Weighted Average Mark (WAM)

A weighted average mark (WAM) is the average mark you’ve achieved across all completed units in your award course.

COVID-19 update: introduction of Converted WAM (CWAM)

As part of the University's commitment to ensuring no student is academically disadvantaged as a result of the health crisis, we've introduced a Converted WAM (CWAM) as an additional way of calculating a student's academic progress at the end of their degree.

Your WAM is the University’s way of measuring your academic performance and may be used to determine your eligibility for an honours program, prizes and scholarships, or for assessing your progression in your course.

Your WAM is weighted according to the credit point value and academic level (such as junior or senior) of the units you’ve completed. The weight of a unit of study is assigned by the owning faculty or school. Only grades that are allocated a mark contribute to your WAM.

See the resolutions in your handbook for information on how the WAM is calculated in your faculty or school.

Some faculties or schools have additional WAM calculations, for example the Honours WAM (HWAM) in Engineering, Education and Social Work and Health Sciences, and the Science WAM (SciWAM) in the Faculty of Science. These calculations can also be found in the faculty or school resolutions.

We will not be able to provide you with a document outlining your WAM, you will need to calculate it using the formula provided in your handbook

Annual Average Mark

Your Annual Average Mark (AAM) is the average mark you have achieved across all units of study attempted in an academic year. Your AAM is calculated by multiplying each unit of study mark and its credit point value, then adding these totals together. You then divide this by the sum of all credit points attempted.

$$AAM ={ {\sum(\text{marks} \times \text{credit point value})}\over{\sum (\text{credit point value})}}$$

Units that are assessed only as pass/fail and credit transfer units (from another institution) are excluded from these calculations. However, the marks from all attempts at a unit of study are included.

If your average mark is calculated for a single semester, it's called your Semester Average Mark (SAM). These may be used to assess whether you’re meeting course requirements, for example for students in Advanced degrees, or scholarship conditions.

You can access your AAM or SAM in Sydney Student. Go to ‘My studies’, ‘Assessments’ then ‘View your academic transcript’ for your course. Where available, your AAM and SAM will be shown under ‘Your average marks’.

If any result is updated, it may take up to 24 hours for this to be reflected in your average mark in Sydney Student.

Cross-Semester Average Mark

Your Cross-Semester Average Mark (CSAM) is the weighted average mark you have achieved across all units of study attempted in the CSAM period. The CSAM period includes all semesters required to complete at least 48 credit points. This means that more than 48 credit points may be included in your CSAM calculation. Once units of study have contributed to your CSAM, they will not be used again in a subsequent CSAM period.

Your CSAM is calculated by multiplying each unit of study mark and its credit point value, then adding these totals together. This is then divided by the sum of the credit points attempted within the CSAM period.

This can be expressed in the following formula:

$$CSAM ={ {\sum(\text{mark} \times \text{credit point value in CSAM period})}\over{\sum (\text{credit points value in CSAM period})}}$$

Units of study that are assessed only as pass/fail and credit transfer units (from another institution or within The University of Sydney) are excluded from these calculations. However, the marks from all attempts at a unit of study within the CSAM period are included.

Converted WAM (CWAM)

As part of the University’s commitment to ensuring no student is academically disadvantaged as a result of the COVID-19 health crisis, we’ve introduced the Converted WAM (CWAM) as an additional way of calculating a student’s academic progress at the end their degree.

CWAM is calculated in the same way as your WAM across your whole degree but excluding marks from units undertaken in Semester 1 2020, at the time where the COVID-19 pandemic has had the greatest impact. Your CWAM will appear on your final academic transcript when you are awarded and will be taken into account when applying for our postgraduate studies and honours programs.

A CWAM will not appear on your official transcript, if you were awarded before May 2020.

The University of Sydney does not use a Grade Point Average (GPA). If you are asked for a GPA, you’ll need to contact the institution that is requesting the GPA for more information about its formula and apply it to your own grades.

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences do not currently have a WAM calculation in the handbook.

You should use the below WAM calculation to determine admission requirements. Your WAM is calculated by multiplying each unit of study mark by its weighted credit point value, then adding these totals together. This is then divided by the sum of the weighted credit points.

To calculate the weighted credit point for each unit you need to multiply the credit point value of that unit of study by the weighting level. All units of study within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences have a weighting of one.

$$WAM ={ {\sum(\text{marks} \times \text{weighted credit points})}\over{\sum (\text{weighted credit points})}}$$

Units of study that are assessed only as pass/fail and credit transfer units are not counted in these calculations.

The Faculty of Science may use a SciWAM in addition to a WAM. A SciWAM is used to determine your eligibility for entry to Honours and contributes to the ranking of applications for postgraduate scholarships.

Your SciWAM is based on the marks you achieve in your intermediate (2000-level) and senior (3000-level) units of study. Marks from all attempts at a unit of study are included.

It’s calculated by multiplying each unit of study mark you achieved (out of 100) by the weighted credit point for the unit, summing these totals together then dividing that number by the sum of all weighted credit points.

To calculate the weighted credit point for each unit you need to multiply the credit point value of that unit of study by the weighting level. 2000-level units have a weighting of two, and 3000-level units a weighting of three.

$$\text{SciWAM}={ {\sum(\text{marks} \times \text{weighted credit points})}\over{\sum (\text{weighted credit points})}}$$

If you’ve received credit for units of study completed at an international university or another Australian institution, these units are assigned weightings and credit point values consistent with equivalent units at the University of Sydney. A mark is assigned based on the results you provide on a validated academic transcript. If no mark is provided by the institution, an appropriate estimate will be used.

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Last updated: 21 January 2021