Knowing what your performance is after successfully concluding an examination for the semester or section is highly necessary.

You may relate this scenario to the case of getting off your shoulder lingered burden.

Knowing what category, you fall under will help you know how to go about calculating either your CGPA or just your GPA.

Both are necessary, for all students must be acquainted with both, so to know how to calculate both your CGPA and GP, fasten your seatbelt as I walk you through this.

Questions to answer

1.     What is CGPA?

2.     What is GP?

What does CGPA mean?

CGPA is an acronym for Cumulative Grade Point Average which is used in quantifying the summary of a student’s academic performance.

The cumulative grade point average (CGPA) is calculated when two semesters are completed, as this makes the completed academic section.

What is an academic section in the National Open University of Nigeria?

 An academic section in the National Open University of Nigeria is made up of two semesters.

This is a compilation of  8 months, which are further subdivided into 4 months.

The 4 months make a semester which is termed the first semester and the other 4 months make the second second semester.

Therefore first and second semester makes up a section.

It might interest you to know that to get a Bachelor’s Degree in the National Open University of Nigeria, in any department apart from the Department of Law

there are 8 semesters to go through with consistency and discipline in the place of studying.

Back to what CGPA is;

I believe by now you understand that CGPA is calculated based on the cumulation of a student’s performance in a section, and a section is subdivided into semesters.

 Meaning, that the cumulative values of the first and second semester is where we derive the grade for the CGPA.

To know what a student’s performance is in a semester to derive the student CGPA which is based on the section, we will need to talk about certain terms.

1. Grade Point Average

2. Course Title

3. Credit Unit

4. Total Credit Unit

5. Grades

6. Points for Grade

7. Weighted Grade Points

8. Total Grade Points

9. Grade Point Average

What is the Grade Point Average (GPA)?

The grade point average is derived from the calculation of the summation of the total weighted grade points divided by the total total credit unit for a particular semester. 

Let’s take for an example:

If TGP (of 1^st semester) = 86 and TCU (of 1^st semester) = 22

Therefore GPA = 86/22 = 3.91 which is a second-class upper.

What are Weighted Grade Points (WGP)?

Weighted Grade points are derived from the following:

l  Credit Unit; which means the unit of a particular course, e.g. GST101 is a major course which is usually graded a 3 unit.

l  Point For Grades; this is the grading of score ranges, known as Percent Grades,  lets take for example;

70 – 100 = A

This explains that numbers within the range of 70,71,72,73,74,75,76,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,

97,98,99,100 are graded (A)

60 – 69 = B

60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69 are graded (B)

50 – 59 = C

50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59 are graded (C)

45 – 49 = D

45,46,47,48,49 are graded (D)

40 – 44 = E

40,41,42,43,44 are graded (E)

Lastly; you need to how grading is apportioned. Let’s take for example:

A = 5

B = 4

C = 3

D = 2

E = 1

F= 0

Now that you have all that you need to know all that is required to calculate your WGP, I believe we are done setting the foundation correctly.

Let’s get practical.

 We will use two students from different departments and different levels.

Let Miss., Lena be student A and let student B be Mr., Ex-corp

Miss Lena, is a student of Business Administration 100 level first semester.

In the case of Miss Lena, she would need to calculate only her GPA, since it is just a semester.

Bellow her are the following courses, and her tutor marked assignment  and exam scores listed below;

Please, if you are reading this article on a smart phone, kindly switch your view/screen to landscape or auto-rotate to see the complete table above. 

Explaining the table above:

Step 1:

MTH105 is a 3-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 65 (TMA & EXAM), which is a B, the grading frequency for B is 4.

To get the weighted grade point for MTH105, we will multiply the grading frequency of MTH105 which is 4 by the credit unit of MTH105, which is 3 giving a total of 12.

Step 2:

GST101 is a 3-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 72 (TMA & EXAM), which is an A, the grading frequency for an A is 5.

To get the weighted grade point for GST101, we will multiply the grading frequency of GST101 which is 5 by the credit unit of the GST101, which is 3 giving a total of 15.

Step 3:

GST105 is a 3-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 57 (TMA & EXAM), which is a C, the grading frequency for C is 3.

To get the weighted grade point for GST105, we will multiply the grading frequency of GST105 which is 3 by the credit unit of the GST105, which is 3 giving a total of 9.

Step 4:

GST107 is a 3-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 46 (TMA & EXAM), which is a D, the grading frequency for D is 2.

To get the weighted grade point for GST107, we will multiply the grading frequency of GST107 which is 2 by the credit unit of the GST107, which is 3 giving a total of 6.

Step 5:

CSS121 is a 3-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 80 (TMA & EXAM), which is an A, the grading frequency for A is 5.

To get the weighted grade point for CSS121, we will multiply the grading frequency of CSS121 which is 5 by the credit unit of the GST107, which is 3 giving a total of 15.

Step 6:

ECO121 is a 3-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 44 (TMA & EXAM), which is an E, the grading frequency for E is 1.

To get the weighted grade point for ECO121, we will multiply the grading frequency of ECO121 which is 1 by the credit unit of ECO121, which is 3 giving a total of 3.

Step 7:

CSS111 is a 2-unit course, and Miss., Lena had a total grade of 39 (TMA & EXAM), which is an F, the grading frequency for F is 0.

To get the weighted grade point for CSS111, we will multiply the grading frequency of CSS111 which is 0 by the credit unit of CSS111, which is 2 giving a total of 0.

From the above analysis, we may proceed to get what Miss., Lena’s GPA is for her first semester.

This will be achieved by dividing the total of the weighted grade points by the total credit unit:

 Total Weighted Grade Point/ Total Credit Unit                   

60/20   =  3.0 (Second Class Upper)

In the case of  Mr., Ex-corp who is a student of the Department of Business Administration 100 level second semester.

He will need to calculate his CGPA, to do that, he needs to know what his is GPA for both the first and second semesters.

Using the above formula applied in calculating Miss., Lena’s GPA we arrived at the following GPA for Mr., Ex-corp’s first and second semesters respectively.

First Semester: 3.80  (Second Class Upper)

Second Semester: 2.50 (Third Class Upper)

Please note the grading system in Nigerian universities. According to the latest release from the National Universities Commission, NUC has reviewed the scaling system of the Nigerian Universities Grading System from a five-rating scale that we all know to a four-rating scale.

First Class Honours – 3.5 – 4.0

Second Class Honours (Upper Division) – 3.0 – 3.49

Second Class Honours (Lower Division) – 2.0 – 2.99

Third Class Honours – 1.0 – 1.99

Please note that any student whose CGPA is less than 1.0 will not be awarded a degree.

Back to calculating Mr., Ex-corp’s CGPA for the 100 level; we have derived his CGPA for the first and second semesters which are;

First Semester: 3.80  (Second Class Upper)

Second Semester: 2.50 (Third Class Upper)

Respectively.

To get his CGPA we will then, add both first and second-semester GPAs which are:

 3.80 + 2.50 = 6.30

Divided by 2 = 6.30/2 = 3.15 (Second Class Honours (Upper Division)

So, if we have Mr., Ayo who is in the 300 level first semester, to get his GPA.

HOW TO CALCULATE CGPA FOR 300 LEVEL FIRST SEMESTER

To calculate CGPA for the 300 level first semester add up all CGPA from 100 level first semester to 300 level first semester then divide it by 5.

HOW TO CALCULATE CGPA FOR 300 LEVEL SECOND SEMESTER

To calculate CGPA for the 300 level second semester add up all CGPA from 100 level first semester to 300 level second semester then divide it by 6.

HOW TO CALCULATE CGPA FOR 400 LEVEL FIRST SEMESTER

To calculate CGPA for the 400 level first semester add up all CGPA from 100 level first semester to 400 level first semester then divide it by 7.

HOW TO CALCULATE CGPA FOR 400 LEVEL SECOND SEMESTER

To calculate CGPA for the 400 level second semester add up all CGPA from 100 level first semester to 400 level second semester then divide it by 8.

I hope the article was helpful. Let me know what you think in the comment section 

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