According to Penn State University, schools use a student's GPA score to numerically represent academic performance quality. The GPA, also known as grade-point average, can determine whether a student makes the Dean's List, sufficiently passes a class, and if she is eligible for advanced courses and desired extracurricular activities. High school students can take their grade percentages and convert them to GPA for use in high school transcripts. postulates there is no way to convert the grade percentage to GPA with 100 percent accuracy, but one can use a formula to calculate the closest match.

Plug your grade percentage into the place of "p" in the following formula: 4 x p/85. The "p" stands for "percentage."

Divide the percentage by 85. For example, for an 80 percent grade, divide 80 by 85. The result is 0.94.

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Multiply the result by 4. In this example, the resulting GPA is 3.76.

Tip cautions that these scores are only rough equivalents, so exact GPA might vary with other factors, such as how many semester credits a class is worth.

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About the Author

Rochelle Connery is a professional freelance author and has been writing skin care, travel, music and technology how-to articles since 2006. She has played piano for over 15 years, is a professional songwriter and holds her B.A. in communications from Louisiana Baptist University.