what is this guide about?this guide is written to assist university or college students to understand more about the grading system at tertiery education level. students are often trapped under the pretense that once they've failed, their grades can never go up again. this is fairly untrue in most of the cases. however it is important to note that not all tertiery education system follows the same CGPA system. what i've tabled out below are applicable to local IPTAs, several IPTSs and most UK based universities.
what is CGPA?ultimately, CGPA is where everything boils down to in ur studies. it stands for Cummulative Grade Point Average, hence CGPA, which is an accumulation of all ur grade points divided to every single credit u take. CGPA is also the determining factor of whether u get to graduate with 1st class, 2nd class upper, 2nd class lower or 3rd class. however, the minimum point for each class differs from university to university. UTM for example classifies 1st class as 3.70 and above and 2nd class upper from 3.00 to 3.69. MMU on the other hand classifies 2nd class upper from 3.30 to 3.69.
what is calculated?CGPA is calculated based on all subjects that u take. each subjects usually comes with a credit value. some less important subjects carry between 1 to 2 credits, more important ones carry 3 to 4, and the core subjects can carry between 5 to 8 credits each. also, there are subjects categorized as "compulsory attendance only" (hadir wajib sahaja) which usually carry 0 credits. these subjects hold no value, but failing it (due to poor attendance or whatever) will still hold u down from graduating successfully.
how is it calculated?for each subject that u've successfully taken, a grade will be issued after the final exam. these grades each carry a specific point value. typically, A carries 4.00, B carries 3.00 and C carries 2.00. each of these points will be calculated based on the credit rating of each subject, and later summed up to give u ur GPA for that particular semester. for example:
semester 1subject M (6 credits): B = 3.00
subject N (2 credits): A = 4.00
subject O (3 credits): C = 2.00
(6 x 3.00) + (2 x 4.00) + (3 x 2.00) = 32 total grade point for 11 credits. hence, your GPA for semester 1 is:
32 / 11 =
2.91 GPA for sem 1. since this is ur first semester, ur GPA is also ur CGPA.
semester 2subject P (6 credits): A = 4.00
subject Q (3 credits): B = 3.00
subject R (3 credits): E = 0.00 (FAIL)
subject S (2 credits): B = 3.00
(6 x 4.00) + (3 x 3.00) + (3 x 0.00) + (2 x 3.00) = 39 total grade point for 14 credits. hence your GPA for semester 2 is:
39 / 14 =
2.79 GPA for sem 2 now that this is ur second semester, ur CGPA will be calculated by combining the two. however, a direct average is wrong. CGPA is calculated NOT based on the average of GPAs per semester, but based on grade points per credit that u take. to calculate ur CGPA based on the two semesters above:
[(total grade point for sem 1) + (total grade point for sem 2)] / total credit taken in all semesters
[(32) + (39)] / (11 + 14) =
2.84 CGPA» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
compare this if u simply average the two semesters:
(2.91 + 2.79) / 2 = 2.85 CGPA
not much difference? it will make a HUGE difference when u start retaking ur failed subject.
now, let's try the next semester where u retake the failed subject:
semester 3subject R (3 credits): A = 4.00 (REPEATED SUBJECT)
subject T (3 credits): B = 3.00
subject U (3 credits): B = 3.00
subject V (3 credits): B = 3.00
(3 x 4.00) + (3 x 3.00) + (3 x 3.00) + (3 x 3.00) = 39 total grade point for 12 credits. hence your GPA for semester 3 is:
39 / 12 = 3.25 GPA.
now, how do u calculate ur CGPA when u have a repeated subject? here's the main rule: u recalculate the repeated subject by replacing the old grade with the new one. it means, in ur CGPA calculation, u never failed ur subject R, u actually scored A! lets see what it looks like:
[(grade points for sem 1) + (grade points for sem 2 excluding the failed subject) + (grade points for sem 3)] / [(credit for sem 1) + (credit for sem 2 excluding the failed subject) + (credit for sem 3)]
[(32) + (39 - 0) + (39)] / [(11) + (14 - 3) + (12)] = 110 / 34 =
3.24 CGPA!
a lot of students made the mistake of including the failed subject into the calculation despite having repeated it. here's what the wrong calculation usually looks like:
» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
[(32) + (39) + (39)] / [(11) + (14) + (11)] = 110 / 36 = 3.06 CGPA!
can u see how much difference it can make if u calculate ur grades wrongly?
implicationswrong calculations would lead to students being afraid to fail, simply bcoz the impression that failed subjects would drag the CGPA even further down. this is wrong. repeating the failed subject replaces the old grades. in ur CGPA, it is as if u've never failed before. most students would simply accept a C- or D+, which is usually the minimum passing rate, in hope that they dont have to ever repeat the subject, and hopefully score more subjects in time.
thing is, once u've got a D+/C-, it's very hard to catch up and drag ur pointers up. i strongly advise students whom ultimately concerned for their grades to DARE to fail and repeat it again. ofcourse, certain subjects are big enough that repeating means u have to extend another semester. well, if it means graduating between a 2nd class lower and a 2nd class upper, why not?
good luck!
Hi, this is not completely related with the topic you posted but you seems to know well about this. So I would like to ask if can you explain me about the credits in O-Level which require to do foundation & diploma courses in most of the universities ? and do they only check how many credits I have in O-levels or they check GPA in my O-levels ? Thank you so much
Suppose if I have 1A,3D,2C. How many credits do I have then ?
Nov 28 2012, 05:30 PM
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