How to Compute Your General Weighted Average (With GWA Calculator)

Your general weighted average (GWA) is an important piece of information that determines your acceptance to the university or scholarship of your choice. Whether you are a fresh high school graduate applying for your dream university or a college student aiming for the dean’s list, knowing your GWA is the first step in making your dreams come true. In this article, we’ll teach you how to compute your GWA manually or by using our free online GWA calculator.

Not every student wants to achieve high scores on their report cards; some are simply contented to pass their subjects and to avoid failed or incomplete grades as much as possible. But for those who are aiming for academic excellence with the ultimate goal of graduating with honors, having exceptional grades is a must. Having high grades not only puts you in contention for honors, but also increases your chances of landing a job after your graduation.

If you are one of those consistently aiming for high honors, it’s important to know your GWA as it’s one of the basis for inclusion into the dean’s list or honor roll. Computing your GWA is fairly easy and anyone can do it using a basic calculator.

Online GWA Calculator

Looking to compute your GWA in a hurry? With our free online GWA calculator, you don’t have to compute your general weighted average manually using a calculator. Just input your grades and their corresponding number of units and our web-based GWA calculator will do all the hard work for you.

What is GWA?

General weighted average or GWA is the average of a student’s grades in all subjects taken during a particular semester or academic year. The GWA indicates the academic performance of a student and includes all passed and failed subjects in the curriculum as well as outside of it.

The GWA is computed for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and is often used by prospective employers and educational institutions to screen applicants. It is also used by colleges and universities to determine qualification for Latin honors.

What is the Difference Between GWA and GPA?

The general weighted average (GWA) and the grade point average (GPA) are more or less the same. The main difference is that the GWA is based on the grade point scale (e.g. 1.0, 2.0, 5.0), while the GPA uses the letter grade system (e.g. A, B, C, D) that is prevalent in the United States, where each letter has a point equivalent. For example, A is equivalent to 4.0, B is equivalent to 3.0, and so on.

In the Philippines, most colleges and universities use the 5-point grade scale in which grades are assigned as numbers, with 1.0 as the highest and 5.0 as the lowest or failing grade. Some universities such as De La Salle University use the 4-point grade scale that is equivalent to the US grading system, with 4.0 as the highest and 0.0 as the lowest or failing grade.

There is no standardized grade equivalence in the Philippines, so each college or university has its own grading point system and the grade equivalence in either letter or number. Be sure to visit your school’s website to know the grading point system as well as the passing grades and the cutoff grades for inclusion in the honor roll.

How to Compute Your GWA

The GWA is calculated by multiplying the grade earned for each subject with the corresponding number of credit units, adding up all the results to get the aggregate grade, and then dividing the aggregate grade with the total number of units for the semester or school year.

The formula for calculating the GWA goes like this:

(Grade x Number of Units) ÷ Total Number of Units = GWA

For example, if you have a grade of 1.2 in Philosophy with 2 units, a grade of 1.5 in Chemistry with 3 units, and a grade of 1.1 in English with 3 units, then your GWA is calculated as follows:

First, multiply the grade for each subject with its respective number of credit units:

Philosophy: 1.2 x 2 = 2.4
Chemistry: 1.5 x 3 = 4.5
English: 1.1 x 3 = 3.3

Next, add up the results for all subjects to get the aggregate grade:

Aggregate Grade: 2.4 + 4.5 + 3.3 = 10.2

Next, get the total number of credit units for the given period:

Total No. of Units: 2 + 3 + 3 = 8

Finally, divide the aggregate grade with the total number of units to get the general weighted average:

GWA: 10.2 ÷ 8 = 1.275

If all subjects don’t have corresponding units, such as in the case of high school, or if all subjects have the same or equal number of units, then you can simply add up all grades and divide the total with the number of subjects to get your GWA.

Total Grade ÷ Number of Subjects = GWA

Be sure to compute only grades that are included in the computation for the GWA. Grades that are excluded from the computation for the GWA are usually inside parenthesis “( )”. In some universities, dropped classes are also excluded from the computation.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, it’s not that hard to calculate your general weighted average because you can easily do it using our free GWA calculator as well as through manual computation. One thing to remember is that every school is different with regard to their grading system, so having a good GWA score is not necessarily a guarantee of making it to the dean’s list or honor roll. Nevertheless, a higher than average GWA definitely looks good in your transcript, which will benefit you immensely in your future career.

Please feel free to share this article with your friends so that they will know how to compute their GWA, too. If you have any questions about our GWA calculator, please let us know or post a comment below.