GPA for PostGraduate Medicine Explained

[Russ]

This is something a lot of people ask about, so I'll write this once here and not have to worry about it again.

The GPA (Grade Point Average) is an important part of the application process. Generally you'll have to have above a certain level (hurdle). Some universities will also use your GPA as part of the admission criteria, rather than just using it to eliminate unsatisfactory students.

GPA is calculated by GEMSAS for the universities in the consortium. It's a rather simple process.

Your most recent 3 years worth of subjects (300 points / 24 subjects) are used to calculate your GPA. They are arranged into 3 "years" worth of subjects that GEMSAS calls "Final", "Final minus 1" and "Final minus 2". I find that annoying so I will use GPA1/2/3 for ease of understanding. GPA1 is your first year GPA etc. Subjects are allocated to years by counting backwards - your most recent 8 subjects are all in GPA3. Your next 8 are GPA2 and your first 8 are GPA1. If you've done more than 3 years of tertiary study, only the most recent 3 are relevant. If you have overloaded a semester, subjects will be arranged to maximize your GPA.

Once you've allocated subjects to GPA years, you need to convert your marks to the GPA scale. GEMSAS uses a 7 point scale and conversions are as follows (if your university is crazy and you don't receive marks but only grades such as HD/D/etc. you will need to look up the conversion for your university on the GEMSAS website)

Unit score - GPA grade
      >79     -    7.0
    75-79    -    6.5
    70-74    -    6.0
    65-69    -    5.5
    60-64    -    5.0
    55-59    -    4.5
    50-54    -    4.0
    45-49    -    3.5
     <45      -    0.0

You average the marks for each GPA year to create three numbers - GPA1, GPA2 and GPA3. You then weight these as follows:

and divide by 6 to calculate your overall GPA.

EG: To calculate a GPA1 year with marks of:

75, 74, 76, 85, 90, 92, 60, 65 will become (respectively) 6.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7, 7, 7, 5.0, 5.5

This averages out to 6.3125

Assuming GPA2 is 6.5 and GPA3 is 6.4, the overall GPA is 6.41 (you work it out via the formula above).

This GPA is what is passed to universities for use in your application. If your degree is incomplete at the time of application, GPA3 will obviously be underweighted, thus placing an emphasis on GPA1 and GPA2. Your first semester results for GPA3 will be included if you attend an Australian university. Don't slack off.

Any questions or anything I've forgotten, post below.

One key point: Yes, getting 100 makes no difference to getting 80. No, this is not unfair. Do not complain about it in this thread.

[dc302]

Nice write up but according to gemsas, they use percentages and not grades.

edit: http://www.gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/How-to-calculate-your-GPA.pdf

Note also that your manual calculations will use GPA grades, but GEMSAS will use percentage results
to calculate your GPA (where they are available).   If you calculate your GPA it will be an
approximation for your information only.

So this probably means 80 =/= 100

[vea]

What GPA is considered nice and competitive if you want to get into the Melbourne MD? I'm guessing about 6.7+?

[mankay]

Nice write up but according to gemsas, they use percentages and not grades.

edit: http://www.gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/How-to-calculate-your-GPA.pdf

If you actually read your own link properly, you would have seen that it shows in a table that in  fact 80% == 100% == 7.0

[Peedles]

We've had a thorough discussion about this before.

Please read the following thread =)

Music Psych Score Change Possible?

[dc302]

Nice write up but according to gemsas, they use percentages and not grades.

edit: http://www.gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/How-to-calculate-your-GPA.pdf

If you actually read your own link properly, you would have seen that it shows in a table that in  fact 80% == 100% == 7.0

If you actually read my link properly, you would see that that score system is for US to calculate ourselves for ESTIMATES only.

And did you even read the quote I put up just for people like you who choose not to read the whole link?

[superstar1]

Dc302 I think you're wrong because if you look at column f you will see that that is why Melbourne uni uses and if they use that then 80=100.... because all of them give you 7.0.. Therefore for Melbourne uni 80 does equal 100
 

[dc302]

Nice write up but according to gemsas, they use percentages and not grades.

edit: http://www.gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/How-to-calculate-your-GPA.pdf

If you actually read your own link properly, you would have seen that it shows in a table that in  fact 80% == 100% == 7.0

Dc302 I think you're wrong because if you look at column f you will see that that is why Melbourne uni uses and if they use that then 80=100.... because all of them give you 7.0.. Therefore for Melbourne uni 80 does equal 100
If you actually read my link properly, you would see that that score system is for US to calculate ourselves for ESTIMATES only.

And did you even read the quote I put up just for people like you who choose not to read the whole link?

Can people really not read? Did you read the part that says, the GPA table is for us to calculate as an ESTIMATE ONLY? Gemsas uses percentages to calculate, and we DONT KNOW the official way of calculating GPA. =="

[superstar1]

Nice write up but according to gemsas, they use percentages and not grades.

edit: http://www.gemsas.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/How-to-calculate-your-GPA.pdf

If you actually read your own link properly, you would have seen that it shows in a table that in  fact 80% == 100% == 7.0

Dc302 I think you're wrong because if you look at column f you will see that that is why Melbourne uni uses and if they use that then 80=100.... because all of them give you 7.0.. Therefore for Melbourne uni 80 does equal 100
If you actually read my link properly, you would see that that score system is for US to calculate ourselves for ESTIMATES only.

And did you even read the quote I put up just for people like you who choose not to read the whole link?

Can people really not read? Did you read the part that says, the GPA table is for us to calculate as an ESTIMATE ONLY? Gemsas uses percentages to calculate, and we DONT KNOW the official way of calculating GPA. =="

oh yeh I guess you're right now tht I think about it.. Sorry, it's just it was really confusing the way different unis had different ways to calculate it.. So right now let's say I got 86 but a frend of mike got 96, does that mean his GPA will be higher???
Thanks and sorry once again for the misunderstanding

[dc302]

oh yeh I guess you're right now tht I think about it.. Sorry, it's just it was really confusing the way different unis had different ways to calculate it.. So right now let's say I got 86 but a frend of mike got 96, does that mean his GPA will be higher???
Thanks and sorry once again for the misunderstanding

Yeah I'm sorry I sounded like a dickhead too, but I was annoyed as that was the third time I said that. Anyway, no one is supposed to know how they actually calculate it, so I can't say for sure that 96 will be better than 86. However, I would like to think so, although if gemsas decides that we should estimate our GPA via the method outlined, I would assume that that is indeed a reasonable estimate to work with.

[superstar1]

oh yeh I guess you're right now tht I think about it.. Sorry, it's just it was really confusing the way different unis had different ways to calculate it.. So right now let's say I got 86 but a frend of mike got 96, does that mean his GPA will be higher???
Thanks and sorry once again for the misunderstanding

Yeah I'm sorry I sounded like a dickhead too, but I was annoyed as that was the third time I said that. Anyway, no one is supposed to know how they actually calculate it, so I can't say for sure that 96 will be better than 86. However, I would like to think so, although if gemsas decides that we should estimate our GPA via the method outlined, I would assume that that is indeed a reasonable estimate to work with.

oh ok, fair enough thanks

[paulsterio]

How do you convert between a 4.0 scale (i.e. Monash) and a 7.0 scale (i.e. UoM)?

[Russ]

Your 4.0 Monash GPA is irrelevant, there's no need to convert

[paulsterio]

So if someone does a BSc at Monash and wants to apply to UoM MD, they'll just take the unit scores and calculate a 7.0 scale GPA?

Btw, how are 4.0 GPAs calculated anyway?

[Panicmode]

So if someone does a BSc at Monash and wants to apply to UoM MD, they'll just take the unit scores and calculate a 7.0 scale GPA?

Btw, how are 4.0 GPAs calculated anyway?

Not sure this'll help much but here is wikipedia to the rescue