Italian grading system
In Italy, university exams are marked out of 30: 18 is the lowest pass, and 30 e lode (30 with honours) is the top mark. Degree mark: 66 to 110 e lode, and a degree is awarded from 66. School grades: 1 to 10, lowest pass 6.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
Very good
A pass. 18 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 exam grades: 18 to 30 e lode
Course exams in bachelor's and master's degrees at Italian universities. 30 e lode (30 with honours) is added to a 30 for outstanding work; the band descriptions are the University of Bologna's, and other universities use the same scale but may word it differently.
| Grade | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|
| 29–30 | excellent | Pass |
| 27–28 | very good | Pass |
| 24–26 | good | Pass |
| 19–23 | satisfactory | Pass |
| 18 | lowest pass | Pass |
| 0–17 | fail | Fail |
Degree mark: 66 to 110 e lode
The final mark of a laurea (bachelor's) or laurea magistrale (master's) degree. 110 e lode (110 with honours) is the highest result.
| Grade | Meaning | Degree awarded? |
|---|---|---|
| 110 | highest mark | Yes |
| 66–109 | degree awarded | Yes |
| 0–65 | below the minimum, no degree | No |
School grades: 1 to 10
Report cards in Italian lower and upper secondary schools.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | outstanding | Pass | |
| 9 | excellent | Pass | |
| 8 | very good | Pass | |
| 7 | good | Pass | |
| 6 | sufficiente | sufficient | Pass |
| 4–5 | insufficiente | insufficient | Fail |
| 1–3 | seriously insufficient | Fail |
Italian grades in US terms
Wikipedia’s table reads the university exam 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's table lists 21 under both B− and C+, so both are shown.
| Italian grade | US letter |
|---|---|
| 30 and 30 e lode | A+ |
| 28–29 | A |
| 26–27 | A− |
| 24–25 | B+ |
| 22–23 | B |
| 21 | B− or C+ |
| 20 | C |
| 19 | C− |
| 18 | D |
| 0–17 | E or F |
What to know about grades in Italy
- Only passed exams appear on an Italian university record: a failed exam is not recorded, and a student can also turn down a passing mark to sit the exam again.
- The final degree mark out of 110 combines the exam results with points for the final thesis, and 66 is the lowest mark for which a degree is awarded.
- Some universities have used a 100-point scale for the degree mark instead of 110.
- The upper-secondary leaving exam (esame di Stato, still widely called the maturità) is marked out of 100: 60 is a pass and 100 e lode the top result.
- In upper secondary school, the class council can suspend the year-end decision (sospensione del giudizio) for a student with one or more failing grades: the student makes up each gap with a test before the next school year begins. With too many failing grades, under the school’s own criteria, the student does not move up a year.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in Italy; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country: Italy; University of Bologna, Exams and grading system; Wikipedia (German), Schulnote: Italien; Italian Wikipedia, Scuola secondaria di secondo grado in Italia: Sospensione del giudizio.