The question on your mind is “What is APS“? APS is an abbreviation for Admission Point Score. Universities in South Africa, use APS points as one of the requirements to determine if an applicant qualifies for their respective programmes. UCT has a unique APS calculation that its applicants can make use of to calculate their score.
How To Calculate UCT APS
To calculate your APS, you will need to add your six best subject percentages. Please note that this does not include Life Orientation.
Applicants are required to meet the minimum APS or fall within the testing band in order to be considered for a specific program. Generally, for each matric subject you write an exam in, you get points. The points you get for each course totally depends on the percentage you score in that particular subject. The Admission Point Score (APS) is the total points accumulated from each course.
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.
UCT FPS and WPS 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 also uses a Faculty Points Score (FPS), a Medical Points Score (MPS) and a Weighted Points Score (WPS) to assess your school performance.
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.
Faculty of Commerce, Humanities and Law
In this faculty, the FPS and the APS are the same. You will be able to find an example of how to calculate this score below:
Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment
In this faculty, your NBT score forms part of the FPS. Check out the example below:
Faculty of Health Sciences (MBChB)
To calculate your FPS in this faculty, you will need to adjust your APS. Please note that medical applicants will need to calculate their MedPS as part of the admission requirements. South Africans, to calculate their WPS, you will need to adjust your FPS by a disadvantage factor – for this faculty, the factor is a range between 0% – 20%. Take a look at the example below:
Faculty of Health Sciences (Rehabilitation)
Please note that qualifications in this faculty calculate an FPS out of 900. Take a look at an example below:
Faculty of Science
To calculate the FPS in the faculty of Science, you will need to double your scores for Maths and Science. Check out the example below:
