Iran vs Pakistan Grading System

How does the Iran grading system work?

Iranian universities use a 0–20 scale where 10 is the minimum pass. Scores of 17+ are genuinely excellent.

How does the Pakistan grading system work?

Pakistani universities use a 4.0 CGPA scale under HEC guidelines, closely mirroring US conventions.

Do Iran and Pakistan 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 Iran

As in every 20-point system, the top of the scale is largely unused: a 17 is an excellent result and marks above 18 are very rare, so a moadel of 15 represents a strong degree rather than the 75% it becomes under arithmetic conversion. Iranian universities — Sharif, Tehran and Amirkabir in particular — are well known to admissions committees in engineering and the sciences, and a strong moadel from those institutions is read in context rather than at face value.

What a good grade means in Pakistan

Because the 4.0 CGPA maps almost directly onto the US scale, Pakistani grades need less translation than most — a 3.5 CGPA reads roughly as a US 3.5. The trap is the percentage system rather than the CGPA: Pakistani percentage marking is compressed like India's, so a 70% is a genuinely strong result rather than the mediocre one it would be in the US, and converting it as if it were a US percentage will undersell you sharply.

Will a grade from Iran get you into Pakistan?

We do not yet hold published entry requirements for Pakistan, so we do not compare your grade against a bar we cannot cite. The conversion above still tells you how your result reads in Pakistan terms.

Excellent (17–20) → approximately 4.0 GPA.

What goes wrong converting grades from Iran to Pakistan?

The pass marks differ — 10.0 in Iran against 2.00 in Pakistan — so the two scales have different usable ranges and the middle of one is not the middle of the other.

Mistakes specific to Iran grades

• Multiplying the 20-point average by five. A 15/20 is a strong Iranian degree; "75%" does not convey that in US terms.
• Assuming the pass mark is always 10. Some institutions pass at 12 and postgraduate thresholds are higher.
• Underestimating document lead times. Obtaining and legalising Iranian transcripts for use abroad frequently takes longer than applicants expect.

What should you do next, applying from Iran to Pakistan?

1. Check the course, not the country. Entry requirements are set per programme and revised every cycle. We hold no published national bar for this destination, so the course page is the only figure that binds.
2. Check whether an evaluation is even required. Unlike the US and Canada, Pakistan 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 Iran grading works · How Pakistan 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.

Grade compression

Where a marking culture rarely uses the top of its own scale, so the highest grades anyone actually earns sit well below the theoretical maximum.

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