Morocco vs United States Grading System
Enter your grade to convert between 0–20 Scale (French system) and GPA (4.0 Scale)
A Bachelor's / first-degree grade — for graduate (Master's) admission or employment
Got a school-leaving qualification instead — A-levels, Class 12, WASSCE, the Abitur? Here's what actually happens to those.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
⚠️ Pass mark is 10/20, not 50%. A 13–14 is a good result.
Hover or tap a band to see what it means.
Enter a grade above to see what it means in the United States
You'll get the classification it corresponds to, the range it falls in rather than a single false-precise number, and how firm that answer is.
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.
Credential-evaluator source: Scholaro — Morocco grading system (credential-evaluation database) · cross-checked against Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, Morocco · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
How does the United States grading system work?
US universities use a 4.0 GPA scale as a credit-weighted average. A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0, F=0. Plus/minus grades (A-=3.7, B+=3.3) are common.
Credential-evaluator source: Nuffic — US grading system (4.0 GPA scale) · cross-checked against National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) · grading data verified 2026-07-24 · how we convert · report an error
Do Morocco and the United States 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 the United States
US marking is generous by international standards, and this is the mirror image of the trap that catches Indian and Chinese applicants. A US 3.5 is a good but unremarkable result, held by a large share of graduates from selective institutions — it is not equivalent to a British 3.5-out-of-4-style elite performance. Applying to the UK, an American should expect their GPA to translate to a lower-sounding percentage than instinct suggests, and that is normal rather than a downgrade.
Will a grade from Morocco get you into the United States?
United States universities typically ask for 3.00 / 4 for a taught master's — a one-to-two-year postgraduate degree made mostly of classes. On Morocco's scale that is roughly 12.3–13.6 / 20 (Assez bien). US graduate schools publish a 3.0 minimum near-universally. The competitive figure is the average GPA of admitted applicants across all graduate programmes at UNC Chapel Hill (gradschool.unc.edu/admissions/averagescores/) — a reference point, not a cut-off. Programmes set their own bars above the school minimum, and applicants below 3.0 are usually invited to contact the programme rather than turned away.
UC Riverside Graduate Division — admission requirements · checked 2026-07-24 · the figure in your own terms is a double conversion, so it is a range. how this is worked out
Evaluated similarly to French credentials by WES.
What goes wrong converting grades from Morocco to the United States?
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 the United States?
- Check the course, not the country. Entry requirements are set per programme and revised every cycle. The 3.00 / 4 above is the typical bar, not a guarantee — selective courses ask for more.
- Budget for a credential evaluation. Most United States universities require your transcript assessed by an approved service before they will consider it — roughly $200 and 4–7 weeks. Our WES guide explains which report to order, since choosing the wrong one means paying twice.
- 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.
- Read both systems in full. How Morocco grading works · How United States grading works
Where to search for postgraduate courses in the United States
There is no federal directory of US graduate programmes — College Navigator indexes institutions rather than graduate admissions, so each department's own page is the only authoritative source. This is also why US graduate requirements vary so widely between departments of the same university.
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.
- Credits / credit hours
- A measure of how much a subject counts toward your degree — bigger subjects carry more credits and pull your average further.
Frequently asked questions
What is a 16.0 from Morocco on the United States' scale?
Approximately 3.80–4.00 / 4 — A. That is a range rather than a single number because grade conversion is an estimate, and the range widens where either country's data is less certain. Enter your own grade in the converter above for your figure.
Can you study a master's in the United States with a degree from Morocco?
Yes — universities in the United States typically ask for 3.00 / 4 on their own scale. On Morocco's scale that is roughly 12.3–13.6 / 20 (Assez bien). US graduate schools publish a 3.0 minimum near-universally. The competitive figure is the average GPA of admitted applicants across all graduate programmes at UNC Chapel Hill (gradschool.unc.edu/admissions/averagescores/) — a reference point, not a cut-off. Programmes set their own bars above the school minimum, and applicants below 3.0 are usually invited to contact the programme rather than turned away. Published by UC Riverside Graduate Division — admission requirements, checked 2026-07-24.
What grade do you need in Morocco for a master's in the United States?
About 12.3–13.6 / 20 — Assez bien. That is the United States' published bar of 3.00 / 4 restated on Morocco's scale, so it is a conversion of a conversion and is shown as a range for that reason. Competitive courses ask above the published minimum, so treat it as the floor rather than the target.