Quarter grades are often progress marks. The semester grade is more likely to represent the completed course segment and may be the grade that enters a transcript. The exact relationship varies by school.
Equal-quarter calculation
With an 82 and a 90, the equal-quarter semester grade is 86.
When an exam has weight
If each quarter is 40 percent and the exam is 20 percent, the equal average is wrong. For an exam score of 88:
Which grade should enter GPA?
Use the final course or semester grade specified on the transcript. Entering quarter 1, quarter 2, and their combined semester grade would count the same performance more than once.
Questions to resolve
- Are quarter grades official or progress-only?
- Does the semester exam have a separate weight?
- Is the course one semester or a full year?
- Does the transcript show percentages or letters?
- Are semester grades each assigned 0.5 credit?
Use quarter grades to understand a trend
Even when only the semester grade enters GPA, quarter grades can explain how the final result developed. A move from 82 to 90 shows improvement that a single 86 does not display. For planning, calculate how much a remaining exam can change the semester result, but keep the official quarter values unchanged.
If quarters contain different amounts of work, equal quarter weights can still be correct because the school has chosen to weight grading periods, not individual assignments across the full semester.
One displayed grade can already be weighted
A gradebook's semester column may already include quarter and exam weights. Reapplying them produces an incorrect result.