Grades & Rounding
The tools on this page have something in common that sets them apart from the rest of the site: their answers depend on a convention rather than on a theorem. A 92 is an A under one grading scale and an A− under another. Whether 100 has one significant figure or three depends on how it was written, not on what it equals. Nothing here is wrong or right in the way a derivative is — it is right relative to a stated rule, so every tool on this page states the rule it used.
Two ideas run through all of it. The first is weighting: a GPA is a credit-weighted average and a final grade is a weight-weighted one, and in both cases the commonest mistake is to average the averages and lose the weights. A 4.0 over three credits and a 3.0 over sixty is a 3.05, not a 3.5. The second is precision: a number carries a claim about how well it is known, and significant figures are the notation for that claim. Rounding well means keeping the digits that were measured and no others, which is why 1230 and 1.23 × 10³ are different statements about the same quantity.
Letter grades are a lookup, not a formula
A percentage is arithmetic; the letter it earns is a band table your institution chose. The calculators here take the scale as an input and name it in the working, because the two scales in common use disagree about a 92 — an A− with plus/minus grading and a straight A without it.
GPA is weighted by credit hours
Each letter becomes a grade point, multiplied by the credits of its course to give quality points. The GPA is the total quality points over the total credits. Adding a prior record means adding to both sums, which is why a cumulative GPA is not the average of two term GPAs.
Significant figures record how well a number is known
Leading zeros place the decimal point and never count. Digits between non-zero digits always count. Trailing zeros count when a decimal point says so and are genuinely ambiguous without one — which is what scientific notation was invented to settle.
A conversion between scales usually gives a range
Grade points and percentages are two readings of the same band table, so a percentage determines a grade point exactly while a grade point only narrows a percentage to its band. Any tool returning a single percentage for a GPA has picked a midpoint and not mentioned it.
All solvers
Frequently asked questions
Why do these calculators ask which grading scale to use?
Because the answer changes. A 92 percent is an A− on a plus/minus scale and an A on a whole-letter scale, and neither table is more correct than the other — they belong to different institutions.
Is a cumulative GPA the average of my term GPAs?
Only if every term carried the same number of credits, which is rare. Credits are the weights, so the correct figure divides total quality points by total credit hours across every term.
How many significant figures does 100 have?
Ambiguously one, as written. The ambiguity is real: write 100. for three, or 1.0 × 10² for two. Scientific notation exists because the plain form cannot say.
Can a GPA be converted to a percentage exactly?
No. The conversion runs through the letter band both are read from, and the band is a range of percentages. The honest output is that range rather than a single number.