bring (one's) GPA up to (a number)

High school and college students in the U.S. have a "GPA". This stands for "Grade Point Average". It's a number between 0 and 4.0 which represents the average of all the student's grades. It works like this:

  • An "A" in a class is worth 4 points.
  • A "B" is worth 3 points, a "C" is worth 2, and so on.
  • You take the average of all the grades to get a "GPA".
  • You talk about the GPA as "__ point __". For example, "three point five".

A 3.0 GPA or higher is considered OK. Lower than that isn't good to put on an application or resumé.

If a student's grades are low, they may try to "bring their GPA up". This means to get better grades in their classes, so that the average rises.

This phrase appears in these lessons: