How GPA is calculated

The formula

Every letter grade has grade points, from 0.7 for A+ to 5.0 for F. Lower is better. Multiply each course's grade points by its credit hours, add the results, and divide by the total credit hours.

GPA = sum of (grade points x credit hours) / sum of credit hours

A worked example

1. Cumulative GPA: 39.60 divided by 22.0 is 1.8000, which is shown as 1.80.
2. Semester 1 on its own counts only its three courses: 23.40 divided by 16.0 is 1.4625, shown as 1.46.

Rounding

Nothing is rounded along the way. The final figure is rounded once, half up, to two decimals, for display only. The unrounded value is shown beside it, so you can see exactly where you stand near a boundary.

Courses that are not counted yet

A course marked "Not taken yet" or "Not graded yet" is left out completely. It is not counted as zero. With no graded credit hours at all there is no GPA, and the site shows "No GPA yet".

Special rules for the cumulative GPA

• Language courses count at half weight. A 4 credit hour German or English language course counts as 2. This comes from the official transcript key.
• Only the last language course of each kind counts. The key says Basic German 4 accounts for all non-elective German courses. The same rule is applied to English language courses, which the key does not state outright. You can change both language rules on your Account page.
• The thesis does not count. The official key excludes it.
• A failed course you later passed stops counting. Repeated courses with the same name or course code are linked automatically after a failed attempt, or you can mark the passing attempt as a retake manually. Only the passing grade counts after that. If the retake is also a fail, or has no grade yet, the first attempt still counts.

Semester GPA

The same calculation for the courses of one semester. Language courses count at half weight and every one of them counts, because "last course only" is a cumulative rule. The thesis is left out, and a failed attempt counts in the semester where you took it.

The university's own semester figures carry more precision than a letter grade, so the number here can differ from your transcript by a few hundredths. The cumulative GPA is not affected.

Credit hours

Credit hours decide how much a grade counts. The university does not publish them on its course pages, so the study plan shows suggested values taken from one student's transcript. Check each against your own transcript. The GPA always uses the credit hours saved on your own course, so correcting a value changes your GPA right away.

Why your GPA here can differ from your transcript

If you entered all your study-plan grades and the cumulative GPA is off by a few hundredths (for example 1.80 instead of 1.77), check these four places on your Breakdown page:

• Courses from another study group or a summer round. Courses taken before switching study groups (such as Civil Engineering Drawing under CVL02) or in a Summer Round are not pre-filled slots in the standard CSEN plan. Add them with Add a course on the Semesters page or use Import from transcript screenshot.
• Unpublished credit hours. Courses whose credit hours are not published by the university (such as Engineering Chemistry or Scientific Thinking) start at an assumed 3 hours in the plan, while your transcript may list 4 hours or 2 hours. Change the credit-hours dropdown on that row to match your transcript.
• A course listed twice on the transcript. When the portal lists a course under two study-group codes in the same semester (such as ENG01 and ENG02 Engineering Drawing & Design), both rows count in the official cumulative GPA.
• Failed courses passed later in a makeup or repeat semester. Make sure both the original F and the passing makeup or repeat attempt are entered so the failing attempt is superseded in the cumulative GPA.