How To Calculate CGPA – At the of every session, it is necessary to track your performance, how well you are doing and if you need to put in more work or just relax on your effort so far.
Grading is a system to map student performance, it is an essential aspect of education at all levels. Calculating your CGPA is something you would be exposed to on your entry into higher education. Meanwhile, if you have no idea of how you can go about it; this article will put you through the process of calculating your CGPA.
At the end of this article, you should be able to calculate your CGPA, know what it stands for and why you need to keep close monitoring of your CGPA as it is important for your career progression.
What Is CGPA?
All higher levels of education, Polytechnics, Universities and others require students to be graded using the CGPA. This aids students to monitor their progress. Grading depends from country to country.
CGPA stands for the Cumulative Grade Point Average and is the total score attained over a semester. For all courses completed in a semester, your score is calculated to give you your performance for that semester.
How you calculate it now depends on the course’s grading as every institution decides what its grading looks like depending on the course. Students are always advised to get these clear so that they can follow up on their grading in case of any issues.
This information is always available to students to leverage. For every course or subject in the university, there is a score assigned whatever test or examination is made on these subjects and for each score, there is a letter grade and a unit that these grades carry. So with this students can calculate their points for each semester or calendar.
How Do I Calculate My CGPA?
Now that you have understood what a CGPA means let us go into the calculation proper. Now the important aspect of these calculations includes the Credit Load, Grade Point, Your Grade and Score.

Let us give an instance; In a typical Nigerian University, the grading is done from A to F.
Letter Grading Points
A: 5, B: 4, C: 3, D: 2, E: 1 and F: 0. Now that you know this let us go into the scoring.
Letter Grading Percentage
The scoring percentage in Nigeria includes,
0 – 39 = F, 40 – 44 = E, 45 – 49= D, 50 – 59 = C, 60 – 69 = B, and 70 – 100 = A.
This is now completed.
let’s take a good example of what a 100-level student had in his first semester Language study first semester who would be taking 5 courses.
These are courses from Linguistics Department.
LAL 101, LAL 102, LAL 103, LAL 104, and LAL 105. so let’s say David who is the student had the below scores in each of the following courses.
- LAL 101: 60
- LAL 102: 50
- LAL 103: 55
- LAL 104: 76
- LAL 105: 84
For each of the following courses the credit load includes;
- LAL 101: 2
- LAL 102: 2
- LAL 103: 2
- LAL 104: 2
- LAL 105: 2
So the total credit load is 10, you have to calculate the total credit load and put it aside because we would be using it for later calculation. Then you go for the Score gotten, so you say;
- LAL 101: you scored 60 and 60 falls under B which is marked as 4. Then you say 4 multiplied by the unit which is 2 equals 8. you put that aside and do for others.
- LAL 102: 50: C: 3 then 3 x 2 = 6.
- LAL 103: 55: C: 3 then 3 x 2 = 6.
- LAL 104: 76: A: 5 then 5 x 2 = 10.
- LAL 105: 84: A: 5 then 5 x 2 = 10.
After you have gotten this, you then add it up 8 + 6 + 6 + 10 + 10 = 40. so what you have gathered for the courses is 40. now that you have 40, you have to divide it by the total credit load which is 10. So this would be a credit load divide scoring point.
- 40 / 10 = 4. so for the first semester, you have 4 as your GPA.
Then you do the same for Second Semester and once you have the second semester GPA you add it to the first semester GPA. Let’s take for instance your first semester GPA is 4 and your second semester GPA is 5 you add 5 + 4 = 10.
10 is the total GPA for both semesters then you have to divide it by 2 so 10 / 2 = 5.
Here, your CGPA is 5.
You might be wondering what is the difference between CGPA and GPA. GPA which is Grade Point Average while CGPA is Cumulative Grade Points Average all stands for grade points gotten during your stay in school, however, CGPA covers a longer period such as 100 level or for the complete year in school while GPA is for a shorter period say the first semester.
So with this, you have been able to get a clearer view of how you can calculate your CGPA and monitor your performance. You can visit this link for more.
Conclusion
Cumulative Grade Point Average is an essential part of every student’s life in school with this, the student can monitor his performance and know whether he is doing well or needs to do better in the next level of his education. CGPA is an easy thing to be calculated however, many students would still find it inconvenient to calculate.
Usually, students are introduced to how they can calculate their CPGA. If you are still finding it hard we have made it easier for you to calculate your CGPA, with this simple process you should be able to get it right and hope you find it very insightful.
References
- scholarshipupdate.com.ng – What Is The Meaning Of CGPA.
- Fatherprada.com – How To Calculate GPA And CGPA.
- Shoreloop.com – How To Calculate CGPA And GPA In Nigerian Universities.