So as the next application is slowly approaching, I'm becoming more nervous about my GPA calculations. Do y'all have a good system/formula I could use to calculate my GPA (pre-req/overall) based on PTCAs standards? I wanted to get a good idea before I started the application cycle. I've retaken some courses along the process and I'm not sure how that will make a difference. Also tried searching for a thread of similar inquiries, but could'nt really narrow it down. Thanks!
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Calculating Pre-req GPAs
Started by navybluedreams
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http://gpacalculator.net/college-gpa-calculator/
I used this site whenever I was calculating my pre-req GPAs. For PTCAS, they just average the classes you retake. Some people use Excel, but I'm not Excel-savvy enough to use it lol.
I manually calculate the cumulative GPA. By adding the total number of quality points from each class together and dividing that number by the total number of credit hours.
As a reminder, the quality point scale is
A 4.0
A- 3.7
B+ 3.3
B 3.0
B- 2.7
C+ 2.3
C 2.0
C- 1.7
And so on so forth.
I used this site whenever I was calculating my pre-req GPAs. For PTCAS, they just average the classes you retake. Some people use Excel, but I'm not Excel-savvy enough to use it lol.
I manually calculate the cumulative GPA. By adding the total number of quality points from each class together and dividing that number by the total number of credit hours.
As a reminder, the quality point scale is
A 4.0
A- 3.7
B+ 3.3
B 3.0
B- 2.7
C+ 2.3
C 2.0
C- 1.7
And so on so forth.
Definitely a great idea to do this now! I figured mine out exactly before applying. Ptcas doesn't do anything tricky. It's everything (EVERYTHING) averaged together. Then it's your pre req classes averaged (all takes of any pre req class).
PTCAS will calculate a wide variety of GPAs for you, all of which are either self-explanatory or described in the instructions/FAQ. It is all done based on what category you assign each class to. Your PTCAS pre-req GPA can and probably will vary (sometimes substantially) from the pre-req GPA you have at a given school. PTCAS generates a "core pre-requisite" GPA based on the one class you assign to each "core pre-requisite" designation. Essentially every PT school is going to require a year of A&P, a year of gen chem, a year of physics and a stats class. All require at least one psych class and the vast majority require 2. The variation will usually come from whether or not a school has a year of biology or ex. sci./kinesio as a pre-req, and if each school considers other things (eg. humanities, English, things you had to take to take to graduate college) to be pre-reqs, or if they just have an oddball class that most schools don't have (eg. nutrition, medical terminology, etc) as a pre-req.
The easiest thing to do for yourself if to just put all your grades in a spreadsheet: column A is the class, column B is the grade, column C is the number of credits column D is the PTCAS value (eg. 4.0 for A+/A, 3.7 for A-, 3.3 for B+, etc), column E is C times D to get quality points. You then divide the sum of column E by the sum of column C and you've got your PTCAS cumulative GPA. Do the calculation by cherry-picking out the classes of interest (eg pre-reqs) to get any other desired GPAs.
The easiest thing to do for yourself if to just put all your grades in a spreadsheet: column A is the class, column B is the grade, column C is the number of credits column D is the PTCAS value (eg. 4.0 for A+/A, 3.7 for A-, 3.3 for B+, etc), column E is C times D to get quality points. You then divide the sum of column E by the sum of column C and you've got your PTCAS cumulative GPA. Do the calculation by cherry-picking out the classes of interest (eg pre-reqs) to get any other desired GPAs.
