Iran vs Philippines 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 Philippines grading system work?

Most Philippine universities use an inverted 1.0–5.0 scale where 1.0 is the highest grade and 3.0 is the minimum pass. Some US-affiliated institutions use a regular 4.0 GPA scale instead.

⚠️ Most Philippine universities use an INVERTED scale — 1.0 is BEST, 3.0 is minimum pass. Some use a regular 4.0 GPA. Check your transcript carefully.

Do Iran and the Philippines 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 the Philippines

The inverted scale is the single most consequential thing on a Philippine transcript sent abroad: a 1.25 is an excellent grade and a 2.75 is a weak pass, and an admissions officer reading it the other way round will draw exactly the wrong conclusion. Latin honours — summa, magna and cum laude — are awarded against these averages and translate far more reliably than the numbers do, so lead with them where you have them.

Will a grade from Iran get you into the Philippines?

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

Excellent (17–20) → approximately 4.0 GPA.

What goes wrong converting grades from Iran to the Philippines?

the Philippines runs an inverted scale where 1.0 is the BEST grade. A converted result that looks alarmingly low is usually an excellent one.

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 the Philippines?

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. Do not read the two scales the same way round. the Philippines runs an inverted scale where a lower number is the better grade, while Iran runs the usual way. This is the single most common misreading on this route.
3. Check whether an evaluation is even required. Unlike the US and Canada, Philippines universities commonly assess foreign transcripts in-house. Confirm on the course page before paying for a report you may not need.
4. 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.
5. Read both systems in full. How Iran grading works · How Philippines 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.

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.

Frequently asked questions