Law schools don't read the GPA your registrar prints — they read the one LSAC recalculates for them. The Credential Assembly Service converts every transcript to a single standard scale where an A+ is worth 4.33 and every graded attempt counts, even courses your school let you replace. Enter your courses below to see your real LSAC (CAS) GPA, side by side with your familiar 4.0-scale number.
Instructions
Enter every graded course from every undergraduate transcript — including classes you failed, withdrew-failing from, or retook. LSAC counts them all, even if your school later replaced the grade. Add the credit hours exactly as they appear on the transcript.
Course (optional)
Grade
Credits
Your courses save automatically in this browser — come back anytime to update grades.
LSAC (CAS) GPA
—
Pick a grade for at least one course to see your GPA.
The retake trap. The most common surprise on a CAS report is a GPA lower than the one on your diploma. If your university replaced a failed course when you retook it, your school GPA counts only the retake — but LSAC counts both attempts. Enter every attempt above to see the number admissions officers will actually see.
Your GPA is only half the equation.
Law schools weigh GPA and LSAT together. Lock in the score that gets you through the door with Test Ninjas' full-length adaptive LSAT practice.
When you register for the Credential Assembly Service (CAS), LSAC gathers a transcript from every college you attended and recomputes one cumulative undergraduate GPA on a common scale. Every ABA-approved law school reads this recalculated number, not the GPA on your diploma, so that an applicant from a school with generous grade-replacement is compared fairly against one whose school has none.
The math itself is an ordinary credit-weighted average: each course's grade points are multiplied by its credit hours, summed, and divided by total graded credits. What changes the result is which grades go in and what each is worth.
The two rules that move the number
1. A+ is worth 4.33. Most registrars cap an A+ at 4.0. LSAC does not, so a transcript rich in A+ grades can land above a 4.0 — one of the few ways the LSAC GPA comes back higher than the school GPA.
2. Every attempt counts. LSAC does not recognize grade replacement, academic forgiveness, or "grade exclusion." If you failed a class and retook it for an A, your school may show only the A — LSAC averages the F and the A together. This is why the calculator above asks for every graded attempt.
LSAC Grade Conversion Chart
LSAC / CAS letter-grade values vs. the standard registrar 4.0 scale. The gap is at A+.
Letter grade
LSAC value (4.33 scale)
Standard 4.0 scale
A+
4.33
4.00
A
4.00
4.00
A-
3.67
3.67
B+
3.33
3.33
B
3.00
3.00
B-
2.67
2.67
C+
2.33
2.33
C
2.00
2.00
C-
1.67
1.67
D+
1.33
1.33
D
1.00
1.00
D-
0.67
0.67
F
0.00
0.00
Beyond the letters above, LSAC treats a WF (withdraw-failing) as an F, and excludes grades that carry no letter value — a clean Pass, Credit/No-Credit, Incomplete, Withdrawal, and Audit — because they have no grade point to average. A pass/fail course whose failing side is reported as an F, however, counts as an F.
What Is a Good LSAC GPA?
A GPA only means something next to the schools you're targeting and the LSAT you pair it with. These are the rough medians the number is measured against:
LSAC GPA
Where it typically lands
3.90+
At or above median at almost every school, including the T14
3.75 – 3.89
Competitive median GPA across the T14
3.50 – 3.74
Median at many top-50 programs
3.25 – 3.49
Solid across regional and mid-tier schools
3.00 – 3.24
Clears the common 3.0 floor; lean on the LSAT
Below 3.00
Below most medians — a high LSAT and an addendum matter most
Because admissions is a two-number game, a lower GPA can be offset by a higher LSAT and vice versa. Model the exact tradeoff with our law school admissions calculator, and see where any target score puts you with the LSAT score calculator.
How to Improve a Low LSAC GPA
Once you've graduated, the GPA is largely fixed — LSAC's all-attempts rule means you can add grades but never erase them. The highest-leverage moves are the LSAT and a well-written addendum:
Raise the LSAT. The LSAT is faster to move than a GPA and is weighted heavily in admissions and scholarship formulas. A few points can reposition your whole application — see realistic gains in our LSAT improvement guide.
Write a GPA addendum. If a semester was dragged down by illness, work, or a rough transition, a concise, non-defensive addendum lets the committee read the number in context — especially when your transcript shows an upward trend.
Add strong undergraduate credits before you apply. Because post-graduation undergraduate coursework still counts, a handful of A grades can nudge the average up, though the effect shrinks the more credits you already have.
Frequently Asked Questions
LSAC (through the Credential Assembly Service) recalculates your GPA using its own standard scale so every applicant is compared on the same basis. Two rules make the biggest difference: an A+ is worth 4.33 instead of 4.0, and every graded attempt is counted — LSAC ignores your school's grade-replacement or academic-forgiveness policies. As a result, your LSAC GPA can be higher than your school GPA (if you earned lots of A+ grades) or lower (if your school let you replace bad grades).
Yes — both attempts. Even if your university replaced the original grade so it no longer appears in your official GPA, LSAC includes every graded attempt in its calculation. This is the single most common reason an applicant's LSAC GPA comes back lower than expected. If you retook a course, enter both the original grade and the retake as separate rows.
Yes. LSAC assigns A+ a value of 4.33, which means a transcript with several A+ grades can produce a LSAC GPA above 4.0. Not every undergraduate institution awards an A+, so this mainly benefits students whose schools use plus/minus grading and hand out A+ grades.
LSAC converts all letter grades A+ through F, and treats codes like WF (withdraw-failing) as an F. Grades that carry no letter equivalent — a clean Pass in a pass/fail course, Credit/No-Credit, Incomplete, Withdrawal, or Audit — are generally excluded from the GPA because they have no grade-point value. Courses graded pass/fail where the 'fail' is reported as an F, however, do count as an F.
Only undergraduate work counts toward the 'cumulative undergraduate GPA' law schools see. That includes courses taken at community colleges, during study abroad (when a US institution assigns the grade), and as a summer transient student, all combined into one number. Graduate coursework appears on your CAS report separately and is not folded into the undergraduate GPA.
Only slightly, and only before you apply. Because LSAC counts all attempts, retaking a course can't erase a bad grade — it can only add a better one to the average. Post-graduation coursework at an undergraduate level still counts, so a few strong classes can nudge the number, but the LSAT is almost always the faster lever. Most schools also let you submit a GPA addendum to explain a low or upward-trending GPA.
Ready to move the number you can actually change?
Your LSAT is the fastest lever in a law-school application. Build a personalized prep plan around full-length adaptive practice tests with Test Ninjas.