Uruguayan grading system
Since 2025, Uruguay's public Universidad de la República (Udelar) grades with six words, from Excelente (best) to Muy insuficiente, and Aceptable is the lowest pass. Older Udelar transcripts use a 0 to 12 scale on which 3 is the lowest pass.
Example · Credit-weighted average of 3 courses
Between Muy bueno and Excelente
Very good or excellent: your institution’s rule on rounding decides which grade goes on your record. Aceptable is the lowest pass.
3 courses, 15 credits.
University grades: Excelente to Muy insuficiente
Undergraduate and graduate courses at the Universidad de la República (Udelar) since January 2025. Udelar gives each word the number shown for averages and recommends the percentage ranges shown; some faculties set their own, such as 60% for Aceptable in engineering.
| Grade | Meaning | Marks | Pass? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excelente | excellent | 87.5–100% | Pass |
| Muy bueno | very good | 75–87.5% | Pass |
| Bueno | good | 62.5–75% | Pass |
| Aceptable | acceptable, the lowest pass | 50–62.5% | Pass |
| Insuficiente | insufficient (fail) | 25–50% | Fail |
| Muy insuficiente | very insufficient (fail) | below 25% | Fail |
Udelar grades before 2025: 0 to 12
Courses at the Universidad de la República graded before 27 January 2025. The bands follow Udelar's standard conversion to the new word scale; some programmes, such as several postgraduate degrees, convert differently.
| Grade | Meaning | Pass? |
|---|---|---|
| 10–12 | excellent (now Excelente) | Pass |
| 8–9 | very good (now Muy bueno) | Pass |
| 5–7 | good (now Bueno) | Pass |
| 3–4 | acceptable (now Aceptable) | Pass |
| 1–2 | insufficient (now Insuficiente) | Fail |
| 0 | very insufficient (now Muy insuficiente) | Fail |
Uruguayan grades and a US GPA
This page gives no US equivalents for Uruguayan 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 Uruguay
- Udelar replaced its 0 to 12 scale, in use since 1957, with the six word grades on 27 January 2025, for all undergraduate and graduate programmes.
- Udelar transcripts include an average weighted by credits, so a final project worth 15 credits counts three times as much as a 5-credit course.
- Secondary schools grade from 1 to 12, with 6 as the usual pass mark, and some upper-secondary subjects require 7 or 8.
- High grades are hard to get in Uruguay: in secondary school a 10, 11 or 12 counts as excellent.
- Private universities set their own scales, and those that grade by percentage usually put the pass between 60% and 70%.
Sources: Universidad de la República, Información sobre la Nueva Escala de Calificaciones de la Udelar; Universidad de la República, Nueva Escala de Calificaciones en la Udelar: un cambio profundo para 2025; Universidad de la República, Facultad de Ingeniería, Aplicación de la nueva escala de calificaciones de la Udelar en FING; Wikipedia, Grading systems by country: Uruguay.