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Back to Main Resume Page Bachelor of Computer Science (BCS)
Honours: Dean's List
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Back to Main Resume Page Honours: Dean's List
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Inaccuracies of GPA value calculations |
| ACADIA UNIVERSITY TRANSCRIPTS |
| MATHEMATICS COURSES | ||||
| Course Number | Course Name | Grade | GPA | |
| MATH 1013 | INTRODUCTORY CALCULUS 1 | A+ | 4.00 | |
| MATH 1023 | INTRODUCTORY CALCULUS 2 | A | 4.00 | |
| MATH 1323 | MATRIX ALGEBRA | A+ | 4.00 | |
| MATH 1413 | SETS, FUNCTIONS AND ALGORITHMS | A | 4.00 | |
| MATH 1423 | GRAPH THEORY & MATRIX ALGEBRA | A | 4.00 | |
| MATH 2013 | CALCULUS OF SEVERAL VARIABLES 1 | A+ | 4.00 | |
| MATH 2023 | CALCULUS OF SEVERAL VARIABLES 2 | A+ | 4.00 | |
| MATH 2413 | NUMERICAL METHODS 1 | A+ | 4.00 | |
| MATH 2433 | ALGEBRAIC STRUCTURES | A | 4.00 | |
| Average GPA | 4.00 | |||
| COMPUTER SCIENCE COURSES | ||||
| Course Number | Course Name | Grade | GPA | |
| COMP 1213 | DIGITAL SYSTEMS | A | 4.00 | |
| COMP 1223 | ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE AND COMPUTER ORGANIZATION | A | 4.00 | |
| COMP 2013 | PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES | A+ | 4.00 | |
| COMP 2023 | SYSTEMS PROGRAMMING | A- | 3.67 | |
| COMP 2903 | COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY | A | 4.00 | |
| COMP 3553 | COMPUTER GRAPHICS | A+ | 4.00 | |
| COMP 3613 | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | A | 4.00 | |
| COMP 3653 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (Maim Chess project) | A- | 3.67 | |
| COMP 3703 | TRANSLATORS 1 | A- | 3.67 | |
| COMP 3713 | OPERATING SYSTEMS 1 | A- | 3.67 | |
| COMP 3783 | OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING | A- | 3.67 | |
| COMP 4223 | ADVANCED COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE | A | 4.00 | |
| COMP 4983 | PROJECT (Full Tilt project) | A+ | 4.00 | |
| Average GPA | 3.87 | |||
| PHYSICS COURSES | ||||
| Course Number | Course Name | Grade | GPA | |
| PHYS 1013 | INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS 1 | A+ | 4.00 | |
| PHYS 1023 | INTRODUCTORY PHYSICS 2 | A | 4.00 | |
| PHYS 1513 | ASTRONOMY 1 - THE SOLAR SYSTEM | B+ | 3.33 | |
| Average GPA | 3.78 | |||
| ENGLISH COURSES | ||||
| Course Number | Course Name | Grade | GPA | |
| ENGL 1213 | COMPOSITION 1 | B | 3.00 | |
| ENGL 1223 | COMPOSITION 2 | B | 3.00 | |
| Average GPA | 3.00 | |||
| ELECTIVE COURSES | ||||
| Course Number | Course Name | Grade | GPA | |
| PHIL 1406 | INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY | B+ | 3.33 | |
| ECON 1013 | MICROECONOMIC PRINCIPLES | A | 4.00 | |
| ECON 1023 | MACROECONOMIC PRINCIPLES | B | 3.00 | |
| GEOL 1013 | OUR DYNAMIC EARTH | B | 3.00 | |
| Average GPA | 3.33 | |||
| TRANSFER CREDITS | ||||
| Course Number | Course Name | % Grade | Grade | GPA |
| COMP 1113 | COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 1 | 98 | A+ | 4.00 |
| COMP 1123 | COMPUTER PROGRAMMING 2 | 98 | A+ | 4.00 |
| COMP 2113 | DATA STRUCTURES / FILE PROCESSING 1 | 93 | A | 4.00 |
| COMP 2123 | DATA STRUCTURES / FILE PROCESSING 2 | 93 | A | 4.00 |
| COMP 3513 | SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN 1 | 75 | B | 3.00 |
| COMP 3543 | OPERATIONS RESEARCH | 92 | A | 4.00 |
| COMP 3753 | DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS 1 | 80 | A- | 3.67 |
| COMP 3773 | OBJECT-ORIENTED SYSTEMS | 72 | B- | 2.67 |
| Average | 87.6 | A | 3.67 | |
| EXPLANATION OF GPA VALUE CALCULATIONS |
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*These percentage ranges are provided to assist other institutions in interpreting letter grades. Their only internal application is with the university scholarship committee. They are not reported elsewhere. |
| INACCURACIES OF GPA VALUE CALCULATIONS |
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Introduction
Problem #2 The A range of grades (A-, A, and A+) covers 20% of the percentage scale, from 80-100%. For all other letters, the range of grades that they cover is only 10% of the percentage scale (B from 70-80%, C from 60-70%, etc.). This means that the average A+ student makes a 6.7% higher mark than the average A student, where as the average B+ student makes only a 3.3% higher mark than the average B student. If a student is in the A range of grades, students must increment their percentage grade twice as much as normal, before seeing an increment in their letter grade. Even if Problem #1 (above) was fixed (i.e. there was a distinction in GPA values for A+ and A), any student who achieves an 80% (an A) or above, is not being fully credited for their work. Is it That Bad? Just to show how ridiculous the scale is bent for the A range of grades, consider the following: If the GPA conversion table would continue to be linear after the 80% range (as it is before the 80% range), then an 83-86% would be a 4.00 GPA, a 93-96% would be a 5.00 GPA, a 97-99% would be a 5.33 GPA, and a 100% would be a 5.67 GPA (over 40% more than the 4.00 GPA you actually get!).  Essentially, because the scale is bent, it makes it easier for a student to achieve an A range grade, since all you require is an 80% (my high school considers the A range of grades to represent the 90-100% range). But, it makes achieving an A or an A+ grade extremely hard. And those students who did so are credited with very few GPA points (or zero GPA points, in the case of an A+ grade) to indicate their extra performance. Consequences of the Problems For each course, a student has a final percentage grade (0 to 100%). These percentage grades are converted to GPA values according to the table above. This table rounds off the percentage grade by up to 2%, with the exception of an A- or an A, in which the percentage grade is rounded off up to 4%, with the exception of an A+ grade, which is always rounded off downwards... And it can be rounded downwards by up to 10%! (this is because an A+ [94-100%] receives a 4.0 GPA value, which represents an average grade of 90%). It is these inaccurate GPA values which are averaged to calculate sessional and cumulative GPA values. Also, as any person with elementary knowledge of mathematical concepts will tell you, it does not make any sense to take an average of numbers that do not represent a linear scale. You would not find the average volume of a bunch of cubes by averaging the length of one side on each cube, and then cubing the result. This is essentially what universities are doing. Example of the Problem Since Acadia University has a policy of not releasing the percentage grades of any course, the problem is usually hidden. Since I do have the percentage grades of my transfer credits above, I can use them as an example. You will notice that the average percentage grade of my transfer credits is 87.6%. Once these grades have been converted to GPA values, the average GPA value is a 3.67. If I did not know my percentage average (as is the case for any course taken at Acadia University), I would use the average GPA of 3.67 (the grade that the university would release) to calculate my percentage average at 83%. This is off the actual percentage by almost 5%! What Should be Done At the very least, an A+ should be awarded a 4.33 GPA value, as it is in some universities, so that they do not hurt the students who are capable of achieving A+'s. This would remove the major round-off errors. After this fix, the only errors left would be the rounding of percentage grades to GPA values. At most, these errors may accumulate up to a 4% difference of the actual value (which is still quite significant, actually). But, at least there would be no discrimination between those students who perform well enough to receive A+'s, and those who do not. I find it rather amusing that technologically advanced universities cannot perform simple averaging properly to avoid round-off errors; a concept that is taught at the elementary school level. Thank you for your time in reading this. |
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