US grading system
In the United States, letter grades run from A (best) to F, and D is the lowest passing letter on most transcripts. On the most common scale an A is 90–100% and anything below 60% is an F, and for a GPA an A counts 4 points, B 3, C 2, D 1 and F 0. Grade points: 4.0 (A) to 0 (F), lowest pass D−.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
Good
A pass: 80–89% of the marks. D 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.
Letter grades: A to F
The most common percentage cut-offs in US public high schools, the scale the federal High School Transcript Study uses; colleges, schools and teachers can set their own. A percentage is rounded to the nearest whole number first, so 89.5 counts as an A.
| Grade | Meaning | Marks | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | excellent | 90–100% | Pass |
| B | good | 80–89% | Pass |
| C | average | 70–79% | Pass |
| D | below average, lowest pass | 60–69% | Pass |
| F | fail | 0–59% | Fail |
Grade points: 4.0 (A) to 0 (F)
The 4.0 GPA scale with plus and minus grades used at many US high schools and colleges; some schools use steps of 0.3 instead of 0.33. An A+, where a school gives one, usually counts 4.0 like an A; a few schools count it 4.33.
| Grade | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|
| A | excellent | Pass |
| A− | excellent | Pass |
| B+ | good | Pass |
| B | good | Pass |
| B− | good | Pass |
| C+ | average | Pass |
| C | average | Pass |
| C− | average | Pass |
| D+ | below average | Pass |
| D | below average | Pass |
| D− | lowest pass | Pass |
| F | fail | Fail |
What to know about grades in the United States
- There is no national grading standard: states, districts, schools and sometimes individual teachers set their own cut-offs, and 90/80/70/60 is simply the most common scale in public high schools.
- At most colleges a D still earns credit, but a C or better is often needed for courses in the major and for prerequisites, and a 2.0 (C) average is usually needed to graduate.
- Most graduate schools require a 3.0 (B) average to award a degree.
- Many high schools weight honors, AP and IB courses, so an A in those classes can count 4.5 or 5 points and a weighted GPA can go above 4.0.
- A W on a transcript marks a course dropped before the deadline and does not count in the GPA, and some schools write E, N or U instead of F for a failing grade.
Sources: Wikipedia, Academic grading in the United States; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country: United States; NCES, How the High School Transcript Study calculates grade point average.