What Every Fresher Needs To Know 5 Chapter 4: The Grade Poin

As a student, your future on campus is determined by how strong your G.P. is. Your performance is not rated by your academic position in the cla.s.s Abut by the strength of your G.P. The beauty of it is that you really do not have to wait until your final year or your penultimate year before you begin to struggle for a wonderful result to graduate with. You build it up right from your first year. As though you are building a block of flat, each test you do, each examination you sit for, each a.s.signment you

submit, each laboratory report you write, all add together to make up your final year result on campus.

So, the earlier you start building a strong and formidable academic foundation, the better it is for you at the end of your journey on campus. Once you have successfully laid such foundation, all you need is to consolidate as the years go by.

THE G.P.A.

The G.P.A., as it is commonly called is an acronym for the Grade Point Average. This is a summary of the a.s.sessment of students' academic performance in a semester. It is awarded according to the student's score. Results of all the courses taken in each semester is c.u.mulatively added and averaged together. Each course of study is attached a weight called Unit. This Unit is measured by volume/hour/week. This means that the number of volumes a Unit carries is determined by the number of hours a.s.signed to it as lecture period per week. This Unit in essence presents the workload of each course and it differs from course to course. The Grade is the designated weight attached to each of the range of percentage scores obtainable in an examination and it is represented by the alphabets A to F. The percentage score is the varying degree of marks obtainable in an examination. This may vary slightly from one school to another. The Grade Point is the weight attached to each Grade. It runs from five points to zero point.

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% Score Grade Grade Point

70-100 A 5

60-69 B 4

50-59 C 3

45-49 D 2

40-44 E 1

0-39 F 0

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Below is a simple way to calculate your G.P.A.
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(1) Multiply your Grade Point by the Unit a.s.signed to the course to get the weighted G.P.A.

(2) Sum up the total units of all the courses taken.

(3) Also sum up the total weighted GPA for all the courses taken in the semester.

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COURSE CODE COURSE UNIT GRADE GRADE POINT WEIGHTED G.P.A

GEG 101 6 A 5 30

MEG 105 2 A 5 10

GST 103 2 B 4 8

PHY 107 2 B 4 8

MTH 109 2 A 5 10

- 14 - - 66

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(4) G.P.A. = Sum of Weighted G.P.A. / Total units taken = 66/14 = 4.71

Your G.P.A. for the first semester, as seen from the computation above, is 4.71

(5) Repeat same for your second semester examination in order to get your second semester G.P.A.

THE C.G.P.A

Astudent's relative academic strength from his first year to his last year is measured by this. The G.P.A. for the entire semesters during which examination is taken is c.u.mulatively added together.

This is called the c.u.mulative Grade Point Average (C.G.P.A.) and it will ultimately determine what degree you will graduate with at the end of your course in school. Astudent who has a C.G.P.A. that is less than one point (C.G.P.A. < 1)="" would="" be="" placed="" on="" probation="" and="" given="" a="" warning="" note="" (termed="" advice="" to="" withdraw).="" if="" by="" the="" end="" of="" the="" following="" semester,="" he="" or="" she="" does="" not="" raise="" his="" or="" her="" c.g.p.a.="" above="" one="" point,="" he="" or="" she="" is="" automatically="" withdrawn="" from="" the="">

Below also is a simple way to compute your C.G.P.A.

C.G.P.A. = Acc.u.mulated sum of Weighted GPAs / Acc.u.mulated sum of the total units taken

a.s.suming your second semester result is,

Weighted G.P.A. / Total units taken = 61 / 13

The C.G.P.A. then equals

= Acc.u.mulated sum of all Weighted G.P.A. / Acc.u.mulated sum of the total units taken =4.70

Every subsequent semester, your new semester G.P.A. is c.u.mulatively added to that of the past semesters in order to get your C.G.P.A. This will help to determine your academic strength per semester. If you calculate the C.G.P.A. by summing the G.P.A.'s together and finding their average, you may not get the accurate figure. It has to be the acc.u.mulated sum of all Weighted G.P.A divided by the acc.u.mulated sum of all the total score units.

It is important that you know how to calculate your G.P.A. and C.G.P.A. There has been, though on few occasions, cases where the school authority miscalculated some students G.P.A., and this eventually affected their final year result.

At such times, your only saving grace will be to have your own G.P.A. already calculated in a separate booklet which you can present to the school at any given time. Constantly compare this with the school's calculation at the end of every semester so that you will know early enough if there is any error and you will be able to save the impending disaster on time. A st.i.tch in time saves nine.

How will you go about it if in your final year it was discovered that there was a mistake in the computation of your first year C.G.P.A. in a borrowed course taken by a Visiting Lecturer? This should not pose any problem in an ideal situation. But with our poor filing system in this environment, except there is a miracle, you can be sure that you have already given yourself an extra session because of your carelessness and nonchalance. Even if the result is finally found and you are not required to sit for an extra year, it may take so much time that you may not be able to graduate with your mates again, thereby wasting a whole year of your life.

To safeguard this, you will need to buy a separate exercise book that you will keep in a very secure place purposely for this sake. At the end of every semester, try to recalculate your own G.P.A. and C.G.P.A using the score and the grades awarded to you by the school authority. If it aligns with the calculation of the school, you can keep it in a safe place till the end of the next semester when you will have to repeat the process again. But if you notice a slight change in the calculation, no matter how minute, the earlier you take a tangible step about it, the better for your future.

However, you must be mature in the way you go about it so that you will not step on toes and create unnecessary hatred and enmity for yourself among your lecturers.

Below is a step by step process you can follow that will guarantee a quick result:

1. Confirm that the factors (grade & score) you are using to calculate your G.P. are accurate.

2. Recalculate more than once to ascertain that you have not made a mistake in your computations.

3. Ask one or two of your close friends to calculate for you to remove any iota of doubts.

4. Seek a close lecturer's opinion about it. If you do not have a close relationship with any, approach the most student-friendly among your lecturers to seek his opinion. Let him follow you to your course adviser's office if need be.

5. Complain to your course adviser (in the presence of your lecturer-confidant) who takes it up from there.

6. Follow it up until something is done about it. Please, do not allow this issue to spill until the next semester without sorting it out. The longer you let it lie unattended to, the more difficult it becomes to tackle.

7. Make sure whatever is done about it is effected on the notice board where the result was earlier pasted. Do not be contented with any shoddy arrangement in any lecturer's office. It may later backfire.

Below is a table that shows the degree you will graduate with if your C.G.P.A. falls within any of these range.

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C.G.P.A. DEGREE

4.50 - 5.00 1st cla.s.s honours

3.50 - 4.49 2nd cla.s.s upper

2.50 - 3.49 2nd cla.s.s lower

1.50 - 2.49 3rd cla.s.s lower

1.00 -1.49 Pa.s.s

0.00 - 0.99 Fail

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