Guest osindy Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 i was just wondering, in determination of your gpa for admin purposes how exactly does it work for a school with percentages to OMSAS? Do they look at your marks and change each one to a gpa and then find the average? or do they find the average in percentages and then change this number to a numeric gpa? I find that your marks can vary significantly depending on which method is used. Thanks for the input Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mydream88 Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 I think that they change each percentage to a grade point value and average the converted gpa marks to determine overall gpa. mydream88:\ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 What's with all these universities pretending their students are still in High School and still giving out percentages? Do their administrations think they are a high school? Do they also not charge tuition like High School? That would be nice. For applying to medical school, the schools will first convert your percentages to GPA: ie if you had an 83 in bio, that would be an A-, or a 3.70. They then average all the GPAs to get your overall GPA for the year (ie 3.70 + 4.0 + 3.70 + 4.0 + 3.70 = 3.82 GPA.) Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ollie Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Whoa, why the problem with percentages? What difference does it make? UBC has been doing it that way for years. Personally, I prefer it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted January 6, 2004 Report Share Posted January 6, 2004 Sorry, but I was completely 100% just joking around. . . my university went straight to GPA, as have most American and British schools, at least that I know of (admittedly I could be wrong on the British schools). Sounds, though, like a lot of the Canadian Universities still use percentages. But I do find it rather amusing how some people used to cling in High School to their "87" average as if it was their whole identity, and made them better than an "86." Considering the numerous variables that make up a final grade (professors, partners on assignments, what you ate for breakfast the day of the final exam) I haven't worried about specific percentages since High School (and neither do the med schools btw) and prefer the GPA system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tweep0 Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 1) If a student got 84 in all his/her courses and another student got 84.5 in all his/her courses, the difference in their averages would be only one percent in the percentage scale (84 vs 85%) while the GPA differences would be very large (3.7 vs 4.0). 2) Is it logical to say that a person with a 85% is smarter (academic aptitude) than somenoe with an 84%, but a person with an 84% is equally intelligent to a person with an 83%? My point: I like the GPA system better because i can aim for a 90% in a course and not a 99%, BUT the system is not perfect. Tweep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PerfectMoment Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 i got a 79 in chem and they refused (which i totally understand) to round it up to an A, so therefore, i'm stuck with a B+. this makes my GPA for that course seem quite a bit lower and worse than someone with an 80 or whatever even though it might mean something as small and trivial as the other person answering 1 more correct exam question than i did. it just bites that 1 small percentage can determine a whole half letter grade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 They have to draw the cut point somewhere. And that holds true all the way along. Just remember one thing; the people who make the grades seem arbitrary are as aware of the value of that 1% as everyone else; in a lot of actual cases, a pass of 60% might go as low as 58.5%, and a lot of rounding does take place BEFORE the grades are submitted. Arbitrary it might be: but in that sense it has a better chance of being fair, because everyone knows the standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 Just as crackers mentioned, as long as everyone knows about the cut-offs in advance, then everyone is in the same boat and the system stays fair. On average, it evens out for most people, in that sometimes you'll barely edge up into the next gradation, and other times, you'll just fail to make that threshold. And if in the worst case scenario you always seem to end up 0.5% short, then you really don't have to improve that much in your studying habits to markedly improve your grades! Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PerfectMoment Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 bah. the people in charge of the chemistry department at my school are nazis! my overall mark turned out to be a 79.7%, which was was posted for all to see, and was also the number i got when i added up my marks. *sigh* if only i could have been fortunate enough to have gotten my mark rounded up. oh well, it was my fault anyway. i should have never been at the position to have gotten such a sketchy mark anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted January 7, 2004 Report Share Posted January 7, 2004 B+ isn't that sketchy. Heck, especially when less than half od Canadians go to University. But don't get too many of them if you're aiming for med school. . . they do bring the GPA down from the 3.6-3.7 which is the beginning range for a really good shot at getting. How many people get ALL 84s? Or ALL 85s? Med schools don't look at just one mark (ooh, this guy got a 97.36 in Orgo Chem. We want him!) but rather see how you do on a consistent basis over lots of courses. If you're getting 84 average, chances are you're getting a mix of 82s, 83s, 85s and 86s. . . you'll probably get something between 3.7 and 4.0. The GPA system stresses consistency. It's better to make sure all your classes are in the A range With it, you can't be one of those dopes who's really good (and has an easy prof) in physics, pull off a 99%, then slack in English because you hate Shakespeare, pull off a 61%, and then claim you're an A student because you averaged 80% overall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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