How Significant are Significant Figures in GPA

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How Significant are Significant Figures in GPA

In schools, grades are given in different ways, for different units, and schools, and use of different measures such as numerical grades, letter grades and point grades may give results with variations. To avoid these variations, significant figures that are more accurate can be used to show the exact grades, and avoid the use of rounding off that could either act in favor or harm to the student’s grade. Hence, using significant figures in calculating of grade point average would be appropriate for providing precision.

In the article, Colenman says that significant figures are the numbers on the other side of the decimal point, where he says that they are the numerals that have a meaning to the whole figure. He says that computers have made it easy to compute weighted average including the significant figures unlike during the time he studied when teachers would fill in the report forms by hand, and implies that computing the average grade was a little harder than today. This is true meaning that computers have made work easier and more accurate, with fewer errors; hence, calculation of GPA with significant figures is easily done. However, he suggests that the significant figures have a little meaning to the grade of the student since it is just a hundredth of 100%, and makes little change, because the difference between 97.23 and 97.78 is less than one. The article however, does not consider the different types of grading that are used in calculation of the grade point average, which could have a bigger deviation from the real figure. In this regard, I do not agree according to the article that significant figures in GPA do not matter, and that their use in schools just serves to suggest that a hundredth of 100% matters.

Significant figures are digits that have a meaning that contribute to accuracy and precision a certain calculation. Significant digits in GPA are used to show accuracy and to eliminate any assumptions of omitted figures that could have a meaning. For instance, there is a difference between 1.195 and 1.159, where if the numbers were multiplied by 1000, the first would be 1195, while the second would be 1159, the difference being 36. Take for instance that they were measurement for mass of an item, measured in tons, instead of kilograms. If one rounded them off to the nearest one decimal point, both would be 1.2, suggesting that they are both equal, while there is a difference of 36 kilograms, which is quite big, and more so, an error of 5 and 41 kilograms respectively for both masses would occur after rounding off. Hence, significant digits are important for accuracy of measurement of any item.

In classes, GPA is used to measure our grades, and use of significant figures is important in differentiating among the student grades so that one can know the real grades they got in a semester or course. In most cases, there are graded from A, B C D and E, with each letter grade given mark range either out of 100% or between 0-4, or 0-10. An A may be from 90 and above. In assigning the grade, there would be a difference of a student with 90 and 97, where both are put in the same category. In a case where grades 4 to 0 are used, in order to reflect the grade accurately of a student who scored 97 and one who scored 90 significant digits would need to be used, since each point for grade 0-4 will represent 25 point out of the 100 points. To differentiate between 80 and 90, decimal point will have to be used such as 3.2 for 80% and 3.6 for 90%. Without using significant figures, both students with such a difference will be put in the same grade, such as a 76 and 97 students being graded the same (College confidential). In the grade point average, which is calculated by dividing the total points for all units of courses with total number of units, significant digits provide accuracy.

Considering that Grade Point Average is usually a measure of several units grades gotten over a time period or from different exams, it would be different from numeral points of a unit, since it adds them up together, and divides the total with the number of units or hours. Without the significant digits, there is likelihood of making errors such as the above mentioned. Significant digits are used to estimate the exactness in a calculation, such as the GPA; hence, they are important, since they eliminate ambiguity of using whole numbers or rounding off. This way, after calculation of the GPA, a person would find out later the exact points that were used in the calculation, since the significant digits provide accuracy.

In an instance where the grade point average is calculated and rounded off to a whole number, since rounding has to be there to get the whole number for a GPA, there will be some errors where the grade will either be increased or decreased, disregarding the exact numeral points, which may make a difference. The hundredth of a percent may make a difference to a student, considering that grading systems may vary as shown above. Considering grades on 100%, the difference is small since they are numerical grades of what a student has scored. For grades such as those that range from 0-4, or 0-10, which are grade point, there could be a big difference since one point may represent several marks. In addition, the article did not consider that the 100% could be representing several papers done, and combined as one unit; hence, the significant figures are significant in calculating the grade point average to enhance exactness. In other institutions, significant figures are highly recognized for providing the real figures for a calculation in an accurate way. For instance, the numerical grades for a letter grade A+ will range from 90-100 for numerical grades, while for grade points of 0-4 an A+ will be above 3.60, providing more accuracy by determining which student scored higher. Using rounding off could act to reduce or increase a student’s grade, which could have an effect (ThompsonRiversUniversity).

Significant figures are significant in calculation of grade point average because it uses different variables in calculation, and could be inaccurate if figures were rounded off during calculation. The article only considers numerical grades that add up to 100%, while grade points are different for different courses. Using the significant figures ensures that even the small point after the decimal are calculated, and they could ad up to make a difference to the whole GPA.

Work cited

College confidential. GPA and significant digits. collegeconfidential.com, 2009. Web. 10 June 2011.

ThompsonRiversUniversity. Questions concerning Grade Point Average. tru.ca, 2010. Web. 10 June 2011.