All guides
Each calculator on this site has a companion guide, and a handful of guides stand on their own. They are not tool documentation: each one works a real example end to end, states where the convention it uses comes from, and says plainly which part of the question arithmetic cannot answer. Every number printed in a guide is asserted in that tool's test suite, so the prose and the calculator cannot drift apart.
The full list
Sorted by title. The tool link takes you straight to the calculator the guide works through.
- Credit hours, explained
What a credit hour is under the federal definition, the workweek a 15-credit term implies, and why credit hours, not letters, decide how far a grade moves your GPA.
- Does an 89.5 round up?
Is 89.5 an A or a B? It rounds up to 90, an A-, only where the syllabus or school rounds at .5. Real policies both ways, quoted, and what the half point costs.
- GPA inertia, measured
Why raising a cumulative GPA gets harder every term: the solve-for-next-term formula, the inertia table, and how more terms turn impossible into merely hard.
- How a 77 outranks an 88 in the R score
In BCI's own worked example a 77 gets an R score of 32.91 and an 88 gets 32.39. The formula, the group corrections and the failure weights, worked by hand.
- How attendance policies price your seat
The two common attendance-grading shapes worked with real numbers: weighted categories that bill every miss, and penalty policies that are free, then steep.
- How class rank actually works
What rank 40 of 400 actually means: the top-percent math, percentile vs top percent, how ties and weighted GPAs move ranks, and why many schools stopped ranking.
- How colleges recalculate your GPA
One transcript, four GPAs: how UC's capped-honors formula and UGA's core-course recalculation turn a 4.42 school GPA into a 4.25 or a 4.08, with sources.
- How exam curves actually work
The five common exam curves worked on one score: square root, flat add, highest-to-100, scale-to-top, and mean shift — who each one helps and by how much.
- How final exams change your grade
How much a final can move your course grade at any weight: the ceiling, the floor, the per-point leverage, and the weights where a target is simply out of reach.
- How GPA math actually works
Quality points, credit weighting, and the standard 4.0 ladder worked end to end, with the real cost of one C and why heavy courses move your GPA most.
- One CGPA, two official percentages
A CGPA of 8.00 is 72.50 percent at VTU and 71.20 at Pune. Why India has no single conversion formula, and what the two official ones actually say.
- One French 13, four German grades
On TUM's French values a 13 converts to exactly 2.875 under the modified Bavarian formula. Four finishing rules German offices publish make it 2.7, 2.8, 2.9 or 3.0.
- One Italian 30 cum laude, three possible French grades
An Italian 30 cum laude reads 15, 17 or 19 at Rouen, depending on the rule. How ECTS grading tables convert a grade by position, worked on published tables.
- One transcript, a GPA of 4.167 and a WAM of 58
One published Australian transcript, run through the 7-point GPA formula and through the weighted average mark formula: 4.167 and exactly 58, and no way across.
- Percent to GPA: why no two tables agree
A 91 is a 3.7, a 3.67, or a 4.0 depending on whose published table reads it. Two real scales compared, the reverse direction explained, and what to use instead.
- Percentage to letter grade: how scales actually work
How percent-to-letter scales actually work: the common plus-minus cutoffs, why 89.5 is the most argued number in school, and how to read your own syllabus's scale.
- Planning a GPA climb: the honest arithmetic
The real math of raising a GPA: why 2.80 to 3.20 takes four 3.5 semesters, when a target is mathematically unreachable, and how banked credits set the pace.
- Points versus percents: two averages, one gradebook
Two defensible ways to average the same graded work can differ by 15 points. The math behind total-points and equal-percent grading, worked with real numbers.
- Reading a class in five numbers
Mean, median, range, standard deviation, and the letter distribution: what each one tells a teacher about a roster, worked on a real 12-score example.
- Semester vs cumulative: the two GPAs, worked
How a term GPA folds into your cumulative: the reconstruction formula, a full worked example, and the dilution table showing why the average calms down.
- The 34-point drop below an H6 in Maths
On the CAO scale an H6 in Higher Maths is worth 71 and an H7 is worth 37. The bonus rule, when it adds less than 25, Foundation Maths and LCVP, worked by hand.
- The 4.33 scale: same letters, different number
How the 4.33 scale changes your GPA: the A+ premium, the x.33/x.67 steps, one transcript computed on both ladders, and how to tell which scale your school uses.
- The 40/40/20 semester formula
How two terms and a final combine into a semester grade: the 40/40/20 convention worked by hand, the solve-for-the-final flip, and why splits matter.
- The A+ question: 4.0 vs 4.33 ladders
Where the 4.0 and 4.33 grading conventions come from, what the same transcript scores on each, and why cross-border GPA comparisons quietly break.
- The grade you need on the rest of the course
The general form of every what-do-I-need question: the remaining-share formula worked by hand, why late-course targets move violently, and honest limits.
- The pass/fail decision, priced
When pass/fail protects a GPA and when it wastes a good letter: the break-even rule, the worked both-ways math, and the F fine print real registrars publish.
- The same marks, a 3.000 in Toronto and a 3.150 at McGill
Four marks run through the University of Toronto and McGill grade tables: 3.000 and 3.150 from identical courses, plus McGill's rule that 3.596 shows as 3.59.
- Weighted grades, worked by hand
How category weights turn five averages into one course grade: the contribution formula, why heavy categories dominate, and the two honest readings.
- Weighted vs unweighted GPA
Weighted and unweighted GPA computed on one transcript: what the bumps add, why 4.5 and 5.0 scales don't compare, and which number colleges actually read.
- Weighted vs unweighted GPA, honestly
What honors and AP bumps really do to a GPA: the worked math, why rankings shuffle under different rulers, and why weighted GPAs never compare across schools.
- What actually decides a UK degree class
One transcript, three published weightings and three published borderline rules: how a 2:2 and a 2:1 come out of the same marks, with the sources quoted.
- What do I need on my final? The full math
The final-grade formula worked end to end: an A, a B, or just passing, why one letter up often takes a near-perfect final, and the two honest edge cases.
- What do I need to get an A?
The needed-final-score ladder for an A at nine current-grade and weight combinations, the entry tickets that decide when an A is still alive, and honest math.
- What do I need to pass?
The passing line is 60, 65, or 70 depending on the system, and each 5-point difference swings the needed final score by 25 at a 20% weight. Sourced and worked.
- What does a late penalty really cost?
Ten percent per day late can mean points off the maximum or percent off your score. What each leaves, day by day, and what late work still adds to a course grade.
- What drop-the-lowest is worth
The drop-the-lowest policy, measured: how the math works, what one drop is really worth, tie handling, and how a drop changes what you need next.
- What each curve actually does
Flat, multiplier, top-to-100, square-root, target-mean: five curves applied to one roster, showing who each one helps most. The answers are not the same.
- What is extra credit actually worth?
Extra credit inside a weighted category is diluted by that category's weight: 5 points in a 20% category is 1.0 of final grade. The arithmetic, both ways.
Where to start
- Finals week. How final exams change your grade is the hub: the ceiling, the floor, and the per-point leverage of a final at every weight. What do I need to get an A and what do I need to pass run the same identity against the two targets people actually chase.
- GPA questions. Weighted vs unweighted GPA for the two numbers on a high school transcript, how colleges recalculate your GPA for what admissions offices do to them, and credit hours explained for the reason a 4-credit course moves your average twice as far as a 2-credit one.
- The rounding argument. Does an 89.5 round up quotes real universities on both sides of it and prices the half point in final-exam terms.