Talk:Grading in education

Unsupported claim
"As a technology, grading both shapes and reflects many fundamental areas of educational theory and practice." Such as??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.209.6.40 (talk) 18:10, 1 March 2012 (UTC)

Discussion of pedagogical value
this article should contain a discussion on the pedagogical value of grades addressing arguments for and against using them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.4.219.94 (talk) 20:26, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Problem with percentages and percentiles
Major problem with percentages vs. percentiles: A great deal of tables with a list of 'percentiles' and grades, should instead be percentages and ranks: For example, British Columbia under Canada, Ontario under Canada, etc. 01:48, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

England
I would like to thank the person who wrote the England section because it is quite clearly the epitome of clarity. All that's needed is 2 letters, explanation? Nah, people will figure it out.68.99.30.245 (talk) 01:11, 20 November 2009 (UTC)

Students Not graded before an Englishmen invented a system
«The concept of grading students' work quantitatively was developed by a tutor named William Farish, and first implemented by the University of Cambridge in 1792,»

Strange no one would have thought about it before or is it a that this is an English language page. Graham Bell inventing the phone, he ?

This background information is crucial as a way of situating the entire conversation and showing why it matters. The differences between national practices, and the nationalistic pride that emerges from that information (who is most rigorous? who is most fair? who supports real student progress most?), are fascinating. I am personally grateful that this article is a mess at this point, because the mess is highly revelatory, not least of the difficulty and complexity of the topic. That said, it would probably focus the information and stimulate discussion more effectively to begin with a robust history of the theory and practice of grading. I have made a tiny step in that direction by citing a source that questions the assertion you've quoted and leads to a very rich discussion of the move from oral to written examinations at Oxbridge. I do not mean to be Anglocentric (the article does include a Gallic perspective as well, briefly), and I hope others in traditions that have supported examination and grading will chime in. What I *would* like to see is a more robust entry about assessing student achievement, which is what "grading" represents, yes? Gcampbel (talk) 15:42, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Article not descriptive of Grading in Education
This is a fine reference list of various grading system standards around the world. However, this article does not contain basic information on grades and grading, for instance controversy and theory of grading. In most regions, elementary or primary school students are not graded or graded less competitively. I propose this entire article be retitled to something like Grading Systems (education) and another more general article defining this phenomenon be written. But I'm not sure if I have the right names. Are there some pedagogical articles that are already covering this topic I can't find right now that could be used?--Rusl 16:27, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

Or perhaps, another article called Grading that doesn't just redirect here?

I agree!158.165.5.86 (talk) 17:18, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

I agree. This is a nice list - but it should be an article, not a list. Template header added. CobraA1 (talk) 23:57, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Yes, this (or an article called Grading Systems (in Education)) should be an article about grading systems. It should be organized by the name of the grading system and describe the objectives and characteristics of the systems. The appropriate place to put information about what system is in use in what geographic location or country is in the article about that geographic location, province/state/country or education institution with a link back to the appropriate section in the Grading Systems article. As an aside, when I went to the University of Alberta in the 1980s the stanine system was in use. There is no mention of that system in the section on Alberta or in this article anywhere at all. This is just a long, incomplete list of the available grades in a bunch of different places. /mjp (talk) 05:57, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Colombia
The colombian grades listed here are old, they were used before 2003, the current system is E, S, A, I, D. But I don't know how to explain it —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.28.251.208 (talk) 21:43, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

More grades than described in article
Do the following grades also exist? And from which country do they come?


 * 1st class (First Class)
 * 1st class honour (First Class honour)
 * 2nd class


 * Yes - they're part of the traditional scheme of British undergraduate degree classification. Tom Harris 10:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes - At the University of Auckland in New Zealand, top ranked students graduate with different 1st/2nd class honours —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.211.90.224 (talk) 08:32, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Romanian grades
In Romania, the first to fourth grades use a Very Good/Good/Sufficient/Insufficient system, Insufficient being the failing grade.

Wow that's a lot of percentage per grade. In th uk its more like

>80%    A* 70-80%   A 60-70%   B 50-60%   C 40-50%   D 30-40%   E <30%     F

Are you sure your grade boundaries are correct ? Theresa knott 08:44 17 Jun 2003 (UTC)
 * In California where I went to school in the 1960's, anything under 60% was an F. Grade inflation may have changed it since then. -- DesertSteve 04:52 18 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Wow! I wanna go to the uk! ilyanep 00:10 18 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Of course to properly compare, you'd need to look at the difficulty of the exam papers. Theresa knott 08:24 18 Jun 2003 (UTC)

It seem from my research (and also the information provided on the full article) that A is 80+, B is 70-79, etc. I have therefore taken the liberty of changing it as such. This practice seems to be the norm in most secondary/elementary schools in Canada and the US that I know of. If anyone has anything to the contrary, please share it. --Joshua Boniface 01:37, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

No, I don't believe in the US that the grading is like in Canada. I'm in a Wisconsin high school and I know for a fact that most public schools in the state have 94+ as A, 91-93 A-...down to 63- as a F. In the Midwest this hardly deviates. It might not have a real impact on this article, though. Mathwhiz 29 23:59, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Discussion from Featured article candidates, removed prematurely since it was obvious it would not go through:

Seems complete. [[User:Neutrality|Neutrality (hopefully!)]] 01:12, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose - To me the page seems to be mostly lists and American-centric to some extent. In New Zealand we now use a system called NCEA which doesn't even have grades but 'Not Achieved', 'Achieved', 'Merit' and 'Excellence'. Before that there there three different systems for each of the last three years of high school. --enceladus 01:17, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose &mdash; I agree that the main body of the article is very America-centric. Also it doesn't discuss _why_ grades are used instead of qualitative assessments. It doesn't mention that some school systems do not use grades, especially not for early classes (in Sweden grades are used only in grade 8 and above). It doesn't talk about grading systems where students are graded relative to their _classmates_ only (i.e. systems where the statement that "in this procedure, one student's grade is independent of his or her classmates'. Thus it would be possible, for example, for everyone in the class to get an A." is incorrect. Furthermore, it doesn't include a historical perspective. Nor does it talk about any asian or african school systems. Finally, it doesn't have any references. &mdash; David Remahl 01:40, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Object: 1) Highly US-centric, other countries are barely given a passing mention. This is horribly POV. 2) Doesn't go into much detail, making this mostly a list. 3) No references :( 4) Every school is different (to say nothing of different district) on how they Grade, the article doesn't mention this. 5) No picture. D+: Neutrality please see me! --Zerbey 02:38, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Object I have reordered the article by country. American POV is less visible now, but the article describes less then 20% of world's countries. Still, all objections mentioned by others are valid and need to be adressed. This article need A LOT of work. --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 11:57, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Object. 1) Nothing on the pass/merit/distinction grading system. 2) Some grading systems can have an "E" grade, which is not mentioned in this article. Norman Rogers 13:20, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose, with nothing to add except that the lead section is also inadequate. Filiocht 15:49, Nov 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Oppose, agreeing with all points made above and adding that only one out of three links in the Related topics section is acceptable as such, namely Education by country. The other two are Dumbing down, a POV stub that doesn't address the subject of grades or education, and Grade inflation, yet another contribution to Ameripedia. This vote is turning into a shambles, isn't it time the article was taken off FAC?--[[User:Bishonen|Bishonen (Talk)]] 17:43, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I don't know how accurate the information on UK grades is. In my entire educational experience i've never encountered a 'G' grade that represented failure. This is possibly an old grade, or one used only in certain areas. If i remember correctly, when i took my A levels (3 years ago), the grades were A-E, then N, then U. Movint 16:57 29 May 2005 (UTC)

In England for GCSE it is more like

>80%    A* 70-79%   A 60-69%   B 50-59%   C 40-49%   D 30-39%   E 20-29%   G <20% U (Ungraded)

However the grade boundaries change each year, because there is supposed to be something like 5% getting an A*, 10% getting an A, 20% getting a B, 20% getting a C. A G grade is actually a qualification i.e. you get a certificate and an actual g.c.s.e. A pass is anything from A-G, but schools have a target of everyone getting at least 5 A*-C passes. G.C.S.E.'s don't really mean anything if you are going on to do A Levels, but most Universities want at least a C or B in English and Maths.

For As and A level

>90 A* (I am not sure if they have brought that in yet) >80 A 70-79% B 60-69% C 50-59% D 40-49% E <40%  U

These boudaries stay the same each year, but your UMS changes (Each percent is worth a number of UMS) and these change depending on how hard the paper is and how everyone else has done. I am not sure exactly how it works, i.e. if your ums is multiplied by 1.007/0.9901 or a number is added on/taken away. 92.234.168.125 (talk) 12:15, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

number representation
As this is an article in en.wikipedia.org that is not primarily about number representation, the normal representation should be used. (I would expect fr.wikipedia.org to use the comma, of course.) AlbertCahalan 12:41, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Grammar
It is my contention that we should be citing these different grades in italics, not quotes, e.g., A+ (not "A+"). Furthermore as per wikkipedians own style manual, the pluralization of A+, C, 3, etc., should be  A+'s, C's, 3's,, etc. I have begun making the necessary changes, but please any future editors please keep to this standard.

Theshibboleth

Why would the plural of 3 be 3's? 92.234.168.125 (talk) 12:01, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

Inaccuracy in description of the German system
'''The description of the German system is largely inaccurate. I have contacts in the Universities of Heidelberg, Jenna, and Munich, who have pointed out to me the mistakes in the article. Here are my corrections: '''

In Germany, a 6-point grading scale is used, where:


 * 1) (excellent) is the best possible grade.
 * 2) (good) is the next-highest.
 * 3) (satisfactory) indicates "average" performance.
 * 4) (sufficient) is the lowest passing grade.
 * 5) (unsatisfactory) is the higher of two failing grades.
 * 6) (poor) is the lowest possible grade.

This scale is true enough that it does not warrant editing.

Five and six are both considered to be failing grades, though in earlier years students are not required to repeat classes with '5' grades if they perform well in other classes. Grades '1' to '5' can be suffixed with '+' and '-'. To calculate averages of suffixed grades, they are assigned fractioned values, where '1' is 1.0, '1-' is 1.3, '2+' is 1.7, '2' is 2.0, '2-' is 2.3 and so on. As a 1.0 average is considered perfect, there is no such thing as an '1+'.

'''This is largely untrue. The grades for 1 to 5 are NOT suffixed with + and -. I don't know if the writer obtained their information from a really outdated report, and I don't know if the inconsistency also exists in the "Education in Germany" article. However, here is what my fellows told me - fully numerical grades are given, NEVER with + or - suffixes. Instead, one may obtain a 1.3 grade, which signifies performance somewhat worse than 1(excellent). Also, even though 1.4, 1.5, 1.9 and so forth, grades may be achieved, it is preferred (but in no way restricted) to award grades of 1.3, 1.7, 2.3, 2.7, and so forth to students due to the ease with which they are converted to the american system. To the knowledge I was imparted in my correspondences, this system persists in German Gymnasiums as well. Of course, there would be no 0.9 grade - 1 is the absolute perfect, as stated. '''

''As I attended a German Gymnasium I know for sure that grades for 1 to 5 are suffixed with +/- to indicate slight differentiations. Those grades are given for exams or miscellaneous proofs of knowlegde (such as active/passive participation in lessons) which together form the final grade. In school reports in "Stufe" 12 and 13 however those grades are transformed into a 15 point scale (15/14/13=1, 12/11/10=2, 9/8/7=3, 6/5/4=4, 3/2/1=5, 0=6).--erik''

In school reports, only unmodified integer grades may be used; they are written in text form:
 * 1) sehr gut
 * 2) gut
 * 3) befriedigend
 * 4) ausreichend
 * 5) mangelhaft
 * 6) ungenügend

"In-between" grades such as '1-2', '2-3', '3-4' etc., which used to count as 1.5, 2.5 and so on, have largely been discontinued due to ambiguities when converting the averages back to integer values.

'''This scale is true only up to, and in, elementary school. The subsequent paragraph is incorrect, as stated above. '''

In the final classes of Gymnasiums the grades are converted to numbers ("points") in order to calculate the average for Abitur. In this case an '1+' exists (and counts as 15), '1' is 14, '1-' is 13, '2+' is 12, etc. up to '5-' is 1 and finally '6' is 0. Because 1+ exists in this system, "ultra-perfect" Abitur averages below 1.0 are possible. When the point system is used, 4 (5 points) is the lowest passing grade, and 4- (4 points) the highest failing grade.

'''As far as my knowledge goes (which means as far as the knowledge of my fellow Germans goes, which should be somewhat accurate, owing to the fact that they are university students themselves) the high school system is exactly the same as in University, as far as the grading scheme is concerned. I am currently unaware of the correspondence with the 15-0 scale. '''

For law students at German universities, a similar system is used that comprises one more grade that is inserted between 2 ("gut") and 3 "befriedigend," named "vollbefriedigend." This is due to the fact that the grades "gut" and "sehr gut" are extremely rare, so an additional grade was created below "gut" to increase differentiation. Every grade is converted into points very much like the Gymnasium system described above, starting at 18 points (excellent) down to 0 points (poor). 4 points is the highest passing grade.

'''I don't know if the law school grades are any different. I will find out soon.'''

In converting German grades to the A-F scale, a 1 = A, ... 4 = D scale is often used (with 5 and 6 both converted to Fs) but this conversion is nearly never accurate, since, for example, a grade of '2' is usually more difficult to obtain in Germany than a 'B' in the United States. (The average grade in Germany is normally supposed to be around or a bit above 3, whereas in the US average grades are often supposed to be between B- and B.)

'''This paragraph would be rendered slightly superfluous after the changes are made. I don't know where the author obtained his information that a grade of 2 is more difficult to achieve than a B in the States, but I would heartily disagree. The German tertiary education system is a lot more lax than its American counterpart, and a student may, with some effort(as opposed to with considerable effort) obtain said grade. That is not at all true for American universities - and top-tier, at the very least. '''

''Well actually, it's not that superfluous. A typical average for a "Klausur" in the "gymnasiale Oberstufe" is about 3,0 (http://www.phil.uni-sb.de/~jakobs/paedpsych/noten/guetekriterien_von_noten.html). For instance in a German test the most common grades are 3's and 4's, 1's are given for less than 5%.On http://www.ashesi.org/ACADEMICS/COURSES/grading.html, an university site, they point out that a typical Grade Point Average circles around 3,0 (which is a straight B). So it is quite legitimate to claim that a B corresponds to a German 3.''

Here is a link for suggested grade equivalents: http://www.wes.org/gradeconversionguide/germany.htm

Grades and definitions at a glance:

1 (sehr gut) = given if the achievement exceeds the requirements

2 (gut) = given if the achievement meets the requirements

3 (befriedigend) = given if the achievement meets the requirements in general

4 (ausreichend) = given if the achievement exhibits lacks but still meets the requirements in general

5 (mangelhaft) = given if the achievement does NOT meet the requirements but proofs a basic knowledge which legitimates to conclude that the insufficiencies can be "repaired" in a foreseeable time

6 (ungenügend) = given if the achievement does NOT meet the requirements and shows that the basic knowledge is so incomplete that the lack cannot be "repaired" in foreseeable time--erik

'''Please let me know if your information is any different, or if you observe any disparities. If not, I will proceed to correct the article. Thank you all.'''

-ASL


 * The main problem about the description is that it doesn't distinguish between elementary school (no grading; then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), high school from year 5 to 10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, normally with +-), high school from year 11 to 13 (points from 0 to 15, equiv. to 6 to 1+), and university (which I don't know about). The information about average calculation is nonsense for both elem. school and high school.  ASL, there's no date under your message, so I don't know when (and if) you're gonna correct it.  If you do, please take these considerations into account and split the section. -- Felix Wiemann 19:29, 20 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Concerning "+"/"-"-suffixes: They are used from class 3 to 13, but only in classes 12 and 13 they appear on the school report (German "Zeugnis"). In universities, marks are like 1.0,1.3,1.7, and so on. Here, a 1.0 is a 1, a 1.3 is a 1-, a 1.7 is a 2+ and so on. Infinit-E


 * The sentence "The only thing sure is that one can get a grade of 4 with as little as 45 %." sounds very devaluating. This is only the case if the best possible mark can be reached with maybe 75%. This is done in order to compensate for difficulty differences between exams. I think it would be best if this sentence is taken out, or if it is explained in more detail. -- naht, 10:19, 19 May 2011 (UTC)  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Naht (talk • contribs)

Having all my school reports from grade 1 to 13 in front of me and finished my 5 years of university studies recently, I might add my two cents:

We started to get integer (from 1 to 6) marks starting at grade 3. From grade 11 on, we got points from 0 to 15 during class. On our school report both systems, from 1 to 6 - varied by +/- and from 0 to 15, where printed next to each other. Here 1+ equals 15 points, 1 14, 2 11 and so on, up to 6 equals 0 points (as in the table on my "Abiturzeugnis").

At the university, we got marks from 1 to 4, where in between, they can be varied by a value of 0.3, leading to 1.0, 1.3, 1.7 and so on. The worst mark is 4.0 which is still passed, i.e. we do not get non-passing grades! We just don't pass and have to redo the exam.

Additionally, I would not translate "sehr gut" (mark 1) with "excellent", but with "very good". The rating "exzellent" is considered an average, final university mark of 1.1 or better. 84.172.233.75 (talk) 14:49, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Scotland
There is no such thing as a "uk" system - there is an english system (actually many different ones due to the different awarding bodies), the Scottish System - and what about that used in Eire? Not UK, I know - but I think some mention of the above system needs to be added.

By the way, in Scotland, grade boundaries fluctuate depending on the difficulty of the paper so that sometimes an A can be as low as 60 or 65% and sometimes as high as 90%. There are different systems for 5-14 (Graded A-F where F is the highest), Standard Grade (from 1-7 where 1 is the highest, and there are boundaries for 'Credit,' 'General,' and 'Foundation' grades), and Intermediates/Higher/Advanced Higher (A-D and F, where C is a pass and D is a marginal fail).

I don't have the confidence in my editing abilities to add this to the article myself, but if someone would like to help me (or simply add in the information stated above) then I'd be grateful.

Canadian Grades
The system of grading in Alberta post secondary institutions does not follow universal percentage grades, the percentage grades have been removed.

Quackgrassacrez (talk) 02:34, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

The Saskatchewan section states that the grades are universal across colleges without noting that Colleges of Graduate Studies typically have different grading schemes. Also, the language is not professional or appropriate. An "A+" is a "super-duper" performance, according to the chart provided. JLL294 (User talk:JLL294|talk]]) 16:06, 06 December 2011 (UTC)

'Greek' grades
From my experience one fairly common system of grades is absent from this article. In UK universities, a piece of work are often graded as &alpha;, &beta; or &gamma;. In this system, &alpha; represents an excellent piece of work, &beta; represents good or satisfactory work and &gamma; represents poor work. Some people add +/- to these grades, and their use is generally informal. Has anyone else encountered this system? --Gareth Hughes 15:23, 3 October 2005 (UTC)

I thionk that's pretty much restricted to Oxford - certainly never encountered it at Durham or St. Andrews (my two most recent universities)

Belgian grade system
As far as I know in the Flemish region, the system is as follow:

Institutes of higher education: - rate of one course: 0-20, pass at 10. - rate of one year of studying, mostly 0-100 % or 0-1000 (pass at 50 %). - Grade after a year of studying (not the same in each institution): sufficient (50-65), with distinction (65-75), with high distinction (75-85), with highest distinction (above 85%).

Secondary/primary schools: Everything is rated at a scale from 0-100 %. Pass at 50 %.
 * I can confirm this is correct. The "rate of one year of studying" isn't important anymore with the standardization of higher education in Europe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.134.151.138 (talk) 22:42, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
 * This is not entirely correct. In Flamish education they use 4 distinctions, the percentages differ slightly between educational institutions and possibly even between faculties. 50%<68% pass without distinction, 68%<75% distinction, 75%<85% high distinction, 85%<90% very high distinction, >90% congratulations from the jury 193.190.253.160 (talk) 00:15, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Question on Converting from a 20-point system to a 4-point scale
For the sake of calculating grade point average, does a French high school student first convert her/his individual grades, one at a time, to an equivalent in the 4-point system, and afterwards calculate the mean of these to derive a the 4-point-scale GPA, or is it the other way around, i.e., do you get an average from the French-scale total, then convert that final solution to the US system. In other words, what is the sequence: does one map then calculate? Or calculate first then map?

I suppose some universities may request to see ALL the grades and the method of evaluation the HS used in its calculation. Depending on which of the two ways the GPA is calculated, especially with the slow-moving broad distribution of some "Letter" grades and student grade distribution, one gets different results.

If you know or can point me to a good site, would you please answer here or at my Talk?

Thank you very much.

DonL 08:18, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

See http://www.claudel.org/admin/orientation/pages/overview.htm

Hong Kong Grades
In Hong Kong, there is no any standard score/mark range for a grade in a subject.

Some universities may often use grade on curve to indicate students score, some may use a stand score range, some may give a professor or lecturer to decide the score range for independent subject.

Besides, different university and departments may have different score range for a subject grade if score range is used to determinate a grade.

Therefore, I have removed the grade score range part and add the grade definition instead.

Lowest grade in Bulgaria
In the paragraph concerning grading in Bulgaria, I removed the text relating to this fictional "very poor" mark. In the Decree No. 3, issued on April 15, 2003, in effect since the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year, it is written in Article 7, Paragraph 2, that:


 * Marks that can be written are: excellent 6, very good 5, good 4, satisfactory 3, and poor 2.

In this sense, I removed the incorrect text stating that "The grade 1 is very rare and given e.g. in cases of cheating during an exam." --webkid 14:50, 16 May 2006 (UTC)

Grades in Latvia
Information about "i" and "ni" in this article is incorect - it isn't used in lower classes, but in upper classes in subjects like ethics and helth lessons that have no use of any grades at all. Here is more correct description of Latvian system

1.class - description of performance in all subjects 2. and 3.class - description in all subjects, except for latvian language, maths and native language (in minority schools) that are rated in 10 grade scale 4.class - descrition, except fot latvian, maths, native and nature lessons that are tated in 10 grade scale 5. to 12. class - 10 grades in all subjects except helth lessons, civil knowlege, ethics and christian lessons - "i" and "ni" appears

P.S. Why do you list Eastern and Central Europe as one even if grades are diffrent ?

Grades in Norway
The following is inaccurate, and thus deleted from the article:


 * Students are distributed along the scale in a bell curve fashion, implying that the average grade of any given group of students will be C (even in graduate programs where students are granted admission according to the results they achieved in their undergraduate degree).

The truth is that the government wishes grades to have an overall normal distribution, but this (should) only apply at a macro level and not for individual groups of students. If someone digs up some official document stating how it's supposed to be, then edit and reinsert the removed paragraph.

21:44, 27 May 2006 (UTC)


 * No, you were right to remove it, the Norwegian grading is not a "curve-based" system. From personal experience, I can say that at high level (master degree) courses, there number of As and Bs being awarded is much higher than the number of Ds and Es, which is natural because the students who get to these high level courses are among the better students. At the basic courses taken in the first semester however (e.g. introductory mathematics), the grades more resemble the bell shaped Gaussian distribution, although there is no ranking involved in making this happen. Rather the university went back through previous results and pre-set the grade threshholds so that about 10% will wind up in the A-zone and so on. At mathematics for instance, 92% is required for an A since about 10% of students have been able to achieve this result in the past. Sjakkalle (Check!)  14:30, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

CONTRADICTORY: Can someone have a look at the Norway section and correct the contradiction. Is 1 the best and 6 the worst or the other way round? The article and the list below contradict each other. ANSWER TO QUESTION: 6 is the best and 1 is the worst... does anyone have the answer to how to convert from the American grading system (100%-0%) to the Norwegian system (1-6)?

Australian GPA
Is the info current there for the calculation of an Australian tertiary GPA correct? I'm a medical school hopeful and from what I have read, they dont use a scheme involving distinction, credit, etc. I have been told that it works on the graded letter only (A,B,C, etc). The difference being that points are awarded for different percentages (7 for 80% or higher instead of 85% or higher). From my experiences from trying to calculate a GPA, I find it more difficult to comprehend then anything I've ever studied, someone should run a course on this!!! Anyway, my view of GPA mainly comes from here http://www.acer.edu.au/tests/university/gamsat/documents/GPA_Instructions.pdf


 * It varies in minor ways from university to university, and in some cases from faculty to faculty - the GPA scale given in the main text, referring to two pass levels and two fail levels, seems to relate closest to University of South Australia's policy, but most of it applies to other universities. This applies whether the HD level is 80pc or 85pc. (See here for instance - although this is now 4 years old.)


 * The GPA scale used by most universities typically runs like this:


 * High Distinction: 7
 * Distinction: 6
 * Credit: 5
 * Pass: 4
 * Conceded Pass: usually 3*
 * Fail: usually 0**


 * (*Only some unis use Conceded Passes, and may have more than one type - eg. Terminating/Restricted Passes, Supplementary Passes, and so on - but the grade points given are normally less than 4 because the grade is less than 50%.)
 * (**Most unis seem to use 0 for Fail, although some, like UniSA, could use 1 for instance.)


 * Still others use a "Course Weighted Average" or "Weighted Average Mark" which simply average out the actual marks given. Curtin and University of Wollongong seems to use this, for example.


 * Will probably look to add to this/edit the article at a later time, when I have the time to do it -Spiky Sharkie [ talk ] 04:20, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

The system that the University of Queensland uses has in my experience been fairly representative of how universities here give grades. The cut-offs are usually:


 * 7 / HD: 85+%
 * 6 / D: 75-84%
 * 5 / C: 65-74%
 * 4 / P: 50-64%
 * 3 / F: 45-49%
 * 2 / F: 20-44%
 * 1 / F: 0-19%
 * 0 / F: Didn't submit any assessment


 * Under a few conditions (eg, the first time you fail a course), getting a 3 qualifies you for a supplementary exam.

I agree with these comments - to suggest that most australian universities give a HD for 75% and a pass for 40% is ludicrous. My experience (4 unis) says they largely follow the UQ model given. Cached 01:49, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

French grade system
The french grading system is mentioned quite briefly. A reference to the similar system of Belgium exists, but Belgium is missing.

More info :

http://www.claudel.org/admin/orientation/pages/overview.htm

England, Wales and Northern Ireland
The grades given are correct. The comments following them are not. Firstly, the precentages vary widely between subjects, between examining boards and from year to year. As an example, a minimum GCSE grade G will be awarded for about 22% in English. In maths or science it could be lower. Secondly, the descriptions are not appropriate, other than for A* at GCSE which was added to the grade range "for outstanding performance". I believe that GCSE grade D was intended to be the grade achieved by an average 16 year old. Someone may be able to come up with some more reliable statistics, so I have not edited the information as yet.


 * I agree, and have removed the descriptions and percentages. Tom Harris 11:07, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

On a related point, the Advanced Level (A level) is not AKA General Certificate of Education (GCE). Its proper title is GCE Advanced level. There used to be a GCE Ordinary level, now replaced by the GCSE. I have edited the entry accordingly.

Grading system in Japan
I heard, and came here to check, but found no information, that in Japan they use the letter "S" as higher than "A" when using a romaji grading system. 207.202.227.125 17:22, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

My work on this article is complete
My work on this article is complete. You don't have to worry about it because it is less than 30 Kilobytes and all I had to do was split the article into 21 reasonable but short pieces (besides the article itself). Take care of this article and stuff. Let me know if there is any new countries or grading systems. My 2½ months of hard work was worth it. Well, see ya guys later. Im off to shorten another article without anything going wrong. Chow! =>) Chikinpotato11 07:18, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

Problem with the above...
As was mentioned on several of the split-off pages, the TLA "GPA" is not universally understood, which leads to all the subpages getting whacked with context. I suggest mass renaming them all to "Educational grades in [COUNTRY]". 68.39.174.238 21:40, 28 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. I wrote the content currently found at GPA in Ireland, but the term GPA is never used in this country. In fact the Irish system doesn't concern itself with "averages" at all (rather it's a system of "points"). I second the call to move the pages to the more appropriate "Educational grades in [COUNTRY]". Keithmahoney 01:04, 29 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree. Even aside from whether GPA is a widely understood acronym, it seems silly to have a page with 49 country entries, when half of them have no content at all, but merely a link to the country-specific article. Petershank 16:06, 20 February 2007 (UTC)

Removed the section 'fictitious grades'
I removed the section 'fictitious grades', which discussed the Harry Potter series; I believe it was mostly irrelevant to the main focus of the article. Feel free to revert. ~ PseudoSudo 12:39, 19 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Interesting, but definitely belongs somewhere else. 68.39.174.238 22:54, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Merging GPA and CGPA
I see that someone has already suggested merging this page and CGPA. I am all in favor. Start a section that is titled "Differences between GPA and CGPA" and basically list all that is stated in the CGPA article. Thank you for your time. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 75.18.226.136 (talk) 06:09, 3 March 2007 (UTC).
 * That seems fine to me; I'll complete the merge now. -- Cielomobile talk / contribs 04:16, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

French higher educatuon
"The French grading system is mostly the (above mentioned) 20-point grading scale: it is used above all in secondary schools and universities" Is it true that: Apokrif 14:38, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
 * ENA uses a 10-point scale
 * the 20-point scale was borrowed from Ecole Polytechnique ?

Brazil
The Brazil section is incorrect. If no sources are added, it should be simplified. Almost no university uses a GPA for admiting students entrance... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 143.54.175.130 (talk) 19:46, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Does anyone know why Brazil was not included? This list is otherwise a treasure trove and immensely appreciated. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Stephen Foust (talk • contribs) 21:25, 24 April 2007 (UTC).

206.248.135.214 13:17, 26 June 2007 (UTC)÷== India Official Grading System ==

Where has this data been obtained from?? In my past 6 years of helping students study abroad, i'm are not aware of any such system. Who ever added it, can you please quote the source??

Sandyjain 17:51, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

I am going to India to study Computer Science but are having trouble with Grade Conversion Table as it appears the Ontario Canada Grading system is not well understood. University of Mysore is asking me for Conversion table for my Secondary School transcript.

ag 9:16 AM June 26,2007

Iran Grade system
I have converted the grades in table format, which is easy readable.

Any other references to update the information sources (for conversion) are highly appreciated, --Nnabiollahi 10:07, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Accuracy of New Zealand university system
The section claims it has the GPA system for the University of Auckland, I doubt that this is correct as this is not what I've been told by lecturers while I was finishing my undergrad degree.--Konstable 02:15, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
 * out of curiosity, is this information even available? I'm having a very hard time finding any useful information from the University of Canterbury's website. 153.111.226.201 05:30, 17 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I have done a bit of research on the Canterbury, Otago and Auckland University website. Found suitable material for Auckland and Otago, but none was available at Canterbury, have therefore edited the section accordingly including references, and have sent an email to one of the directors of studies at Canterbury to see if he could shed some light on GPA allocations there. Does the disputed tag still need to be displayed? Pmi25 11:07, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

The citation provided for the University of Auckland does not support the claims made here on wikipedia. It only has information comparing grade and grade value and has no information about the corresponding percentage or averaged GPA. Although this is irrelevant to wikipedia since it can't be cited, I know for a fact that the percentages quoted here are wrong as I have just received my marks back for last semester. I'm not even sure if there are fixed percentages which correspond to a grade and grade value. Also, the information provided here does not include a grade of C-minus which corresponds to a grade value of 1. Fail grades are also D-plus, D and D-minus which all have grade values of zero. These facts are confirmed in the citation provided and also demonstrate that the percentages given are obviously false. Weihana 13:12, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Regarding the University of Auckland, the letter grade to GPA convertions are indeed wrong. This is because each course reserves the right to change its own definitions for a letter grade. Some courses will only award an A grade to a certain number of students by class rank. STATS101, for example, set the threshold for an A+ at 92% (this was later revised to 90%). However, I do feel that the conversions given are representative of the University of Auckland if they are taken as 'guidelines' rather than fact.

Victoria University of Wellington system: at Victoria the grade and percentages are allocated exactly as is currently shown for Auckland University, but there is no official grade value system.

130.195.86.40 04:12, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Latin American grades (Panamá)
hey, I'm not too good in english, so I would like you guys to check this if there is some grammatical-syntax error feel free to edit it and add it to the article

Panamá Panamá have a 1 to 5 a very similar system to colombians for schools, when 3.0 is enough to pass to next grade.

Schools:
 * 1 - Failed
 * 2 - deficient
 * 3 - enough to pass
 * 4 - Good
 * 5 - Excellent

University:
 * A - 91 to 100
 * B - 81 to 90
 * C - 71 to 80
 * D - 61 ti 70
 * F - 0 - 60
 * I - Incomplete
 * N - Never went to a single class

A C grade is required for all important signatures of the carrer, there are few not so important wich let you pass with a D. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ecwpa (talk • contribs) 21:24, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

HTML Coding Damaged @ Bottom
The tables near the very bottom of the article have somehow been disorganized; if this could be fixed somehow, that would be great, as I don't have the time to check back over what I did wrong. Thanks very much. - Keron Cyst —Preceding unsigned comment added by Keron Cyst (talk • contribs) 00:06, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

History of grading
This article has little or no information on the historical development of grading. How, for example, did the US system of ABCDF originate? Was Thomas Jefferson so evaluated at William and Mary? Dynzmoar (talk) 20:17, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Colombia
A simple search in Google shows that the minimum passing grades for graduate subjects in Colombia is usually 3.5. Google search for: posgrado nota mínima colombia inurl:.co Also see http://www.uninorte.edu.co/cooperacion_internacional_ingles/sections.asp?ID=24 for an example in English. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.234.184.20 (talk) 07:27, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

"you have to be very smart"
I don't have enough experience to fix this without fear of reverting any actually beneficial changes. Somebody else remedy the UK grading subentry? 83.21.0.28 (talk) 14:50, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Québec
The table on the grading system in Québec is incorrect. I have a student's testimony that a C+ is 75-79%, which the table presented would place as a B. Safuman (talk) 17:56, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

First of all, universities in québec doesn't use only A,B,C,D,E (or F), they add + and - A+ = 4.3 A = 4.0 A- = 3.7; B+ = 3.3 B = 3.0 B- = 2.7; C+ = 2.3 C = 2.0 C- = 1.7; D+ = 1.3 D = 1.0; D- = 0.7 (Concordia University uses D-) E or F (fail) = 0; Also, the way those grades are attribued depends on what university you are going, in which departement, which teacher do you have. It can also depends on the sthenght of your group. It is not always linked automaticly to your grades in percentage(%), you can't say for exemple that between 90 and 100% will automaticly give you an A+. For an exemple, you can end up having A+ with 80% in one course and in an other course, get B+ with 86%.

D- is the minimal grade to pass a course. In the Université du Québec a Trois-Rivières, you will be required to keep an average of 2 to stay in the program and get your diploma. To access master degree level, you will need a 3,2 average. In the first year of program in accounting, teachers will likely to seek an group average of around 2.0, and around 3.0 in the following years. However, i'm not sure if its the case in all programs of all universities.

Also, the passing grade in percentage (%) can also vary. In UQTR, some teacher will ask for 60%, other 50%, some between 50 and 60% and other will set it according to the group average. Group average in percentage tends to be between 50% and 70%. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.37.224.222 (talk) 07:31, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

To Shorten the Article
Good day gents and ladies. I have advised a plan to shorten this article. If we keep the two most used charts in grading and then create a list of other grade systems separately we will shorten the article greatly. So basically we have my example to help:


 * Two Most Used Grading System Charts
 * Name of country or state
 * Chart

Then:


 * See Other Grading Systems = New Article with list of charts of other countries and states grading systems.

This will make it shorter and also will lead to the editing of the article. Now that it would be shorter it will be easier to fix the paragraphs. But I wanted to clear this idea with you up first. Have a positively wonderful day.Rem Nightfall (talk) 17:37, 26 May 2008 (UTC)Rem Nightfall


 * Hi Rem. I've been working in this article for a while now, progressively moving the contents of each section to standalone articles, having all of these covered by the template grading, which is also included in this article. The ideal goal would be eventually having all the subsections under == Grading systems by nation == merged into their respective articles and then removing that section altogether from the article, leaving the template for that navigational purpose. This article would then deal with generic aspects of academic grading, without going into specifics of each country's educational system.
 * Now, most sections have already been moved to a separate article, mostly because it didn't exist previously. However, the remaining sections need to be merged with the articles that already existed (see the merge tags that are spread across this article), and that takes a little longer.
 * If you agree with this approach, feel free to help in the merging of these sections and their respective target articles. Cheers, Waldir talk 18:14, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Why do some schools in America use F's instead of E's or vice versa?
There are different schools and different types but what about the grading system. If you fail in one school it would be an E but in other you could fail and get a F. Why do some schools chose F's and some schools E's. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Azamiz (talk • contribs) 01:28, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Chile
What is the point of the 'Conversion Table U.S to Chile GPA'? No other countries are listed, and the associated link does not give support. Considering the irrelevance of it, lack of supporting citation and already excessively long article I say delete. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.224.43.24 (talk) 10:42, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

GPA?
Right at the end of the opening paragraph is a mention of GPA (grade point average) but this sentence assumes that the reader knows what it is. I don't. Surely this American term should be explained as I have never heard it used in the UK, Europe or other places. Is it just the average grade that a person has got or is it something more complex than that?--217.203.137.52 (talk) 20:34, 26 May 2009 (UTC) See
 * It's all in the article. Grades are converted to points (A = 4, D = 1, others grades inbetween accordingly. this varies by country, e.g. in Ireland A = 4.2) then the GPA is calculated by taking the average of these grade points. 83.147.180.181 (talk) 14:42, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree with previous remark. The article is rather incomplete and insufficient. There are GPA calculators which take the credit hours into the account (example: http://www.back2college.com/gpa.htm), which is totaly strange concept for someone from central Europe. I was trying to find out what the GPA is and I cannot say I understand the concept after reading this article. So the name of the article and redirection is misleading according to my point of view. Igor Klimeš (talk) 19:44, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

We never used the term "GPA" when I went to school so I had no idea what is a good versus bad GPA score. I came here after reading a comment in a forum in response to a badly proof-read article. "Just graduated from community college with a 1.2 GPA. Didn't do well in my English course, but I did take it twice. I would like to offer my services as your new chief of editing." I suspected it was a joke, but needed to know if a 1.2 GPA is good or bad. A quick read of the Wikipedia article failed me. Finally followed an external link to a GPA calculator and figured out that the higher the GPA, the better the student, and therefore the post was a joke, but I am still not clear on it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.226.193.218 (talk • contribs)

Ireland
In the article under Europe > Ireland, there is no text except a link to the grading system used in Irish secondary schools. Isn't this article about university grades, not secondary school grades? Should this section be changed? 83.147.180.181 (talk) 14:36, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Article is missing a small portion of the globe...
The article has a sub-section for North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

I think something's missing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.54.100.184 (talk) 02:18, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Headline text
we never meausre own marks in this system.I think its not gud for students. I think in this system students who got 91% and who got 99 or 100% are equall.link title

Excruciating marks in Canada
In Saskatchewan, top marks are "excruciating". My dictionary seems to indicate that the marks of a high achiever would therefore cause severe pain. Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what this might mean? Is it just a typo? BoundaryRider (talk) 08:02, 27 February 2010 (UTC)

Merges

 * A lot of the headings for the sections on different countries suggest that the sections be moved to the alreadye existent separate article. I think it should be the other way around because most (if not all) of those articles are totally devoid of sources and are too short even for stub standards. Erpert (let's talk about it) 22:42, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

Article Image
Is the childish graphic really necessary? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 150.204.73.108 (talk) 01:06, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
One or more portions of this article duplicated other source(s). Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. VernoWhitney (talk) 20:21, 29 June 2010 (UTC)

Link 9 is outdated
See subject. This link should be either updated or removed. 193.190.253.160 (talk) 00:07, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

QPA?
What is the relation between GPA and the quality-point average (QPA)? -Pgan002 (talk) 02:20, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

What is the rule for preserving or translating terms in other languages?
I think that it would always be preferable to translate a term, unless the term in the original language does not have quite an equivalent in English (things like "zeitgeist"). Otherwise it's just pointlessly saying how to write a given term in other language. I ask that because there are some terms in Portuguese in this article, and I see no reason why it is that way. It just makes it sound as if it were some exotic concept, rather than something mundane. --Extremophile (talk) 03:43, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

WHY is everything in one section??
shouldn't it be by continent, and possibly another two for canada and north america? Buttercup sophi (talk) 23:26, 13 October 2010 (UTC)

Norway
The Norwegian section is woefully outdated, but I'm too lazy to fix it right now. Just thought I'd mention it. 83.109.41.9 (talk) 22:34, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

Italy
The article claims that Licei are "prestigious" and that grades varies between 2 and 8. AFAIK both statements are far stretched, if not completely false. Officially, there are no prerequisites of sorts to fulfil to be admitted, especially on grades or economical status. Same for the grades teachers use in licei. This is true both for government and associations (schools have informal associations that groups them by category (licei, tecnici, commerciali, professionali...)). The notion of being prestigious is just a matter of perception. In the earlier years, from 30's to 70's, attending school changed from being a luxury to a commodity. During that period richest families sent their sons to licei, since they could and wanted to afford a longer learning program, while other families preferred other kind of schools, to get their sons to work sooner. Hence licei were and still are percieved "prestigious" and, as a consequence, harder than other schools, but nothing substantiates this claim. Mario--151.55.31.48 (talk) 16:53, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

Grading systems by country
Should the "Grading systems by country" section be moved to a separate article to make the main article easier to navigate? --Gryllida 01:49, 16 July 2012 (UTC)

Italy
The statement In High Schools (Licei) however grades vary within a much more limited range, between 4 and 8, often with each professor applying his/her own criteria and with 8 being the best possible grade, even if the total theoretical range is supposed to be 1 to 10. has no reference. And, by the way, is not true: in italian high schools grades from 1 to 10 are used (during my school years I've seen classmates with all sort of grades, from 1- to 10; but that doesn't count as reference, right?). D.

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20060414182706/http://www.tscpa.com:80/ to http://tscpa.com/

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International grading systems
The international grading systems section is currently blatantly inaccurate - European Baccalaureate can not be the 'main article' for it as it is only one system among several, the International Baccalaureate (which is one of the most common international systems) is not mentioned whatsoever, and I wouldn't consider the GCSEs international by any means either. Could someone remove the 'main article' part, at least? I'm willing to try and add relevant content later on. Ashela (talk) 08:30, 1 November 2016 (UTC)

"A Grade" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Grade&redirect=no A Grade] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at until a consensus is reached. Steel1943 (talk) 20:29, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

"Student achievement" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Student_achievement&redirect=no Student achievement] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at until a consensus is reached. Steel1943 (talk) 20:37, 8 March 2023 (UTC)

"Grade (education)" listed at Redirects for discussion
The redirect [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Grade_(education)&redirect=no Grade (education)] has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at until a consensus is reached. —Bagumba (talk) 07:55, 17 March 2023 (UTC)