The 92 vs 93 Debate: Why an A- Will Destroy Your GPA

The A- Penalty

You are looking at your final transcript for junior year. You earned a 92% in AP Biology.

You think to yourself: A 92% is an A. An A is a 4.0. My GPA is safe! Then you look at your calculated GPA, and it has dropped.

You look closer at the grading scale printed on the back of the transcript. Your high school uses a Plus/Minus (+/-) Scale.

A = 93% - 100% (4.0 points)

A- = 90% - 92% (3.7 points)

By getting a 92%, you didn't earn a 4.0. You earned a 3.7. You just lost 0.3 GPA points for missing a single multiple-choice question on a midterm.

The Cruelty of the Plus/Minus System

The traditional "Flat" grading system is highly forgiving. Anything from a 90% to a 100% is a flat 'A' and awards a 4.0. In a flat system, a student who barely scrapes by with a 90.1% gets the exact same GPA reward as the genius who gets a 99%.

The Plus/Minus system was designed by universities to eliminate this "freeloading." They wanted to separate the 99% students from the 90% students.

The most brutal part of the Plus/Minus system is that there is no A+ reward.

If you get a 92% (A-), you are penalized down to a 3.7.

If you get a 99% (A+), you are still capped at a 4.0 (most standard GPA scales do not go up to a 4.3).

This means the Plus/Minus system can only hurt you. It can never help you above a 4.0.

How to Check Your Scale

You must know exactly which scale your high school (or college) uses on the first day of class. If you attend a Flat Scale school, you can stop studying the moment you lock in a 90.0%. If you attend a Plus/Minus school, you have to grind violently until you secure a 93.0%.

Warning for College Apps: Even if your high school uses a Flat Scale, many elite universities (like the UC system) will mathematically recalculate your GPA using a Plus/Minus scale to standardize their applicant pool.