How to Calculate your APS at the University of Cape Town

Are you wondering how to calculate your APS for the University of Cape Town (UCT)? Then you are in the right place, as we’ll be showing you how to calculate your APS at the University of Cape Town.

You might ask, what is APS? APS stands for Admission Point Score. It is the measure of your academic achievement based on your school-leaving results (or an acceptable equivalent). One of the requirements used by Universities in South Africa to determine if an applicant qualified for admission is the APS.

So, if you have applied to the University of Cape Town (UCT), we’ll show you how to calculate your APS. Remember, the University of Cape Town has a unique APS calculation that its applicants can make use of to calculate their score.

How To Calculate University of Cape Town APS

To calculate your APS, you will need to add your six best subject percentages (this will be a number out of 600).  Please note that this excludes Life Orientation but includes English and any subjects that are relevant to the programme you’re applying for.

Applicants will need to meet the minimum APS in order to be considered for a specific programme.  The points you get for each course will depend on the percentage you score in that particular subject.  Please note that marks below 40% will not get any points.

Please note: meeting the bare minimum requirement is not always enough to get you into your desired degree programme, so push hard to get the highest marks you possibly can.

Meeting the bare minimum requirement might not always be enough to get you into your desired degree programme so you really need to study very hard.

Some courses may require you to submit some other requirements (e.g. portfolio of work, audition of interview). It’s also very important for you to check with the faculty to know what they require from you.

Why Do Universities Use APS?

Universities (and Universities of Technology) use APS scores for some few reasons. It’s actually for their own convenience. Thousands of students both home and abroad apply to universities every year and APS score requirements are a simple way of allowing students to know which courses they could qualify for.

University of Cape Town FPS and WPS Breakdown

Here is a breakdown of UCT’s points calculation:

Each faculty at UCT has its own way of calculating the FPS and WPS, using the APS. You can find out more about this in UCT’s admission guidelines here. UCT uses a Faculty Points Score (FPS), a Medical Points Score (MPS) and a Weighted Points Score (WPS) to assess your school performance.

Faculty Point Score (FPS): this is a measure used to rank applicants.  In some faculties (Health Sciences and Medicine), it is a combination of the APS and the NBT score and in other faculties (Commerce, Engineering, Humanities, and Law), it is the APS.
Weighted Points Score (WPS): this is the FPS weighted by a disadvantage factor applicable to the applicant.

Please Note: the WPS is only for South African applicants as it is a disadvantage factor.

You will be able to see how to calculate these scores below. Please make sure you check each faculty to calculate the right score.