These tools follow the rules South African matrics are graded and admitted by: the NSC levels and NSC pass rules of the Department of Basic Education (DBE), and the APS rules Unisa, UJ, Wits and UCT publish. Every rule links to the page it comes from, with the date GradeCat opened it. Each tool works right away with no account, and your marks stay in your browser.
Tools
Which tool do I need?
- What is my APS? Use the APS Calculator. Enter each subject's mark once: it gives Unisa's APS out of 42, UJ's on its 2022 rule, the Wits APS on its own table, and UCT's points.
- Do my marks give a Bachelor pass? The same calculator checks the NSC pass on DBE's rules: Bachelor, Diploma, Higher Certificate or none.
- What NSC level is my mark? See NSC Levels and Grading Scale in South Africa: 68% is level 5, and level 7 starts at 80%.
- What percentage are my marks? The Grade Calculator adds up marks out of any total: 45 out of 60 is 75%.
How APS works in South Africa
Every NSC subject gets a percentage and a level from 1 to 7, as Nuffic sets out. Each university then makes its own admission point score (APS) from them. Unisa adds the levels of six subjects without Life Orientation, while Wits counts seven subjects on a table of its own and UCT adds percentages. The same marks can give 33 at Unisa, 40 at Wits and 419 at UCT, so compare a score only with that university's minimums.
Guides
- How APS is calculated in South Africa: the NSC levels, each university's rule, Life Orientation and two worked examples.
Tools that work with any marks
These GradeCat tools work with marks and percentages, which add up the same way anywhere. Their letter grades follow US scales, so read the percentage.
- Grade Calculator: your percentage from marks, like 45 out of 60.
- Weighted Grade Calculator: one percentage when parts of a subject count differently.
- Final Grade Calculator: the mark you need in an exam that counts for a set share.
- Test Grade Calculator: for teachers, the percentage for each score on a test.
Not covered yet
- UKZN: its page gives no table from percentages to its levels 1 to 8.
- UP and Stellenbosch: their pages could not be opened on 4 November 2026.
- UJ's rules after 2022, and the rules of TUT, UWC, CPUT, NWU, UFS, NMU and CUT.
- University averages, distinction and cum laude: no university's rule has been verified yet.
A tool goes live here only after its rules are checked against the page that sets them. Each result is an estimate, not an official result. See the privacy policy for what this site stores.