Learn how to understand your GPA and calculate what it may be in the future.
Understanding Your GPA
The GPA reported on your official Illinois transcript displays two digits to the right of the decimal point and is truncated, not rounded.
Four different GPAs display on your Illinois official transcript:
- Term GPA—the GPA for your grades for a single semester
- Total Institution—the GPA for all courses completed at Illinois
- Total Transfer—the GPA for any courses outside of Illinois
- Overall—the combined Institution and Transfer GPA
Predicting Your Future GPA
- For each course, multiply the grade points defined for the grade (e.g., A = 4.00; refer to our explanation of grades) by the number of credit hours for the course (e.g., 3) to calculate your quality points.
- Add all quality points.
- Add all GPA hours.
- Divide the sum of the quality points by the GPA hours.
| Course | Grade | Grade Points | GPA Hours | Quality Points |
| ASTR 199 | S | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| CHEM 102 | B+ | 3.33 | 3 | (3.33 × 3) = 9.99 |
| CHEM 103 | A | 4.00 | 1 | (4.00 × 1) = 4.00 |
| ECON 102 | C- | 1.67 | 3 | (1.67 × 3) = 5.01 |
| MATH 220 | F | 0.00 | 5 | (0.00 × 5) = 0.00 |
| PSYC 100 | A+ | 4.00 | 4 | (4.00 × 4) = 16.00 |
| RST 140 | CR | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total | 16 | 35 |
In the example report above, 35 quality points ÷ 16 GPA hours = 2.1875, giving the student a semester GPA of 2.18.