As grades begin to roll in for the 2023-2024 school year, students have likely taken an interest in the small number at the top of the PowerSchool charts. That number is a percentage grade, the total average of a student’s classes, and it represents an interesting aspect of Central’s grading system. Most Montana high schools grade on what’s known as a weighted 4.0 scale. In this system, overall grades are given on a scale of 4 rather than 100 (as in a percentage system), with each class having its own independent impact on the total. Additionally, different classes are assigned “weights” to keep especially challenging classes, such as AP, Dual Credit, or Honors courses, from dragging down a student’s overall grade. Central, instead, uses a raw percentage scale, where each class is averaged to give an overall percentage—the grade point average, or GPA—and every class has an identical impact on the total percentage regardless of difficulty.
According to Angela Hirt, Central’s college admissions counselor, the biggest advantage of a percentage scale has to do with scholarship opportunities for students. Often, percentage grades will be converted to a 4.0 scale in order to be better compared to schools utilizing a 4.0 scale. “The most commonly used conversion chart is the College Board conversion chart, and on there, a percentage that falls between a 94% and 100 is just converted to a 4.0,” Hirt explained. “That will give them the highest scholarship dollars.” The difference between this converted 4.0 scale and the standard is that an individual class might have less of an opportunity to drag down a student’s GPA. “They’re looking at just the overall average, and so, if you didn’t do well in one class, it’s not bringing your entire GPA down,” said Hirt. Essentially, if a student were to earn excellent grades in every class except one, that one class would affect their overall GPA less on a converted percentage scale than a standard 4.0 scale.
In the past, Central did use a 4.0 system for grading. According to Hirt, “years ago, we did have a 4.0 system, and what they found is that it was keeping kids from getting scholarship money… more scholarship money than anything, not necessarily for college admissions.” So Central switched over to a percentage system, which made weighting grades nearly impossible.
Of course, the percentage system does have a few drawbacks. “A system that does use the 4.0 scale does give the kids who might not earn an A an opportunity to still have a really good GPA because it shows that they took harder classes,” said Hirt. But, usually, the differences between the different types of grading scales don’t end up mattering at all, especially for college applications. According to Hirt, “College review committees get to see the classes that students have taken on their transcripts. They know if they’re taking challenging classes.” Most factors that play into a student’s GPA are already considered by colleges, so the actual differences between the different scales end up having very little impact. “Colleges are very aware of the fact that all sorts of systems are used,” Hirt explained. “The percent scale has not inhibited anybody from getting anything… it’s allowed our kids to receive what they need, scholarship-wise.”
