Basic Mathematics for College Students

Another example of a weighted mean is a grade point average (GPA).To find a

GPA, we divide:

The Language of Mathematics Some schools assign a certain number of

credit hours (credits)to a course while others assign a certain number ofunits.

For example, at San Antonio College, the Basic Mathematics course is 3 credit

hours while the same course at Los Angeles City College is 3 units.

GPA

total number of grade points

total number of credit hours

612 Chapter 7 Graphs and Statistics

To find the total number of calls received, we add the values in the “Number of

calls” column of the table and get 150, as shown in red. To find the average, we

divide.

Do the division.

The average number of times the phone rang before it was answered was 3.

Finding the Weighted Mean

To find the weighted mean of a set of values:

1. Multiply each value by the number of times it occurs.


2. Find the sum of products from step 1.


3. Divide the sum from step 2 by the total number of individual values.

 3

3

(^150)  450
 450
0
The total number of rings
 The total number of calls

Average

450

150

EXAMPLE (^4) Finding GPAs Find the semester grade point average for a
student that received the following grades. Round to the nearest hundredth.
StrategyFirst, we will determine the total number of grade points earned by the
student. Then we will divide that result by the total number of credits.
WHYTo find the mean of a set of values, we divide the sum of the values by the
number of values.
Solution
The point values of grades that are used at most colleges and universities are:
A: 4 pts B: 3 pts C: 2 pts D: 1 pt F: 0 pt
To find the total number of grade points that the student earned, we multiply the
number of credits for each course by the point value of the grade received. Then we
add those results to find that the total number of grade points is 39. The calculations
are shown in blue in the “Weighted grade points” column on the next page.
Self Check 4
FINDING GPAsFind the semester
grade point average for a student
that received the following
grades.
Now TryProblem 51
Course Grade Credits
MATH 130 A 4
ENG 101 D 3
PHY 080 B 4
SWIM 100 C 1
Course Grade Credits
Speech C 2
Basic Mathematics A 4
French B 4
Business Law D 3
Study Skills A 1