How To Calculate Both GPA and CGPA in Nigeria Institutions

Ask the average student how to calculate both GPA and CGPA, and watch how they ramble on saying nothing. Is it not mind-boggling that you ask the average university student can’t calculate their GPA and CGPA? You can imagine, semesters’ results are released time and again and students don’t even have an idea of what their academic performance is like.

Well, many would argue that this is a freshman’s problem. But, it isn’t so all the time. So many students from their penultimate even to penultimate year, don’t know how to calculate both GPA and CGPA, they have to rely on their fellow students who can.

From personal experience, many people don’t even know how to calculate both GPA and CGPA until they got to their second year just like me. We can actually lay the blame on my school since they never released the full complement of our results till we moved to a new class.

Whatever the reason is, here is such a golden opportunity to learn how to calculate both GPA and CGPA, even if you don’t know Jack about it. 

It is probably fitting to at this point, start with what the acronyms stand for. GPA is Grade Point Average, and, CGPA is Cumulative Grade Point Average. GPA gives an evaluation of a semester’s results and the CGPA gives the evaluation of all the semesters’ results throughout the duration of your study. 

Generally, in Nigerian universities, the CGPA scale is a vivid estimation of a student’s academic performance in their tests and examinations. They are classified into letters A to F each representing different scores that is obtainable by students.

For example, the table below shows the letter grades apportioned to marks or scores obtainable in a course:

Marks/Scores	Letter Grades
70% and above	A
60-69	B
50-59	C
45-49	D
40-44	E
0-39	F

how to Calculate Both GPA and CGPA Example

Before you begin to find how to calculate both GPA and CGPA, there would be certain new terms you would need to get familiar with. Some of them include: credit units, quality points, total credit unit and total quality points.

First, it is important you have an idea of what they are. Every course you offer in the university has a credit unit all dependent on how regular they are taken. The credit unit shows the degree of importance of any course. Some courses can have credit unit as high as 8 or even as low as 1.

Quality points refers to the product of the student’s grade point for a particular course and the credit unit for that same course. So, if a student has a 65% in a Electrophysics course which is worth two credit units, then that student’s quality points is 2 multiplied by 4 which is 8.

Also, in your quest to finding out how to calculate both GPA and CGPA, there is also need to know your total credit units and total quality points.

Total credit units is the sum total of all the credit units of the courses you are offering in a semester. Total quality points is the sum total of all the quality points you accrued from the courses you took in the semester.

Grade point average is calculated by dividing the total quality points in a semester by the total credit points in that semester. So, if a student from a semester where his total credit unit load was 18 had a total quality point of 60, his GPA would be 60/18 = 3.33

Cumulative grade point average, on the other hand, is derived by dividing the total quality points for all semesters during the duration of study by the total credit points amassed for all semesters.

Recommended: Grading System in Nigerian Universities (Student Guide)

Detailed Example Explaining how to Calculate Both GPA and CGPA

Let’s consider a much more robust example to explain how to calculate both GPA and CGPA.

The first year, First Semester Result

Course Code	Credit Unit	Letter Grades	Grade Point	Quality Points
AGB 101	3	B	4	12
BCH 111	4	C	3	12
SOC 121	2	A	5	10
VET 114	1	B	4	4
GST 101	2	B	4	8
GST 201	2	A	5	10
Total	14			56

Total Credit Unit = 14

Total Quality Point = 56

Grade Point Average = Total Quality Point/Total Credit Unit

Grade Point Average = 56/14 = 4.0

The first year, Second Semester Result

Course Code	Credit Unit	Letter Grades	Grade Point	Quality Points
AGB 102	3	A	5	15
BCH 112	4	C	3	12
SOC 122	2	B	4	8
VET 115	1	C	3	3
GST 102	2	A	5	10
GST 202	2	A	5	10
	14			58

Total Credit Unit = 14

Total Quality Point = 58

Grade Point Average = Total Quality Point/Total Credit Unit

Grade Point Average = 58/14 = 4.14

So, for a student who had the above-listed results, the grade point average for his first year would be calculated thus:

Total Quality Points in the two semesters/Total Credit Unit in the two semesters

Total Quality Points in the two semesters = 58+56 = 114

Total Credit Unit in the two semesters = 14+14 = 28

Grade Point Average in first year = 114/28 = 4.07

To calculate the cumulative grade point average for any student, the total quality points across every semester must be summed up and then also the total credit points across all the semesters throughout the duration of study.

Cumulative Grade Point Average = Total Quality Points across all semesters/ Total Credit Unit across all semesters.

See also: Top 10 Most Expensive Universities In Nigeria

Conclusion

As we can see, this article illustrates how to calculate both GPA and CGPA so clearly that it should no longer be a problem for you to do so. In fact, you should go ahead and try out this method with your results, of course, if they have been released. 

Asides from the benefits of being no longer in the dark when it pertains to how to calculate both GPA and CGPA, knowing your GPA helps monitor you to monitor your academic progress so that you know which areas need you to put in extra work.