Grading Scale Chart

Standard 10-point grading scale

This is the most widely used scale in US high schools and colleges. Each letter grade covers a 10-point range, except F, which covers everything below 60.

Plus and minus grading scale

Many colleges, and a growing number of high schools, split each letter into three finer bands using plus and minus modifiers. This version rewards a 92% differently from a 98%, both of which are simply "A" on the standard scale above.

Some schools cap A+ at a 4.0 GPA rather than allowing it to exceed 4.0, and some do not award a plus on the top grade at all. Check your own institution's registrar page if a precise GPA value matters, since this detail is one of the more common variations between schools that otherwise use the same plus and minus structure.

7-point grading scale

A smaller number of school districts, mostly at the K-12 level, use a 7-point scale instead, which shifts every letter grade's range down compared to the 10-point scale above. A 75% is a C on this scale, but only a D-range score on the 10-point scale, so it matters which scale your own school actually uses.

How to check which scale your school uses

The grading scale is set by the individual school or district, not by any national standard, so the fastest way to confirm which one applies to you is to check your syllabus, student handbook, or your school's registrar or academic policy page. Community colleges and universities frequently use the plus and minus scale for GPA purposes even when individual instructors report only whole letter grades on assignments, so it is worth checking both the course syllabus and the institution-wide grading policy if the two seem to disagree.

If you are trying to work out whether a specific percentage clears a scholarship, financial aid, or program requirement, use the exact scale published by that program rather than assuming the standard 10-point scale applies, since eligibility cutoffs sometimes reference a plus and minus scale specifically.

Weighted GPA versus unweighted GPA

The percent to letter grade tables above answer a different question than a weighted GPA does, and the two are easy to mix up. Unweighted GPA treats every course the same regardless of difficulty, so an A in an introductory elective and an A in an advanced placement or honors course both count as a 4.0. Weighted GPA gives extra grade points for harder courses, commonly an extra 0.5 to 1.0 point, so an A in an AP or honors class might count as a 5.0 or 4.5 instead of 4.0 on that school's scale.

This distinction matters most for class rank and college admissions, where a weighted GPA is often reported alongside, or instead of, the unweighted figure. The letter grade itself, and the percentage that produced it, does not change between the two systems: only the grade point value assigned to that letter changes. Check your transcript or registrar page to see which figure your school reports by default, and whether course difficulty weighting applies to your specific classes.

Using this chart with the calculators

Both the final grade calculator and the exam calculator report a plain percentage. Match that percentage against the scale your own school actually uses from the tables above, rather than relying on the calculators' built-in estimate, which defaults to the standard 10-point scale since it is the most common one. Everything on this page, and every calculation on this site, runs locally in your browser, with no data sent anywhere; see the privacy policy for the full detail.