Chilean grading system
In Chile, school and university grades run from 7.0 (best) to 1.0, and 4.0 is the lowest pass.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
muy bueno (very good)
A pass. 4.0 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.
Wikipedia’s US table gives letters, not points, so it cannot average these grades: check them one at a time.
School and university grades: 1.0 to 7.0
Primary schools, secondary schools and universities across Chile.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.0 | excelente | excellent | Pass |
| 6.0–6.9 | muy bueno | very good | Pass |
| 5.0–5.9 | bueno | good | Pass |
| 4.0–4.9 | suficiente | sufficient | Pass |
| 3.0–3.9 | menos que suficiente | less than sufficient (fail) | Fail |
| 2.0–2.9 | deficiente | deficient (fail) | Fail |
| 1.0–1.9 | muy deficiente | very deficient (fail) | Fail |
Chilean grades in US terms
Wikipedia’s table reads the school and university grades on the US scale as below. It is one convention, not a rule: each US university, or the credential evaluation service it names, makes its own conversion, so the school you apply to decides what your grades are worth. Wikipedia gives this as an equivalence commonly used by universities and credential evaluators; Chile has no official US conversion.
| Chilean grade | US letter |
|---|---|
| 6.75–7.00 | A+ |
| 6.50–6.74 | A |
| 6.25–6.49 | A− |
| 6.00–6.24 | B+ |
| 5.75–5.99 | B |
| 5.50–5.74 | B− |
| 5.25–5.49 | C+ |
| 5.00–5.24 | C |
| 4.75–4.99 | C− |
| 4.50–4.74 | D+ |
| 4.25–4.49 | D |
| 4.00–4.24 | D− |
| 1.00–3.99 | F |
What to know about grades in Chile
- Chile uses the same 1.0 to 7.0 scale at every level, from primary school to university, and grades below 4.0 are called notas rojas (red marks).
- Averages are rounded to one decimal from the second, so 3.95 becomes a passing 4.0 while 3.94 stays at 3.9.
- The share of marks needed for a 4.0 is set by the school, university or teacher, usually between 50% and 70%.
- Top grades are rare: at university most passing grades fall between 4.5 and 5.4, an overall average of 5.5 to 5.9 counts as very good, and 6.0 or more as high academic excellence.
- University admission uses the PAES test, scored from 100 to 1000, together with the school grade average (NEM) and class rank.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in Chile; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country: Chile; Wikipedia (Spanish), Calificaciones escolares en Chile.