On this page, I share examples of grade conversion charts to convert your grades to MEXT’s 3.0 GPA system, which was originally printed in the appendix of my book, How to Apply for the MEXT Scholarship.

Before converting your grades using the chart below, please read my article about “How to Calculate your GPA for the MEXT Scholarship“. That article explains the process and calculation details. Here, I only share the charts.

If you cannot find a match for your grading system in the examples below, and you would like me to add yours, please submit a scan of your Explanation of the Grading System (see the examples below) via the form below, and I will add it:
https://mymext.com/submitgrades

Note: I do not need to see your actual grades or any personal information. Please only submit an image of the system explanation!

Grade “Buckets”

In the descriptions that follow, I use the term “grade bucket” to mean a group of grades that all have the same converted value. For example, the grades “A+”, “A”, and “A-” might be considered one grade bucket. Or the a score range of “100 – 80” might be a single grade bucket.

When you convert your grades, you will need to determine how many buckets your system has and which grades correspond to each bucket. Typically, you should have 4 or 5 buckets. Multiple grades may fit into each of those buckets, as we will show in the examples below.

In some cases, you may encounter a system with only three buckets (e.g. distinction, pass, fail), but these are quite rare. I will explain that system below as well. For systems with more than 5 apparent buckets, like ECTS grades with 6, we will squeeze them into 5, using the charts that follow.

There are a few complications you may run into in assigning your grades to different buckets are subgrades or the average marks system.

For subgrades, such as +/- or combined grades like A/B, refer to the explanation of the grading system from your university. If your grading system does not explain the subgrades, you can probably ignore the “+” and “-“, but if you want a more conservative estimate, treat “-” grades as the next lower bucket.

Note: Grades followed by a 0, such as A0, B0, etc., are not subgrades. Treat them as being the same as an A or B, respectively.

Grading System Conversions

Letter Grade Systems

Letter grade systems, typically A through E or F, are common in many countries, including the US, most of Europe (ECTS), many universities in East and Southeast Asia, and of course, Japan. However, there are several different ways of interpreting the relative value of these grades. Typically, Japanese universities will interpret the grades according to their own understanding, unless you have a grading scale to show them otherwise.

Letter grades can have pluses (e.g. A+), minuses (e.g. A-), zeroes (e.g. A0), or combined letters (e.g. A/B), which complicate the interpretation. I will include as many examples as possible below.

MEXT offers two official examples of how to convert letter grades to its 3.0 scale: A 4-bucket system and a 5-bucket system.

Letter Grades: 4 Letters (ABCF), Official

This is the official example from MEXT, but I have only ever seen it used for graduate programs. For graduate programs, a “C” is typically considered the minimum passing grade and expectations are higher in general.

Here is an example of a grading system showing this scale, for graduate school grades.

The Graduate grading system in this image is an example of 4-bucket letter grades and the Undergraduate system is an example of 5-bucket letter grades.

Of course, citizens of Taiwan are not eligible to apply for the MEXT scholarship, but international students who graduate from Taiwanese universities would be eligible.

Letter Grades: 5 Letters (ABCDF, etc.), Official

MEXT offers two official 5-bucket letter grade conversion scales, but I have never seen the first one used:

The one I do see more commonly is:

Most often, you will see this system with pluses and minuses, as in the example below.

Letter Grades: 5 Letters, with Plus/Minus

The rest of the letter grade conversion tables are not official. These are based on examples and methods that I have personally used, but in some places they may be up for interpretation.

Five letter systems with pluses and minuses are, by far, the most common system I see. There are several different variations on the system. Some universities may use only pluses and no minuses. Some may specify a non-plus/minus grade with a zero (such as “A0”) to make it impossible to forge into a plus later. Some may use “E” for a failing grade and some may use “F”.

I will list all of the most common variants in the table below, but keep in mind that not all of the grades listed in each bucket may apply to you, as you will be able to see from the example images below. That is not a problem.

There are a few important exceptions to this chart, regarding minuses, that we will cover below.

Examples:

In this example, the descriptions of each grade level makes it very easy to know which grades belong in which bucket. If you have a similar system that shows standards like the example above, use that as your guide to understand how to group your grades.

This example shows what a grading scale would look like with no minuses and no A+. This does not change how grades are sorted using the chart above.

Here’s an example showing a university that uses zeroes to designate a neutral grade. In that case, an “A0” would be an “A” in the chart above.

Letter Grades: 5 Letters, with Plus/Minus – Variations

I mentioned above that there are some exceptions to the chart above. The most dangerous one is grading systems that specify that a minus grade should be considered to be grouped with the next lower letter grade. As you can imagine, this can have a significant effect on your overall GPA calculation.

Heres’ what the conversion chart would look like:

And here’s an example of they grading system explanation that would result in the chart above:

In this example, “-” grades are grouped with the next lower level.

It is also possible that only some minuses would be dropped, like the example below, where a C- is dropped to be a failing grade.

Like the first example I gave of a 5-letter system with pluses and minuses, in a system with clear quality descriptions next to each group of letter grades, so those would take precedence.

Finally, in some cases, instead of a + or -, the university may combine both letters, as in the case below:

Because the descriptions include both keywords for the letter above and letter below, it isn’t completely clear how to sort them, but the other columns give a clue. If you compare the “score” column to the GPA values associated with most of the other systems here, you will see that the “BC” is equal to 2.5. This is below the usual “B-” cut off of 2.7, so I would include it with the “C” grades (“2” on the MEXT scale). Note that the AB grade doesn’t matter because both “A” and “B” are “3” on the MEXT scale.

Letter Grades: 3 or 4 Letters, with Plus/Minus

While not as common as 5-letter grading systems, you may find some 4-letter grading systems with pluses and minuses, which would be evaluated as below:

Example:

As you can see in this example, B- is the minimum passing grade for a graduate student. So, if you were converting graduate program grades, than a C+, C, and C- would be grouped in with the failing grades and calculated as zero points. (It would not be possible for a graduate level grade to convert to a “1” in this system.)

Letter Grades: ECTS

ECTS, the common standard in Europe, is a 6-bucket system and, in general grades earned under the ECTS system are “harsher” than those under the US or Japanese systems. For example, World Education Services (WES), an internationally recognized company that maintains conversion tables from almost all countries’ systems to the US 4.0 system, converts an ECTS “C” to an American “B” for GPA purposes (3.0 out of 4.0 in the US, which is 3.0 out of 3.0 on the MEXT Scale).

If you are a European applying via the Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship, you do not need to worry, since all other applicants will have been graded on the same system and the embassy should be familiar with it.

However, if you completed your degree at a European university but are applying for Embassy-Recommended MEXT Scholarship in another country, or if you are applying for University-Recommended MEXT Scholarship, the reviewers might not realize that ECTS grades are stricter than other countries’ letter grades. In that case, it might be in your interest to include an official chart from your university that shows the equivalency between ECTS and US letter grades, for example. Ask your university’s study abroad or admissions office if they have something like that you can reference! If your grading system also has quality descriptions, as in the first example below, that would work fine, too.

Here are two ways to interpret ECTS letter grades. The first is how I would do it, based on my experience working with hundreds of students from across Europe. The second, strict, model is how someone who did not understand ECTS might interpret your grades. If you want to be strict on yourself, for the sake of making sure that you meet the eligibility criteria, use the second scale. Remember, your conversion is not official, anyway, so you can not hurt yourself be being harsh.

ECTS Scale 1:

ECTS Scale 2 (Strict):

Examples:

This system shows quality descriptions for each grade, so those should enable reviewers to map the grades onto the MEXT system.

The Danish system here also shows quality descriptors for each level.

Both grading systems above clearly show that “E” is a passing grade, and “D” is “fair” or “satisfactory”, which is the same definition given to a C grade in the examples further above, so “E” should be the only 1-point value and “D” should be 2. The real question is how to treat “C”. In these examples, “C” is “Good”, as opposed to its meaning of “Average” in the US system. Therefore, it should be considered to be equivalent to a US “B” (also good) and scored at 3 points on the MEXT scale.

Percentage Scales

Like letter grades, the meaning of percentages can vary significantly from country to country. There seem to be two major philosophical outlooks on what the percentage should mean.

In countries like the US and Japan, where you tend to see high grades, the score seems to indicate what percentage of the mastery or performance expected of a student in the course you have achieved. In this system, students should be aiming for 100%.

In Europe, the UK, and countries with marks systems, the score seems to indicate instead what percentage of mastery of the subject you have achieved. In that case, even the professor might not earn 100% and for a student, earning 70% would be outstanding.

Think about your own system and the normative scores there as you read through the systems and charts below.

Percentage Grades: 4 Buckets, Official

This is one of MEXT’s official guidelines for converting percentages. Like the 4-Letter system we discussed at the top, you would primarily see this system used for graduate grades, as in the example below (Note that for undergraduate grades, there are 5 buckets).

Percentage Grades: 5 Buckets, Official

MEXT’s official standard for converting 5 percentage score buckets is based on how percentages are assigned in Japan, where 100% is achievable for students.

The example image I used for the 4-bucket system above would be a 5-range scale for undergraduates. Here is another example of what that score system might look like.

A simple percentage score chart with quality descriptions.

Percentage Grades: 5 Buckets, Variations

Some universities have a more “lenient” percentage scale. Although, any apparent leniency in the system is usually a reflection of how much more difficult it is to earn the corresponding grades.

With percentages, letters, GPA, and quality descriptions, this is a simple system to interpret.

In some universities, you will find grading systems with percentage buckets, but different cut-offs, as below. In this case, use the cut-off specified in your university’s grading system!

Here is one example from the Philippines:

In this example, I’m not completely sure if it is possible to earn grades that fall between the cut offs for the percentages, but to be as safe as possible, I treated the percentage shown for each descriptor to be the bottom of the bucket for that level.

Descriptive Grades

I have found descriptive grades to be common in Commonwealth countries. In this system, the grades are stratified by a description of their quality, not immediately obvious letter or number scales. Probably the best well-known is the Honours system used in the UK, though others exist.

Descriptive Grades: 4 Buckets, Official

The system below will look familiar to you if you have completed the MEXT scholarship application form, particularly the part where you have to rate your language ability.

While this is an official conversion scale, I have never seen a university that uses it.

MEXT does not offer an official conversion scale for 5-bucket descriptive grades. However, in practice, every descriptive system I have seen had 5 buckets. Those systems would be converted just like any other 5-bucket system.

Descriptive Grades: 5-Bucket Honours

I believe all Honours grades should be converted on a 5-bucket scale. The scale below, from a UK university, shows how this could be done.

This system includes Honours titles, quality descriptors and two different course-by-course grading systems (CAS and CGS), plus a US equivalency, which makes it easy for reviewers to interpret!

In Honours systems, you usually do not get an “Honours” mark for each individual course, so when converting your grades, convert each course based on how your score in that individual course would correspond to the honours ranking if that was your overall grade for your degree. For example, in the scale above, from the University of Aberdeen, students grades in each course are indicated using the marks shown in the CGS column. So, if you received a B3 in a particular course, that corresponds to an Upper Second, and so it would be a “3” on the MEXT Scale.

Another way to think of this system is that we are using the Honours titles (First Class, Upper Second, etc.) in place of the quality description (Outstanding, Good, etc.) as a frame of reference. Yes, the scale above also includes quality descriptions, but not all will!

The trouble with Honours systems is that sometimes they do not include a “Third Class” bucket. In that case, reviewers who are not familiar with the system may consider a “Lower Second” to be the minimum passing grade (i.e. “1” on the MEXT Scale), making “Upper Second” a “2”. It would be almost impossible to achieve the minimum 2.3 grade in that situation.

Descriptive Grades: Distinction

Another descriptive grading system is the Distinction system used by some universities in Australia and New Zealand. The first time I reviewed a transcript on this system, I was shocked to see that the student had earned all “C” and “D” grades. At first glance, I thought there was no way this student could be eligible, until I saw what those letters meant!

Unlike the Honours system above, in the examples I have seen of this grading system, the applicants received just a letter grade for each course.

Descriptive Grades: 3 Buckets

One applicant sent me a copy of a 3-bucket descriptive grading system. These grades were from an open university, where faculty would not have much time to focus on individual students. Most students simply get a “satisfactory”, or passing, grade in each course if they do the work. Unfortunately, since that is the lowest possible passing grade, it could get converted to a 1 on the MEXT scale. Personally, I would consider it to be a “2”, since “Satisfactory” as a quality description is consistent with the description of grades in other systems that count as “2”s. But even as a “2”, this would make it essentially impossible to meet the MEXT eligibility requirements.

If your only degree program is in an open university or other university that similarly does not give much time or care to grading students, you will face significant difficulty in the application. If you are taking an open university degree program alongside a regular university’s degree program, then it may serve your interests to withdraw from or suspend your open university courses during the application period, and report that you only intend to complete your regular university degree, so that only the regular university degree will count for the GPA calculation.

No serious academic institution would use a grading system like this.

Numerical Grading Scales and GPA

While MEXT’s 3.0 GPA system is not actually used anywhere in the world that I am aware of, I have seen a number of other GPA systems or numerical grading scales.

The most common GPA scale is the 4.0 scale. I have also seen 4.3, common in Korea, 4.5 in some universities in Canada, 5.0 in Singapore and many others. However, in each of the examples above, the universities in question also had letter grades or percentage grades listed, so it was easier to convert the grades using that information. If your university has multiple grading scales including a numerical grading system and another, such as letters or percentages, I recommend that you use the letter of percentage grades to perform your conversion. Your reviewers are also likely to choose the system that they are more familiar with. Most of the examples below include multiple systems.

In this section, I will focus on universities that use numbers as their grades, to show the variety of systems. Unless you find an exact match for your grading system below, you should not assume that numbers mean the same thing in your country, but I hope this section will give you an idea of what to look for when trying to figure out how to convert number systems.

Numerical: 4-Point Inverted Scale

While a 4.0 GPA system with 4 being the best score is relatively common around the world, there are some systems where 1 is the best score, as shown below.

This particular university also uses ECTS scores, but there may be some universities that only show one or the other.

Numerical: 5-Point Scale

The Finnish example below uses a 5-point scale but has no numerical grade designated for failure, so all grades shown in numbers will have at least some value.

There is no score associated with failure, so nothing would convert to a MEXT “0”

Numerical: 5-Point Inverted Scale

We used this scale earlier to highlight a different approach to percentages, but it also contains a number system. As with the percentage, The quality descriptor is the key factor for the conversion. Unlike the system above, in this case, “1” is the highest grade and “5” is a fail.

This time, we are looking at the “UP Grade” numerical column, but we will still use the quality descriptions as our basis for the conversion.

Numerical: Danish “7”-Point Scale

I have heard this scale called a seven-point scale by my colleagues in Denmark, despite the fact that the grades range from a high of 12 to a low of -3, since there are only 7 discrete grades that can be earned.

If you are in Denmark, then the range of grades may matter for calculating averages, but remember that for MEXT, we never take the average. We always convert grade-by-grade.

Although there are 7 discrete grades, the “Definition” and ECTS columns provide insight onhow to group the grades together into MEXT’s system.

Numerical/GPA: Vietnamese 10-Point GPA

Vietnamese universities grade on a 10-point GPA scale, though some also use letter grades. Although the system is referred to as a GPA scale, students are actually assigned a grade on the 10-point scale for each class. It is those individual course grades, not the overall average, that must be converted.

The system above offers conversions to multiple other scales, but the letter grades are the most relevant for our conversion.

Numerical: 12-Point Scale

The university in the example below also shows the letter grade conversion, but course grades on the actual transcript may be shown by numerical value, only.

Note that the conversion above applies only to undergraduate grades from the example above. For graduate grades, a 7 is considered the minimum passing grade, so 12 – 10 would be a 3, and 9 – 7 would be a 2. Everything else would be a zero.

Numerical: French 20-Point Scale

Grading in France is particularly severe.

My colleagues there tell me that it is because everyone who passes that high school leaving exam has the right to go to higher education in public universities. There is no competition to get in to universities. So, the only way they can reduce their student numbers and get rid of the students who have no particular interest or aptitude is by failing them out. It is an achievement just to pass and remain enrolled, and the grading scale below reflects that.

While this system offers a conversion to US grades, too, I have used the ECTS grades as a guide for the conversion, since that is the dominant system for grade conversion within Europe.

Numerical: Italian 30-Point Scale

The Italian system also has a wide range of grades, but most of the passing grades are concentrated at the top. I have seen many cases where universities did not provide any conversion guidance with their own transcripts, but here is a guide that should work.

This grading system explanation provides conversions to several more common systems.

Final thoughts

Remember, the tables above correspond to the images. In most cases, the examples I have provided are consistent within the countries listed, to the best of my knowledge, but if the explanation of the grading system that your university provides is different from what the images above show, then always prioritize the documentation from your university.

Have a system I haven’t covered above?

If your grading system isn’t covered by any of the examples above, submit a scan of the grading system to me via the form below and I will add it to the article above.

https://mymext.com/submitgrades

Note: Since this form includes a file upload option, you must have a google account to use it.