KNUST Grading System

KNUST Grading System

Knust Grading System-How to Calculate Your Knust Gpa Cwa

KNUST Grading System-How to calculate your KNUST GPA CWA Your Ghanaian student and you don’t How you can Calculate your GPA or Convert CWA to GPA You’re in the right place Ajiraforum Team we prepared this Article to make you know How do you convert Knust CWA to GPA?, How is CWA calculated? What is the difference between GPA and GWA? And All KNUST and CWA Most asked Question is Gonna be cleared through this Content stay with us.

KNUST Grading System

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana KNUST grading system had been different from the other institutions in Ghana until sometime in 2010 when it was reviewed. While the rest were using the Grade Point Average system, KNUST stuck to Cumulative Weighted Average. Since the adoption of the GPA system, the #KNUST grading scale is usually reviewed once in a while to match the current academic situation of the country. Read on to find out more about the grading system for KNUST

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Grading is important in every educational institution as it helps to rank the students and determine how each performs at the end of the study period. KNUST new grading system has been set to rank the students graduating from the university in this academic year. It is this set system that gives a first class to one student, a second class upper, lower or pass to another.

Table 1: Class of degrees and their corresponding CWA

Class CWA
First Class 70.00 and above
Second Class Upper 60.00 – 69.99
Second Class Lower 50.00 – 59.99
Pass 40.00 – 49.99

Source: KNUST Students’ Guide and Code of Conduct (2018)

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Note: Anything below 40.00 at the end of the whole academic period means that the student cannot graduate. Hence, the student has failed that particular degree program. There are several interpretations of this. For example, when a student gets a CWA below 40.00 at the end of the first year, the student is automatically withdrawn from school. However, if a student gets a CWA below 40 during the second and third year, the student gets repeated for that particular university level.

Below are the steps used in calculating the CWA. If you can understand how to use these steps you do not have to read on. You can take the steps and do your own basic CWA calculations and check-ups. If not, you can read on to get insight into how the calculations were made for the template used in this article.

Step 1: Multiply the percentage mark scored in each course by the course credit to obtain the Weighted Marks.

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Step 2: Add up all the Weighted Marks calculated up to the end of the semester in question to obtain the Cumulative Weighted Marks.

Step 3: Add up all the corresponding Course Credits to the end of the semester in question to obtain the Cumulative Credits.

Step 4: Divide the Cumulative Weighted Marks by the Cumulative Credits to obtain your Cumulative Weighted Average for the semester in question.

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Detailed Example

In a semester, the number of courses students can enroll in differs from at least three to at most ten, 11, 12, and even 13 in some extreme cases. However, a student doing three courses per semester and one offering 11 courses per semester should all have cumulative credit marks between the ranges of 16 and 21.

Suppose you have the following courses for year one semester one.

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Student Name: Kofi Kunsu Martey.  Program: BSC. CONSTRUCTION TECH. & MGT

Course No.                 Credit Marks (Hrs)

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BT 151                                   3

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BT 153                                   2

BT 155                                   2

BT 157                                   2

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BT 159                                   2

BT 161                                   2

BT 163                                   2

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CTM 151                                3

CTM 157                                2

Cumulative Credit                  20

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The student above has a cumulative credit of 20 for nine registered courses. As a first year student, the current CWA without any examinations or recorded marks is 100.00. However, suppose at the end of the semester  after combining the student’s examinations scores, quizzes, assignments and mid-semester  examination scores the following final results for each course enrolled were obtained.

Table 2: Sample courses and grades

Course No. Credit Marks (Hrs) Marks (100%) Letter Grade Remark
BT 151 3 74 A Excellent
BT 153 2 71 A Excellent
BT 155 2 67 B Very Good
BT 157 2 89 A Excellent
BT 159 2 55 C Good
BT 161 2 47 D Average
BT 163 2 67 B Very Good
CTM 151 3 70 A Excellent
CTM 157 2 34 F Fail

Source: Author’s construct (2016)

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In order to calculate the CWA for this student in the first-year first semester, the credit marks for each particular course are multiplied by the marks scored for that respective course.  Hence, BT 151 becomes 3*74 which equals 222. These calculations have been done and presented in Table three.

Table 3: Sample calculations of Cumulative Weighted Marks

Course No. Credit Marks (Hrs) (A) Marks (100%) (B) Weighted Marks (A*B)
BT 151 3 74 222
BT 153 2 71 142
BT 155 2 67 134
BT 157 2 89 178
BT 159 2 55 110
BT 161 2 47 94
BT 163 2 67 134
CTM 151 3 70 210
CTM 157 2 34 68
                      Cumulative Weighted Marks 1292

Source: Author’s construct (2016)

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To get the CWA for the first-year first semester of this student, the cumulative weighted marks is divided by the cumulative credits. Hence, 1292/20 = 64.60

Thus, the CWA for Kofi Kunsu Martey for first year semester one is 64.60, second class upper.

Considering the results in Table Three, it can be deduced that the student had 89 in a two-credit mark course and 70 in a three-credit mark course, but the three-credit mark is contributing 210 to the cumulative weighted marks despite the fact the marks scored are lower as compared to the two credit mark course. As an advice, students are entreated to give maximum attention to courses with higher credit marks, so that they can obtain high scores to boost their overall cumulative weighted marks. Additionally, it can also be inferred from table three that the student trailed the last course CTM 157, but the CWA shows that the student is in second class upper. Hence, it does not matter your class for a particular semester or your overall cumulative average or class, you can still trail a course and you have to resit for that particular course until you get a pass or more on that course. Therefore, students are implored to take each course seriously.

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When students complete school and still have some trailed courses, they must write and pass all trail courses before their certificate would be awarded to them. If students unluckily drop below 45 without any trials during their last semester, they will complete school without any certificate. The pass mark is 40% for each course. When averages are between 40 – 45 at any given academic level, students will be probationary.

If the student studies very hard next semester, say year one semester two, the student can increase his CWA from second class upper to first class or to at least a strong CWA within the second class upper range. This is how the calculations will be done.

CWA from year one semester one was 64.60. In year one semester two, let us assume a  student had cumulative weighted marks of 1576 for cumulative credit marks of 21.  Following the same calculations as the first semester, the CWA for only year one semester two becomes:

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Cumulative weighted marks divided by cumulative credits  ≈ 1576/21 = 75.04. Hence, for year one semester two the student has a CWA of 75.04 which means the student has a first class for year one semester two, but what does the student’s overall cumulative weighted average for the entire year one show? This is calculated by adding the current cumulative weighted marks of semester two to the cumulative weighted marks of semester one and dividing the answer by the sum of the cumulative credits of semester one and semester two.

Thus, 1576 + 1292 = 2868 which would be divided by the credit marks for both semesters (20 + 21) = 41. Hence, the CWA of the student at the end of the first year is 2868/41 = 69.95

Year two semester one CWA would be calculated in like manner. The cumulative weighted marks for year two semester one would be added to the cumulative weighted marks for the entire year one (here, 2868) and divided by the sum of the cumulative marks of year two semester one and the cumulative marks of the whole year one (here, 41). This approach is followed in calculating the CWA for students throughout their entire university degree at KNUST.

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In conclusion, it can be seen that students are mostly bound to do well if they put in a lot of effort in their first-year studies and make huge averages. This is because as the student progresses throughout the university levels, the number of credit marks becomes larger resulting in a lower outcome of CWA when divided with the cumulative weighted marks. However, all is not lost if you have blown your first year away. You can still make it to your desired class by putting in more effort and studying very hard.

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How do you convert Knust CWA to GPA?

To convert CWA to GPA, a Weighted Scale Goes up to 5, as Compared to The Normal GPA Scale That Goes up to 4. Start by Assigning a Numerical Scale to The Grades Example A-5 B-4 etc. Add All The Numerical Scores All Together. Divide The Number That You Get by The Classes Attended.

KNUST Class Of Degree Requirements

The classes of degree are- First-Class, Second-Class Upper, Second-Class Lower, Third- Class.

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  • To make a First-Class, a CWA of 70.00 and above must be scored.
  • Second-Class Upper scores range between a CWA of 60.00 to 69.99
  • A CWA of 50.00 to 59.00 gets you a Second- Class Lower.
  • Anything below 50.00 CWA makes you a passing candidate.
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Using the CWA from the Table 1.3 example, where the student got a 64.6 CWA. This score means the student is currently a second-class upper student. However, if a student’s CWA is below the pass grade range, that leads to a spin which means there is no graduation for the student. When a student gets a CWA below 40.00 at the end of the first year, the student is automatically withdrawn from school. However, if a student gets a CWA below 40 during the second and third year, the student gets repeated for that particular university level.

KNUST Weighted Averages Vs Grade Point Average (GPA)

The Grade Point Average (GPA) system comes in several forms. It assigns to ranges of percentage marks obtained or alphabetical grades a value called the grade point. These grade points are usually taken out of four (4). In some cases out of five (5), six (6), seven (7) out of ten (10) e.t.c. These points are used to calculate the CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) used in defining the graduation class of the students. Computation of CGPA The cumulative grade point average is calculated by dividing the grade point obtained, up to any specific time, by the total credit of all courses for which the student has registered up to that time. These steps outline the computation:

  1. Multiply the grade point corresponding to the percentage mark scored in each course by the credit hours of the course to obtain the Weighted Grade Point (WGP)
  2. Add up all the weighted marks calculated up to the end of the semester in question to obtain Cumulative Grade Points (CWP)
  3. Add up the credit hours of all corresponding courses up to the end of the semester in question to obtain the Cumulative Credits.
  4. Calculate the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) up to the end of the semester in question as follows CGPA = Cumulative Grade Point (WGP)

Differences Between CWA And CGPA Grading Systems

The Weighted Average system is more flexible in computation. It is very easy to get a better classification in the Cumulative weighted Average system than in the Cumulative Grade Point Average system. Whiles the CWA system allows counterbalancing one’s poor performance in one course with a good performance in another, the GPA system does not. The GPA system rather demands that a student is consistent in performance in all courses since a high mark in one course cannot compensate for a low mark in the other.

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Conclusion

One of the problems graduates of KNUST face when applying to an oversea college for postgraduate study is converting their CWA to GPA. It has been discovered that a first-class graduate of KNUST might fall to a Second-Class upper candidate when his or her CWA is converted to GPA. and the fact that most overseas schools use GPA instead of CWA makes this a matter of concern to many KNUST graduates. Many KNUST graduates have been denied scholarships due to the low value that most of the CWA to GPA conversion methods that fly around present.

This has become a hard nut to crack as the computation and conversion seem to be unfair to KNUST graduates. Graduates of KNUST have always made a call to KNUST to see to this disparity and provide a standard method of converting CWA to GPA since the school adopts the system. And hopefully, something will be done to solve this disparity soonest.

It is likewise advisable to check the grading system of the school before applying to an oversea graduate school.

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Contact

PMB Kumasi, Ghana
Fax: +233-51-60137,37833
Tel +233 3220 60021, +233 3220 60137
Certificates Awarded: Ph.D., Masters, Bachelor’s Degrees, and Diplomas

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