SyllabusCalc

R score calculator (Quebec cote R)

The cote de rendement au collégial that Quebec universities rank CEGEP applicants by, on the formula the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire publishes: one course’s R score from your grade and your group’s numbers, then the unit-weighted average across courses.

One course

Your grade, your evaluation group’s average and standard deviation, and the group’s two indicators. The values loaded below are Camille’s, from BCI’s own worked example: a 78 in a class averaging 75 with a standard deviation of 2.58, and the indicators BCI assumes for that class, IFGZ 1.12 and IDGZ 0.60. BCI works her R score out to 34.08 by rounding Z to 1.16 first; the calculator keeps every digit and gets 34.088.

With every grade in the group, the button below works out the average and the standard deviation the way BCI does: grades below 50 left out, the spread divided by the number of grades. Loaded: BCI’s class B.

StepHowValue

Your average R score

One row per course: its R score, its units and whether you passed it. The rows loaded below are an example first term made up for this page, four passes and one failed course.

R scoreUnitsResult

Course by course

What each row counts for: its units, the share of them BCI’s failure rule keeps, and the part of the average that buys.

R scoreUnitsResultWeightUnits countedShare

BCI’s rules, as the calculator applies them

RuleWhat it does
Z score(your grade − group average) ÷ standard deviation. The average and the standard deviation are taken over the grades of 50 or more only, and the standard deviation divides by the number of grades.
CorrectionZ × IDGZ, then + IFGZ. IFGZ is held between −2 and +2, IDGZ between 0.5 and 1.5, and Z × IDGZ between −3 and +3.
Scale(corrected Z + 5) × 5, so every R score falls between 0 and 50.
Ceiling ruleIf a 100 would get a weighted Z below 2 (below 2 − IFGZ when IFGZ is negative, which is an R score of 35), grades above the average get Z = (grade − average) ÷ ((100 − average) ÷ (2 ÷ IDGZ)), or (2 − IFGZ) in place of 2. BCI does not say whether this comes before or after the ±3 cap; the calculator applies the cap afterwards, so with IFGZ below −1 a 100 stays under 35.
No R scoreFewer than six grades of 50 or more in the group, or every student with the same grade: no Z score, and 99.999 on the record.
No correctionFewer than six secondary Z scores in the group: IFGZ 0 and IDGZ 1, the defaults the “No correction” button loads.
AverageEach course’s R score weighted by its units. A course failed in the first term at college counts 0.25 of its units, a course failed in a later term 0.50.

Where the rules come from

The formula, the caps, the ceiling rule, the six-grade rule and the failure weights are all in BCI’s La cote de rendement au collégial : ce qu’elle est, ce qu’elle fait (21 January 2025), with its questions and answers (20 January 2025). BCI’s English overview and questions and answers (September 2020) give the same formula and the same failure weights, and call IFGZ the ISGZ. The Cégep de Chicoutimi sets out the same formula, exclusions and failure weights for its own students. Camille’s grade and her class’s indicators are BCI’s, from an example it calls fictitious; the high-average group and the transcript in the average are examples made up for this page. Every source was read on October 9, 2026. Your college’s and your university’s own figures win.

Where the arithmetic ends

This page computes what BCI’s formula gives for the numbers you type. It cannot see your evaluation group: without every grade in it, the average and the standard deviation are estimates, and the two indicators come from Quebec’s ministry, which recalculates the R scores of the last six terms four times a year. It averages whatever rows you enter, while a university decides which average it reads. BCI’s rules point it to the average for the program that leads to your diploma, or, with no diploma on your record, to the average for your last program if at least 16 courses count toward it and to the overall average if not, with prerequisite courses added where a program needs them; McGill says it uses the overall R score. Adjustments such as the 0.5-point bonus BCI describes for medicine applicants who finished Secondary 5 in a remote region are not applied here.

Questions

How is an R score calculated?

Course by course, on the formula the Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire publishes: R = ((Z × IDGZ) + IFGZ + 5) × 5. Z is how many standard deviations your grade sits above or below your evaluation group's average, IFGZ and IDGZ measure how strong and how spread out the group was, and the two 5s put the result on a scale from 0 to 50. BCI says most R scores fall between 15 and 35, and its English overview puts the average for a complete college record at about 25.

Where do I find my group's average and standard deviation?

Often you cannot. BCI computes both from the grades of 50 or more in your evaluation group, so the average it uses can be higher than the group average on your transcript, which counts every grade, and the Cégep de Chicoutimi's guide to the R score says the evaluation group's average does not appear on the student's transcript at all. If you have every grade in the group, paste them and the calculator works out the average and the standard deviation the way BCI does, dividing by the number of grades. Otherwise the result is an estimate.

What are IFGZ and IDGZ, and what if I don't know them?

They are the group strength and group dispersion indicators: the average and the standard deviation of the secondary-school Z scores of the students in your college group, from the Secondary 4 and 5 subjects with ministry exams. The ministry computes them from the secondary results of everyone in your group. The defaults here, 0 and 1, are the values BCI's formula document sets when a group has fewer than six secondary Z scores, and they leave your Z score uncorrected. BCI caps IFGZ between -2 and +2 and IDGZ between 0.5 and 1.5, and the calculator applies the same caps.

What is the ceiling rule?

BCI's protection for top grades in a high, tight group. If on the plain formula a 100 would get a weighted Z below 2, or an R score below 35 when IFGZ is negative, every grade above the group average is measured against the gap between the average and 100 instead, so that a 100 lands exactly on that mark. In a group averaging 92 with a standard deviation of 5, a 96 gets 30.000 instead of 29.000 and a 100 gets 35.000 instead of 33.000. Grades at or below the average are not affected.

How are failed courses counted in the average?

At a fraction of their units. Since the winter 2005 admissions, a course failed in your first term at college counts a quarter of its units in the average R score, and a course failed in a later term counts half. In the example loaded below, a first-term failure with an R score of 16.2 over 2.66 units leaves the average at 28.760. Counted at full weight it would pull the average to 26.669, and failed in a later term to 27.976. Without that course the average would be 29.657.

Why does a course show 99.999?

Because no R score was calculated for it. BCI lists the cases: a group with fewer than six grades of 50 or more, a group in which every student received the same grade, remedial or qualifying courses, and physical education taken before fall 2007. The value is a marker, not a score, so it stays out of the average, and the calculator leaves out any row holding it and says so.

Can I share a result?

Yes. The five course values and the rows of the average are stored in the page URL, and the copy-link button copies it. A pasted list of grades is not stored, but the average and standard deviation worked out from it are.

Calculator, not counselor: this page does BCI’s arithmetic on the numbers you give it. The R scores on your record are computed by the ministry from your whole group’s figures, and how a university reads them is its own decision, so confirm anything that affects an application with your college or the university.