Allright… drift back in time (or dream ahead a bit for those of you who are a bit younger) and recall the days of GPA’s and you will understand how the grading system works.
The rating results will differ by the type of resource being reviewed. However, you will find that each resource gets a grade for different categories, as well as receiving an overall GPA.
Credit Amounts (CR)
Each Area Being Evaluated has a Credit Amount, which is indicated in parenthesis. (This is the equivalent of each area being a class worth a certain number of credits.)
Letter Grade Per Area
Each Area Being Evaluated is given a letter grade based on how well it did in that area. (The equivalent of your grade for a class.) Each letter has a point value: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0.
Total Possible Credits
This is the total amount of possible credits. You get this number by adding the CR value of each area.
Total Possible GPA
This amount is always a 4.0, indicating a perfect score.
Quality Points
This is the total number of the credit amounts multiplied by the point value of the letter grade given, per area.Ex: Area1 is worth 3cr total. You make an A (which is worth 4 points) in the area. Your total quality points are -> 3 * 4 = 12QP. For more than one area, you add the total QP’s for each area.
GPA
The GPA is equal to the number of Quality Points (QP) divided by the number of Total Possible Credits.
Total Letter Grade
The Total Letter Grade is based on the Total GPA and uses the following equivalents:
A = 4.0, A- = 3.7
B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7
C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C- = 1.7
D+ = 1.3, D = 1.0, D- = .7
F = 0.0
Exceptions
There may be exceptions (such as in the case of the ‘Perfect’ site) in which a grade of an A+ or a 4.3 may be given.
