Academic grading in China

In China, for most of the universities and colleges, and most of the high schools, the grading system is divided into five categories:

• A: Excellent (85-100%, Chinese: 优秀; pinyin: Yōu xiù; IPA: [i̯óu̯ ɕi̯ôu̯]")

A :90-100%

A-:85-89%

• B: Good (75-84%, Chinese: 良好; pinyin: Liáng hǎo; IPA: [li̯ǎŋ xàu̯]")

B+:82-84%

B :78-81%

B-:75-77%

• C: Average (64-74%, Chinese: 中等; pinyin: Zhōng děng; IPA: [ʈʂʊ́ŋ tə̀ŋ]")

C+:72-74%

C :68-71%

C-:64-67%

• D: Pass (60-63%, ji-ge, "及格 / Jí gé / [tɕǐ kɤ̌]")

• F: Failure (0-59%, bu-ji-ge, "不及格 / Bù jí gé / [pú tɕǐ kɤ̌]")

(some colleges may group the last two grades D and F into one grade called "Bottom", 0-64%, "下")

Besides the grading system and the 100 percentage based marks, there is another form of assessment based on which one course is marked simply as "Qualified/Failed" (“合格/不合格”). The "Qualified" here is different from "Pass", since "Qualified" doesn't indicate anything in ranking and doesn't have its corresponding percentage marks, though a few schools would translate "合格" into "Pass" automatically while an English transcript is required.

In Peking University, one of the top two universities in China, there is another grading system with a different formula.

That is
$GPA = \begin{cases} 4-3\times(100-x)^2/1600 & 60\leqslant x\leqslant 100 \\ 0 & 0 \leqslant x<60 \end{cases}$
Here $x$ is the genuine score in percentage.

External links

• Chinese Definition of GPA