<p>Can any current Penn student please explain how grades are computed? I was reading a post in another section of CC and some freshman (don’t know the school) posted his first semester grades. They were mostly B+ and one A I think, and then he said that his cum. GPA was a 3.6 or something like that. How does that work?</p>
<p>Penn’s grading scale:
A/A+ = 4.0
A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3
B = 3.0
and so on down to D- and then F.
I suppose the kid might have pulled a 3.6 if he got the A in a multiple credit class - some science classes are worth 1.5 credits, and intensive language classes are worth 2.</p>
<p>ETA: or I suppose he could have had summer school As to give him a higher cum. GPA</p>
<p>thanks +++</p>
<p>what mark out of 100% constitutes an A+, A, B+, etc ?</p>
<p>That varies by class. A lot of classes use curves, especially the larger ones. Wharton has its own curve of evil, SAS has a standard distribution of grades, but profs aren’t obliged to conform to it. Nursing and SEAS are beyond my knowledge…
Also, pretty much any writing intensive class is only ever going to involve letter grades, although lots of profs will give you Bs on individual papers and then give you As for semester grades, so that they fall in line with the usual rate of inflation.</p>