Chinese grading system
In China, university grades run from 100 (best) to 0, and 60 is the lowest pass. Grade points on the 4.0 scale: 4.0 to 0, lowest pass 1.0.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
良好 (good)
A pass. 60 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.
University grades: 0 to 100
Course marks at Chinese universities, on the 100-point scale (百分制). Courses graded in words instead of marks use the same five levels, and a mark of 60 or more earns the course's credits.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90–100 | 优秀 | excellent | Pass |
| 80–89 | 良好 | good | Pass |
| 70–79 | 中等 | average | Pass |
| 60–69 | 及格 | pass | Pass |
| 0–59 | 不及格 | fail | Fail |
Grade points on the 4.0 scale: 4.0 to 0
Universities that convert marks to a 4.0 GPA; this is the table of Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Cut-offs and points differ between universities, so the legend on the transcript decides.
| Grade | Meaning | Marks | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4.0 | highest grade point | 90–100% | Pass |
| 3.7 | pass | 85–89% | Pass |
| 3.3 | pass | 82–84% | Pass |
| 3.0 | pass | 78–81% | Pass |
| 2.7 | pass | 75–77% | Pass |
| 2.3 | pass | 72–74% | Pass |
| 2.0 | pass | 68–71% | Pass |
| 1.5 | pass | 64–67% | Pass |
| 1.0 | lowest pass | 60–63% | Pass |
| 0 | fail | below 60% | Fail |
Chinese grades in US terms
Wikipedia’s table reads the 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. Its bands (85, 75 and 60) are not the five levels universities print (90, 80, 70 and 60).
| Chinese grade | US letter |
|---|---|
| 85–100 | A |
| 75–84 | B |
| 60–74 | C |
| 0–59 | F |
What to know about grades in China
- Most Chinese universities mark each course out of 100, and 60 is the mark that passes the course and earns its credits.
- Each university publishes its own table for turning marks into grade points; at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, for example, a mark of 85 is 3.7.
- Some universities use a 5-point scale instead, where each mark above 50 adds 0.1, so 60 is 1.0, 90 is 4.0 and 100 is 5.0.
- Peking University calculates grade points with a formula rather than a table: 4 − 3 × (100 − mark)² ÷ 1,600 for marks of 60 and above.
- Courses marked only as passed or failed (合格 or 不合格) usually stay out of the GPA.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in China; Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, 本科生成绩绩点计算办法 (grade point rules); Wikipedia, Grading systems by country: China.