Morocco vs Spain Grading System

How does the Morocco grading system work?

Morocco follows the French 20-point grading system. Pass mark is 10/20. Grade compression mirrors France.

⚠️ Pass mark is 10/20, not 50%. A 13–14 is a good result.

How does the Spain grading system work?

Spanish universities use a 10-point scale where 5.0 is minimum pass. Matrícula de Honor (10/10) is awarded to very few students — typically under 5% of a class.

Do Morocco and Spain 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 Morocco

Twenty-point marking is severe in a way that catches out anyone reading it as a percentage out of 20. Moroccan professors rarely award above 17 or 18, anything above 16 is exceptional, and a 20 is treated as theoretically unattainable rather than a realistic target. A 14 out of 20 is a genuinely good degree — Bien — and converting it as 70% badly misrepresents it. This is the single most important thing for a Moroccan graduate to explain on an application to a percentage-marking country.

What a good grade means in Spain

Spanish marking is stricter than the 0–10 scale suggests to anyone reading it as a percentage divided by ten. Sobresaliente at 9 is uncommon, and Notable — from 7 — already represents a good degree. Matrícula de Honor is the one to highlight abroad because it is quota-limited: it tells a foreign admissions office you were among the top few in the class, which no raw number conveys on its own.

Will a grade from Morocco get you into Spain?

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

Evaluated similarly to French credentials by WES.

What goes wrong converting grades from Morocco to Spain?

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

Mistakes specific to Morocco grades

• Converting a 20-point score to a percentage by multiplying by five. A 14/20 is a good result; "70%" understates it in US terms and overstates it in Indian ones.
• Expecting marks near 20. Above 18 is essentially never awarded, so the usable top of the scale is far below the theoretical maximum.
• Omitting the mention from the application. Très bien and Bien are recognised terms that do the explaining for you.

What should you do next, applying from Morocco to Spain?

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, Spain 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 Morocco grading works · How Spain 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