GPA calculator for Canada: convert percentages and letter grades to the 4.0 scale with the OMSAS conversion table, the Ontario achievement levels, BC's letter grades, how the universities' GPA is calculated, what US colleges do with Canadian marks, a worked example, and a printable table

Canada has no single GPA. Ontario schools report percentages, BC reports letters with percentages, Alberta percentages, and every university computes its own average on its own scale (4.0, 4.33, 4.5, 9-point, 12-point). What exists is a conversion table that the Ontario universities' application centre uses to put every applicant on one 4.0 scale, and it is the table Canadian families reach for when a US college, a scholarship form or a comparison asks for a GPA. This page has the calculator built on that table, the provincial scales behind the marks, and what the number means.

Download the Canada GPA table (PDF) (the OMSAS conversion scales for percentages and letters, the Ontario achievement levels, BC's letter grades, a worked example and a blank course table; two pages, free).

The calculator

The OMSAS conversion table

The Ontario Universities' Application Centre publishes an Undergraduate Grade Conversion Table for OMSAS, the medical school application service, which converts the grading system of every Canadian and American university to one 4.0 scale. It has nine scales, and each university is assigned one or two: scale 3 for percentages at Brock, Guelph, Lakehead, Nipissing, Regina, Saskatchewan, Trent, Western and others, and for the percentage grades of Toronto, Queen's, Waterloo, Windsor and Victoria; scale 7 for letter grades at Alberta, Calgary, Carleton, McMaster, Ottawa, UBC, Simon Fraser, Toronto Met, Wilfrid Laurier and most of the rest; scale 8 for McGill; scale 9 for Manitoba and York; scale 4 for RMC. The percentage and letter scales:

Scales 5 and 6 (94-100 = 4.0, 87-93 or 85-93 = 3.9, and so on) exist in the table for a few institutions. OMSAS's rules: it uses the percentage where a transcript shows both a percentage and a letter (except UBC, where it uses the letter), it weights a full-year course at 2 and a half-year course at 1 (a lab course 0.5), it includes failed and repeated courses, and the cumulative average is total converted grade over total weight, "not an average of the averages". The calculator applies the same weights.

Worked example. Five Grade 12 courses on scale 3:

Average mark 81.0 percent; GPA 3.38 on the 4.0 scale (equal weights). The point that surprises families: an 81.0 average converts to 3.38, not 4.0, because only 90 and above is 4.0 on this scale, and the conversion is by course, not by average, so a 91 and a 68 do not average to a 3.3 but to (4.0 + 2.3) / 2 = 3.15.

The provincial scales behind the marks

Ontario reports percentage marks in Grades 9 to 12 and places them in four achievement levels under the Ministry's Growing Success policy: Level 4 is 80 to 100 (achievement that surpasses the provincial standard), Level 3 is 70 to 79 (the provincial standard), Level 2 is 60 to 69, Level 1 is 50 to 59, and below 50 is reported as R in Grades 1 to 8 and as a percentage mark in Grades 9 to 12, with 50 the passing mark. Ontario universities admit on the top-six Grade 12 U/M average, a percentage, not a GPA.

British Columbia uses letter grades with set percentages for courses 10, 11 and 12 under the Provincial Letter Grades Order: A 86 to 100, B 73 to 85, C+ 67 to 72, C 60 to 66, C- 50 to 59, F 0 to 49, and a C- is the minimum for successful completion of a course. An A in BC therefore starts at 86, where Ontario's Level 4 starts at 80.

Alberta and most other provinces report percentages; Alberta's diploma courses blend the school mark with the diploma exam.

So a Canadian "A" is not one thing: 80 and above in Ontario's top level, 86 and above in BC, and 90 and above on the scale that converts it to a 4.0.

What US colleges do with a Canadian transcript

Most US colleges read the percentages as they are: the transcript goes in unconverted with a school profile, and the admissions office applies its own conversion, often by course, often for academic courses only. The Common App asks for a GPA with its scale, and a scale of 100 is an accepted answer, so a student can report an 88 average as 88 on a 100 scale rather than guessing at a 4.0 figure. Where a form insists on a 4.0 number, the OMSAS scale 3 conversion with the scale named is the defensible choice, and an 88 average becomes 3.9, not the 4.0 that a US student with an 88 (a B+, 3.3) would not receive either. Scholarship forms and the NCAA have their own tables; use theirs where they publish one.

What the number is for

A Canadian student needs a GPA on three occasions: a US or international application, an internal comparison (a 4.0 at one university against a 9-point at another), and the moment a US form will not take a percentage. On every other day the percentage is the number, and the number that moves is this semester's mark in each course. For the arithmetic of raising one course's mark, the weighted grade calculator and the final grade calculator work in percentages exactly as Canadian courses do; for the US system the student may be applying into, the high school GPA calculator and the weighted GPA calculator.

Download the Canada GPA table (PDF) (the OMSAS scales, the Ontario levels, BC's letter grades, a worked example and a blank course table; two pages, free).

Where to get help

A 1-on-1 online class with a tutor who holds a master's in mathematics and teaches the Ontario, BC and Alberta curricula (Grade 9 to 12 maths, Advanced Functions, Calculus and Vectors, chemistry and physics), after school and on weekend mornings, Eastern or Pacific time, for about C$14 to $18 an hour: the GPA worked out above read together in the free 30-minute first class, the course where five more percent costs least found, and the term spent on exactly that. How online tutoring from India to Canada works, or the city pages for Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary.

Questions parents ask

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