How to Calculate your CGPA

As a student, it is important to know how to calculate your CGPA. CGPA means Cumulative grade point average. It is used to determine the performance of students in the higher institution. Unlike the secondary schools or high schools that make use of average or positions, the higher institution makes use of the Cumulative Grade Point Average.

Every institution has the way they operate and function. Some of them appoints course advisers who does the calculation and show the students their results at the end of every semester. Some do not give the students the privilege of knowing their results, except when they have carryovers. Hence many students are left without knowing their results. Some finally get the know their results at the point of graduations. Other get  to know theirs when they collect their transcripts.

This post is aimed at teaching you how to calculate your CGPA yourself, in case your course adviser does not do it for you.

Before we go ahead into showing you the steps, here are few points to note

1. You must know the credit load (unit) for each course
2. In the university rating, we have A,B,C,D,E and F. A=5, B=4, C=3, D=2, E=1, F=0
3. In the polytechnic rating we have A, AB, B, BC, C and F. A=5, AB=4, B=3, BC=2, C=1, F=0
4. You must know the total credit units per semester
5. 0-39 = F, 40-44 = E, 45-49 = D, 50-64 = C, 65-69 = B, 70-100 = A
6. The total number of units you offer in a semester must not exceed the number of permissible units.

Hence, let us use an example of the first and second semester result of a first year student to practically show how the computation works.

FIRST SEMESTER RESULTS

S/NO	COURSE TITLE	COURSE CODE	SCORE	GRADE	UNIT	GRADE VALUE (GV)	GV*UNIT
1	BASIC MATHEMATICS	MTH 101	52	C	4	3	12
2	USE OF ENGLISH	GST101	61	C	4	3	12
3	COMPUTER SCIENCE	CSC 103	37	F	3	0	0
4	BIOLOGY	BIO 101	73	A	2	5	10
5	CHEMISTRY	CHM 103	46	D	2	2	4
6	PHYSICS	PHY 103	55	C	2	3	6
7	AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE	AGS 105	41	E	1	1	1
8	STATISTICS	STA 101	61	C	3	3	9
9	PRINCIPLE OF MANAGEMENT	MGT 105	81	A	1	5	5
10	MARKETING	MHT 103	69	B	1	4	4
	TOTAL				23	29	63

SECOND SEMESTER RESULTS

S/NO	COURSE TITLE	COURSE CODE	SCORE	GRADE	UNIT	GRADE VALUE (GV)	GV*UNIT
1	ADVANCED MATHEMATICS	MTH 102	65	B	3	4	12
2	ADVANCED USE OF ENGLISH	GST102	36	F	4	0	0
3	PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES	CSC 104	43	E	2	1	2
4	HUMAN BIOLOGY	BIO 104	79	A	2	5	10
5	ORGANIC CHEMISTRY	CHM 104	50	C	3	3	9
6	INDUSTRIAL PHYSICS	PHY 104	67	B	3	4	12
7	ECONOMICS	ECN 104	84	A	1	5	5
8	ROBOTICS	CSC 106	27	F	3	0	0
9	ENTREPRENEURSHIP	ENS 102	85	A	1	5	5
10	FARM PRACTICE	AGE 104	68	B	2	4	8
	TOTAL				24	31	63

From the tables above, its important that you do your calculations accurately. If not, you will definitely get a wrong answer in the end.

From the first semester table above, it is clear that the student offered a total of 10 courses which amounts to 23 credit units. While from the second semester table above, the student offered a total of 10 courses which amounts to 24 credit units. Having do all the computation, that is, multiplying the grade value by the credit unit, the aggregate score of the student was 63 for both semesters.

Hence for the first semester, to find your GP, you divide 63 by 23 which is 2.74.

While for the second semester, to find your GP, you divide 63 by 24 which is 2.63.

It is also important to state that your result at the end of the semester is the grade point average not the cumulative grade point average. Hence, when you have gotten the grade point average for all the semesters, you add them up and divide by the number of semester.

The Cumulative Grade Point Average of the student is (2.74 + 2.63)/2

5.37/2 = 2.69

Hence, at the end of the year, the CGPA of the student is 2.69

From the university rating,

4.50 – 5.0 = First Class

3.50 – 4.49 = Second Class Upper

2.50 – 3.49 = Second Class Lower

2.00 – 2.49 = Third Class

1.00 – 1.99 = Pass

0.00 – 0.99 = Fail

CONCLUSION

This post is aimed at teaching you how to calculate your CGPA by yourself. I guess you have successfully learnt it at this point