<p>Hi, I live and study high school in a country where the grading scale system on every subject and its tests goes from 1 to 20. There does not exist any selective courses or honors or that sort of stuff. All courses or subjects are obligatory. Everybody sees the same classes… the same mathematics, physics. chemistry, history, etc (you get the idea). Every subject is worth the same too, the average of any of your school terms is the sum of all your grades and then the division of the resulted number by the number of subjects. So the average obviously goes from 1 to 20. The thing is, people have told me that in order to convert that number to a 4.0 GPA scale, you should divide it by 5. But in some websites that are “GPA Convertors” say that a grade from 17 to 20 is an A (4.0), from 14 to 16 is a B (3.0) and below 10 it is failing… So it says that if you have only 17’s and 18’s, you got a 4.0 GPA. I don’t know how it works and need to know my GPA, if everybody has any idea which converting system is correct, please tell me. Thanks</p>
<p>Just divide what you get by 5.</p>
<p>Do you have some sort of guidance counserlor or administrator in your school who knows about American colleges?Also, who are the “people” who told you to divide by 5? If they are people that work for your school (someone I just mentioned) then that’s how you calculate your gpa. Although you are not calculating your GPA but the person who sends your transcript, if he or she even converts it.
I know that in some countries with a 20 scale, getting a 20 in any class in much harder than getting a 100 in an american school, so you would be in a disadvantge if you just divided by 5. </p>
<p>Numbers can’t be converted like this. Numbers have a cultural value. In some countries, a 7/10 is a top 10% grade. In the US, it’s almost the level below which you get kicked out of school - definitely a bottom grade and one that doesn’t qualify you for a 4-year college. In some countries, it’s the expected grade to go to a 4-year college but not with distinction.
If you’re attending a French-patterned school, you NEVER EVER use the “/20” in the way you express the number. (In France, a 15/20 si an awesome grade worth champagne. In the US, it’s barely passing, which means, below what you need to go on in the next level, what the French call “redoubler”. An American who sees 15/20 thinks “very bad grade”, not “awesome grade, wow”. It’s only natural).
The scale is the following:
13= A/A+ (4.3)
10= B (3)
7= C (2)
4= D ( 1)
0= F (0)
That creates your unweighted GPA.
For your weighted GPA, add .5 for Honors classes (like non specialty but advanced classes) and 1 for AP (specialty, advanced classes), except for foreign languages which at CEF B1 or B2 are weighted +1 (AP, IB HL), 0.5 if A2.
This creates your weighted GPA (some colleges, such as the Florida or North Carolina public universities, will want that.)</p>
<p>The scale may be altered if your school has grade deflation (for example a 10 at your school results in 11-11.5 for the bac) or grade inflation (for example, a 10 at your school typically results in 8.5-9 for the bac).</p>
<p>For the bac, you don’t convert into a GPA and just submit the above scale, plus , in addition to the above
12 = Honors/Academic Regional distinction
14 = Honors/ National distinction
16 = Honors/National distinction (rare)</p>
<p>Most “coef.4+” are worth some college credits if you get 12 or more.</p>
<p>People who have told me the /5 thing are friends and family, and it does sound logical when you do the math. But I’m impressed on how bad my grade on the 4.0 GPA looks compared to the 20 scale. My high school grade right now is 17/20 and it is a nice grade in my country. The class’ average grade is usually 15, so having a 17 grade shows you are above your class average. Getting straight 20’s in my country (Venezuela), and in a good private school, is not that easy. There is always something very difficult, especially physics, my professor tests us with very complex problems, not basic ones. Anyways, when converting 17 to the GPA scale by dividing it by 5, it’s a 3.4!!! Which doesn’t look as good as a 17 in my country! I read on these forums about people with 3.5+ GPA’s more than people with a GPA lower than 3.5… So the average american, at least in these website, has a 3.5 gpa, when in Venezuela a 17 (3.4) is a very nice grade and above average… I don’t get it… Maybe it’s easier to get higher notes in the US because you decide your subjects and courses, in Venezuela you take all of them you want it or not.</p>
<p>For college applications, use the GPA scale that appears on your transcript. i.e. x.x/20. Colleges will rarely ask you to convert to a 4.0 scale.</p>
<p>If, for some reason, you are asked to convert, do not simply divide by 5, since in France a 20 is rarely awarded.</p>
<p>I would say do it like this say I got an 18/20. I’d do this 18/20=x/4.0 and solve for x. That’s your grade.</p>
<p>It’s not because it’s easier in the US, it’s because the numbers don’t have the same cultural value.
A number isn’t a number. What’s the grade to get to <em>a</em> college, for instance? 10? 14?
If you translated “straight”, in the US, you’d need 16. For a good college, you’d need 18. For a top college, 19.5+ would be expected. THOUSANDS (in fact, several hundred thousands) students get 19.5+ in the US. Not because it’s easier, simply because that’s the scale, the standard. In some countries, 14 is what you need for a top college. So, 14 in that country is the same as 19.5 in another country if a same percentile of top students get it. What matters is the meaning of the number - the national percentile getting to that level, for instance, or what you can achieve with that score, as well as that the “standard” is.
To get back to the example of France, grades in the 16-20 range are rarely awarded, and are usually given to students who did as well as the teachers did in the “practice grading” session which obviously isn’t the standard in the US or basically no one would get get into college… In addition, in some countries, certain subjects have a reputation for harsher grading - it can be latin, or philosophy, Literature, or calculus… whereas in other countries some subjects have a reputation for lenient grading, and those can be latin, or philosophy, literature, calculus!
That’s why a proper grading scale and school profile are ESSENTIAL tools of your application.</p>