Grades in America are an exciting topic for every American schoolchild and his parents. And if Russian students bring home A’s, worry about C’s in a quarter, and “score” exists only in the nightmares of excellent students, then the grading system in the United States is perceived differently by Americans. We’ll tell you what grades students dream of getting in American schools, and what the American grading system at universities looks like. 

Grades in America: what is the difference between the American grading system and the Russian one?

The grading system in the United States has historically been letter-based in both universities and schools. So back in 1883, teachers at Harvard University began to use the letters A, B, C, D, F to determine student performance, where:

A	“Great”	90-99% of the task completed
B	“Fine”	80%-90%
WITH	“Satisfactorily”	70%-80%
D	“Badly”	60%-70%
F	“Unsatisfactory”	0%-59%

Teachers in American schools, as in Russia, can add “+” and “-” to the grade, but such grades do not affect the official indicators in any way, and are set more with the goal of motivating the student. You can see a grade of E instead of F, although their meaning is the same – “Unsatisfactory”, just F – means Fail, or failure, emphasizes the student’s complete failure in completing the task.

The difference between Russian and American schools is not only in the letter designation of academic performance. Otherwise, they perceive the concept of a “school class” as an association of students. Each student independently chooses a list of subjects to study: there is a set of compulsory disciplines, such as mathematics and English, and there are elective ones, for example, music, design, economics. Therefore, each student studies according to an individual plan, his own schedule, and often in different groups. Classes to which students are formally assigned still exist, but their composition changes every year.

Most schools have a policy: grades are a personal matter for each student. Teachers do not announce test scores to the entire class and try not to single out students for their performance. Therefore, grades in America do not cause rivalry and envy among students.

What influence grades in the USA and how important is it to get good ones?

Despite the fact that grades in America are considered private information for the student and his parents, they influence a lot in the long and short term. Thus, the composition of the classes to which the student is assigned changes annually, and academic performance is one of the criteria for class renewal. Therefore, in order to study in a strong group among motivated students, it is important for an American student to get good grades.

Grades in America are even more important for university applicants. To graduate from school with honors and receive the prestigious High Honors diploma, students need to work hard and receive only A and B during their studies. Students with High Honors are among the top 10% of students – they will be in the forefront of being admitted to American universities. The second and third ten best students receive an Honors diploma, while the rest graduate from school simply with a certificate and do not have significant advantages when entering universities.

Grades in America, of course, are an exciting topic for schoolchildren and their parents. But this does not mean that parents monitor his progress until the 12th grade. From the first grades, children are taught independence and responsibility. American schools also try not to put pressure, and if they see that a student is not coping, they help them choose a subject that will be primarily interesting to the student.

US grading system: scoring criteria

In addition to successfully completing homework or a test, you can get additional points for active participation in social events, Olympiads, and electives. The letter designation of grades has its equivalents in points: A – 4.0, B – 3.0, C – 2.0, D – 1.0, F – 0.

American teachers consider the US grading system not ideal and unable to convey the essence of the quality of work performed. Some talk about the need to modernize the system and switch to verbal “assessment” of student performance.

American grades in US colleges and universities

American university and college grades are awarded for essays, individual assignments, and end-of-semester exams. Typically, teachers give marks in letters from A to F, but in the final calculation they use their digital equivalent. Some colleges use the Latin notation, where:

• P – test;
• S – average;
• N – not accepted;
• U – unsatisfactory.

American universities perceive grades D and F as very low and even as a reason for expelling a student from the university.

The main task of every American university student is to gain enough Credit Hours in order to move on to the next course. A credit hour is equivalent to a student’s weekly workload at a university: how many hours of lectures he must attend and what assignments he must complete. At the end of each semester, the student completes a certain number of credit hours. Therefore, the grades obtained in the letter system are always converted into a digital equivalent.

Learn more about higher education by watching a video where Repafi co-founder Marina Mogilko talks about how higher education abroad is changing.