I’m in the UK. In secondary school (ages 11-18), we have graded results – F, E, D, C, B, A, A\* – for the qualifications you get at 16 and 18.
Batchelors degrees are graded as 1, 2:1, 2:2, 3. They equate to about (respectively) >70%, 60-70%, 50-60%, 40-50%.
I’m constantly confused when watching American TV shows when they talk about school grades etc! The only term I’ve ever heard used in tv is GPA.
How do the scoring systems work in the USA and what scores do they equate to?
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There’s the standard A-D and then F. The percentage to get these varies from teacher to teacher, as some write “easy” tests and then have to set something like 95% as the bar to get an A. Though at the other end most stop before the test difficulty you see in the UK, with a typical A being about 90%.
This same pattern follows through university. These are then converted to a number 0-4 and weighted against the value of the class. A = 4, B = 3, etc.
Some classes contribute a little to your overall grade, some contribute a lot. If you’re doing “advanced placement” courses (ie – lower level university courses while in High School) an A in these is worth more than an A in regular classes and can give you a 5.
AP classes are approximately equivalent to A level in content.
These numbers are multiplied by the class value, called “hours”, and then divided by the total number of hours taken to give you your Grade Point Average (eg, one class is worth 1 “hour” and you get an A, another class is worth 2 “hours” and you get a B you’re now on (1×4 + 2×3)/3 “hours” = 3.33 GPA = B/B+.
So someone saying they have a 4.0 GPA means they got straight As.
Hours in quotation marks as they don’t literally translate to a given number of hours of the week spent on the course.
Note that these don’t translate to UK degrees in the same steps. A 3rd is approximately a C/C+, 2:2 is approximately a B-, 2:1 is approximately a B+/A-, and 1st is an A/A+
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