumulative GPA because its the all in all.

Its what you will submit to a company or an association if you are in search of a job or favor.

What is Cumulative GPA?

Cumulative GPA (Grade Point Average) is the total GPA gotten from the average of the GPA of 1st and 2nd semester.

A semester GPA is the result got from one semester alone; it’s calculated by adding the score of the respective credit units of all the attempted courses and dividing it by the total credit unit offered that semester.

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How to manually calculate Cumulative GPA in College:

• A for Excellent(70 -100) – 5 Points
• B for Good(60-69) – 4 Points
• C for Average(50-59) – 3 Points
• D for Poor(40-49) – 2 Points
• E for Very Poor(30-39) – I Point
• F for Fail(0-30) – 0 Point (Often regarded as a Carryover to the next semester).

E is not so common in most school, some schools prefer A, B, C, D, F without the E.

This was done to make students work harder to get good grades and not relying on their last hope (E) before the carryover. Thus without the E, it’s written as:

• A for Excellent (70 -100) – 4 Points
• B for Good (60-69) – 3 Points
• C for Average (50-59) – 2 Points
• D for Poor (40-49) – 1 Points
• F for Fail (0-39) – 0 Point (Often regarded as a Carryover to the next semester).

GPA for 1st Semester for Jessy:

Courses	Credit Unit	Score	Grade
Maths 101	4 Units	71	A
GST 101	2 Units	55	B
Chem 103	4 units	40	D
STAT 101	3 units	79	A
GST 107	1 unit	80	A
Bio 101	2 units	56	C
GST 103	3 units	69	B

In Calculating the GPA,

• Maths 101 = A = (4*4) = 16
• GST 101 = B = (2*3) =6
• Chem 103 = D = (4*1) = 4
• STAT 101 = A = (3*4) = 12
• GST 107 = A = (1*4) =4
• BIO 101 = C = (2*2) = 4
• GST 103 = B =(3*3) = 9

Total: 55, Total no of units offered: 19;

Thus GPA = 55/19 = 2.89( 1st Semester)

Assuming Second Semester GPA is 3.56,

Cumulative GPA for the year becomes: (2.89 + 3.56)/2 = 3.22

What is a good College GPA?

A good college Grade Point Average is a GPA of 3.0 and above.

Although everyone has his/her own perspective about a good GPA but someone with a GPA of 3.0 and above is good to go.

Remember that the total GPA is 4.0 so if you have a good GPA of 3.0 and above its okay.

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Response from a Professor in Mathematics:

A student with a good Cumulative GPA is a student that understands his course of study theoretically and in practical form.

Thus a Cumulative GPA is just a score which can’t be compared to the inward knowledge that a student has about a field.

On the other hand, a good GPA of 2.5 is good with the extra time put into improving and growing your skills.

Response from Ali Baba(One of the Richest Men In China):

Ali Baba, one of the richest men in china told his son this,

you don’t need to be in the top three in your class, being in the middle is fine, so long as your grades aren’t too bad. Only this kind of person [a middle-of-the-road student] has enough free time to learn other skills. 

Ali Baba

This implies that your grades will go a long way to help you to be successful but you need to spend extra time to grow and improve yourself. Thus, having a cumulative GPA of 2.5 is good if you still make out time for other activities.

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Is 3.7 a good college Cumulative GPA?

It’s an awesome Cumulative GPA, in fact, you are almost on the hit(4.0). It’s a good CGPA that can get you a good job if you have additional or practical skills in your field of study.

Cumulative Grade Point Average Apps:

GPA Calculator: An Andriod app from Hussein. This app is applicable for all schools and universities as you can create your own custom GPA scale in case it is not listed in the app.

Quick GPA Calculator: An Andriod app for students to Easily Calculate your college GPA and Share the Calculation and Results with Others. It shows all the steps needed to calculate the CGPA.

Fourpoint – A GPA Calculator: An IOS app from John Davis to help students. Fourpoint makes it easy to calculate your GPA for a single semester, in addition to the cumulative GPA of your educational career.

Conclusion:

In calculating the Cumulative GPA, its best to avoid approximations so that you won’t make mistakes or unnecessary errors due to approximation. Thus, necessary approximation can be done at the end of the calculation.

if you are not okay with the manual way of calculating the CGPA, you can use the mobile apps to calculate it.

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