Australian GPA Calculator

The 7-point grade scale

Exact point values vary by university. The scale above is the most widely used, but some institutions award 4 for a pass and 0 for a fail with no intermediate values, and a few run a 4-point scale instead of a 7-point one. Your course rules are the authority.

How the calculation works

Australian GPA is credit-weighted, like WAM, but it averages grade points rather than marks:

GPA = Σ(grade points × credit points) ÷ Σ(credit points)

A 12-point unit at Distinction (6) and two 6-point units at High Distinction (7) and Pass (4) give (6 × 12 + 7 × 6 + 4 × 6) ÷ 24 = 138 ÷ 24 = 5.75.

GPA or WAM — which should you quote?

Australian students carry both numbers, and they answer different questions. The band conversion is where they diverge: every mark from 75 to 84 becomes a Distinction worth 6 points, so a 75 and an 84 are identical in GPA terms and nine marks apart in WAM terms.

• Use WAM for honours eligibility, academic prizes, and most domestic postgraduate applications — Australian institutions generally ask for it by name, and it is the more discriminating figure.
• Use GPA when an international application asks for one, particularly from North American institutions that expect a grade-point figure and may not know what a WAM is.

Say which scale you are on whenever you quote a GPA. A 5.75 is strong on the Australian 7-point scale and nonsensical on a US 4.0 scale, and the two get confused constantly on application forms.

Fails, withdrawals and ungraded units

• Fails count as 0 and keep their credit points in the denominator, so a single failed unit costs more in GPA terms than most students expect.
• Withdrawals without academic penalty are normally excluded entirely.
• Ungraded passes carry credit but no grade, so they usually drop out of the calculation rather than counting as a Pass at 4.
• Supplementary assessments often cap the resulting grade at a Pass, which limits how much a successful supp can repair a GPA.

Related tools

Prefer marks over grades? Use the WAM calculator for your Weighted Average Mark, which keeps the full detail of your results. If you are preparing a North American application, the percentage to GPA calculator shows the 4.0-scale bands — though admissions offices generally apply their own conversion.