Homeschooling a student through high school means eventually they will graduate. As part of preparation for a homeschool graduation, we need to prepare a high school transcript and calculate GPA. It is always a little nerve wracking, like calculating taxes. Averaging grades for a semester and year are a little different from calculating grades and GPA cover several years. The grades need to be weighted according to the credit given for the class. A half credit course does not count as much toward the final GPA as a one credit course. I always end up checking my calculations at least twice, sometimes three times. Do we have to calculate GPA by hand? No. Aren’t there online calculators to do it for us? Yes.
If you would like the ease of using an online calculator, there are many that come up on a Google search. Pearson offers a free online GPA calculator that looks pretty comprehensive and easy to use. If you would like to learn to calculate it yourself, here are examples for calculating GPA using a 100 point scale (common high school scale) and a 4.0 scale (common college/university scale).
Here is an example using five courses on a 100 point scale:
| History | 1 credit | 88 |
| English | 1 credit | 96 |
| Algebra 1 | 1 credit | 86 |
| Biology | 1 credit | 92 |
| PE | 0.5 credit | 98 |
Multiply the number of credits by the grade for each subject and add them together:
( 1x 88) + (1 x 96) + (1 x 86) + (1 x 92) + (0.5 x 98) = 411
Now divide the total points by the number of credits:
411 / 4.5 = 91.33
I round to a whole number for final grades on a 100 point scale, so this student would have a GPA of 91 for this year.
Here is the same student’s GPA calculation using a 4.0 scale:
| History | 1 credit | 3.0 |
| English | 1 credit | 4.0 |
| Algebra 1 | 1 credit | 3.0 |
| Biology | 1 credit | 4.0 |
| PE | 0.5 credit | 4.0 |
As before, multiply the number of credits by the grade points for each subject and add them together:
( 1x 3.0) + (1 x 4.0) + (1 x 3.0) + (1 x 4.0) + (0.5 x 4.0) = 16
Now divide the total points by the number of credits:
16 / 4.5 = 3.56
I follow college example and round to two decimal places for the 4.0 point scale, so this student would have a GPA of 3.56 for this year.
Here is how to calculate a final GPA using the averages from four years using a 100 point scale:
| 9th grade | 6 credits | 94 |
| 10th grade | 6 credits | 88 |
| 11th grade | 6 credits | 92 |
| 12th grade | 6 credits | 96 |
Multiply the number of credits by the grade points for each year to get the total number of points earned that year and add all four years of points together:
(6 x 94) + (6 x 88) + (6 x 92) + (6 x 96) = 2220 points
Divide the total number of points by the total number of credits to calculate the final GPA:
2220 / 24 = 92.5
This grade can be left as a decimal, however I stay consistent in rounding to the whole number GPA when using a 100 point scale.
I hope that helps someone, it can be scary to build a transcript for the first time. There are companies that can help. Homeschooling for College Credit offers a free transcript overview class that I highly recommend to anyone looking to create a transcript themselves. I offer a free transcript template in MS Word that I created to use with my own kids after watching her presentation that you can use as an example or can modify to use with your own homeschool students (shown below).
A high school transcript is a record of years of work and the GPA represents mastery of those subjects. Don’t forget to tell your homeschool student how proud you are of them! And don’t forget to feel proud of yourself for being the high school teacher, counselor, and principal in order to provide your homeschool student with a rigorous, individualized education to prepare them for life after high school.
North Star Homeschool Resources 