Letter grades, percentages and grade points on the 4.0, 4.3, 4.5 and 5.0 scales
This is the version used by most American colleges and the one most graduate programmes and employers assume when no scale is stated:
| Letter | Grade points | Typical percentage | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| A+ / A | 4.0 | 93–100 | Excellent |
| A− | 3.7 | 90–92 | Excellent |
| B+ | 3.3 | 87–89 | Good |
| B | 3.0 | 83–86 | Good |
| B− | 2.7 | 80–82 | Satisfactory |
| C+ | 2.3 | 77–79 | Satisfactory |
| C | 2.0 | 73–76 | Adequate |
| C− | 1.7 | 70–72 | Adequate |
| D+ | 1.3 | 67–69 | Poor but passing |
| D | 1.0 | 63–66 | Poor but passing |
| D− | 0.7 | 60–62 | Lowest passing grade |
| F | 0.0 | Below 60 | Fail, no credit |
The arithmetic behind it is simple: each whole letter is worth one point, and each plus or minus shifts the result by 0.3. The exception at the top is deliberate — capping A+ at 4.0 keeps 4.0 as a genuine ceiling, which is why a 'perfect 4.0' means something on this scale and rather less on a 4.3 scale.
Those percentage bands are conventional, not universal. Three variations are common enough to catch people out:
Because these bands differ, converting a percentage average into a GPA is an approximation by nature. If your transcript shows percentages, run each course through the conversion rather than converting one overall average.
Outside the standard 4.0 model, three alternatives turn up regularly:
| Scale | Top grade | Where you see it | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 (capped) | A+ = A = 4.0 | Most US universities | 4.0 is a hard ceiling |
| 4.3 | A+ = 4.3 | Many US and Canadian schools, common in China | A 4.0 here is no longer the maximum |
| 4.5 | A+ = 4.5 | Common in Korea and some Chinese institutions | Frequently mistaken for a 4.3 scale |
| 5.0 | A = 5.0 | Some Chinese universities; also US weighted high school GPAs | Two unrelated meanings share one number |
The 5.0 case deserves a warning. In a Chinese university a 5.0 scale is an unweighted scale with a higher ceiling. In an American high school a 5.0 usually means a weighted GPA where honours and AP courses earn bonus points on top of a 4.0 base. The same digits describe completely different systems.
The tempting shortcut — multiply a 5.0-scale GPA by 0.8, or a 4.3 by 0.93 — fails because grade boundaries are not proportional. A score of 85 might be a 3.7 on one scale and a 4.0 on another; the mapping is a step function whose steps sit in different places.
One more reason to avoid shortcuts: admissions offices and credential evaluators recalculate from your transcript rather than trusting a converted figure. A number you produced with a multiplier will not match theirs, and the mismatch invites questions.
Check your academic catalogue or transcript legend — the scale is usually printed on the back of an official transcript. Failing that, ask the registrar directly. Two details are worth confirming while you are there: whether A+ exceeds 4.0, and whether plus/minus grades are used at all, since a school without them effectively rounds every grade to a whole point.
When you report a GPA anywhere, always attach the scale: 3.62 / 4.0 is informative, while 3.62 alone is not.
Both exist. Most US universities cap every A-level grade at 4.0, while a large minority run a 4.3 scale where A+ = 4.3. Because the cap changes the maximum achievable GPA, you cannot compare a 4.3-scale number with a 4.0-scale number without recalculating from the original grades.
Only as a rough guess. There is no exact formula between scales, because each scale draws its grade boundaries at different scores. The correct method is to take the original percentage or letter grades and re-run every course through the target scale's table.
Report the scale your transcript actually uses and state it explicitly, for example '3.62 / 4.0'. Admissions offices recalculate to their own standard anyway, and a number without its scale is unreadable.
More than students expect. On a scale with plus/minus steps, the difference between a B+ and a B− is 0.6 grade points on one course, which is roughly the same effect as a full letter grade on a scale without them.