Brazilian grading system
In Brazil, school and university grades run from 10.0 (best) to 0.0. Each institution sets its own pass mark, most often 5.0, 6.0 or 7.0.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
Very good
A pass. 5.0 is the lowest pass.
3 courses, 15 credits. Your institution’s own rules on rounding or cutting off decimals decide the grade on your record.
School and university grades: 0.0 to 10.0
Schools and universities across Brazil, each of which sets its own grading rules. 5.0 is the most common pass mark, but many universities and private schools require 6.0 or 7.0.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0–10.0 | excellent | Pass | |
| 8.0–8.9 | very good | Pass | |
| 7.0–7.9 | good | Pass | |
| 6.0–6.9 | satisfactory | Pass | |
| 5.0–5.9 | middling | Pass | |
| 0.0–4.9 | reprovado | fail | Fail |
Brazilian grades and a US GPA
This page gives no US equivalents for Brazilian grades: we found no table for them on Wikipedia or from an official source, and we do not make one up. A US university reads a foreign transcript itself or through the credential evaluation service it names, and its conversion is the one that counts.
Send your grades as they are, with the scale above. When a form asks for your average, give it on your own scale and say which scale it is: the converter’s average does exactly that, weighted by credits when you enter them.
What to know about grades in Brazil
- Each Brazilian school and university sets its own grading rules, so the pass mark ranges from 5.0 to as high as 7.5 depending on the institution.
- Some institutions also give letter grades or codes next to the number, and the transcript explains what they mean.
- The running average is called the coeficiente de rendimento (CR) or índice de rendimento acadêmico, and universities use it to award scholarships, research fellowships and exchange places.
- Schools usually allow one recovery exam at the end of a grading period, and failing a single subject can mean repeating the whole school year.
- Admission to most public universities depends on the national ENEM exam rather than on the high-school average.
Sources: Wikipedia, Grading systems by country: Brazil; Wikipedia (Spanish), Calificación escolar: Brasil.