Grading System in New Zealand Universities

The grading system in New Zealand’s universities vary from each other but A (or A+ and A-) are considered as the highest grades and F as the lowest. D and anything below D is generally considered as having failed (with variations like D+ = marginal fail and D- = poor fail.)

The pattern of grades continue on a lower scale and follows the patterns of:

• A, A, A-, B , B, B-, C , C all are passing grades, with C being the lowest passing grade and equivalent to 50% or slightly above
• D, E and F are failing grades for students who have failed to meet compulsory course requirements

New Zealand universities’ marking system is different from the ones used in Indian or US universities. This might lead to confusion for Indian/ international students planning to study abroad in New Zealand. In Indian universities, scoring more than 65 – 70% earns you a “distinction”, while the same amount of marks are graded a B or B+ by New Zealand universities. Let’s look at the grading criteria and corresponding marks for the top 3 universities of New Zealand and see how they differ. Also keep in mind that sometimes, departments within the same universities can have slightly different grading scales. These grades can be easily converted into Grade Point Average (GPA) as well.