The WAM is used to measure your academic achievement
From 2020, the Weighted Average Mark (WAM) is used to measure your academic achievement, replacing Grade Point Average (GPA).
Advantages of WAM
WAM is a more accurate representation of your achievement because WAM calculations use your actual marks eg 56, 65, 89, 71 and so on.
Your WAM will be the average of the actual marks you achieved in all units of your course and is a mark out of 100.
WAM also incorporates ALL marks, including those from a fail grade ie 35, 46 etc, whereas GPA gives a calculation of zero for any fail grades.
GPA is based on grades ie F, P, C, D, HD, however there is a range of values within the grade.
Example
A mark of anywhere within 50-64 gives you a P and in a GPA calculation everyone that falls into that 50-64 range is given a GPA value of four.
Therefore, if you got 50 you got 4 GPA points or if you got 64 you got four GPA points - four is not an accurate reflection of your achievement.
The tables below show the difference between WAM and GPA calculations.
Harry:
| Unit | Grade | Mark | GPA Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | P | 58 | 4 |
| Unit 2 | CR | 74 | 5 |
| Unit 3 | P | 64 | 4 |
| Unit 4 | P | 59 | 4 |
| Unit 5 | P | 64 | 4 |
| Unit 6 | CR | 74 | 5 |
| Unit 7 | CR | 73 | 5 |
| Unit 8 | P | 56 | 4 |
| Result | WAM = 65.25 | GPA = 4.375 |
Fred:
| Unit | Grade | Mark | GPA Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 | P | 52 | 4 |
| Unit 2 | CR | 70 | 5 |
| Unit 3 | P | 61 | 4 |
| Unit 4 | P | 53 | 4 |
| Unit 5 | P | 62 | 4 |
| Unit 6 | CR | 71 | 5 |
| Unit 7 | CR | 72 | 5 |
| Unit 8 | P | 50 | 4 |
| Result | WAM = 61.4 | GPA = 4.375 |
Despite performing consistently towards the top of the grade, Harry has a GPA score the same as Fred, who performed consistently towards the bottom of the grade range.
You can see their WAM scores more accurately reflects the difference in the performance of the two students.
Estimate your WAM
To see an accurate result, you need to:
- Enter all units within your current admitted course that have been passed or failed (you can find the final mark for each unit on your unofficial transcript)
- Exclude units for which you have a W grade
- Exclude units listed as Specified Credit under your current admitted course on your unofficial transcript, as well as any Unspecified Credit
How this affects you
- Students studying in 2020 and beyond: WAM on the transcript for all units
- Students who have completed the course before 2020: GPA on the transcript
The introduction of the WAM will also impact the information appearing on unofficial transcripts. View detailed examples of the changes to unofficial transcripts [PDF 544KB].
GPA estimator tool
For those students still wanting to calculate their GPA, the information and tool have moved to a new GPA Calculator page.