Swedish grading system
In Sweden, school grades run from A (best) to F, and E is the lowest pass. University grades: VG to U, lowest pass G.
Example · Average of 3 subjects
Excellent
A pass. E is the lowest pass.
Each subject counts the same. Add weights to count some subjects more.
School grades: A to F
Compulsory school from year 6 and upper secondary school (gymnasium). The points are used to work out the average for admission to the next school or to university.
| Grade | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|
| A | exemplary | Pass |
| B | excellent | Pass |
| C | good | Pass |
| D | adequate | Pass |
| E | acceptable | Pass |
| F | fail | Fail |
University grades: VG to U
The standard scale for courses at Swedish universities, where a university has not chosen another.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| VG | väl godkänd | pass with distinction | Pass |
| G | godkänd | pass | Pass |
| U | underkänd | fail | Fail |
Swedish grades and a US GPA
This page gives no US equivalents for Swedish 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 Sweden
- Grading criteria are written for E, C and A; B and D lie between them. Since autumn 2022 teachers set D to A by an overall judgement against the criteria, while an E still needs every criterion for E to be met.
- At the end of compulsory school the points of a pupil's 16 best grades are added up into a merit value of at most 320. A pupil who studied a modern language as a language choice (språkval) can add it as a 17th grade, for at most 340.
- Many universities, such as KTH and Stockholm University, grade courses A to F, and engineering programmes often use 5, 4 and 3 as passing grades with U as fail.
- Before 2011 school grades were MVG, VG, G and IG, which count as 20, 15, 10 and 0 points.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in Sweden; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country (Sweden); Skolverket, Nya kurs- och läroplaner, Lgr22; Skolverket, Utbildningsguiden, Vad krävs för att komma in på gymnasiet?.