Guide

How the R score is calculated

The R score compares your grade with those of your class, then accounts for its strength and spread. Learn each step of the calculation.

The formula at a glance

Every course you take receives its own R score. It combines three elements:

your position in the class, the Z score: your grade compared with those of the other students in the class;
the strength of the class, IFGZ: how well the students in the class did in high school;
the dispersion of the class, IDGZ: whether these students had similar or very different levels.

\text{R score} = (Z \times \text{IDGZ} + \text{IFGZ} + 5) \times 5

The " $+ 5$ " and the " $\times 5$ " bring the result onto an arbitrary scale: a student right at the average of an average class gets 25, and each standard deviation above the average adds about 5 points.

This formula has been in effect since fall 2017 and applies to courses taken since fall 2014.

The Z score: your position in the class

The Z score measures the gap between your grade and your class average, taking into account how spread out the grades are. This spread is measured by the standard deviation: the typical distance between a grade in the class and the class average.

Z = \dfrac{\text{your grade} - \text{class average}}{\text{class standard deviation}}

A Z score of 0 corresponds exactly to the class average, a Z score of 1, to one standard deviation above, and a Z score of −1, to one standard deviation below.

Z = \dfrac{85 - 75}{10} = 1

Example: 85 in a class with an average of 75 and a standard deviation of 10

The standard deviation therefore changes everything, since beating the average by 10 points is worth a lot in a class where the grades are close together, and less in a class where they are widely spread.

Failing grades (under 50) count in neither the class average nor the standard deviation. Students who drop out therefore do not raise the R score of the others.

IFGZ: the strength of the class

The group strength indicator (IFGZ) starts from the final results, in the subjects with a ministerial exam in Secondary IV and V, of the students in your class who went to high school in Québec. These results are converted into Z scores, then averaged.

IFGZ ranges from −2 to +2. The better your class did in high school, the higher it is, and the higher everyone's R score. This is what makes the R score fair from one class to another.

Your own high school results only enter your R score this way.

IDGZ: the dispersion of the class

The group dispersion indicator (IDGZ) measures whether the students in the class had similar or very different high school results. It ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 and multiplies your Z score.

Therefore, in a class with very mixed levels, the same gap from the average reflects a bigger difference in level and so counts for more, in both directions: above the average, it raises the R score more, and below it, it lowers the R score more.

A concrete example

Take the student with 85 in a class with an average of 75 and a standard deviation of 10: their Z score is 1. Their class has an IDGZ of 1 and an IFGZ of 0.5.

\text{R score} = (1 \times 1 + 0.5 + 5) \times 5 = 32.5

Example: Z = 1, IDGZ = 1 and IFGZ = 0.5

With exactly the same position in a weaker class, whose IFGZ is −0.5, their R score would be 27.5: five points less for the same performance within their class. Being above the average of a strong class is worth more than being above the average of a weak class.

The overall R score

The overall R score, the one universities look at, is the average of the R scores of your courses, weighted by their credits. Therefore, a 2-credit course weighs twice as much as a 1-credit course.

\text{overall R score} = \dfrac{\sum (\text{course R score} \times \text{credits})}{\sum \text{credits}}

Every course that receives an R score counts: those of your program as well as general education courses (French, humanities, English, physical education) and complementary courses. You need at least 16 of them for the overall R score to be calculated. The R scores required by universities are on the Admission R scores pages.

A failed course still counts, but with less weight: a quarter of its credits if it happens in your very first semester at CEGEP, half afterwards. A failure early in your studies therefore weighs less.

Courses without an R score

Some courses receive no R score at all:

when fewer than six students in the class who went to high school in Québec got 50 or more;
when every student in the class gets the same grade;
for upgrading courses.

The ministry then records 99.999 instead of the R score, and the course does not count in the overall R score.

Why a course's R score can change

A course's R score is not final as soon as it is published. The ministry recalculates R scores four times a year, over the last six semesters: a course's R score can therefore move slightly after the semester ends, once the data for every class is complete. The R score calendar gives the dates of these calculations.

Why it can only be estimated in advance

You often know your grade and your class average throughout the semester. But your class's standard deviation, IFGZ and IDGZ are, most of the time, not published, even after the semester ends. Any R score calculated before yours is published is therefore an estimate.

myRScore estimates these three values from the history of the same course, at the same CEGEP, over the 2022 to 2024 semesters. It then adjusts the strength of the class for your program: fully for courses in your program, partly for general education courses, where classes often mix several programs, and not at all for complementary courses.

As soon as you enter official R scores you have already received, the tool measures its own gap with them and corrects the estimate for your other semesters. For each course, it gives an estimate and the interval where the real R score is likely to fall. The methodology details the approach and its accuracy.

Estimate my R score FAQ