OLSAS GPA Calculator

Every Ontario law school receives your grades through OLSAS, the Ontario Law School Application Service run by the Ontario Universities' Application Centre (OUAC). Because Canadian universities grade on very different systems, OLSAS converts each course to a common 4.0 scale using the OUAC Undergraduate Grade Conversion Table. The resulting OLSAS GPA is what admissions committees compare, and it is often not the same as the GPA on your university transcript.

This calculator applies that conversion for you. Pick the scale OUAC assigns to your university, enter each course's length and grade, and see a course-weighted OLSAS GPA. You can combine several years or schools and work out what you need in your remaining courses. Below the tool you will find the formula with two worked examples, the full conversion scales, which universities use which scale, the rules on failed and repeated courses, and a comparison with the LSAC GPA used by US law schools.

How to Use the OLSAS GPA Calculator

• Find your university in the scale list further down this page. If it is listed under two scales, use Scale 3 for courses graded in percentages and Scale 7 for courses graded in letters.
• Select that scale at the top of the tool. On Scale 3 you type the percentage; on the letter scales you choose the letter grade.
• For each course, set its length: a half course (one term, typically 3 credits or 0.5 credits) is 1, a full course (two terms, typically 6 credits or 1.0 credit) is 2.
• Enter every attempt on your transcript, including failed courses and both tries at a repeated course. OLSAS counts them all.
• Mark pass or credit grades as P. They show up as excluded weight and do not change the result.
• To combine years or another university, enter an OLSAS GPA you already calculated and its total course weight under Combine With Earlier Years.
• Use the planner to see the average you need over the course weight you still have ahead.

How the OLSAS GPA Is Calculated

OLSAS converts each grade on its own first, then averages the converted values, weighted by how long each course runs. It does not convert your overall percentage average, and OUAC says the table is meant for individual grades only.

Example 1: Percentage Grades on Scale 3

A student at a Scale 3 university takes four half courses and one full course in a year.

Dividing 21.3 by 6 gives an OLSAS GPA of 3.55. Now look at the shortcut many students try: the course-weighted percentage average is (86 + 78 + 91 + 72 + 82 x 2) / 6 = 81.8%, and 81.8% sits in the 80 to 84 band, which converts to 3.7. The shortcut overstates this record by 0.15, because the 72% and 78% fall into low bands that an average smooths over.

Example 2: Letter Grades With a Failed Attempt

A student at a Scale 7 university earns an A, an A-, and a B+ in three half courses, fails a half course and retakes it for a B, and gets an A+ in a full course.

The converted values are 3.9 + 3.7 + 3.3 + 0.0 + 3.0 + (4.0 x 2) = 21.9 over a course weight of 7, an OLSAS GPA of 3.13. If the university hides the failed attempt from its own GPA, the student might expect 21.9 / 6 = 3.65. OLSAS includes failed and repeated courses, so that half-point gap is real. The same transcript at a Scale 9 school would score lower still on the A, since Scale 9 converts an A to 3.8 instead of 3.9.

OUAC Grade Conversion Scales

The OUAC table has nine scales: two numeric, four percentage, and three letter. The calculator includes the percentage scale and the letter scales that cover most applicants. Values below are from the OUAC Undergraduate Grade Conversion Table (page last updated September 15, 2025).

Two points stand out. First, the top of every scale is 4.0, so an A+ never earns extra the way it does with LSAC. Second, OUAC tells applicants not to try to reconcile letter grades with the percentage scales: if your transcript shows a letter, use the letter scale, even if your syllabus also listed a percentage.

Which Scale Does My University Use?

Scales 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 are not built into this tool. If your university uses one of them, check the OUAC table directly and enter the converted value through the Combine box, or use the closest letter scale as a rough estimate.

What OLSAS Counts and What It Leaves Out

• Included: every course and grade on your undergraduate record, including failed, incomplete, repeated, and supplementary courses, and courses beyond your degree requirements.
• Excluded: courses that do not receive a specific grade, such as a Pass, and challenge-for-credit courses.
• Fail and no-credit results count. Western Law, for example, explains that a Pass or Credit adds to credits completed but not the GPA, while a fail or no credit is included in the GPA.
• Each university's courses are converted with the scale OUAC lists for that university, so transfer students can have grades on more than one scale.
• Repeats are not replaced. If the original grade appears on your official transcript, it is part of the OLSAS calculation alongside the new one.

OLSAS sends law schools the converted record, and each school then decides how to read it. Some look mainly at the cumulative GPA, some emphasize your last two years, and some drop your weakest year or use your best years. Those choices are made by the schools, not by OLSAS, so check the admissions page of every school you apply to.

Calculating Last Two Years or Best Years

Because Ontario schools read the OLSAS record in different ways, it helps to know more than one number. The calculator works for any subset of your courses: just enter the courses that belong to the set you want.

• Cumulative: enter every course from every year and every university, including failed and repeated attempts.
• Last two years: enter only the courses from your two most recent full-time years of study. If you studied part time, count back until you reach roughly two full-time years of course weight.
• Best years: calculate each academic year on its own, note the results, then rebuild the list using only your strongest years.
• Year by year: run each year separately. A clear upward trend is useful context in a personal statement, even when the cumulative figure is modest.

The exact definition of a year, how summer terms are grouped, and whether part-time study is treated differently are decided by each law school. Treat these subset numbers as your own planning estimates and confirm the method on each school's admissions page.

Common Mistakes

• Using the wrong scale. A McMaster A and a York A convert differently (3.9 and 3.8), so pick the scale OUAC lists for your university.
• Counting a full course once. A two-term course carries a weight of 2, not 1.
• Leaving out a failed attempt because your university's GPA ignores it.
• Converting your cumulative percentage instead of each course.
• Using credit hours from a 3 or 6 credit system directly. The ratio is the same, but stick with 1 and 2 so your figures line up with OLSAS course weights.

OLSAS GPA vs LSAC GPA vs Your Transcript

Canadian applicants who also apply to US law schools will have both an OLSAS GPA and an LSAC GPA calculated from the same courses. The two can differ meaningfully.

Run your grades through the LSAC GPA calculator as well if you are applying south of the border. For a US-style 4.0 GPA from letter grades, use the general GPA calculator.

Tips for Ontario Law School Applicants

• Convert course by course. Converting an overall average almost always overstates the result, as Example 1 shows.
• Mind the band edges on Scale 3. Moving a 79% to an 80% lifts that course from 3.3 to 3.7, while 80% to 84% earns nothing extra.
• Weight full courses properly. A full-year course counts twice, so one weak full course hurts as much as two weak half courses.
• Know what your target schools emphasize. A strong last two years matters more at schools that focus on recent work.
• Keep failed courses in your count. A retake helps your university GPA but only adds a new grade for OLSAS.
• Check the record OLSAS compiles from your transcripts and report any errors through the process OUAC describes.

Treat the result as a close estimate. OUAC converts directly from your official transcripts, and some universities have unusual course lengths or grading that a general tool cannot reflect.