Essential part of keeping transcripts easy to understand is by having a GPA or Grade Point Average. The starting point to do so is to know the number of courses that your homeschool student is doing. You can take a look at all the material being taught in the academic year and slot it under different courses such as Math, Science, Physical Education, English Literature, Music, and so on.
Now assign a certain number of credits per course. For instance Math could be for two credits while Physical Education could be one credit and Music could be half a credit. It will depend on the amount of material that is being studied under each course. Next have a Grade Scale. Ideally it should be mentioned on the transcript so that the person looking at it gets a idea of how the calculations were worked.
A Grade Scale assigns a grade for the marks scored in each course. For instance A+ grade could be for the range of 90 to 100 marks, A- grade could be for 80 to 89 marks, B+ grade for 70 to 79 marks, B- for 60-69 marks, C+ for 50-59 marks, C- for 40 to 49 marks, D+ for 30 to 39 marks, D- for 20 to 29 marks and E for 19 and below.
Now assign a numerical scale to the grades. To keep it simple let’s try a 5.0 point scale. Here A grade is 5, B is 4, C is 3, D is 2 and E is 1. Once you have assigned the grades for each course, now multiply them with the credits for the course to obtain the grade points.
For instance if the child has scored and A grade in Math which has 2 credits assigned to it the GPA for Math is 2*5 is 10 grade points.Then Science has 2 credits and the grade scored is B so grade points becomes 2*4 = 8. If PE has one credit and grade obtained is C, grade points are 1*3= 3.
To calculate the GPA of all three courses we have a total of 5 credits, and number of grade points scored are 10+8+3 = 21. We know the GPA scale is 5.0. That means 21/5 = 4.2 GPA. You can do this with all the courses that the homeschool student is following all through the academic year and consolidate the GPA at the end of the session.
