Swiss grading system
In Switzerland, grades run from 6 (best) to 1, and 4 is the lowest pass.
Example · Weighted average of 3 courses
Between 5.5 and 6
Your school’s or university’s rules decide which grade goes on your record. 4 is the lowest pass.
3 courses, weights adding up to 15.
Grades: 1 to 6
Schools, the Matura, vocational education and most universities in Switzerland. Certificates use whole and half grades only; the words shown are the German ones, and French- and Italian-speaking cantons use their own.
| Grade | On the transcript | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | sehr gut | very good | Pass |
| 5.5 | between good and very good | Pass | |
| 5 | gut | good | Pass |
| 4.5 | between sufficient and good | Pass | |
| 4 | genügend | sufficient | Pass |
| 3.5 | between insufficient and sufficient | Fail | |
| 3 | ungenügend | insufficient | Fail |
| 2.5 | between poor and insufficient | Fail | |
| 2 | schwach | poor | Fail |
| 1.5 | between very poor and poor | Fail | |
| 1 | very poor | Fail |
Swiss grades and a US GPA
This page gives no US equivalents for Swiss 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 Switzerland
- Unlike Germany and Austria, Switzerland counts upwards: 6 is the best grade, 1 the worst, and anything below 4 is a fail.
- Exams often use quarter grades such as 5.25 or decimals such as 5.1, but certificates are rounded to whole or half grades.
- Many teachers turn points into a grade with the formula points achieved divided by maximum points, times 5, plus 1.
- Averages between 5.5 and 6 are very hard to reach, and an average of 6 is close to impossible.
- To move up a year at a Gymnasium, the shortfall of each mark below 4 usually counts double against the marks above 4.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in Switzerland; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country (Switzerland); Wikipedia (German), Schulnote: Schweiz.