Grades and study results

How do educational institutions assess study results in Ghana? And what documents do students receive when they have completed a study programme?

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Secondary education study results

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) of Ghana assesses study results with a letter grade.

Letter grade Percentages Description
A1 80-100% Excellent
B2 70-79% Very good
B3 65-69% Good
C4 60-64% Credit
C5 55-59% Credit
C6 50-54% Credit
D7 45-49% Pass
E8 40-44% Pass
F9 0-39% Fail

Please note: subjects with a fail (F9) are usually not mentioned on the diploma.

Types of exams

The WAEC has separate exams for students and people who no longer go to school, such as former students who want to retake an exam. The WAEC uses the term ‘school candidates’ for exams for students and ‘private candidates’ for the other exams. The exams for students are in May or June. The exams for people who no longer go to school are in September or October.

Checking study results online

Usually, you can check WAEC exam results online. Students can buy a result checker voucher from the WAEC. With the voucher’s details, you can check the results up to 5 times online on the WAEC website.

Please note: you can also check results from long ago (from 1990 onwards). So students can also buy a result checker for old diplomas.

Secondary education documents

The West African Senior School Certificate from the WAEC allows students to prove they have completed Ghanaian secondary education.

Please note: only documents issued by the WAEC are official. Documents issued by the high school are not sufficient.

Higher education study results

Ghanaian higher education institutions can use different systems to assess study results. There may even be different systems per diploma. You can find information about the grading system on the reverse side of the transcript and/or on the website of the Ghanaian educational institutions. For example, see:

Higher education documents

For higher education, students must show all their diplomas and transcripts. If students completed their studies at a university college, they must show a diploma from the university to which the university college is affiliated. The transcript is often issued by the university college.

Please note:

  • Sometimes, students do not have their diploma yet. In that case, the Ghanaian educational institution can issue a graduation statement.
  • Ghanaian educational institutions often publish lists of students who have graduated. This is an extral way of checking if a student has graduated. You can usually find such lists by searching online for the name of the educational institution, the term 'graduation list' or 'graduation booklet' and the year of graduation.
  • Subjects have a code. This code starts with letters (the abbreviation of a subject) and ends with 3 numbers. These numbers indicate the level of a subject:
      • If the 1st number is a ‘1’, then it is a subject from the 1st year of a bachelor’s programme (also known as: level 100). If the 1st number is a ‘2’, then it concerns a subject from the 2nd year of a bachelor’s programme (level 200), etcetera.
      • If a bachelor’s transcript only mentions subjects with a ‘3’ or ‘4’ as the 1st number, then either the transcript is incomplete or the student has been exempted from the first 2 or 3 years of the study programme (based on previous education). Students can prove this using extra documents (from their previous education).