Grades and study results

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO) assess study results with a letter grade. This is a combination of a letter and a grade.

Please note:

• Usually, the WAEC and the NECO only use the grades. For example, 1 is the same as A1.
• Subjects for which students received a fail (F9 or 9) are usually not mentioned on the diploma.

Checking study results online

Usually, you can check WAEC and NECO exam results online. Students buy a scratch card or result card from the WAEC or the NECO. With the card’s details, you can check the results up to 5 times online on:

• the WAEC website; or
• the NECO website.

Please note: you can also check results from long ago. You can check WAEC results from 1991 to now and NECO results from 2000 to now. So for old diplomas, students can buy a scratch card or result card as well.

The following documents allow students to prove that they have completed Nigerian secondary education:

• the West African Senior School Certificate from the WAEC
• the Senior School Certificate from the NECO

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

In higher education, there are separate grading systems for each diploma.

Higher National Diploma grades

Bachelor's degrees grades

Most Nigerian higher education institutions use a standardised grading system for bachelor’s degrees. Since 2018, they use the following grading system:

Up to and including 2017, the bachelor’s degree grading system was as follows:

Master’s degree and PhD grades

There is no standardised grading system for master’s degrees and PhDs. How higher education institutions assess study results can differ per study programme. You can usually find information about the grading system on the back of transcripts.

For higher education, students must show all their diplomas and transcripts. If students completed their studies at a university or an affiliate institution, they must show a diploma and lists of marks from that university.

For higher education diplomas, you usually cannot check results online.

Please note:

• sometimes students don’t have their diploma (yet), even years after graduation. In that case, the Nigerian higher education institution can send a graduation statement.
• The term 'direct' or 'indirect' are often mentioned on the transcript. This provides information on how the study was admitted to the study programme.
• The terms ‘harmattan’ and ‘rain’ are usually mentioned on the transcript as well. These indicate the 2 semesters of the academic year. The harmattan semester runs from August to December, the rain semester from January to July.