Talk:Academic grading in Germany

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"In converting German grades to the A-F scale, a 1 = A, ... 4 = D scale is often used (with 5 and 6 both converted to Fs) but this conversion is nearly never accurate, since, for example, a grade of '3' is usually more difficult to obtain in Germany than a 'B+' in the United States. In the U.S., students usually get an A if their score is greater than 90%. In Germany, students scoring more than 90% usually are in the 3 range. (The average grade in Germany is normally supposed to be around or a bit above 3, whereas in the U.S. average grades are often supposed to be between 91% and 89%.)"

I cannot agree with this. There is a mandatory grading standard for the last two years of the Gymnasium and the Abitur exam: a grade of 15 out of 15 grade points (=1+) is awarded if more than 95% of the credits in a test have been attained, 14 points require >90% credits, etc. Thus, to receive a grade of "1", a student only needs to attain more than 85% of the credits in a test while a "3" ranges from >55% to <=70%.

It *may* be possible that U.S. test requirements are somewhat lower than those in Germany, judging from my own, rather limited, experience with the SAT Mathematics test in comparison to German Mathematics Basics Class ("Grundkurs", as opposed to "Leistungskurs", lit. "power course"), and that thus the general idea of the paragraph may be correct, but the figures are entirely wrong. An Abitur grade of 3.0 is rather bad (averages are around 2.0-2.5), while an Abitur average of 90% (756 of 840 points, 1.1) must be considered excellent, especially when taking into account that students only have very limited control over the subjects that count into the Abitur total, usually causing them to lose points in subjects that require a very specific talent, such as music, art or literature interpretation.

"The average grade in Germany is normally supposed to be around or a bit above 3, whereas in the U.S. average grades are often supposed to be between 91% and 89%.)" --> There is no way that this is correct. At one American university where I taught undergraduate classes, the average grade given is 80-83% (2.66 to 3.0 on a US 4 pt. GPA scale), with approximately 25% of students scoring a 90 or higher (3.66-4.0). The quoted section is more representative of graduate school classes, where half of students tend to recieve above 90%. Cotixan 02:29, 5 December 2006 (UTC)