How To Calculate Cumulative GPA Over 2 Years

Your grade point average (GPA) is used by schools, scholarship committees and companies to differentiate between different applicants. Some just require a minimum GPA to apply, while others award more points for higher GPAs. You might want to calculate your GPA for two years if you have an application that requires only your most recent two years or if you want to show that you have improved in the last two years. For each class, you calculate your grade points based on your grade and the number of credit hours the class is worth.

Step 1

Isolate all of your grades from the past two years from your transcript.

Step 2

Change each letter grade to a numerical equivalent. Most often, an A changes to a "4" and each lower grade goes down by 1 point. If your school uses pluses and minuses, the school might add 0.3 or 0.33 for a plus and subtract the same amount for a minus. For example, an A- would be worth either 3.7 or 3.67, depending on your school.

Step 3

Multiply the numerical equivalent by the number of credit hours earned for the class. For example, for a A- in a two-hour class, multiply 3.7 by 2 to get 7.4.

Step 4

Repeat Step 3 for each of your classes taken within the past two years and add them all together to find the total.

Step 5

Add the number of hours worth of classes you have taken in the past two years.

Step 6

Divide the total number of grade points by your hours taken to find your cumulative GPA over the past two years. For example, if you have 196 grade points over 61 hours, divide 196 by 61 to find your GPA equals 3.21.