German grading system
In Germany, university grades run from 1.0 (best) to 5.0, and 4.0 is the lowest pass. School grades: 1 (best) to 6, lowest pass 4. Abitur points: 15 to 0, and a course below 5 points is a deficit.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
gut (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.
Example · German grade
gut (good)
1 + 3 × (4.0 − 3.3) ÷ (4.0 − 1.0) = 1.70, rounded to the nearest German grade.
University grades: 1.0 (best) to 5.0
Bachelor's and master's courses at German universities and universities of applied sciences. Single exams are graded 1.0, 1.3, 1.7, 2.0, 2.3, 2.7, 3.0, 3.3, 3.7, 4.0 or 5.0; the bands below are the words given to an average.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0–1.5 | sehr gut | very good | Pass |
| 1.6–2.5 | gut | good | Pass |
| 2.6–3.5 | befriedigend | satisfactory | Pass |
| 3.6–4.0 | ausreichend | sufficient | Pass |
| 4.1–5.0 | nicht ausreichend | fail | Fail |
School grades: 1 (best) to 6
Report cards in years 1 to 10, and in the upper years of schools that do not use points. Tests often add + or − (2+ or 2−, counted as about 1.7 and 2.3), but end-of-year reports use whole grades only.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | sehr gut | very good | Pass |
| 2 | gut | good | Pass |
| 3 | befriedigend | satisfactory | Pass |
| 4 | ausreichend | sufficient | Pass |
| 5 | mangelhaft | deficient | Fail |
| 6 | ungenügend | insufficient | Fail |
Abitur points: 15 to 0
The last two or three years of the Gymnasium (gymnasiale Oberstufe) and the Abitur exams. Each point value stands for a school grade with its + or −, shown in brackets; a course below 5 points counts as a deficit.
| Points | On the transcript | Meaning | Deficit? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | sehr gut | very good (1+) | No |
| 14 | sehr gut | very good (1) | No |
| 13 | sehr gut | very good (1−) | No |
| 12 | gut | good (2+) | No |
| 11 | gut | good (2) | No |
| 10 | gut | good (2−) | No |
| 9 | befriedigend | satisfactory (3+) | No |
| 8 | befriedigend | satisfactory (3) | No |
| 7 | befriedigend | satisfactory (3−) | No |
| 6 | ausreichend | sufficient (4+) | No |
| 5 | ausreichend | sufficient (4) | No |
| 4 | ausreichend | sufficient (4−) | Yes |
| 3 | mangelhaft | deficient (5+) | Yes |
| 2 | mangelhaft | deficient (5) | Yes |
| 1 | mangelhaft | deficient (5−) | Yes |
| 0 | ungenügend | insufficient (6) | Yes |
Example · Overall Abitur grade
690 of 900 points. 697 points (7 more) would give 1.7.
Your state sets further conditions, such as a limit on deficit courses; your school checks them.
- 1.0 823–900
- 1.1 805–822
- 1.2 787–804
- 1.3 769–786
- 1.4 751–768
- 1.5 733–750
- 1.6 715–732
- 1.7 697–714
- 1.8 679–696
- 1.9 661–678
- 2.0 643–660
- 2.1 625–642
- 2.2 607–624
- 2.3 589–606
- 2.4 571–588
- 2.5 553–570
- 2.6 535–552
- 2.7 517–534
- 2.8 499–516
- 2.9 481–498
- 3.0 463–480
- 3.1 445–462
- 3.2 427–444
- 3.3 409–426
- 3.4 391–408
- 3.5 373–390
- 3.6 355–372
- 3.7 337–354
- 3.8 319–336
- 3.9 301–318
- 4.0 300
German 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. Wikipedia gives this table as a guideline only and says exact conversions may differ.
| German grade | US letter |
|---|---|
| 1.0 | A+ or A |
| 1.3 | A− |
| 1.7 | B+ |
| 2.0 | B |
| 2.3 | B− |
| 2.7 | C+ |
| 3.0 | C |
| 3.3 | C− |
| 3.7 | D+ |
| 4.0 | D |
| 5.0 | F |
What to know about grades in Germany
- Many German universities convert grades from abroad with the modified Bavarian formula, which places a foreign grade between that scale's best mark and its lowest pass.
- Many universities add the words mit Auszeichnung (with distinction) to a degree with an overall grade of 1.0.
- The overall Abitur grade runs from 1.0 to 4.0 and is calculated from the points total, so no Abitur is officially better than 1.0.
- Law degrees use their own scale from 18 points down to 0, with 4 points as the lowest pass, and grades above befriedigend are rare there.
- Doctorates are graded with Latin words: summa cum laude, magna cum laude, cum laude and rite (pass).
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in Germany; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country (Germany); Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK), Agreement on the upper school years and the Abitur exam, as amended 6 June 2024: section 9.5 and annex 4.