Egypt vs Singapore Grading System

How does the Egypt grading system work?

Egyptian universities use a percentage system under Supreme Council of Universities oversight. Mumtaz (Excellent) is awarded at 85%+ (some faculties set it at 90%), so an 88% is a genuinely top result. Grading varies by faculty.

How does the Singapore grading system work?

NUS and NTU use a 5.0 CAP scale. SMU uses a 4.0 GPA. Singaporean degrees are highly regarded internationally.

⚠️ NUS/NTU use 5.0 CAP, SMU uses 4.0 GPA. Check which university issued your degree.

Do Egypt and Singapore mark to the same standard?

No — and it is the difference in marking culture, not the arithmetic, that makes a direct comparison mislead. Here is how each country actually uses its own scale.

What a good grade means in Egypt

Egyptian marking is conservative at the top: Mumtaz begins at 85 and high marks are genuinely rare, so an aggregate in the 80s is a strong result rather than the middling one it would be in the United States. This is an area where our own data was previously wrong — we had Mumtaz starting at 80, which over-credited a whole country until it was corrected — and it illustrates the wider point: an Egyptian 82 is Jayyid Jiddan, a very good degree, and reading it as an American 82% both flatters and misleads.

What a good grade means in Singapore

Singaporean degrees are highly regarded internationally, and the grading is demanding: NUS and NTU run bell-curve moderation, so grades reflect standing within a strong cohort rather than an absolute mark. That makes a CAP of 4.0 a genuinely good result even though, mapped to US letters, it sits at a B+ rather than an A. The honours class is the signal to lead with abroad, because Highest Distinction and Distinction are understood in Commonwealth terms in a way a raw 5.0-scale number is not.

Will a grade from Egypt get you into Singapore?

Singapore universities typically ask for 3.50 / 5 for a taught master's — a one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes. On Egypt's scale that is roughly 67–73 / 100 (Good (جيد)). Singapore states this as an honours class rather than a CAP figure — Honours (Merit) / Second Class and above, which begins at 3.5 on the 5.0 CAP scale modelled here. NTU's published bar is looser still ("at least a good Bachelor degree"). Both universities stress that meeting the minimum does not imply admission, because selection is competitive against the rest of the applicant pool.

NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences — graduate coursework admission requirements · checked 2026-07-25 · the figure in your own terms is a double conversion, so it is a range. how this is worked out

Excellent (80%+) → approximately 4.0 GPA.

What goes wrong converting grades from Egypt to Singapore?

Egypt rarely awards near the top of its own scale, so a result that looks modest in Egypt terms converts higher than a direct comparison suggests.

Mistakes specific to Egypt grades

• Reading an Egyptian percentage as an American one. An 82 is Jayyid Jiddan here, a genuinely strong result, not the unremarkable grade it appears in the US.
• Assuming the Mumtaz threshold is fixed. It varies by faculty between 85 and 90, so check what your own certificate states.
• Submitting the certificate without the transcript. Evaluators want the year-by-year record, not only the final descriptor.

What should you do next, applying from Egypt to Singapore?

1. Check the course, not the country. Entry requirements are set per programme and revised every cycle. The 3.50 / 5 above is the typical bar, not a guarantee — selective courses ask for more.
2. Check whether an evaluation is even required. Unlike the US and Canada, Singapore universities commonly assess foreign transcripts in-house. Confirm on the course page before paying for a report you may not need.
3. Get your documents moving early. Universities normally require your transcript sent directly by your institution rather than as a copy from you, which takes longer than most applicants expect.
4. Read both systems in full. How Egypt grading works · How Singapore grading works

What do these grading terms mean?

Percentage scale

A 0–100 marking scale — but the numbers are not comparable across countries: 70% is an outstanding result in the UK and a modest one in India.

GPA (Grade Point Average)

The US way of expressing an overall grade, on a 0–4.0 scale where 4.0 is the top — so a 4.0 is roughly what a 90–100% or a First Class would be elsewhere.

Degree classification

A named band your final result falls into — First Class, 2:1, Distinction — used across the UK, Ireland, Nigeria, India and much of the Commonwealth instead of a single number.

Transcript

The official document from your university listing every subject you took and the grade you got — not the same as your degree certificate, and universities abroad want both.

Credential evaluation

A paid report from an approved company that restates your foreign qualification in local terms, which many US and Canadian universities require before they will assess you.

CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average)

The same idea as a GPA but covering your whole degree rather than one term — the scale differs by country (India 10, Nigeria 5.0, Pakistan 4.0), so the number alone means nothing without its scale.

Frequently asked questions