Many Nigerian students are usually faced with difficulties of having to calculate their CGPA and all that it takes to gather a strong CGPA. This piece offers a practical example of how to calculate CGPA and determine the result.
First, the CGPA is the acronym for Cumulative Grade Point Average. It is used to measure the overall academic achievement of a student by awarding either A, B, C, D, E or F grades. It should also be known that these grades are married with a definite number/point.
During this tutorial on how to calculate CGPA, Olabisi Onabanjo University grading system which is commonly used amongst majority of Nigerian universities and African’s will be the object of example. In this school and many more, the 5 points CGPA system is adopted. There is also the 7 points CGPA and the 4 points CGPA.
The grades are as follows: A=5 point, grade B=4 point, grade C=3 point, grade D=2 point, grade E=1 point, grade F=0 point This is the first part of knowing how to calculate a CGPA.
While learning how to calculate CGPA, It is important that one know these grades and the points each grade comes with. The second part is the Course unit. The course units are the weight of points attached to a particular course.
Units of a course could be 1 unit, 2 units, 3 units, 4 units, depending on the course. Now, the courses, obviously, that a student would be taking in the university would be more than one. All of the courses that the student takes come with their different units.
The units of these courses are multiplied by the different grade points that were scored in those courses; the result of the multiplication of the unit by the grade point in all of the courses is added together and then divided by the total number of units.
Putting this in a practical aspect using a 300 level law student at the Olabisi Onabanjo University.
Now, the Olabisi Onabanjo University runs two (2) semesters in a session. We would have semester 1 and semester 2;
1st Semester Result
| Courses | Course unit | Grades | Grade Point |
| Criminal Law | 4 units | A | 5 |
| Commercial Law | 4 units | B | 4 |
| Family Law | 4 units | C | 3 |
| Law of torts | 4 units | C | 3 |
Calculate 1st semester GPA
As we can see above, each of the courses taken by the 300 level law students carries 4 units each, when added together, they would be 16 units.
Again, we can also see the grade the student has in the different courses. Now, the unit that comes with the various courses would be multiplied by the grade point the student had in the exam.
Following from the above table, we can see that in criminal law, the student had grade A which is 5 point, now that 5 point would be multiplied by the unit attached to the course which would be 4 (course unit) x 5 (grade point) = 20 This process would be applied to the remaining courses.
For commercial law, it would be 4 (course unit) x 4 (grade point) = 16 For family law, it would be 4 (course unit) x 3 (grade point) = 12
For law of torts, it would be 4 (course unit) x 3 (grade point) = 12
Next step is to add all the results of the course unit and grade point together and divide them by the total number of units.
Here it is; For criminal law we have a result of -20 For commercial law we have a result of – 16 For family law, we have a result of – 12 For law of torts, we have a result of – 12 All of these results would be added together and then divided by the total number of units.
So, 20 + 16 + 12 + 12 = 60 For the total number of course unit, from the above we can see that the 4 courses taken carried 4 units, so 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16 After the above, we now divide 60 by 16 = 3.75
Now, it should be known that the end result of 3.75 is not the CGPA, it is GPA meaning Grade Point Average. We can only have a CGPA after the total calculation of the two semesters or more.
So, with the example above, we already have the GPA of the first semester.
2nd Semester result
| Courses | Course unit | Grades | Grade Point |
| Criminal Law | 4 unit | A | 5 |
| Commercial Law | 4 unit | A | 5 |
| Family Law | 4 unit | B | 4 |
| Law of Torts | 4 unit | B | 4 |
Calculate 2nd semester GPA
Now, we calculate to know the GPA.
For criminal law, it would be 4 (course unit) x 5 (grade point) = 20
For commercial law, it would be 4 (course unit) x 5 (grade point) = 20
For family law, it would be 4 (course unit) x 4 (grade point) = 16
For law of torts, it would be 4 (course unit) x 4 (grade point) = 16
We from there go ahead to add the end result of the course unit and grade point all together.
So we have for criminal law – 20
For commercial law – 20
For family law – 16
For law of torts – 16
When added together it would be 20 + 20 + 16 + 16 = 72
For the total number of course unit, from the above we can see that the 4 courses taken carried 4 units, so 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16
We then divide 72 by 16 = 4.5
Now, the 4.5 is the GPA of the second semester.
How to Calculate CGPA
Earlier on, we learnt how to calculate GPA, now we would go on to how to calculate CGPA, the result of the grade point multiplied by the course unit of the two semesters would be added together and divided by the total number of units for the first and second semester.
In the first semester, the student had a total of 60 points (after the multiplication of the course unit by the grade points)
For the second semester, the student had 72 points (after multiplication of the course units by the grade points)
So we sum the first and second semester, 60 + 72 = 132
For the total number of units for first and second semester, we can see from the table that in the first semester, the student course carried 4 units each summing up 16, same for the second semester which is 16.
So, 16 + 16 = 32.
Now we divide 132 by 32 = 4.125, approximately 4.1
The 4.1 is the CGPA.
In Oou, having a 4.1 CGPA equals to being in Second class upper, some call it strong 2.1.
Do you know how to calculate CGPA now? Or you need help?
