Calculate your UC GPA the way the University of California does: only 10th and 11th grade a-g courses, a maximum of 8 honors points, capped weighted GPA out of about 4.40.
| Grade (A-G course) | Grade level | Honors / AP / IB |
|---|
Enter one row per semester course. Tick the honors box only for UC-approved honors, AP, IB or transferable college courses. UC adds at most 4 honors points from 10th grade and 8 in total.
| Grade | Grade points | What it means for the UC GPA |
|---|---|---|
| A | 4 | Fully meets the requirement — 4 grade points |
| B | 3 | Good — 3 grade points |
| C | 2 | The lowest grade that still earns an honors point |
| D | 1 | 1 grade point; the course must be repeated or validated |
| F | 0 | 0 grade points and no credit for the a-g requirement |
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| 12 semester courses, all A, no honors | Unweighted 4.00 · capped weighted 4.00 |
| 12 courses: 10 A and 2 B, 6 honors points | Capped weighted ≈ 4.33 · unweighted 3.83 |
| 12 courses: 8 A and 4 B, 8 honors points | Capped weighted ≈ 4.33 · unweighted 3.67 |
| 12 courses: 6 A and 6 B, no honors | Capped weighted 3.50 |
The UC GPA is not your transcript GPA. UC ignores most of what your school prints and rebuilds the average from scratch, so two students with the same school-reported 4.0 can end up with very different UC GPAs.
| Counts | Does not count |
|---|---|
| a-g courses taken in 10th grade | 9th grade courses of any kind |
| a-g courses taken in 11th grade | 12th grade courses |
| Summers immediately before and after 10th and 11th grade | PE and non a-g electives, aides or service periods |
| AP, IB (higher level), transferable college courses and UC-approved honors | Anything your school did not place on its UC-approved a-g list |
| Every a-g grade, including weak ones — nothing is dropped | Plus and minus distinctions: an A− counts exactly the same as an A |
| GPA | Honors points | Highest possible | What UC uses it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unweighted | None | 4.00 | Context only |
| Capped weighted | At most 8 semester points | ≈ 4.40 | All UC eligibility calculations and the published admit statistics |
| Fully weighted (uncapped) | Unlimited | ≈ 5.00 | Eligibility in the Local Context and campus-level review |
The capped weighted GPA is the headline number — recent UC Berkeley and UCLA admitted classes sat in the 4.13–4.30 band on it.
Honors points are added to the total rather than attached to a named course, so it does not matter which honors class the eighth point came from. What matters is how many semester-long honors grades you have:
The grade scale, the 10th/11th grade restriction, the eight-point cap, the four-point 10th grade sub-cap and the no-plus/minus rule all come from the University of California's published admissions guidance. Campuses may additionally read a fully weighted GPA, which is why this calculator reports all three numbers.
UC rebuilds the average using only a-g courses from 10th and 11th grade, drops plus and minus signs, and adds an extra point for up to eight semesters of approved honors coursework. Your school's GPA is normally calculated from all four years and all subjects, so the two numbers rarely match.
The capped weighted GPA tops out at about 4.40, which is 4.00 plus the 0.40 that eight honors points spread across a typical course load can add. Unweighted it is 4.00, and the fully weighted uncapped GPA can go higher still.
UC caps the 10th grade contribution at four honors points so that students who load up on AP courses in their first counted year are not advantaged over students who could only take them later. Everything above that has to come from 11th grade.
Not in the GPA. UC still reviews your senior schedule for rigor and expects you to complete the a-g courses, but 12th grade grades are not part of the number. This is why a strong 10th and 11th grade record matters so much.
The capped weighted GPA is the one used for eligibility and the one published in admit profiles, so that is the number to compare yourself against. Berkeley and UCLA also read the fully weighted GPA, which rewards a heavier honors load.