How CGPA Is Calculated: Credit-Weighted Average Explained
How universities combine semester GPAs into a CGPA: the credit-weighted formula, the UGC 4.00 scale, rounding versus truncation, with a worked example.
Published 28 October 2026
The short answer
CGPA = Σ (semester GPA × semester credits) ÷ total credits: a credit-weighted average, not a plain average of your GPAs. For example, 3.50 over 18 credits and 3.80 over 12 credits give (63 + 45.6) ÷ 30 = 3.62, while a plain average would wrongly give 3.65.
The formula: a credit-weighted average
CGPA = Σ (semester GPA × semester credits) ÷ Σ credits
In words: multiply each semester’s GPA by that semester’s credits, add up the results, then divide by the total credits. This is a weighted average: a semester with more credits has more influence on your CGPA. An 18-credit semester carries twice the course load of a 9-credit one, so it makes sense to count it twice as much.
If you already have your semester GPAs and credits, the CGPA Calculator does this for you. Below is the same calculation by hand.
The UGC 4.00 scale
Bangladesh’s University Grants Commission (UGC) has published a uniform grading system, which many universities in the country use:
| Marks | Letter grade | Grade point |
|---|---|---|
| 80–100 | A+ | 4.00 |
| 75–79 | A | 3.75 |
| 70–74 | A- | 3.50 |
| 65–69 | B+ | 3.25 |
| 60–64 | B | 3.00 |
| 55–59 | B- | 2.75 |
| 50–54 | C+ | 2.50 |
| 45–49 | C | 2.25 |
| 40–44 | D | 2.00 |
| Below 40 | F | 0.00 |
Not every university follows it. Some use different mark ranges or extra grades, and some report results on a 5.00 scale. Check your own university’s handbook or result sheet. The CGPA formula itself is the same on any scale.
Worked example: from courses to GPA, from semesters to CGPA
Step 1: one semester’s GPA
A semester GPA follows the same rule, with courses in place of semesters:
- Course 1: A (3.75) × 3 credits = 11.25
- Course 2: B+ (3.25) × 3 credits = 9.75
- Course 3: A- (3.50) × 3 credits = 10.50
- Course 4: B (3.00) × 1.5 credits = 4.50
Total grade points are 36.00 over 10.5 credits, so the GPA = 36 ÷ 10.5 = 3.428…, or 3.43 to two decimals. To do this from letter grades, use the GPA Calculator.
Step 2: combine the semesters into a CGPA
| Semester | GPA | Credits | GPA × credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semester 1 | 3.50 | 12 | 42.00 |
| Semester 2 | 4.00 | 18 | 72.00 |
| Total | 30 | 114.00 |
CGPA = 114 ÷ 30 = 3.80. Notice that a plain average of the two GPAs would be 3.75; the real CGPA is higher because the bigger semester was the 4.00 one.
Step 3: add a new semester to your current CGPA
You don’t need every old semester. Treat your current CGPA and the total credits completed so far as one semester. With a CGPA of 3.40 over 60 credits and a new semester of 3.80 over 15 credits: (3.40 × 60 + 3.80 × 15) ÷ 75 = (204 + 57) ÷ 75 = 261 ÷ 75 = 3.48. Entering every old semester separately would give exactly the same result, because current CGPA × total credits is simply the sum of all the earlier semesters’ GPA × credits.
Rounding or truncating?
The division often runs to many decimals, so the answer has to be brought to two. There are two methods in use:
- Rounding (half up): if the third decimal is 5 or more, the second goes up by 1. 3.428… becomes 3.43.
- Truncating: the digits after the second decimal are simply dropped. 3.428… becomes 3.42.
Our calculator rounds to two decimals. Some universities truncate, so your official CGPA can be 0.01 lower; check your handbook to see which applies. One more point: if you round each semester GPA first and then work out the CGPA, the last digit can come out slightly different. Where you can, divide the total grade points of all courses by the total credits; with unrounded semester GPAs the two methods give exactly the same answer. Your university’s published CGPA is the one that counts.
Step by step: work out your own CGPA
- From your result sheets, take each semester’s GPA and its credits.
- Multiply each GPA by its credits.
- Add up those results, and separately add up all the credits.
- Divide the first total by the total credits.
- Round or truncate to two decimals, following your university’s rule.
Common mistakes
- Averaging GPAs without credits. With 3.80 on 9 credits and 3.00 on 18 credits, the plain average is (3.80 + 3.00) ÷ 2 = 3.40, but the correct CGPA is (3.80 × 9 + 3.00 × 18) ÷ 27 = 88.2 ÷ 27 = 3.27. The two only match when every semester has the same credits.
- Mixing scales. You can’t average GPAs on the 4.00 scale with GPAs on the 5.00 scale, and an SSC or HSC GPA out of 5.00 doesn’t combine with a university CGPA either. We don’t assume any official formula for converting between scales; if you need one, ask the institution concerned.
- Confusing rounding with truncation. The correct CGPA above, 3.266…, is 3.27 when rounded and 3.26 when truncated. Don’t assume your official result shows 3.27.
- Dropping the credits of a failed course. In a semester GPA an F adds no points, but its credits stay in the divisor. Whether a retake replaces the old grade or is averaged with it is up to your university’s policy.
Rather than multiplying and dividing by hand, enter each semester’s GPA and credits in the CGPA Calculator to see your CGPA and total credits straight away, on a 4.00 or 5.00 scale. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere.