GPA stands for Grade Point Average which means all of your grades, over a period of time,
averaged out. It is a system used by many universities for evaluatin the overall scholastic
performance of students. Grades for classes which involve more hours per week are given more
weight when averaging. In the US system, grades can be translated onto a scale of 1.0 to 4.0,
with 4.0 being the highest score, as follows:
| A | Superior | 4.0 |
| B | Above Average | 3.0 |
| C | Average, Satisfactory | 2.0 |
| D | Below Average | 1.0 |
| F | Failing | 0 |
The term "Credits" represents the number of hours of actual class involved in a subject
taken during one semester of a school year. If you spend three hours in the classroom each week,
your class is worth 3 credits. If you spend 4 hours in the classroom each week, your class is worth
4 credits.
The typical amount of credits taken in any semester is 15 credits, which can mean 5 subjects with 3
hours spent in class for each subject per week. In a typical undergraduate bachelors program you
complete a total of 120 credits in four academic years.
We suggest that instead of the GPA, Uruguayan students should include a
class rank which they can request at the institution they attended (e.g. JL ranked
3rd among the 25 graduates of an entering class of 300).
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