UCT APS Calculator: Calculate Your Score for UCT Admission
Work out your Admission Points Score before you apply to the University of Cape Town. UCT does not convert your marks into 1 to 7 achievement levels like most universities. It adds your raw subject percentages instead, out of a maximum of 600. Enter your matric marks below for an instant UCT APS with a full subject-by-subject breakdown.
Calculate My UCT APS ↓UCT APS Calculator
Enter the percentage you scored in each subject, then press Calculate. UCT adds English and your best five other subjects as raw percentages, excluding Life Orientation, for a score out of 600.
Your UCT APS Score
0
Out of a maximum of 600
Subject-by-subject breakdown
| Subject | Percentage | Status | Points |
|---|
This total adds your English percentage and your best five other subject percentages, excluding Life Orientation.
UCT does not use the standard 42-point APS. Your Admission Points Score is simply the sum of your English percentage and your best five other subject percentages, excluding Life Orientation and Advanced Programme subjects, for a maximum of 600. A subject scored below 40% contributes 0 rather than being dropped. UCT then applies a Faculty Points Score on top of this, which stays the same for Commerce, Engineering, Humanities and Law, doubles your Mathematics and Physical Sciences marks for Science, and adds your National Benchmark Test scores for Health Sciences. Use the calculator above for your own APS, and always confirm your faculty’s exact FPS requirement with UCT.
How to Use the UCT APS Calculator
Four quick steps to an accurate UCT score for your application.
- 1 Choose your faculty group. This tells the calculator whether to also estimate your Faculty Points Score for Science, or flag that Health Sciences needs your NBT scores.
- 2 Enter your English mark. English is always one of your six counted subjects at UCT.
- 3 Add Mathematics and Physical Sciences if you took them. These are only required fields if you selected the Science faculty group.
- 4 Enter your other subjects and press Calculate. Your APS, Faculty Points Score estimate and a full breakdown appear instantly.
The UCT APS and FPS Formula
UCT uses your raw subject percentages, not achievement levels, and layers a Faculty Points Score on top of your APS.
APS = English Points + SUM( Best 5 Other Subjects, excluding Life Orientation and AP subjects )
FPS (Commerce, Engineering, Humanities, Law) = APS, out of 600
FPS (Science) = APS + Mathematics Points + Physical Sciences Points, out of 800
FPS (Health Sciences) = APS + National Benchmark Test scores, out of 900
Life Orientation and Advanced Programme subjects never count toward your APS, regardless of mark. For the Science faculty, Mathematics and Physical Sciences are compulsory and their percentages are counted twice when working out your FPS. For Health Sciences, UCT adds your National Benchmark Test scores to your APS to reach an FPS out of 900. This calculator cannot include NBT results, since they come from a separate test rather than your matric marks.
Worked Examples
These follow the worked examples published in UCT’s own NSC admission guidelines.
Example 1: Commerce, Engineering, Humanities or Law
| English Home Language: 75% | 75 points |
| isiXhosa First Additional Language: 70% | 70 points |
| Mathematics: 84% | 84 points |
| Physical Sciences: 86% | 86 points |
| Computer Applications Technology: 79% | 79 points |
| Sport and Exercise Science: 69% | 69 points |
| Life Orientation: 80% | 0 points, excluded |
| Total APS = Total FPS | 463 out of 600 |
Example 2: Faculty of Science
| Same 6 subjects as above | APS = 463 out of 600 |
| Mathematics 84% and Physical Sciences 86% doubled | +170 points |
| Total FPS | 633 out of 800 |
Example 3: A subject below 40%
| English: 70% | 70 points |
| Mathematics: 35% | 0 points, below 40% |
| Life Sciences, Geography, History, Business Studies | Counted at face value |
If Mathematics still ranks among your best five other subjects, it stays in the count but contributes 0 points instead of being replaced by a different subject.
UCT APS Score: The Complete Guide
The University of Cape Town does not use the standard 42-point Admission Point Score that most South African universities follow. UCT works directly with your raw NSC percentages, and layers a faculty-specific score on top, so it helps to understand both parts before you apply.
How does UCT calculate APS?
Your APS adds your English percentage and your best five other subject percentages, always excluding Life Orientation and any Advanced Programme subject. A programme’s required subjects, such as Mathematics and Physical Sciences for science degrees, are included among those six even if a different elective would otherwise score higher. Any subject below 40% contributes 0 points rather than its actual percentage, but it still occupies one of the six subject slots if it is among your required or best-performing subjects. The maximum possible APS is 600.
What is the Faculty Points Score?
UCT uses the Faculty Points Score, or FPS, to rank applicants within each faculty. For Commerce, Engineering and the Built Environment, Humanities and Law, the FPS is simply your APS, out of 600. For the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Physical Sciences are counted a second time, lifting the maximum to 800. For the Faculty of Health Sciences, your National Benchmark Test scores are added to your APS, for a maximum of 900.
What is the Weighted Points Score?
South African applicants also receive a Weighted Points Score, or WPS, which applies a disadvantage factor of up to 10% to most faculties and up to 20% for Health Sciences. This factor reflects school and household context rather than academic marks, so it cannot be estimated from subject percentages alone and is not included in this calculator.
What APS score do you need for UCT?
UCT publishes exact FPS and WPS thresholds per programme, and these move between admission cycles and admission bands. As a general guide from UCT’s published NSC guidelines, Faculty of Humanities programmes have required an FPS from around 380, Faculty of Commerce programmes from around 430, competitive Engineering programmes from around 390 to 500 depending on the discipline, Faculty of Science programmes from around 550, and the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) from around 644 and above. These figures change each year and differ by programme and admission band, so always confirm the current requirement on UCT’s official admissions pages before applying.
Methodology
This calculator applies the APS calculation method published in UCT’s National Senior Certificate admission guidelines, summing English and your best five other subject percentages, excluding Life Orientation and Advanced Programme subjects, with subjects below 40% scored at 0. Where you select the Science faculty group, it also estimates your FPS by doubling your Mathematics and Physical Sciences percentages. It does not calculate the Weighted Points Score, National Benchmark Test contributions, or programme-specific subject and band requirements.
Assumptions used in this calculator
- Marks are entered as final or predicted NSC subject percentages.
- English is always counted. Life Orientation and Advanced Programme subjects are always excluded.
- If you selected the Science faculty group, Mathematics and Physical Sciences are treated as compulsory and doubled for the FPS estimate.
- If more than 5 other subjects are entered outside the Science group, the lowest-scoring ones are automatically dropped.
- This calculator does not apply the Weighted Points Score, National Benchmark Test results, or programme-specific admission bands.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. UCT adds your raw subject percentages instead of converting them into 1 to 7 achievement levels, giving an APS out of 600 rather than the standard 42-point scale used by most other South African universities.
No. Life Orientation is always excluded from the UCT APS, along with any Advanced Programme subject.
UCT’s guidelines state that results below 40% do not attract a score. If that subject is one of your six counted subjects, it contributes 0 points rather than its actual percentage.
Your APS is the base score from your six subjects. Your Faculty Points Score, or FPS, builds on the APS with faculty-specific adjustments, such as doubling Mathematics and Physical Sciences for Science, or adding National Benchmark Test scores for Health Sciences. Your Weighted Points Score, or WPS, then applies a disadvantage factor to your FPS for South African applicants.
UCT’s Faculty of Science guidelines add a second count of your Mathematics and Physical Sciences percentages on top of your APS, reflecting how central those subjects are to science degrees. This raises the Science FPS maximum to 800.
Not fully. This calculator gives you the APS component of the Health Sciences FPS. The full FPS also includes your National Benchmark Test scores, out of 300, which come from a separate test rather than your matric marks and cannot be estimated from percentages alone.
No. UCT admits within bands based on FPS or WPS, subject requirements, and NBT results where applicable, and space in each programme is limited. Meeting a published threshold means your application may be considered, not that a place is guaranteed.